From Religion to Philosophy

First real post. This may get a little heavy - don't say I didn't warn you. WARNING: THIS POST MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME READERS. Okay, now I'm starting for real. I sometimes hear from other people that they tried reading about other religions, religions different from theirs, and they were surprised at how much the religions have in common. It occurred to me that this is a form of stepping back from the tree to try to see more of the forest. So if you will, I would like you to step back a little further for a moment, to try to get a sense of what this forest is and what its purpose is. There are more trees here than you may realize. A religion is one form of what you might call a belief system. The main purpose is to try to answer three basic questions: what is there, how do we know it, and what should we do? (I think I got that part from John Ridpath.) Religion is one way to try to answer these questions, with pre-set answers. Philosophy, on the other hand, is about answering these questions in a rational and scientific way. Religion is like canned philosophy. It's ready to eat, but, is it really that good? Can't we do better? Don't we want something better than that? Don't we need something better? Philosophy is about trying to come up with better answers. "What is there?" is the basic question of metaphysics. "How do we know it?" is the basic question of epistemology. "What should we do?" is the basic question of ethics. Ethics also depends on a view of the nature of man, that is, what man is, what kind of being he is, how does he survive (in general terms), and so forth. This can be termed meta-ethics, which just means that it comes before ethics. Philosophy also has two more branches: politics, which depends on ethics, and esthetics (art), which depends on metaphysics. So if you didn't really know what philosophy was, hopefully you now have a little trail map to give you some idea what it is, what it's for, and why anyone should care. Please consider reading some philosophy if you never have. I recommend starting with Atlas Shrugged, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, or For The New Intellectual. These books are not only about my philosophy, but will also teach you something about philosophy itself. The point is, read about it and think about it; don't just do whatever comes to mind or whatever you feel like.