Thwarted Mind Essay, Research Paper

& # 8220 ; Belief is the natural attitude of a thwarted head & # 8221 ; This citation is from a instead vocal mathematician named Scott Buchanan, who has studied the manner of human idea right along with its mathematical achievements. It is meant to depict our manner of believing when nearing mathematics. Yet it seems to me that it has a larger significance: that it applies to the human manner of idea when nearing any job. Buchanan is stating us that when we are confronted with a job and a possible solution and we can non happen our manner to the solution, we have a inclination to believe in the solution out of pure defeat, or possibly merely desirous believing. As in: & # 8220 ; that has to be it! & # 8221 ; A similar thing will go on when we are confronted with multiple possible solutions and we can non demo one is true. We choose one, about randomly, and believe in it. In a broader range, this inclination to believe is present in people & # 8217 ; s beliefs in general.There comes a point where the events of life force one to see what one believes. Many people seem to merely & # 8220 ; inherit & # 8221 ; their beliefs and value systems, giving no more idea to it than that their parents were that manner, no more account than & # 8220 ; that & # 8217 ; s how I was taught & # 8221 ; . Other people seem to pick a set of beliefs, about indiscriminately, harmonizing to what & # 8220 ; feels right & # 8221 ; . Still others seem to pick beliefs as if they were merely a aspect of their personalities, something to pull people. Finally, there are those who ne’er truly turn to the issue, who are standing right following to those who haven & # 8217 ; t decided.Most people when questioned or challenged become instead ardent about their belief instead rapidly if they weren & # 8217 ; t already, sometimes rolling into blazing lip service. Somehow, while people talk freely and civilly about political relations, when the treatment wanders into what one believes about life in general, people clam up. They become unwilling to discourse their thoughts beyond giving you a general sense of what they are. Having chosen a solution to the ultimate job, to the significance and point of life, they bear down. Very few are wi

lling to see the whole thing as unsolved, and some are so fervent as to die ( or kill ) for their belief.This belief is here because it is ‘natural’. It is a tendency to ignore other solutions in plain sight when the problem is too difficult, or to go with the one ( potentially inadequate ) solution seen. This belief, or faith as it is sometimes called, is the tendency to throw aside other solutions, and to abandon logic. It is not a reach for the divine as it is often seen, it is a regression to a “natural” state. It is throwing aside the evolutionarily hard-won difference between human and animal. This is not to say that animals believe in any sort of God, of course. Faith and irrational belief are the remnants of people having discarded logic when faced with the ultimate question. In most cases, the human drive to find meaning, nearly as fundamental as hunger to an intelligent species, is satisfied by this arbitrary choice.Of the groups mentioned above, I place myself in the group who have not decided on a set of beliefs, in the very small subsection of people who do not intend to ‘decide’. To decide implies choosing between given choices, which does not describe me. I am after the truth, at all costs, including finding the truth to be that life is totally and utterly meaningless.This is why I have been concentrating in science, math and computers. Science has already discarded several possible sets of beliefs held previous to its discoveries, like the idea that storms are god- wars and the idea of the earth-centered solar system. The tidal wave of genetics is rocking several boats at once. Science embodies the logical reversal: if we cannot directly understand what is true, let us eliminate what is not true. Perhaps all that I will ever accomplish is to eliminate a few more choices. Perhaps I will find the answer, and the answer will be that we are no more than automatons following a course laid out from the beginning of the universe by the laws of interactions of forces. As eventually anti-climactic as this pursuit may be, I cannot be satisfied with any other existence without having tried.