RE: People don't kill people. Ideas do │Steemosophy 4/4 │
You are right. Viewing your beliefs as a prison would make life a prison, and in the end - make you a prisoner for life.
And I actually think that we are prisoners for life. But let me explain in which way I see it.
Thinking is inescapable, our thinking is susceptible to beliefs, no matter how scientific or rational you might think you are. In fact, the thoughts regarding your scientism is a belief in itself.
When I say that we are prisoners of certain beliefs, I don't necessarily mean it in a bad way, I only mean that every belief has certain implications. To use a programming analogy, I think of it roughly along the lines: if belief x is present, then manifestations y are possible. And this is the "prison" I'm talking about - the possibilities and limitations of different beliefs
And since thinking happens all the time, and beliefs are arising from it, I believe we are "prisoners" for life, in sense that we will always be bound in certain ways by our beliefs. But this doesn't make our life bad in any way. In fact, I think some people have amazing "prisons", giving them a freedom that is desired by many.
What is your opinion here? Do you think that there are beliefs that don't impose any limitations on us, consequently making ourselves free from the "prison" that I used in this post?
Well, you're completely right in the sense that if belief x is present, then manifestation y is possible. I don't think there are beliefs that don't impose any limitations. I can't possibly believe someone can become invisible with the power of a magical stone, o that communism can work, for example, and I think I have a rather "open minded" outlook on life. What you may find, as you say, is that some beliefs allow for more manifestations than others. Being a neo-nazi won't ever let you fully enjoy the wonders of jazz or practice judaism, it limits you more than, say, being agnostic.
What I believe, however, is that we aren't bound in place by those beliefs, we are those beliefs, and those beliefs change and evolve as we experience new things, react to new stimuli. I'd accept calling them a prison if, like robots, they were unchanging and set by someone else. Being that they are born from ourselves as we are born from them, I don't really feel it's accurate. They're not an external force, like the dogmas of a hardcore Christian family may be for a child, but something that grows with us.
It may simply be a matter of perspective, to be honest.