Freedom of choice
Saturday, October 08, 2005
My cousin’s son is about one year old plus a couple of months. I’ve witnessed the growth of that child from his first day up till now. Generally I’m not into dealing with babies and children. However, I find inexpressible joy in playing with him, and observing his reactions.
I’ve always been curious to know how do little kids learn. How do they recognize their mothers, and people they frequently see. How do they recognize things, places, sounds, and words.
Humans at that very beginning are really intelligent. They keep on storing everything they come across, and they are curious to know everything. Here comes parents’ role in defining and giving their children the information they are seeking.
We keep telling him this thing is called a car, that’s a cat, and that’s a fan. What if we told him a dog is a cat, and a cat is a dog?! Would he know that this is wrong?! Would he know that we are giving him wrong information?! He won’t know. At that time it’s his parents and people around are the only source for information, and he will hardly disbelieve them.
He will grow up to discover that what he thought is a cat is a dog and vice versa. Would it be easy for him to believe that?! To drop everything he learnt and trusted just because all people around are telling him this information is wrong. They are telling him your beliefs are wrong.
Look at the same situation with a larger scale, during a certain time in our lives we keep on storing information, on which we build our beliefs and knowledge. It’s carved in our minds and hearts. It’s people around us who do this carving. We grow up, we are faced by different truths, different from that we used to believe. We are confused, are they wrong? Are we wrong? Or is it that we are both right? Each individual sees it from a different view. According to the way he was brought up. Certainly it makes a difference.
And the question is, do we have a choice in what we learnt and believed when we were little kids?! Or it’s the people and the culture around that shaped us?! And where is the fettra (human nature) from all this?!
It is said that we are born having certain personality characteristics.. that is followed by the way we are brought up.. this means no choice is involved!
We are born in a certain country to inherit it’s nationality, and it’s language. We are born in a family that have certain beliefs which they plant in us. No choice in choosing our country, our language nor our beliefs!
I’ve always been curious to know how do little kids learn. How do they recognize their mothers, and people they frequently see. How do they recognize things, places, sounds, and words.
Humans at that very beginning are really intelligent. They keep on storing everything they come across, and they are curious to know everything. Here comes parents’ role in defining and giving their children the information they are seeking.
We keep telling him this thing is called a car, that’s a cat, and that’s a fan. What if we told him a dog is a cat, and a cat is a dog?! Would he know that this is wrong?! Would he know that we are giving him wrong information?! He won’t know. At that time it’s his parents and people around are the only source for information, and he will hardly disbelieve them.
He will grow up to discover that what he thought is a cat is a dog and vice versa. Would it be easy for him to believe that?! To drop everything he learnt and trusted just because all people around are telling him this information is wrong. They are telling him your beliefs are wrong.
Look at the same situation with a larger scale, during a certain time in our lives we keep on storing information, on which we build our beliefs and knowledge. It’s carved in our minds and hearts. It’s people around us who do this carving. We grow up, we are faced by different truths, different from that we used to believe. We are confused, are they wrong? Are we wrong? Or is it that we are both right? Each individual sees it from a different view. According to the way he was brought up. Certainly it makes a difference.
And the question is, do we have a choice in what we learnt and believed when we were little kids?! Or it’s the people and the culture around that shaped us?! And where is the fettra (human nature) from all this?!
It is said that we are born having certain personality characteristics.. that is followed by the way we are brought up.. this means no choice is involved!
We are born in a certain country to inherit it’s nationality, and it’s language. We are born in a family that have certain beliefs which they plant in us. No choice in choosing our country, our language nor our beliefs!
posted by MoonLightShadow at 4:03 AM, | 
8 Comments:
« back home | Post a Comment
Do we have the choice of existence from the first place???
Rain, I don't know if we have the choice of existence or not.
There is a process called 'unlearning' where we just try to pour out what we have been 'told' because it is merely not our thoughts, but imposed on us. Unless we are able to find for ourselves our OWN definition than we will ever be confused.
There is an incident happening during the prophet's time where the prophet was showing his companions a jar of honey. Everyone said, 'yes. This is honey.' 'Sure.' Only 'Ali b. Abi talib was the one who dipped his finger in the jar, put it in his mouth, tasted it and said, 'Yes. This is honey.' What I am trying to say is 'finding for ourselves is the key.' It is not about us doubting others or previous customs, but discovering it for ourselves and tasting, testing it aganist what is running in our system. What is wrong with that.
Last thing, when i was young, was learning how to draw. Imitating van gough portrays. The teacher told me, to just draw while looking at the portrait i am imitating and never look at how I am drawing unless I am done! I asked why, and he said, 'our minds tend to just want to adjust thing and conform, thus get things out of proportions.'
This what this post triggered in me!
There is an incident happening during the prophet's time where the prophet was showing his companions a jar of honey. Everyone said, 'yes. This is honey.' 'Sure.' Only 'Ali b. Abi talib was the one who dipped his finger in the jar, put it in his mouth, tasted it and said, 'Yes. This is honey.' What I am trying to say is 'finding for ourselves is the key.' It is not about us doubting others or previous customs, but discovering it for ourselves and tasting, testing it aganist what is running in our system. What is wrong with that.
Last thing, when i was young, was learning how to draw. Imitating van gough portrays. The teacher told me, to just draw while looking at the portrait i am imitating and never look at how I am drawing unless I am done! I asked why, and he said, 'our minds tend to just want to adjust thing and conform, thus get things out of proportions.'
This what this post triggered in me!
Last thing, there is always a choice. The least choice is to 'choose'
I just remembered a sentence from the movie "City of Angels".. I'm not sure whether it's related to the subject or not (A).
Nicholas Cage asked Meg Ryan to describe to him the pears taste.. she was surprised of the question and told him how couldn't he know its taste, he said "I don't know how it tastes to you".
Plus this movie was pointing out how human beings were granted free will... if u didn't see it , I recommend it to you :)
Nicholas Cage asked Meg Ryan to describe to him the pears taste.. she was surprised of the question and told him how couldn't he know its taste, he said "I don't know how it tastes to you".
Plus this movie was pointing out how human beings were granted free will... if u didn't see it , I recommend it to you :)
Haal, I totally agree that we should be discovering it ourselves. However, I still have a question. Does this mean that all people who are trying to discover things by their own selves will all reach the same conclusion?! That’s not true. The reasoning and perception of things differs from a person to the other, and I believe that this what creates the difference between people.
What I need to know is, why does our perception of things differ?! In the case of honey, if I was used to another kind of honey, black honey for example, and I never saw the white honey, I wouldn’t have said that it’s honey.
Why does our mind accept certain things and refuse the other, while other people’s mind accept what we refuse and vice versa?!
What I need to know is, why does our perception of things differ?! In the case of honey, if I was used to another kind of honey, black honey for example, and I never saw the white honey, I wouldn’t have said that it’s honey.
Why does our mind accept certain things and refuse the other, while other people’s mind accept what we refuse and vice versa?!
Rain, I didn't see the movie before, however I'm made curious by many people to watch it. May be I should be looking for it.
Till I watch it, would you tell me how did it point out that humans are granted free will?
Till I watch it, would you tell me how did it point out that humans are granted free will?
Since Nicholas Cage was an angel his role was to take care of ppl , take ppl souls when they die...etc , merely following orders..of course not making ANYTHING wrong opposite to humans... but yet it wasn't his choice.
So, humans have options to feel, think, do wrong things...etc.
So, humans have options to feel, think, do wrong things...etc.