Why I decided to take up a religion

There are several reasons why I felt the need to seriously take up a religion, some of which I do not feel like sharing on my blog just yet. The ultimate reason that made me take up faith can be summarised in a single quote: "Wisest is she who knows she does not know." Jostein Gaarder mentioned this in his book, 'Sophie's World'(which is my book-version of a soulmate despite the fact that I have not yet finished reading it) and I think Aristotle or Socrates said something like that as well. 

I know this quote is quite a paradox, since it implies that the wisest person knows that she does not know, so technically she does know something: that she does not know. But I guess the real point behind this quote is that you can't possibly, truly know anything since truth is also defined as justified true belief. And I, for one, will not settle and agree that any justification is totally objective, accurate or reliable. Everything that I know as knowledge is only so because that's what I choose to believe. 

And since I can't say anything is totally 'true', I decided to start choosing the best 'truths' for myself. Thus I ended up seriously taking up Nichiren Buddhism because I decided to agree with at least 90% of what this religion claims and I just really like what it stands for. If it's going to take up a huge part of my life, it might as well be the best. And yes, I do believe that taking up this religion is better than having none or being strongly against religions because the thing about Nichiren Buddhism is that it focuses a lot on human revolution(something along the lines of development of inner self to attain buddhahood[indestructable happiness]). I find myself reflecting more and being more considerate of others and yeah, for now I'm happy with what I settled with.  

Response to joy & suffering

Apr 2016 edit: Wow, less than 2 years ago I was so motivated and ambitious... What happened to me? Today, I just complain about college on a daily basis and relent to the 'reality' that I am powerless when it comes to making a change in this world. Thank you 2014 self, for reminding of the optimism (some say naivety) I once had. I will try my best to find it again. #1 reason why keeping a blog and re-reading your old posts should be everyone's hobby.

Found this blog post in my draft and I'm publishing this because I think it's kinda relevant to the post that I published 1 minute ago(may be a bit repetitive cos I didn't want to change anything from this draft):

Yesterday, I received a message from a friend and it was a meme that was kinda like the one below. It's not the actual meme that he sent me but the underlying message was similar.



Anyway, he said to remember that there is always someone in a worse situation than you. I suppose it was suppose to teach me to be grateful and feel more optimistic. Not that I needed it but what on earth. How on earth am I suppose to feel encouraged about knowing that I am not in the worst situation possible, knowing that other people are suffering much more? In fact, it makes me feel bad that I am not doing anything to help improve their situations. Honestly, I don't think I can do much as a 19-year-old and yeah some of you, the very ones who are doing nothing as well, will go: "Aww come on, that's just an excuse. You can do soooo many things!"

No.

I alone cannot solve global warming, bring down corrupted governments, stop violence with my current status and knowledge. Heck, I can't even get my siblings to behave! So yes, I am as helpless and as worthless as anyone can be. But this does not mean that I stay stagnant. I do not plan to stay this way and I am still figuring out how I can help to solve the many problems in our "admittedly imperfect world"(as told by Franklin Roosevelt).

Also, I much prefer memes like this: