Awareness and Self-Identity

http://www.loveoftruth.org/selfdiscovery.htm

Greater awareness does not come in a single blinding flash of enlightenment. It comes slowly, piece by piece, and each piece must be worked for by the patient effort of study and observation of everything, including ourselves.- M. Scott Peck

I found (as Professor DJ did) that many students (myself included) are having trouble supporting their beliefs with concrete evidence or labeling themselves as strictly theist, atheist, or even agnostic. I wonder, is this due to our young age? I think that is partially the case. One of my sociology professors once told us that when most of us our young we are “like big chalk boards and then, ’they’ write all over” us. As we grow older and the pressure to fit in or have an identity increases, “Your idea of who you are is your idea of what you think they think of you.” When do “they” stop influencing our beliefs? When we decide not to let them anymore.
Religion plays an astronomic part in the formation of one’s identity, character, beliefs, values, and morals. So what plays the biggest roles in the formation of religion, and therefore self-identity?

The above image is Ian Wholstenholme’s theory of how we form our identities. Quite often, we base our beliefs on what we experience through our bodies, thoughts, and emotions. When we enter into the spiritual realm, says Wholestenholme, we open ourselves up to an awareness beyond ourselves. We are aware of what we see and know. What we know affects how we think and feel. How we think and feel determine how we act. How we act portrays who we are. But do others always interpret who we are the way we do?

Wholstenholme believes that “at different times you are experiencing life through different domains” (the viewpoint of a “seer).This viewpoint offers one possible answer as to why we are having trouble fully expressing our religious beliefs. I think that once we as individuals are secure in our beliefs, whether they are theist, atheist, or agnostic, it will become easier for us to express and support them for others. But at such a young age, in the college stage which is about discovery and the building of ourselves through observation, experience, and the consideration of outside ideas, it is difficult (though not impossible) to express and justify our beliefs.

For those who are confident in their beliefs, good for you. That takes strength. For those that aren’t, however, keep searching. You are not hypocritical simply because you are changing.