Ack.. I'm waxing philosophical. I don't know if that's a good thing... but these thoughts keep running rampant through my head and keeping me from functioning normally. (Well sleeping and carrying out conversation.)

I'll be summarizing my basic beliefs below, I guess... as I try to sort them out in my own head.

To make this comprehensible to everyone who is not me ... I'll break this up: I have a belief system based basically on my thoughts on religion, my thoughts on existance and my thoughts on behaviour (moral philosophy). I guess I'll start with my opinion of religion and work from there... People with strong religious views are cautioned.

Religion.

Firstly, I'm not religious. That is not to say I don't believe in God, or some other higher power, nor am I agnostic really, nor that I DO believe in such a being, but that I don't subscribe to an established religion. There are two fundamental reasons.
One, I want to be able to communicate with the whole world. That is to say, I think it may be easier to understand other people and to empathize with them (on a philosophical level) if you aren't clouded by your own religious beliefs and you can be more receptive to what they have to say. I'm not saying everyone should do this but that it's really important to me personally. Plus it feels like if I take up a religion now, I'd be spurning (at the least) 60% of the world's population.
Two, I find that I'm not religious in my personal definition. What is religion, for me? Well I think of religion as a kind of support, a rock (to use the Christian analogy) that people can turn to when life needs meaning. Like their faith that a higher order is there to hold them up when they fall or that there is inherent justice in the world or whatever. And so as a litmus test, I thought, well what do I use for support and what gives my life meaning? And after much introspection... and this was hard... I decided that it would be my friends first... They've been (and I have faith that they will continue to be) extremely supportive in this time of inner turmoil... and then my family... and lastly, myself (that I know at the very least my cells will continue to do their little thing.. and the atoms will still exist). Meaning in life for me is derived from other people. If I were to only person left in the universe I'd rather be dead. But for me, making others happy is key.

So that's my take on religion...