In the first part of "Building your own philosophy," we discussed the why and what, but we'll discuss the how in the following few parts. In this episode, we'll talk about Ontology, or the philosophical study of the nature of existence. We'll ask ourselves how we view how things exist in the cosmos and how we fit into it. We start with ontology because it has cascading consequences on how we perceive the free-will vs. determinism, objectivity vs. subjectivity, and universality vs. particularity; ultimately, how we perceive things to exist helps us to untangle the messy narrative of our experience in this world.

In this episode, we’re guided by two eminent existential philosophers: Karl Jaspers and Fredrick Nietzsche. They both deeply believed that every person should “philosophize,” to live a richer, more authentic life. Jaspers also believed that it’s an approach to transcendence and spirituality. In this episode, we’ll talk about why we should build our own philosophy (philosophize) and what that means.

This is my story about going from being a non-practicing deist to a hardcore atheist and now to a believer in a personal G-d. I’m still very rational, and I approach everything with a skeptical mindset. Now I find tremendous benefits from the divine and the rational. You can read more about my journey on divinerational.com.

Introduction to this podcast: "Welcome to this podcast, which explores how to live our best life. It’s a unique take on approaching life from two seemingly opposing perspectives. We’ll combine a secular rationalist approach with one grounded and guided by faith, religion, and philosophy. We’ll discuss the interplace between the spiritual realm and science, culture, and politics. 

On the one hand, faith and religion mature because of a greater understanding of our cosmos through science. On the other hand, religion and philosophy ground our culture and politics in a shared set of values and understanding of the world."