C00k1eM0nster
Dec 25, 2016
Undergraduate / My faith diminished. CalTech Ethical Dilemma essay [2]
Essay Prompt: Members of the Caltech community live, learn, and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; 'No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.' While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes puzzling. Share a difficult situation that has challenged you. What was your response, and how did you arrive at a solution? (200 word max)
Essay: I have been a Buddhist for almost all of my life. I could barely talk when my parents began educating me in Buddhist principles and beliefs. For a while, I was incredibly devout- I did everything exactly as prescribed; I said my prayers every night; I read and re-read Buddhist literature. But over time, my faith diminished, and this happened for a number of reasons.
Firstly, I always prided myself in being an objective individual. When trying to reconcile my faith with my scientific principles, I realized that I was trying to fit facts to conclusions and not the other way round, which poisoned my thought-processes.
I also saw the damage that blind faith could cause. People have been killing each other for hundreds of years over religion and the recent events in the Rakhine state of Myanmar showed me that Buddhism wasn't immune to this. This led to me coming out as an agnostic to my family when I turned 18. Leaving my religion wasn't an easy task and I felt like I had lost an integral part of my being but fortunately my family was supportive of my decision.
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Please feel free to correct any grammatical errors as well.
Essay Prompt: Members of the Caltech community live, learn, and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; 'No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.' While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes puzzling. Share a difficult situation that has challenged you. What was your response, and how did you arrive at a solution? (200 word max)
Leaving Buddism
Essay: I have been a Buddhist for almost all of my life. I could barely talk when my parents began educating me in Buddhist principles and beliefs. For a while, I was incredibly devout- I did everything exactly as prescribed; I said my prayers every night; I read and re-read Buddhist literature. But over time, my faith diminished, and this happened for a number of reasons.
Firstly, I always prided myself in being an objective individual. When trying to reconcile my faith with my scientific principles, I realized that I was trying to fit facts to conclusions and not the other way round, which poisoned my thought-processes.
I also saw the damage that blind faith could cause. People have been killing each other for hundreds of years over religion and the recent events in the Rakhine state of Myanmar showed me that Buddhism wasn't immune to this. This led to me coming out as an agnostic to my family when I turned 18. Leaving my religion wasn't an easy task and I felt like I had lost an integral part of my being but fortunately my family was supportive of my decision.
x------END------X
Please feel free to correct any grammatical errors as well.