Cross Border Crossings (Essay Sample)

Cross Border Crossings
Name:
Institution:
At the center of philosophy are borders. These borders should be questioned, criticized and interrogated, among other possibilities. Most often it demands one to go beyond their ideological and cultural boundaries in order to provide an explanation or the description of a phenomenon. In some extremes one may need to go against the truths and evidences they have built and developed over the years. Philosophy as a field has also developed its boundaries over time, some of which have been broken already by prolific philosophers and thinkers (Muehlhauser, 2009).
In this essay, I will share my personal experiences on border crossings but it should be treated as confidential. I believe that individuals are shaped by environments, culture, traditions, and upbringing. Religion to me has been one of the fundamental parts of my upbringing. My parents were, are and am afraid will continue, to be stout Christians so did they made me to be. During my late childhood and even to adulthood I have been questioning as to why we have several religions, and most importantly which one of them is right (Bosch & Boisen, 2011, pp. 115 - 118).
In my adulthood, I have been having friends from across different religions, a Muslim, a Buddhist and even one pagan among them. Our degree of interactions has been great and deeper. We have held several debates at different times on religion. Everyone has been obviously holding their beliefs that their religion or lack of it is the right and the others as wrong or has some faults in them (Muehlhauser, 2009).
We have been doing many things or going to places with these sets of friends. But not to mean all of them at one time, always. I have had a share of criticisms and disapproval beginning from family to a Christian – majority neighborhood. Needless to say, I have received many harsh warnings from my father and even the Muslims. The few Muslims in my community saw it wrong for me to have some form of sexual relationship with my Muslim friend. This was one of the serious outcomes of crossing cultural and religious barriers (Bosch & Boisen, 2011, p. 112). The Muslims in the community even threatened me for the steps I have made.
My associations have leaded some individuals in the community to distant themselves from me. This is apparent when I want to provide community some social services. The boundaries which have been there across various religions have been long passed down to generations without saying. Digression has been long taken as serious and sometimes unkind among existing religions.
The philosophical question, on which religion is much right or lack of it, has not been answered adequately. I have been troubling me. My friends and I have been attempting to answer this question with no success. However, we managed to arrive at some conclusions. One is that individual’s religious affiliations is mostly determined by the religious background of the family in which one is born into or raised. The other is in that an individual seems to believe that their own religion is right and the others are irrelevant and finally religi...