I cant subscribe to any religion, so no leap there. I understand the difference between faith/spirituality and religion, but don't have a belief in a higher power or creator.
Some people talk about energy, and how it cant be created nor destroyed. I know someone that thinks the simple electrical transmissions between the brain and nerves, as our energy/soul and when we die that energy just emits into the universe I guess. I don't see it that way at all, and would think that our body energy is broken down by other creatures and back into the earth.
I honestly think we are no where near as special as we think we are. The idea that there must be an eternal existence for us is the most remarkably arrogant thought process I can come up with. Like honestly, who the fuck do we think we are, that only humans live forever? Even if you think your dog will be waiting for you in heaven, do any other life forms get there? I believe this to be a construct of the human brain to deal with the idea of death. It is a coping mechanism that allows people to actually not deal with the fact they will die. I dont KNOW this, but believe it.
I think science is great, and has solves so many mysteries of or world. I also understand that so much of our current science is bullshit, and engineered, for lack of a better term, for desired outcomes. When it comes to science, I am obviously not smart enough to go out and perform my own studies, so I have to rely on other people to inform me, but finding what to believe, and what not to believe, can be very difficult. Not leaping with science, but I have to trust it more than books written by man centuries ago.
I think that life/consciousness is a gift, by whatever means we have a arrived at it. It is amazing that we have this opportunity to experience the universe, and our planet. I think that were connected to nothing but the planet and universe, on a molecular level. If you look around, the entire universe is nothing but energy/matter transforming, or breaking down, into other energy/matter. Life also does this, whether conscious or not. We may be nothing more than an anomaly of this process.
Just because we have this cognitive ability, and manipulate our environment better than other life forms, we put ourselves on this pedestal. We are indoctrinated into believing we are so important in the world/universe from birth. We are no more important than any other life, with the exception of mosquitos, and wasps/hornets. Fuck them.
I have a very simple belief that we are nothing but what we learn and teach. That our lives are enormously improved, or degraded, by how we are taught and learn. We have to be taught everything from birth. EVERYTHING. We are born knowing nothing. What were are taught, from basic knowledge, love, empathy, respect, hatred, how to fucking walk and talk. I have said this before, and believe it to be true, that what you leave behind, good or bad, is all that is left of you. Now obviously what is good and bad can be debated, but if your life experience is made better by something, I consider it good. If your life experience is made bad by something, It should be bad. I am not talking about cocaine and sex, even though those may have pleasurable results, it not the overall life experience I mean.
For example, if you are loved from a young age, your parents have given that to you, and hopefully you continue that cycle. Some one in their lineage gave that to them, through generations of love. If you are abused at a young age, that generally comes from those before your abuser. You can make a conscious decision to break those cycles, and leave something different for the ones that follow you. Whether your name is attached to it or not, hopefully centuries from now, the good or bad you perpetuate is the only thing left of your existence. Even those that seek fame, or fortune, or to have monuments built for them, one day none of that will mean a single thing.