Watching Steve Jobs' speech at the Stanford Commencement in 2005 feels a bit like a religious experience in a way: you get chills listening to him speak, and something deep within you resonates with what he is saying. But there is also a deep-rooted feeling of uncertainty and of vagueness: Jobs says to live everyday as though it is your last, and never settle for something less than what you want, but what exactly does that mean? Sure, maybe he did this in his own life, but the sheer number of human beings on this planet basically dictates than not everyone can live out their dreams the way Jobs did - it's just not possible. I immediately see ties to religion within his speech - the idea of individuality comes up numerous times, as it does with modern day religion; speaking as someone who went to a Catholic high school, but am half-Jewish and half-Catholic - and essentially Agnostic in actuality - I found that one of the main messages that my Catholic school was trying to give me was that I was special: that God had a plan for me and all I had to do was open my ears and listen. Jobs doesn't necessarily say this, but he does say that you should keep searching until you find the thing that you want in life - and that's basically what a lot of religions suggest as well, they just throw in that God is the one who determines that. It's weird to think that in a sense Jobs and modern day Catholicism (or at least Jesuits) are saying the same thing, except that one party needs to use the concept of God and the other does. Either way, this idea of individuality and finding the right path are daunting, and yet both Jobs and religions make it seem possible, not only for a select few, but for everyone.
I guess the other thing to say that's interesting is that even though these ideologies line up, I doubt that most religions would want to associate themselves with Jobs - a selfish, rude, and at times simply mean person. The tenant of most religions, as far as I know, appears to be helping one another and living a pious life, and yet Jobs didn't necessarily do that. Sure, he maybe helped the masses, and changed millions of lives by bringing the personal computer to the person, but he cut people down and left people behind him in his way towards his goals. And yet, even though Jobs did this, it could be argued that he was simply doing what religion is telling us to do: find your meaning, find your reason, and do what you, individually, are meant to do in this world. Is it okay to do that if it's at the cost of others?
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