Broadness in Ideals

I believe that not all ideals have to be predefined. For example, if someone were to ask me my feelings on the insanity plea, I would have to think and most likely discuss for a while. I would try to gather facts and make an informed decision. I think that people run into problems when they circumvent this process and try to come up with their own opinions just to have an opinion. They often make the wrong decisions due to ignorance.
However, I also believe that a firm set of guiding principals is necessary for every person to have. These principals can come from religion, family, society, yourself, or any mix of the above. Once these principals are decided and ingrained in your thoughts, then your ideology is much more likely to have deeper meaning.

Personally, I draw much of my ideology from Judaism. While I am far from strict in my belief, I do see a lot of sense and reasoning in Jewish teachings. For example, I do not believe that there is an old man with a long white beard staring down at us from the clouds named God. Nor do I believe that eating a ham and cheese sandwich is wrong. However, I do agree with Judaism's teachings of tolerance, peace, and love. I firmly believe that one human being should not hate another just because of where he was born, and that war accomplishes very little in the long run. It is these guiding principals that I use to form my ideals.

So, to put it simply, rather than pretend to know everything, I prefer to form my ideals based on facts and my strong opinions (such as those described above).