Better safe than sorry

It is better to have an old, beautiful map that doesn't match the territory than to have no map. This has been proven scientifically. You have better health. You live longer. You have more friends.

A man without a map is like a man without a cellphone, lost in a foreign land, with no money.

A man with a beautiful old map will never be lost in a foreign land. He stays at home, with his friends and family.

A modern man with a modern cellphone and a good credit card will never be lost in foreign lands. He can always find his way back home to his safe middle-class neighborhood.

Your brain is a receiver

Your beliefs are not your beliefs. You got them from somewhere. (Family and friends, internet gurus, books, pastors, politicians, influencers, and the mass media. Your subculture, the zeitgeist.)

The Bible has many different interpretations. Your interpretation isn't yours. You got it from someone. Your faith is not your faith. 

The same goes for your political opinions. They are not your opinions.

Your thoughts are not yours.

Your free will is not your free will. (You lost it at an early age.)

Your brain is a receiver. And a sender. 

Free will

You are on a large passenger ship. You and your fellow passengers can decide for yourselves what to have for dinner—whether to choose a ribeye steak or a vegetarian option. You can also decide whether to head to the bar or to the movie theater afterward. Or whether to go to bed early. You have free will. But you cannot determine the ship’s destination. This ship actually has no destination. Nor does it have a captain.

Or, what if the ship, once upon a time, had both a destination and a sober captain? Maybe pirates have taken over the command.

Actions speak louder than words

Beliefs usually aren't that important. You aren't necessarily a fool just because you believe extraterrestrials visit us regularly or that gnomes and ghosts exist. I have met many nice and friendly people whose beliefs I didn't share. I have met very likable Muslims, Hindus, and Christians. If their beliefs make their life easier and worth living, I don't mind what they believe. I don't criticize them for beliefs that I don't agree with.

If you commit crimes because of your beliefs, your beliefs are, of course, bad beliefs. The nazis, for example, had horrible beliefs.

Malicious people may also believe in God. I don't criticize them for believing in God; I criticize them for what they do. Devout Christians were slave owners for almost 1800 years.

People of reason, with a modern scientific worldview, can also be good or bad. It is their actions that count.

My is truth is the only truth

To discuss politics with a politician is like discussing the point of life with an evangelical right-wing Christian or an awakened follower of a New Age cult leader.

The self is an illusion

The self is an illusion. So what! Isn't everything an illusion? Our brains create the world. But we have to live as if the world is real and that we have agency, at least to some small extent. Living as if nothing is real, as if we are illusions and have no will of our own, is crazy. You will probably end up in a mental hospital.

The idea that everything is an illusion is a delusion. It leads to nihilism and relativism: Fantasies, fake news, and superstition are as valid as unequivocal facts.

So what isn't an illusion? And what is real? What is reality really? Electrons and quarks? Waves? Multiple universes? I think it's a waste of time to ponder such questions too much. It's for people who have nothing better to do. They are all set. They don't have to worry about utility bills and credit card debts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fajfkO_X0l0&t=274s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDV2QSnedCc

 

The mental sphere, the noosphere

It's our ideas that are making us crazy: our beliefs, assumptions, religious and political convictions, delusions of grandeur, delusions of inferiority, superstition, racism, jingoism, rationalizations, justifications, and endless explanations.

And it seems impossible to let go. You can debunk other people but not yourself. I'm not different. I can't change my views or my core assumptions either. We hold on to our imaginings like three-year-olds hold on to their stuffed animals. 

Or, if we get rid of one misconception, we immediately pick up another.

War, depression, hate, and fear of each other are the results.

Humans have walked this earth for at least 200,000 years. 50,000 years ago, something changed. Suddenly we became smarter and extremely violent. Was it a genetic mutation? We left our African homeland and began taking over the world with our spears, bows, and arrows.

Now the chickens have come home to roost. 

We are now at the precipice.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-human-migration-13561/