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 people whose beliefs I didn't share. I have met very likable Muslims, Hindus, and Christians with different beliefs about who God is. 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.

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 meaning 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? 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, values, 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. We became extremely violent and belligerent. 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/

Evidence for ESP

Maybe paraphenomena are real. Maybe life continues after death. Maybe there is a spiritual dimension. But why invest so much time and energy in other worlds and other dimensions? We live in this world and this dimension. How are we to live here? That is what matters, as I see it.

Physicists are of the same cloth. They speculate about many worlds and what is really going on at the quantum level.

We are fouling our own nest with endless wars, exploitation, pollution, and idiocy. This is what we have to do something about. These are the important issues that we have to address.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hNOEZ6MjRc

What does God consist of?

 Apples and pears can be weighed and measured, but God cannot.

You can point at an apple and say: "There is an apple there on the table." But you cannot point at God and say, "God is sitting there on the park bench."

The soul, the self, and ugly are also words that denote something you cannot weigh, measure, or point to.

If gods, angels, and ghosts exist, they must be made of something. They may not be made of electrons, protons, and neutrons. They may be made of something else (perhaps like dark matter and dark energy). This way of thinking is called dualism.

The opposite of dualism is monism, or materialism.

Dark matter is the invisible glue that holds the universe together. This mysterious material is all around us, making up most of the matter in the universe. But what exactly is dark matter? That's a question that scientists have been trying to solve for almost 100 years.

Dark matter makes up most of the mass in galaxies and galaxy clusters. In fact, scientists estimate that ordinary matter makes up only about 5% of the universe, while dark matter makes up about 27%. (The rest is thought to be dark energy, which is its own mystery). It's thought that dark matter shapes the cosmos, organizing galaxies and cosmic objects on a large scale.

https://science.nasa.gov/dark-matter/

Moreover, there may also be dark, mysterious fields that aren't electromagnetic, which convey telepathic and synchronistic waves. Who knows?

A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, no, and that he probably lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and the drunk replies, "this is where the light is"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect

This is similar to what scientists do. They search where the light is. They are only interested in what can be measured. Religious and spiritual people are searching in the dark.

Extreme right-wingers and Christianity

Many Christians have extreme right-wing political views. Where in the New Testament do they find confirmation of such ideas? Was Jesus Christ a right-winger? Did he side with the rich and powerful? Was he fighting hard against the immigration of poor people? Was he against abortion?