Saturday, December 28, 2013

There is hope

It is possible to give up smoking,
even if you are heavily addicted to nicotine.
It is also possible to recover from alcohol and drug abuse.

There are so many alcoholics and drug addicts
who have managed to overcome the addiction,
and who did not replaced it with a destructive religious cult,
or some other wacky activity.

It is also possible to recover from neurotic ideas of inferiority,
meaninglessness and wretchedness.
Such ideas can fade away and lose their power
when they eventually are taken for what they are, ideas, imaginations.
Finally the penny drops:
'I am worth exactly as much as anyone else.
Life is something very important. How stupid I have been.'

It is possible to abandon political and religious belief systems.
You don’t have to be a Nazi for the rest of your life
just because you used to hang out with Nazis in your youth.

You don't have to hold on to neoliberal or conservative ideas.
You don't have to live for career and money.
You don't have to exploit other people.
These are not natural laws.

It is possible to wake up and get out of bed.
There is hope.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Why do we deceive ourselves?

You lie, but this is not something you need to be ashamed of.
All people lie, to a greater or a lesser extent.
And everyone pretends that it is important to be honest.

Observe yourself.
How many fibs do you use a typical day,
how many white lies, how many stupid lies
and how many times did you withheld something?

Also the question why we lie to ourselves is trivial, as I see it.
You feel better when you tell yourself that you're OK.
If you are telling yourself, loud and clear, that you are a selfish idiot,
when you really are a selfish idiot,
then you're throwing a spanner in the works.

For many people are lies and self-deceptions absolutely essential
to make life worth living.
A religion, for example, regardless of how crazy,
provides both consolation and community.
Common sense and truthfulness provides no consolation.

Self-deceptions can also be very helpful for frustrated upper class housewives
who need to keep up the illusion of success
and they can also help losers who need justifications and excuses
for their excessive alcohol consumption.

Negative people may be more realistic than optimists
but optimists live a more enjoyable life.
It is in so many ways better to deceive oneself and have some fun
than to hound for truth.
Truth fundamentalists are such tedious boors.
Nevertheless,
it's much nicer to spend time with people who do not live in denial,
and delusional dream worlds.

So, white lies and little lies are necessary in modern life, I believe.
However, problems arises if you lie too much.
A few glasses of wine now and then is a pleasure,
but a bottle or two wine everyday
you will end up as an alcoholic.


Robert Trivers: Why do we deceive ourselves?


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Be normal

Act normally.
Use regular clothes.
Say ordinary things.
Smile normal smiles.
Be like an undercover agent.
You're in great danger if they blow your cover.
It helps a lot if you can forget about your true self.
A true self is useless here.
Do not question their views.
Get yourself a hobby.
To be a supporter of a sports team can be helpful,
but do not go to extremes.

Monday, December 23, 2013

How is it, really

If you happen to be born and raised in a right-wing family
or if you for other reasons have acquired strong right-wing views,
then you'll see the world through right-wing glasses.
If you read the Bible, you'll find that Jesus was rightist;
if you study biology, you'll find that life is a dog eat dog business.

We look at the world through colored glasses,
right-wing glasses, left-wing glasses, neurotic glasses,
spiritual glasses, Buddhist glasses, Christian glasses...

What would the world look like, do you think,
if we could take off our colored glasses?

http://www.momentum98.com/colorther.html

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Fallacies

Delusions, misapprehensions and crazy ideas,
can make you very, very ill.

Depression, the powers of Darkness,
leaden beliefs that drag you and your family
deeper and deeper down,
to a totally meaningless and dirty dungeon,
or,
religious fantasy worlds, superstition,
suicide bombs, exorcism and fear of imagined Gods,
ethnic cleansing, hallelujah, praise the Lord.
or,
political fanaticism,
Nazism, racism, neoliberalism,
surrendering to the God of Money,
the God of Madness or the God of Destruction,
or,
alcoholism, wet pants, endless lies,
idiotic smiles and imaginary elegance,
anger, whiny self pity, excuses, selfishness ...

Delusions can take so many different forms.
The only important question is:
Is it possible to wake up?

Is it possible to give up drinking?
Is it possible to give up political beliefs?
Is it possible to leave religious cults?
Is it possible to stop feeling sorry for oneself?

What do you think?

Monday, December 16, 2013

Self deception

Imagine a selfish and false old man.
His falsity began to grow in his teens, because it paid off well
and he made his career in politics.
He devoted his life to promote right-wing views,
competition, tax cuts for the rich
and restrictions on public expenditures on the poor.
He had a trusting image and a winning smile.

Now he sits in a wheelchair, in a nursing home, staring out a window.
A faint odor of urine surrounds him.
Of course he regrets a few mistakes, but on the whole, he is proud of himself.
He has done his bit for freedom and democracy.

His children wish that he would die soon.
They make courtesy visits and say nice and polite phrases to him.
When he eventually passes away,
there will be an obituary filled with bullshit in the local newspaper,
the priest will say nice things at the funeral
and the loved ones can finally relax.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

We need our shells

Hermit crabs are not protected by their own shells.
They generally use abandoned shells of sea snails as armor
but they may also use other suitable containers.
So, when a hermit crab outgrows his shell,
he must seek another larger shelter.

I once saw a small plastic jar walking about in the Philippines.
It was a hermit crab and I came to think of religions,
worldviews and ideologies, as kinds of protective shells.

Therefore, in your life, when your religious beliefs, your political opinions
or your worldview begins to feel restrictive and tight,
then you have to do something.
Then you have to start searching again.


                                  *


I look at it in this way:
Religions, worldviews and ideologies are important
because they give us a group affiliation.
We need a group to belong to.
We're pack animals, after all.
We can't fend for ourselves.
It's difficult to change worldview, it's difficult to change identity,
but it's possible, nowadays.
A cult member can leave his cult and become a careerist,
an alcoholic can stop drinking and start running,
an atheist can suddenly be saved...


                              *


I believe that it is possible to drop all religions and ideologies.
You don't have to become an atheist or a nihilist.
You don't have to become anything.
It's not necessary any longer.
You don't have to follow this or that spiritual teacher.
You don't have to belong to any particular group.
Many people can afford to be just humans, nowadays.
We belong to a big group.


                             *


Well, those who belong to a group,
those who are possessed by a religious faith or a political ideology
neoliberals, political Islamists, careerists or whatever,
they are always so much stronger.
They will forever be the rulers on the this planet.


Friday, December 13, 2013

Reveries

Life sucks and then we die.
We have to create fantasy worlds in order to get warmth and shelter.
Caves and campfires do not suffice.

And of course we have to believe that our stories are true.
What else can we do?
It would be crazy to believe that our explanations and interpretations are wrong,
wouldn't it?

Nevertheless, we change.
We replace our beliefs with new beliefs, as we grow older.
Nothing is written in stone.

Monday, December 9, 2013

The Vietnam war

In 1945, after the atom bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
when the Japanese had finally surrendered,
France wanted their former colony Indochina back.
Vietnam, (a part of Indochina), that had been occupied by France for decades
and then by Japan during the second world war, 
wanted to become an independent country.

France did not want to give up their territory,
and thus the First Indochina War began.
US paid the French costs for the war, as France was ruined
and also helped them with air support.

Where did the French get the idea that Vietnam belonged to them?
Why did not any western democratic country
support Vietnam in their struggle for independence;
not before World War II, and not after?
Where could Vietnam find help?
Why did United States assist the French army in Vietnam?
Why didn't US give support to democratic endeavors in Vietnam?

Because The US was not a democracy at that time.
The US was a racist, right-wing extremist state.
Black people and native Americans
did not have the same legal rights as the white people.

Anyway,
In 1954, the Frenchmen were kicked out, despite all US support.
In the peace talks in Geneva that then followed,
it was decided that Vietnam should be divided in two parts
and that an election should be held within two years,
where the people of North and South Vietnam should decide
if they wanted to unite and if so, what kind of regime they wanted.

US prevented these elections and thus began the Vietnam War.
Two million Vietnamese died in this war, conservatively estimated,
and nearly sixty thousand young American men.
Seven million tons of bombs were dropped
with an explosive force equivalent to 600 Hiroshima bombs.

Ask young Americans or young Europeans of today,
if they know what this war was about,
and they will probably answer
that it was a war to defend freedom and democracy against Communism.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Free will



I found this one somewhere on the internet.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Dangerous ideas

Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and James Randi have done a good job when they have debunked superstitious beliefs and religious nonsense. However, astrologers, spiritualists, clergymen and New Age nutcases are mostly quite harmless. There are many other, far more dangerous and powerful beliefs in this world to debunk. Dawkins, Harris and Randi are like excited hunting dogs, who are chasing voles instead of tracking down bears.

Here are a few examples of some dangerous and unscientific ideas.
  • The idea that global warming is not due to man made carbon dioxide emissions, but because of natural temperature variations. And even if global warming, perchance, would be due to man made carbon dioxide emissions, there is nothing we can do about it.
  • The idea that a free unregulated market and technical development will solve all problems, environmental problems, starvation, misery...
  • The idea that if the rich gets richer the poor will benefit from the job opportunities the rich are creating. Therefore should the rich not be taxed.
  • Rich are rich because they are genetically superior.
  • War, greed and exploitation of other people is something innate in human nature. Friendship and helpfulness is just a cultural veneer.
  • Banks and financial institutions should not be regulated. They are good for the world economy, much like oil in an engine.
Ideas such as these are not based on reason or scientific evidence.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Theodicy

Do you believe in the karma theory or some kind of divine justice?
Do you believe that mean and selfish people will be punished after death?
Do you believe that you will reap as you sow, in this life?

How do you explain that many people who have become stinking rich
by exploiting poor people in suffocating Asian sweatshops,
don't get any punishments, while many good and honest people
can be sentenced to immense hardships?

Do you believe that the people of the Asian sweatshops
who work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, under horrible conditions
are serving sentences for crimes they have committed in past lives?

Do you believe that children get leukemia and skeletal cancer
because God tests them?

How do you explain that some people have to suffer so much
while others barely have to suffer at all?

Do you believe in a good and just God?
Do you believe in ghosts?
Do you believe in gnomes and fairies?

Do you think that it is possible to live well without superstition,
whitewash, rationalizations, hypocrisy and endless lies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy

Thursday, October 10, 2013

The thinking ape

What if wonder, speculation, rumination, search for meaning,
philosophy, religion and such pursuits
are byproducts of our ability to talk.

Humans are talking apes.
Language has evolved from vocalizations during our evolution in Africa
and it proved to be a useful ability during our hunts.

With language came then all the useless questions
that were mixed with those that were useful.
Where do we come from and where are we heading?
How was the world created?
Has it always existed?
What is right and what is wrong?
How are we to live?
Will we live on somewhere after death?

And with language came also all the answers;
right answers, wrong answers, ridiculous answers,
lies, white lies, speculations,
slander, stories, fairy tales...


Friday, September 27, 2013

Bloodshame

                               1

Adam and Eve had three sons.
They had also daughters, but they are not mentioned in the scriptures.
The sons took their sisters as wives.
Then Cain killed Abel because he was jealous and angry.
Seth was born later.

We are the descendants of a very dysfunctional family.
We are mad, totally mad, all of us, oppressors as well as the oppressed.
We are one great big clan of morons, regardless of class or skin color.
We are all the descendants of Adam and Eve.
We have, for thousands and thousands of years, killed each other,
raped each other, tortured, exploited and oppressed each other.

The European slave traders purchased slaves from African kings
and shipped them to the New World.
The African kings were as heartless as the European kings.

The Europeans, hungry for gold, killed the native Americans
and stole their land, while they spread the good news of Jesus.
And Montezuma was as crazy as the Conquistadors.
He was sacrificing thousands of prisoners to appease the Gods.
His high priests cut the hearts out of living, screaming victims
and held up the pounding lumps of flesh to the skies.
"Look what we are doing for you, oh great Lord."

We are madmen, behind our masks, all of us,
wolves in sheep's clothing.
We follow our crazy leaders, like dogs.
We have no will of our own.
We are born into a gang of gangsters.

You might think that you are civilized, but this is an illusion.
You simply happen to live in a a place, in a time period,
where there currently are no ongoing battles.
But the war is around the corner.
Now it is Syria that is burning.
Completely ordinary, decent men go berserk there now.

                              2

This way of thinking is wrong.
It's totally wrong to say that all people are evil.
There are also many good people here;
warm and genuinely friendly people, human beings.
You can see it this way:
selfish and brutal people that are hungry for power
are perhaps genetically different from friendly people,
much like the incidence of introverts and extroverts in a population.
Some are tall and some are short.
Variation is one of the cornerstones in biology.
The problem is that the aggressive brutes take over the show.
They are so much stronger and so powerful.

                              3

It's not just our genes that defines us.
It's not just our genes that make us what we are.
This is an outdated view.
For example,
our language ability is a result of evolutionary processes with a genetic component,
but this ability to speak requires environmental factors to develop.
If a child does not have close contact with other people in early life,
he or she will never be able to learn how to speak.
Environment is as important as inheritance for us humans.
Although selfishness, aggression and belligerence
may be influenced by genetic factors,
it is the society we live in that makes us more or less
selfish, aggressive and belligerent.
Selfishness, aggressiveness and belligerence are not written in our genes.

                              4

So, where do our political opinions come from?
Where has the idea arisen that greed is good
because it is conducive to development,
in a poor man's mind, in outer space?
And where, do you think, has the idea emerged that without love and kindness,
life would be absolutely meaningless?

Friday, July 12, 2013

Mindfulness meditation will not wake you up

Mindfulness meditation will make you perform better.
Consistent practice will make you happier and more relaxed.
The corporate world uses it, bankers, CEOs, the military.
Mindfulness meditation is good for stress reduction and it improves your health.
Fewer days of sick leave, more optimism, better sales results.

However, 
mindfulness meditation will not wake you up from your social conditioning.
Mindfulness meditation will not make you question
the mad economic system in which you are living.
Mindfulness meditation will make you accept this system
and adjust to it, like the kids in a rough neighborhood.

The only difference between you and the kids in the rough neighborhood
is that you live in a gated community, in a rough world.
You don't know what is going on.
You don't want to know.
You don't care.
You are searching inside yourself.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The scientific perspective

The heart is just a pump.
The eyes are just small cameras.
The ears are microphones and the mouth is a megaphone.
The mouth is also the place where you fill the fuel.

The brain is a computer and the mind is the software.
Consciousness is just electric and chemical reactions in the neurons.
The nerves are simply electric cables.

Science has explanations for everything.

The universe is just an explosion.
Electrons, protons and neutrons are just forms of energy.
Love is simply a trait that was selected for during mammalian evolution
because it increased the survival of offspring.

A near-death-experience is nothing but a last simultaneous firing
of activating neurons.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Mindfulness and success

The brain is like a dog and a dog has to be trained. To get a happy, well adjusted and confident dog who you can take anywhere, you do not need 10 000 hours of practice. An eight weeks course can show measurable results. Contrary to what is generally assumed, it is even possible to teach an old dog new tricks.

Obedience training is obviously important, dogs must know their place, but without a clear goal of what you want to achieve, you will probably not get any positive results, no matter how strict you are.

Study the educated, well adjusted, white middle class and learn from them. They know how to behave themselves. They have good table manners and they know how to arrange their facial muscles in the most appropriate way. They never complain on the global economic order. They thrive in this unjust world. They have learned to surf. This is the ideal you should aim for if you want happiness and success in your life.

The best way to learn about these things is to find a mindfulness coach and start practising. Reading cookbooks will not satisfy your hunger.

Good luck to both you and your brain.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Penal labour

Not only criminals are sentenced to hard labour.
There are more than 27 million slaves in the world today.
They are treated as someones property and forced to work.
Many of these slaves are children.

And millions of people live their lives
in third world sweatshops under horrible conditions,
twelve hours a day of hard labour, seven days a week,
forced by circumstances and poverty.
The alternatives are starvation or prostitution.
They are free to choose between pest or cholera, so technically they are not slaves.
They are free men and women in a free world.

Freedom is a wonderful thing, isn't it?
You are free to choose between so many good bargains, fancy clothes,
electronic devices, toys for your children. A free market is a blessing.
And poor people in the third world don't have to prostitute themselves
or sell their children to European weirdos.
You have to find peace within yourself.
You have to live in the present moment.
You have to open your eyes to all the beauty around you.
You must not think too much.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labour

Monday, June 3, 2013

Realistic pessimism

You are sentenced to death.
Have you forgot?
Don't play dumb.
We're all in the death row, waiting.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Castles in the air

Some people denote themselves as Shia and others denote themselves Sunni.
The only difference between them is their different interpretations of Islam.
They are neighbours; they look the same and they speak the same language,
but they still have to kill each other and each others little children.

Their differences and belief systems are delusions, fantasies.
They kill each other and each others children because of imagined differences,
just as Croats and Serbs were killing each other in former Yugoslavia,
and Hutus and Tutsis were killing each other in Rwanda.

People have killed and tortured each other for thousands of years
because of delusions and imagined differences.
It is so sad, the whole thing with delusions.

Is it possible to wake up from these fantasy worlds?
I believe that it is possible.
We no longer believe that the earth is flat
or that diseases are caused by angry Gods.
Beliefs can change, even though it is painful and may take time.
It is possible to drop old misconceptions.

Therefore, you should stop to denote yourself as Sunni or Shia,
Catholic or Protestant, atheist or agnostic, liberal or conservative...
You must stop to denote yourself as Palestinian or Yew, leftist or rightist.
You have to abandon all separating designations.
You have to wake up.
As long as you are not willing to do this, you are a part of the madness,
you are deluded, insane.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The totality

Reality has several levels, or dimensions.
Everyday life is just a small part of the play.

We consist of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and a few other atoms.
However,
a painting is quite different from linseed oil, canvas and pigments.
You cannot submit a painting to a chemical laboratory
and expect to get it fully analyzed.
Key aspects will be missed.
Likewise,
we are something quite different from the atoms and molecules we are made of.
We are also animals, governed by biological laws.

But everyone knows that we are not just a kind of thin-haired apes
and that we are not driven solely by our genes.
Our actions are also governed by our delusions, dreams and misunderstandings.

Grandiose scientific theories about our true nature
are completely meaningless in the everyday dimension
although they may be confirmed by precise experiments.
In the same way,
free will, egoism and conscience
are useless concepts at the level of quantum physics.
String theory does not examine our world.
Darwin's discoveries do not apply to us.
The Law of the jungle does not apply here.

Biology, chemistry and quantum physics
cannot provide a complete explanation of the totality.
There are also other dimensions, mystical dimensions
where words, mathematical computations and chemical formulas are unusable.
These dimensions can not be proved scientifically.
They must be experienced.
Moreover, 
there are also metaphysical dimensions that can never be experienced.
The totality is like an ocean where we are drifting about in a lifeboat.

(Religious speculations have, of course, not much to do with everyday reality either.
Such activities belong to the realm of daydreams
Vedanta, christian eschatology and astrology may admittedly serve a purpose.
They can create meaning, cohesion or entertainment
but they cannot create consensus about what's really going on.)

Saturday, May 11, 2013

The present now

The now is a fly that you can try to capture in your cupped hands
if you get the urge.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Self-deception

Those who ought to be proud feel ashamed
and those ought to be ashamed feel proud.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Why are Christians rightists?

Christians have almost always very strong right-wing political views. Where do they get these views from? Show me, please, where in the Bible it is written that a Christian should vote for the conservatives. Where does it say that an unregulated market is better than a mixed economy. Where does it say that banks should be unregulated? Where does it say that the army should have access to unlimited resources? Jesus didn't say anything about health insurances or day care.

The right-wing agenda arose many centuries after Jesus Christ. Most Christians live by ideas and values that are not christian.

Sleepwalkers

You have been fooled. You are under a spell.

I'm not joking. We are brainwashed, all of us; hypnotized, duped, deceived. Some believe that they are saved, other believe that life is meaningless. Some follow their political leaders or spiritual teachers, others follow their commanders. Some follow their peer group, others obey their parents.

Some believe that that God is like a stern father, others believe that God is a fantasy. Some believe that they have awakened, others believe that they are useless. We are deceived by our beliefs, all of us.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

God is not good

God is a vengeful, jealous and wrathful being. God is unjust, evil and small-minded. God is like a mad king, a tyrant, an afghan warlord.

If you love him by all your heart and pray to him sincerely he may forgive you and give you eternal life, but if you reject him, he will send you to a furnace to burn for eternal ages.

You may believe that God is good. Where did you get that idea from? Did you get it from the Bible or do you see goodness in nature? Have you read the Bible? Have you looked at life and nature?



2 Thes 1:8-9 (NIV) He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction...


Nahum 1:2 (Amp) The Lord is a jealous God and avenging, the Lord avenges and He is full of wrath; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and reserves wrath for his enemies.

Mat 7:14 (NIV) "Enter in through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Friday, February 22, 2013

One is crazier than the other

Are you possessed by an evil spirit, a lazy spirit or a stupid spirit? There are so many spirits that can take over you, right-wing spirits, left-wing spirits, all kinds of religious spirits, spirituality spirits, fundamentalist spirits...

Don't tell me that you are not possessed. We are all possessed,

Some are convinced that they are superior, others are convinced that they are inferior. Both types are possessed by the conviction that some are inferior and that some are superior. What idiocy! We will all be dead soon. How many more years do you have? What do you think? 25 years? 35 years? Where is your superiority or inferiority then?

So, what can we do? I have arrived at this: Seize every opportunity to have some fun and harm other beings as little as possible. Use your thinking mind, to the top of your ability, to question the spirit that has taken over you, use a meditation technique of your liking to loosen up your ingrained beliefs, and then gradually replace the troublesome spirit with more useful strategies. It is difficult and it may take time, but it is a feasible way. It is in a way like giving up smoking or drinking.

It's possible to give up smoking. It's possible to give up drinking. It's even possible to give up heroin and the pursuit of money and power. It's possible to find peace and harmony at times.

No-mind is a pointless concept. It is not helpful to bring about change. However, there are deeper levels of your mind. This level is not the only level. Selfless friendliness do exist as well as synchronicities.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Christianity, power and The New Testament

The stories of Jesus have always been appealing to those who are hungry for power and gold. Kings, tyrants, colonizers, slave traders, exploiters and fascists have all found encouragement in the Bible. Isn't this strange? How come that these kinds of people became so interested in the New Testament? They must have found something there that was very attractive, the question is what.

And the churches, Catholic and Protestant, why did they align themselves with these crooks? The Catholic Church endorsed the slave trade. How could the Jesuits in Senegal justify that children were separated from their parents and sold like cattle? How were they thinking? The Catholic Church supported the fascists in Spain? The Pentecostals endorsed the American terror bombings in Vietnam? A priest blessed the Hiroshima bomb. How do you explain all this?  



“In spite of a stronger condemnation of unjust types of slavery by Pope Gregory XVI in his bull In Supremo Apostolatus issued in 1839, some American bishops continued to support slave-holding interests until the abolition of slavery. In 1866 The Holy Office of Pope Pius IX affirmed that, subject to conditions, it was not against divine law for a slave to be sold, bought or exchanged.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_slavery

Sunday, February 3, 2013

The inner voices

-It's only hundred fifty seven years ago since Darwin hit the final nail in God's coffin. Most people have not yet realized this fact. The church's role has declined dramatically since those days, yes, but people in general cannot accept the idea that life has no particular meaning or purpose. Not even here in Europe are people willing to drop their beliefs in a life after death. We can't just live and die like animals, like rats. Something wonderful must exist behind all this madness.

-What is more important to you, peace or truth?

-I prefer truth.

-And how will you find the truth, by reading books?

-How do you find the truth?

-I'm not looking for the truth. I'm looking for peace of mind.

-Where do you find peace of mind, in self-deception or marijuana?

-For me are depressing ideas self-deceptions, and ideas that make me feel happy and serene are truths. You can call my ideas self-deceptions and I can call your ideas depressing, but none of us can prove that the other is wrong. Therefore I choose the ideas that make me feel good?

-So, you are a relativist?

-I don't know what I am. You can call me relativist if that makes you happy.

-Many people in Germany became exuberant happy when Hitler came to power.

-I'm not a Nazi

-No, but you're asleep, spiritually, like the Nazis. People in a trance are dangerous.

-What an idiot you are. Even the Catholic Church accept Darwin's ideas about the evolution, but they think that there is a God behind it all. The process of evolution is planned and actively guided by God, they say. They have created their theory and the Hindus have other theories. There are thousands and thousands of different theories. Feel free to invent your own explanation. If your explanation makes you feel good or bad, is the litmus test.

-The idea that God actively controls our lives is truly frightening, isn't it. It must be an evil God who lets small children suffer and die in dreadful diseases. What kind of father is that?

-So, find a better explanation.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Agnosticism

-Do you believe in God?

-Depends on what you mean by God. Do you mean a person, a father,
someone who can help us when we’re in trouble?
No, I don’t believe that there is such a father somewhere.

-Well, do you believe in a higher power?

-What do you mean by higher power, some kind of electricity?

-I mean a higher force, a spiritual force.

-Ok, what do you mean by spiritual force?

-I mean some kind of immaterial force.

-Like magnetism?

-No, a spiritual force.

-What is a spiritual force?

-It’s very difficult for you to think outside the box, isn’t it?

-It’s impossible to think outside the box, I believe, because thinking is the box.

-So, this is all there is, what we can see and hear, touch and smell,
taste and think?

-No, of course not, we can only see and hear certain wavelengths. We’re limited, trapped. We’re like frogs in a well. We don’t know much of what’s beyond our well.

-So you accept, after all, the idea that there is a bigger world, outside of our well?
Maybe there’s a homely little pond out there somewhere, or a lake.

-Yes, maybe.

-Is it not strange that both these separate voices are created in the same brain?

-In our brain.

-Yes, in our brain.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Change

In 1633, Galileo Galilei faced the inquisition court. He was sentenced to house arrest and forced to recant his assertion that the earth revolves around the sun. It would take until 1835 before his book “Dialogue” was removed from the Catholic Church’s list of prohibited books. In 1992, John Paul II issued a declaration acknowledging the errors committed by the Catholic Church regarding Galileo Galilei.

It’s hard to abandon erroneous beliefs. Not only Catholics have this problem. Most people cling to all kinds of outdated erroneous beliefs and misunderstandings.

It was hard for the Germans to accept that Nazism was an evil ideology. They had loved Hitler so much. It was hard for the communists to realize that communism didn‘t work. Today it is hard for neo-liberals (conservatives as Americans say) to realize that also their ideology is a disaster. (An unregulated market fueled by the idea that greed is good can of course not solve the problems of global warming and environmental degradation. On the contrary, unregulated markets are the cause of the global warming and the environmental degradation.) The whole world is about to go under because of these idiotic ideas.

Some men cannot understand that their love is unrequited. Many smokers with serious lung problems refuse to give up smoking because then they wouldn’t have anything to live for. Many people do not leave their religious sect although they no longer believe in its crazy tenets and dogmas, simply because they have nowhere else to go.

What is wrong with us? Why is it so difficult to let go of stupidities and madness? Why are we so incredible stubborn?

Anyway, which convictions do you refuse to let go of? What do you refuse to realize? What do you refuse to see?

Relax. Sorry that I disturbed you. Go back to sleep. Hold on tight to your stuffed little teddy bear. Outside is nothing but howling winds and darkness.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Questionnaire

Which side are you on?
Can you imagine yourself on the same side as the Sheriff of Nottingham?

Where do you feel at home
among neo-Nazis
among evangelicals
hip hoppers, hippies
construction workers, artists?

Do you live as if life were a theater play?
Do you wear a mask?
Do you play games in order to fit in?

Did you sell your soul to a publicly listed company?
Did you sell your soul to the army, to a TV channel or to a university?
Were you decently paid?

Are you proud of your title?
Do you wear a tie?