Deuteronomy 20

10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. 13 When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.

Self-knowledge

If you try to become friends with yourself or get to know yourself, it can be like trying to become friends with a drunkard or a slippery careerist. 

Don't call yourself out. It only creates trouble. It's like calling out a narcissist or a psychopath. They won't change. Try grey rocking instead and lower your expectations.

Small-town mentality

Social media has made the small-town mentality global: gossip, superstition, narrow-mindedness, intolerance, and reactionary resentfulness.

Delusions, illusions, and mistaken beliefs exist; they are created in the brain alongside sensible and rational reasoning; they are made of the same substance.

Think of an upright, average German man in the late 1930ies. He sees the world as it is, not as it should be. What would such a man arrive at, do you think?

Or, imagine sitting in a night bus on your way home, and a bunch of drunk neonazis get on. Would you tell them that they're stupid and misguided? Of course not. You would shut up and hope that they don't notice you.

By the same token, small countries can not oppose the US will. The US is today's Roman Empire.

History repeats itself. The fall of Babylon, the fall of Rome, and today we are witnessing the downfall of the US empire. But these days, we have nuclear arms.

Physicists ask: What is the origin of the universe? Is there life on other planets? What is an electron made of? They devote their lives to finding answers to such questions. They don't ask: Why are we destroying our planet? Why are we killing each other? What's wrong with us?

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021. It cost 10 billion dollars to build. And it can look 13.6 billion light-years distant. Very few people care about what was happening that far away that long ago. We care about what is going on here on Earth at this time. The James Webb telescope project is a boondoggle. It's time to wake up from all this technological boys' play, spaceships, and aliens. It's like the girls' unicorns and rainbows but much more expensive.

Japanese soldiers were stationed on isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. They were under strict orders never to abandon their positions and never to trust fake news and propaganda from the enemy. Some held the positions for several decades after the end of the war.

Do you believe that God created the world? Do you believe that God rules the lives of men? Do you think five-year-olds get bone cancer because he wants to teach them a lesson?

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING

You are not what you think you are; you have been duped. The world doesn't work the way you think it does. You are like a deceived husband who thinks his wife has gone to Paris with her sister.

You don't know how the universe works. You don't know how your mind works. You don't know what will happen to you when you die. You don't even know why you are here right now, reading this. All you can do is speculate.

The horse does not need the rider; it is the rider who needs the horse.

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

2 Timothy 3

(an anonymous author, sometime between 90 and 140 AD. Wikipedia)  

PESSIMISM

I don't think there is a future for humanity. I think we are screwed. There are many of us now who have given up all hope. Emissions of greenhouse gases continue to increase, despite all alarm reports and climate conferences.

Neither politicians nor everyday people are willing to change their way of living. We want cheap gas for our cars, cheap clothes, and cheap utility bills. India, China, and Indonesia plan to build hundreds of new coal-fired power plants. They need lots of cheap electricity because the west has moved their factories to them. And several European countries plan to reopen their closed coal power plants because they don't want to buy natural gas from Russia.

The world is spending more than 2000 billion dollars yearly on defense. And now we are rearming. We need new nuclear arms, robotic systems, and submarines. We have to defend ourselves from each other.

All our political and religious belief systems have been grotesque. Not even modern science has been able to save us. We have now reached the end of the story; we only have a few pages left.

The idea that this global civilization will perish is not morbidly pessimistic. All previous civilizations have perished. Only ruins remain. Also, 99% of all species that have existed here on earth no longer exist. Other species will take over after us, maybe flies or cockroaches. Evolution works like this.

BELIEFS

I don't mind if you believe in reincarnation, astrology, or homeopathy. It doesn't bother me if you think that Jesus died for our sins or that Mohamed was the last of the prophets. I don't mind if you trust yourself or if you trust some wacky Guru.

You can believe whatever you want as long as you are not pestering or harassing other people for their beliefs.

It is a huge problem here in this world that followers of different beliefs insist on fighting and even going to war to disseminate their silly ideas.

WHAT IDEAS DO YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP?

What religious or political ideology do you cling to, like a toddler to its mother? What worldview? What beliefs?

Maybe you will never be a guitarist in a rock and roll band. Perhaps you will never be an author. Maybe you will never be recognized for anything. Possibly you will never advance in your career. Maybe you will never get promoted. Perhaps you will always have to obey orders. Maybe you will always have to be a subordinate.

To be nothing but a human being, isn't this to be a loser among billions of other losers?

Some people are superior, and some people are inferior. Some people are worth billions of dollars; others are worth not even a cent. Most of us are on the lower rungs.

With positive thinking, hard work, and the grace of God, you can climb to a higher position. (A good-looking woman can, of course, take a shortcut and marry a rich man.)

Learn from the rich, the self-improvement coaches, and the evangelical pastors about how you can advance and reach a higher position.

The only thing that counts is money. Don't be a fool. The supreme God is the God of money.

THE EXTENDED MIND

I believe that consciousness is created in the brain. A lot of things are made in the brain. The brain makes representations of the outside world, stores memories, and has an autopilot that can drive your car when you are lost in a daydream. It takes care of your breathing, heartbeats, and many other things.

I also believe that the brain can create telepathic messages and receive telepathic messages from other beings. And it can receive notifications from deep down in the collective consciousness.

Without living beings with brains, there would be no souls in this world, no spirits, no angels, and no gods.

Without living beings, there would be nothing real and tangible, no planets and stars, just endless empty space and vibrating particles that are not particles, really.

The brain is an unbelievably complicated and sophisticated organ.

JUMP OFF THE BANDWAGON

500 years ago were people terrified of witches, they hunted them down and burned them at the stake. Nowadays, most people understand that witches don't exist and that they have never existed – except in our imagination. Most people no longer believe in ghosts, trolls, angels and witches, at least not here in Europe. 

Most people no longer believe that schizophrenia and personality disorders are caused by evil spirits, or that cancer is a punishment for sins. Most people no longer believe that the sun is revolving around the earth or that the world was created 6000 years ago by a nasty and jealous God with the name Jehovah or Yahweh.

Well, many people still believe in gods and evil spirits and that cancer is a punishment. They believe that people with cancer are sinners and that rich, healthy, and good-looking people are God's favorites. They live in a fantasy world and they would rather die than leave it.

Atheism is of course also a belief. Atheists can not prove that there is no God behind it all.

There are so many different kinds of fantasy worlds, so many different gods, and so many different belief systems.

Some people believe that they are awakened, and some believe that they are useless fools.

It is possible, I believe, to leave all belief systems and fantasy worlds. You don't have to be a neoconservative, a Baptist or a Catholic, a Sunni Muslim, or a devout Hindu. You don't have to be anything but a human being. 

Nihilism

If you want meaning in your life, you have to invent it – or borrow it from someone else. Meaning is not something we discover, I believe, meaning is something we invent or create.

Meaning, values, ethics, and morals don't exist outside of human beings. Kindness, equal rights and justice are meaningless terms in modern cosmology. And supernovas, microwave background radiation and electrons are irrelevant factors in psychology and social science.

The idea that life is meaningless or meaningful is created in the human mind. All religions, philosophies, and ideas about life are mental constructions.

Nihilism, the philosophical idea that life has no meaning and that ethics and morals are delusions, is also a mental construction, a foolish and useless idea. You are a human being. You live in this human body. You are not just a bunch of molecules and atoms, you are not a snake, not a lizard or a worm. Worms, snakes and lizards don't care about meaning or morals. You are a human being and to human beings are values and morals extremely important.

We call people who don't care at all about morals and meaning psychopaths.

NON-PHYSIOLOGICAL ISSUES

Egotism, egoism, selfishness, superiority, inferiority, too high or too low self-esteem, overt and covert narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder.

Bigotry, dogmatism, chauvinism, racism, sexism, misogyny, unreliability, duplicity, two-facedness, phoniness, self-righteousness, self-pity, bullheadedness, fanatism, fundamentalism.

Gullibility, wilful blindness, superstition, alcoholism, drug abuse, food abuse.

LOST IN SPACE

You can lose a friend to alcohol or drugs, to a religious cult, or to a crazy idea. You can lose a friend to the anti-vax movement or the Qanon. You can lose a friend to career-building, to depression or schizophrenia, to marriage, or to simple misunderstandings. You can also lose yourself. 

Eventually, you will lose both yourself and all your friends to death.  

PRETENSE

Some people pretend that they are Christian because they know it is an excellent disguise. Trump, for example, secured plenty of votes in this way.

Others pretend that they have psychic abilities. As psychics, they can attract followers on Youtube and then build a profitable business.

Some people pretend that they have reached a high level of spiritual insight, that they are awakened beings. This can also be financially rewarding.

Others pretend that they care about future generations and say that we have to do something to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. In this way, they can come across as very likable and considerate.

However, some people really are genuinely religious, some really do care about future generations and some people really have reached higher levels of spiritual insight. The problem is that you can never determine who is a bluffer and who is truthful and honest. You can never know if the Bitcoins he is selling are real or if his spirituality is a cover. (Well, eventually the truth will come out.)

So, what to do about this? It's simple. Don't trust anybody. It doesn't matter if they appear in mainstream media or social media. Watch out for tricksters and hucksters, high-browed and low-browed. 

You know that people also cheat themselves. Therefore, don't even trust yourself.

DIETS

There are many different kinds of diets. There are religious-based diets. Hindu diets, Muslim diets, and Jews have their kosher diet.

And then there are all the modern diet gurus. All of them are at odds with each other, accusing each other of quackery.

The environmentalists refuse to eat meat because producing it causes too much CO2 emissions while Joe Average sticks to his hamburgers and pizzas.

If you don't follow my diet plan you are an idiot. My guru is the best. He is the way and the truth and the life.

So, you have to stick to your group of people who have the same food preferences, you have to stick to your tribe or your team. Muslims hang out with other Muslims and Hindus hang out with other Hindus. Vegetarians prefer to hang out with vegetarians and keto people prefer to hang out with other keto people. About 690 million people are at this moment hungry and malnourished.