Death

Some people believe in reincarnation, others that they will end up in heaven or hell when they die. I believe that my life is like a fire in a cold and indifferent winter’s night. Eventually it will go out, but others will bring the fire on..

We will not wake up from the hypnosis

You can’t expect that a devout Muslim would abandon his religion simply because you have strong arguments against religious delusions and superstition.

You can’t expect that a Jew or a Catholic would question their beliefs. You can’t expect that a right-winger would understand that his worldview is nothing but a mental construct, like a fantasy or a daydream.

All people build castles in the air, new-age people, religious people, people with political opinions and agendas. All people confuse their fantasies with the reality.

Very few are able to realize that they’ve been indoctrinated and deluded. Very few are able to realize that their religion, worldview and political opinions are nothing but weird ideas. Very few are able to drop their delusions.

This is the reason why I don’t believe in a future for humankind here on earth. We simply can‘t give up our desperate fight to defend our follies.

Faith can move mountains

Some believe that they are saved, others that they are spiritually awakened.
Some believe that they are stupid, others that they are smart.
Some believe that they are cursed, others that they are chosen.

Some believe that life is about struggle and competition; others believe that without love and friendship life is not worth living.

Some believe that we reap in this life, what we have sown in a previous life; others believe that we will end up in heaven when we die.

Maybe those groups in our social evolution whose faith was strong competed out groups without deeper convictions. Maybe they fought harder. Maybe they where more united. Maybe their frenzy and zealousness made them invincible.

Beliefs, faiths and myths are two-edged swords. They create disasters, war and madness in the world, but they can also create meaning and inner strength for individuals, or depression, delusions, low self-esteem and misery.

Minestrone soup

You’re not good or bad, you’re both. You have good and bad sides. You’re not stupid or smart, not lazy or diligent; you’re not a dreamer or a realist; you’re a mixture of many ingredients, like a minestrone soup - in a skin bag.

However, two minestrone soups will never taste the same. The ingredients vary with the season.

You can be a mixture of, for example, greed, sadness, anger, joy, silliness, curiosity and tenderness in different proportions. Sometimes there is too much jealousy in the soup; sometimes there is too much contentment.

You’re sometimes like a sleepwalker, sometimes wide-awake, sometimes sloppy and sometimes disciplined, sometimes selfish and sometimes unselfish.

There is no true self. There is no genuine minestrone.

Double-talk

Religious people are seldom particularly religious. They usually don’t even follow their own doctrines. Most Christians, for example, store up for themselves treasures on earth and refuse to forgive their enemies. They don’t turn the other cheek and they blow trumpets when they give alms so everyone will know how good they are.

In a similar way, scientists are seldom particularly scientific. They speculate, assume and hypothesize. If they would only speak about what they had clear evidence for, they wouldn’t have much to say. They would have to stop trying to explain how life begun, the Big Bang, humankind’s early prehistory, superstrings, parallel universes, what consciousness is made of and thousands of other things.

What about you, do you walk your talk? Are you not like all the rest? Are you not human?

Unity in diversity

If you feel sad, if things just don’t go your way, if you don’t have enough money to pay your bills, your wife has left you for a nicer man, your mother is ill, the world is going under in madness and you think to yourself, “I should be more positive. Positive thinking is important because negative people have bad luck.” Then you have created a conflict within yourself.

You have now a divided mind. (Maybe it’s really two separate minds and maybe they have been there all along, I don’t know. Anyway, it doesn’t rally matter.) My point is that one part of your mind is bummed out and another part tries to fix the problem.

One part of your mind is trying to be positive but the other part is still doleful. When people you meet say: “Hi! How are you?” you’re answering, “Great, how are you?” However, half of you don’t feel great.

Sometimes you may be very angry with someone. Then you often also have another part of your mind telling your angry self to calm down. It’s ugly with anger. You have to hide it. When you meet other people, you may have to pretend that everything is fine. (Probably they do the same.)

However, you have also a third part of your mind. This third part is listening to the inner debates. If you didn’t have this third part of your mind, you wouldn’t be able to notice how the other two were struggling.

Some people have no problems to deal with. They have lots of money, nice homes and wonderful families. When they’re lecturing about the importance of positive thinking and the power of happiness, you have to be forgiving. When they explain that money will come to you in abundance when you begin to believe in yourself and stuff like that, then you have to be patient. You may have to pray for strength. You have to remind yourself that they have a very limited worldview. They are single minded. They’ve not yet discovered that human beings are compound creatures.

Reconciliation

If you believe that an electron is a tiny, tiny particle and I explain to you that it is an electromagnetic wave, really, not a tiny little particle, we may have it right, both of us.

Perhaps down to earth materialism and spirituality are just two different perspectives that are equally valid.

We should stop fussing and fighting about who’s right. Maybe we’re wrong both of us. Maybe we’ve both missed the point. Maybe neither quantum physics nor spirituality is possible to comprehend.

When you say you’re absolutely sure that something is true, where did you get that knowledge from? Did you find it on the internet or in a book somewhere? Do you know it in your heart? However, how do you explain that different people can be deeply convinced about something and arrive at different conclusions?