Well

Some people call themselves Christians, they even go to church on sundays, but they don't turn the other cheek and they lay up treasures for themselves in tax havens.

Others pretend that they are optimistic about the future of mankind.

Dishonest people can denounce dishonesty and hypocrites can critizise hypocrisy.

I lie everyday. However, sometimes I don't. I believe that all people are tricksters that occasionally tell the truth.

How do you find out if someone is sincere? What method do you use? And how do you find out if you're lying to yourself?

Religious fanatics have taken over the world

Christian fanatics are politically very influential in the US. 

Islamic fanatics in Saudi Arabia and Iran have turned the Middle East and parts of Africa to an inferno. (Syria, Irak, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, northern Nigeria, Somalia...)

Jewish fanatics are occupying parts of the West Bank. Their plan is to create 'Greater Israel', their promised land, which extends all the way to Iraq.

Christian fanatics in the US support the Jewish fanatics because they believe that Jesus will return when the temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt.

George W Bush is a christian fanatic. It was God who told him to violate international law and start the Iraq War. Also many high ranking officers in the US Army are christian, right-wing fanatics.

The christian fanatics voted for Trump. His vice president Mike Pence is a christian right-wing fanatic.

Religious extremist wackos have taken the whole world hostage.

Mainstream folks are holding their breath.

The future

There is one future scenario that is overlooked by social scientists and political philosophers: that humanity will perish.

Sooner or later will some power crazy wacko "press the button". If we don't drown in our own waste first. We struggle frantically to destroy this planet.

All previous civilizations have disappeared and I believe that this global civilization will be the last. Humanity will disappear. All species are dying out in the evolution. Some other lifeform will take over, flies, perhaps, or cockroaches. They have high resistance to radioactive radiation.

This is indeed a dark view of the future but it's not an unlikely view, not at all.

Can you see any light from anywhere? Yes, small groups of people are protesting here and there but they have no political power. Those who have the power are not interested in solving social or environmental problems. They don't want to end the wars. They thrive from war and arms sales.

But they give beautiful speeches and the masses admire them.There is no hope for humankind. The only way to cope is to seek refuge in La La Land.

You blockhead

Stop whining!
Life sucks and then we die.
Yes, this is how it works.
Oh, poor, poor me.
Jesus Christ! Will you never wake up?

Thoughts

Where are the thoughts coming from? From the brain, of course. Ok, but how do they get in there?

You didn't learn how to talk by yourself. You didn't invent the words; you learned them from people around you.

So, first you have to learn how to talk. As a four year old, you could probably talk quite well. Most likely you were talking too much and people around you told you, or begged you, to shut up, at least while you were eating. Maybe they told you that all your questions were driving them crazy.

Ever since then you have been talking, constantly, asking questions, coming up with answers, inventing stories and explanations. And if you don't happen to have anyone to talk to, you talk to yourself, in your fantasy, in your head.

Then, in school, they taught you how to read and write and about proper thinking. And from friends and peers, books and films, you learned how to think in improper ways.

My point is, what is going on in your head has its origins, not from you but from outside of you.

In any case, when a thought pops up in your head, where does it come from? Do you invent it? No, thoughts just come, don't they? From out of the blue.

Somehow, the electrochemical activity in your brain create questions and explanations from the words you have learned. You are like a saxophonist who has learned a number of notes and a number of melodies, and then, at some point, begin to invent his or her own melodies?

Imagine that you could see the electrochemical activities in your brain, enlarged on a computer screen. What would you see? Actors, like holographic images? Would you hear voices?

Imagine that you could follow exactly how the thoughts were formed.

I have absolutely no idea of why I write this. And, is it really me who is writing? If so, what is this I really made of?

The idea that you are alone in there, inside your head, in your brain, is ridiculous.

Hardwired ideas

It's usually pointless to discuss life with a jehovah's witness, or a mormon, or a salafist muslim. They already have it all figured out. They know it all. They are deaf to what you are saying. The same goes for Donald Trump supporters, neoliberals, hard line socialists, materialists, idealists, nihilists, go getters...

It's very difficult to change ideas, beliefs and opinions. We are very reluctant to change our ways. We get hardwired. We get stuck in ruts.

It's very difficult to change the mind - but it is possible. Sometimes religious people leave their religious cult and sometimes people even change their political views. Alcoholics can stop drinking and some careerists can suddenly leave the rat race. Strangely enough, after a big change, it seems just natural.

The process often begins with feelings of unease, doubt and questioning. Which implies that unease and doubt sometimes are useful and wholesome, and should not be treated as symptoms of something that is wrong and should be medicated. And a questioning mind can sometimes be very helpful.

The transcendental reality

Dogs can hear sounds we can't hear and perceive scents we can't perceive. Butterflies and bees can see colours we can't see.

Our eminent scientists have constructed powerful instruments that enhance our senses enormously. However, the main part of the reality is still unknown to us. We call that unknown part of the reality the transcendental reality.

The transcendental reality is of course a mystery to us, and because we do not know anything about it we have to resort to fantasies. We create amazing fantasies about multiple universes, vibrating strings, a reality with no colors, no sounds and no scents; or realms were gods, angels and spiritual beings reside.

Many people are deeply convinced that they know what is going on in the transcendental world. But there is no consensus. In fact, different groups are seriously at loggerheads with each other because of their different beliefs, and followers of different religions or different religious groups can even start killing each other in order to to prove their point. Sometimes, they declare war to fight lies and heresies.