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 affordable gas for our cars, inexpensive clothes, and affordable utility bills. India, China, and Indonesia plan to build hundreds of new coal-fired power plants. They need a lot of cheap electricity because the West has moved its factories to them. 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 must defend ourselves against 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. 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.