Only a stock market crash can save us

Ordinary folks across the world want cheap gas for their cars. We do not care if the planet becomes uninhabitable in fifty or a hundred years. We live here and now. Huge protests arise, both here and in poor countries if prices on gasoline are increased too much.

Only a tiny minority wants to limit their consumption and save energy. The overwhelming majority wants more of everything and as cheaply as possible. Farmers in Brazil and Indonesia will not stop clearing rain forests. They want to raise cattle or grow oil palms. Chinese and Indians will not stop burning coal. They need cheap energy.

Therefore it is totally unrealistic to expect a climate agreement in Paris which leads to a temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius. Politicians can negotiate till the cows come home; the great majority does not give a damn about their solemn speeches and declarations. The only hope for humanity is a huge stock market crash; that the current economic system collapses.

Human true nature

Selfish people usually come to the conclusion that human beings are 

selfish by nature. They see selfishness and greed everywhere.
It is normal to be selfish, they say. They believe that friendliness,
helpfulness and love are nothing but covers, a means to a selfish end.

People who are not completely selfish often think that a human being 

is a mixture of good and bad. They feel that they have a little devil
sitting on the left shoulder, whispering in the left ear, and a little angel
sitting on the right shoulder.

Ordinary decent men can be transformed into monsters when they are sent to war
and hardened criminals can repent and change their ways when they find Jesus.

Rabbits are fearful and lions are lazy but what are we made of, really?

Some people believe that human beings, deep down somewhere,
have a true, unconditioned nature, an essence, others believe that we don't.
They believe that we are in constant flux; that nothing in nature is unchanging.

I have no idea about these things. How would I know?
What is your take? What do you think?

Where did you get your beliefs from? Have you listened to a bunch of windbags
on YouTube and made their beliefs your own?  How do you explain that different
teachers have arrived at different conclusions?
Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and atheist teachers produce different explanations?
Why is that so? Have some of them misunderstood something?
What kind of people do you trust, and why?

Who are you?

You have a nationality. You belong to a group or a tribe.
You are a leftist or a rightist, a protestant, a Hindu, a something.
You have a professional role. You have an identity.You are a clown or a crook.
You are a looser or a smart ass. You are an actor in in a play, or in different plays.

However, your character is not You.
You are not Hamlet or Ophelia when you are alone in your bed.
You are not the good girl or the bad boy in the bathtub by yourself.
Who are you, really, when you're alone with yourself;
just sitting here, or lying here, reading this?
Who are you when you are not acting? Who are you, really?

Simply human

Religion is not just about beautiful words and rituals, community
and marvelous buildings. Religions have throughout history
also caused much anguish and sorrow: war, oppression of women and children,
witch-hunts and persecution.

Many political ideologies are similar to religions. 
It is possible to condemn atrocities that have been carried out by Nazis 
or communists, but it is not OK to say that Protestants, Catholics and Hindus
have caused immeasurable suffering in the world.

For the time being, it is Islam that causes the most problems. 

In Syria, Iraq and Yemen there is a war between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

In Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya and many other countries, 

deeply devoted muslims are fighting terrible wars,
obsessed with the dream of establishing Islamist regimes
similar to that in Saudi Arabia.

In the seventeenth century, Catholics and Protestants fought
for thirty years here in Europe. But the conflict did not end with
the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The bitter conflict lived on.

The crusades, the genocides of indigenous peoples in the colonies
and slavery in the American south are other examples of atrocities
committed by pious Christians. 

The conflict between Jews and Palestinians is also a religious conflict. 

It is obvious that religious beliefs and labels can cause unspeakable suffering.

I think that we who are not religious, and who are not possessed
by any political ideology must be clearer that there is an alternative.
Perhaps this could be helpful for those who want to defect.
It is possible to live a good life without being a follower of any particular doctrine. 

It is possible to simply be human.

You don't have to be a Christian, a Muslim or a Hindu.
You don't have to be an atheist.

You don't have to be a neoconservative, a libertarian or a liberal,

a communist, a socialist, an environmentalist…

You can simply be a human being.

If you insist to cling to your particular religion or political doctrine,
if you can't give it up, then you must, at least, accept the idea of a
pluralistic, secular society and stop complaining about other peoples crazy ideas,
If you can't even do this, then you are a part of the madness.
Then you are fooled, bewitched, mesmerized.

Postulates

Your heart is just a pump, your eyes are just camera lenses
and your ears are just ordinary microphones. 

Your brain is a computer and your mind is the software.

Your body is simply a machine, a robot,
organs and limbs assembled by the biological evolution.

These organs and limbs are made of atoms, mainly carbon, oxygen,
hydrogen and nitrogen. At a more fundamental level,
all these atoms are made of elementary particles.  

Your consciousness, your sense of I, is created in your brain. 

When you are anaesthetized before an operation your sense of I disappear.
You're gone. When you die, you're gone forever.

You are not a mystery. You are nothing but a machine.
To be alive is not a miracle. Modern science has it all figured out, practically.
Mystical experiences can easily be explained by modern neuroscientists.
A mystical experience is simply a hallucination, a delusion.

You have to be realistic, otherwise you'll go under like a ship in a storm

You have to have money. Someone has to bring home the bacon.

If a religion or spiritual belief system makes you feel less anxious,
or if it´s helpful to you in some other way, fine. Go for it.
But first you have to make sure that there is food in the fridge
so that your kids don't have to starve.

However, then what?
You have food in the fridge and a roof over your head, safe and warm,
with a nice family and friends. This is not enough. You need something more.
You need more money, more friends and more sex partners.
This is what life is all about.

If you have a million dollars, try to get a billion.
If  you have a billion, try to get ten billions.
If you don't want to come across as too greedy,
you can always get involved in some charity work or start to collect art.
Be realistic. Nothing but money counts, really.

Scientific and religious speculations

Maybe this universe is just one universe
among billions and billions of other universes. So what!
What difference does this idea make to you, in your daily life?

Maybe some part of me lives on after death, maybe angels and spirits really exist; maybe there is a God somewhere, or a bunch of gods. I couldn't care less.
I have much more urgent questions to deal with.

Thoughts

The sense of self, the observer of thoughts that pop up,

is also created in the brain, I believe.

The whole world is created in our brains.
Your eyes detect certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
The optic nerves transport this information to your visual center.
There it is processed and an image is formed.
Sounds that you hear are created in your auditory center.
Smells are sensed by neurons in your olfactory center.
What you perceive as the reality
is simply electrochemical activity in your brain cells.
The 'here-and-now' experience is not the real reality,
it is just a fraction of it.
And, as I said, also the perceiver is electrochemical activity in brain cells.

Before life emerged, the universe consisted of practically nothing,

empty space with a few quarks and electrons here and there,

radiation, strange energies, electromagnetic fields and vibrating strings.

In the distant future, when life on earth has disappeared,

the material world, the reality as we knew it, will also be gone.

The party will be over.

Well, perhaps other life forms will develop in other parts of the universe.

Or, perhaps there are other life forms, right now, on other planets
that also create realities and hard facts. Who knows.

Anyway,
the brain is not some kind of receiver that picks up cosmic consciousness,

I believe.

The sense of self, the I, is gone at night

or when I am put to sleep before an operation.

Of course it is possible that the brain really is some kind of receiver
of cosmic consciousness signals. Maybe it is simply turned off at night,
much like when we turn off the TV-set when we are going to bed,
but I don't believe this is the case.
How would I know anything about these things? No one knows.

My mind, as well as your mind, is filled with beliefs, ideas and assumptions.

However, sometimes I manage to remind myself

that my assumptions, ideas and beliefs are just thoughts

that are created in my language center.