B: Belief in an afterlife, religious hosus-pocus, the second of the four horsemen of our self-inflicted Apocalipse, is powered by fear. The curse of forethought leads most of us to the conclusion that, like all forms, we are mortal. The subjugation of this existential fear, by 'whatever works' as Woody Allen says, is the foundation that every religious edifice is built on.Once an individual, group or culture come up with a story/mythology to aussage the existential fear question everything has to fit in that jar, no matter what. The grand illusion of our shared reality is that we think 'seeing is believing' but really it's the opposite. Once you really believe something to be true, all seeing, every fact, every bit of evidence encountered will corroborate it. We see the world and everything in it through the filter our belief system. Beliefs come first, experience second.
For centuries my European ancestors lived in a world where no thought that contradicted the church's dogma was allowed, where people were condemned to hell for looking in a mirror, and it was a death sentence for believing that the earth wasn't at the center of the universe. Everyone is vulnerable to being blinded by a belief system.
Today the flora, fauna, microbes, minerals, forces, fairies and Gaia herself are under siege by our desire for more, the delusion of endless growth and the divorce of our modern religious beliefs from our pagan roots. Belief in an Easter Bunny like god is just self delusion and by itself is harmless enough, but...all this matters. we are all in this together.
Climate Change is a good example of how our way of seeing events through the veil of our beliefs determine our opinions. Some deny human caused climate change, often they believe they have dominion over all 'others'. They see everthing as a gift from the creator for their use, they believe the story that they, the real believers, are on a higher plane and separate from the mud. Any deviation from their mental model of reality would allow all deviations to be possible including it being bullshit about their entitlement and their 'special' relationship with the big cheese.
" Stop believing in anything and you may find that which is truth itself." - Krishnamurti
