Idea: Preview

Relevance:     Universal
Nature of Reality; Human capacity for understanding reality; Mechanics of reality; Ethics; Rights; Trust in politics
     
Section 1.
Reality is a fundamentally mysterious duality between the realm of [subjective] experience (aka consciousness) and the realm of physics (time, space, matter, and energy). It seems that we will never learn which is “most real” because the realm of experience appears to be generated by the realm of physics while the realm of physics is dependent on and/or can be reduced to experience. The two are inextricably interdependent on one another, like “two sides of the same coin”.

Section 2.
The concept of God as a person and creator of the universe is the product of the not yet fully understood potential of language to create misleading concepts (unwittingly self-deceptive fiction) and the selfish desire to be favored by a universe that is dedicated to making us happy. Instead, God is most sensibly interpreted simply as existence as a whole, one that is indifferent to our subjective happiness or suffering.  Subsequently, the question “does God exist?” is pointless and does not deserve to be answered or even considered. All we can say meaningfully is “God is existence” or “God is.”  
     Furthermore, any inquiry into the nature of existence should be aimed primarily at how our subjective existence plays a part in the grand scheme of existence, and it should be performed through self-reflection and self-exploration, such as meditation.  It is our own existence that is much less certain than the existence of God.

Section 3.
Freewill is an illusion. Humans, like all other animals, are subjectively experiencing biological machines. We are controlled by our desires, and our desires can only be controlled by our other desires. The complexity of the interaction among our desires gives us the illusion that we are somehow in control.

Section 4.
The idea of morality—i.e. the idea of ethically right or wrong actions—is nonsense. Ethics is a matter of conflicts of interests, and the question of which actions are ethically acceptable or unacceptable is decided by the interests of a particular group. This, in turn, is a product of the psychological sophistication of the members of a particular group (human or other) and the environmental and economic circumstances in which they find themselves.
     As such, there are four main motives for a group to create ethical standards of acceptable conduct. The most primitive of these is the practical dynamics of reciprocity. The next motive is emotional, specifically the sense of empathy and the experience of commiseration with others. The third motive is also emotional, specifically the sense of community with other members of the group. Fourth and last motive is the desire for understanding, including intellectual consistency.
     Besides the self-evident ways in which the first three motives function to establish a system of ethics, there is also the less obvious motive of understanding. In order to appease this motive, we create various arguments to explain the relationship of oneself to other persons within  our reality. The claim of morality—ultimately supported by nothing but belief—is one example of such an argument. However, the most compelling argument is as follows:
     “No conscious life is more or less ‘objectively significant’ than another because no conscious life has any ‘objective significance’. This is because the idea of ‘objective significance’ is nonsense. All significance is subjective. Anyone who acts with the idea that one conscious life is more or less ‘objectively significant’ than another is acting irrationally. But, of course, it is not unreasonable and perfectly normal for persons to have subjective biases regarding certain persons.”

Section 5.
The idea of inherent rights is nonsense; rights can only be granted by one person to another.  In other words, a right is granted when a person guarantees to not take action against another when the other person performs a certain action. People might have differing opinions about which specific rights they are willing to grant to others, but we tend to have a general agreement for most practical purposes. Based on this general agreement, we are able to build a stable society.

Section 6.          
When electing officials to positions entrusted with administrative power in a society, the society is best served by electing people whose desire for intellectual consistency is greater than their selfish interests and biases favoring specific persons.
Approval Rating
Egora, “The Worldwide Stock-Market of Ideas”, enables everyone to
– develop their own political philosophy out of various ideas,
– determine which ideas are most strongly supported by the people, and
– find the true representatives of the public will, to elect them into public office.