Many people struggle with some things because they do not fit in with their mindset of the religious/social/political set they have chosen to adhere to.
a. We die and that’s it.
There is no afterlife, no meeting up with relatives, no infinite life in paradise/heaven/ambrosia/valhalla or any of the other scenarios we have created. We experience a loss of consciousness every night. Death is when we don’t wake up from it.
b. The earth is warming and this will have catastrophic effects of civilisation and wildlife.
Whatever Trump might wish in his desire to make money out of old polluting technologies and to win votes from disillusioned voters left on the rubbish heap by history, global warming is real and the world is in grave danger. The greenhouse effect is real but we do have the technology to put things right – we just lack the will.
c. Human beings are flawed and dangerous.
We seem to have a great love of violence and our lives are ruled by selfish greed, a battle for status and power and love of inflicting pain. Any really intelligent species would run the world a lot better. There would be no war, poverty, pollution of environmental disaster. History clearly shows that we have a genetic flaw. We have always made a mess of things. We elect psychopaths to lead us and are led by fear, hate and revenge.
We are nuts. We are destroying the very thing we depend on to live.
d. Evolution is real.
The human body is far from perfect and obviously not designed (unless by an inept and malicious designer eg.:
One opening into the lungs connected to the digestive tract so we choke easy (evolved from a swim bladder)
Excretory, reproductive and egestory opening in the same place so that our reproductive system is tainted with urine and faeces (evolved from a common cloaca)
Brain stuck out on a flimsy vulnerable neck prone to breaking resulting in paralysis (result of evolutionary cephalisation)
Joints and spine not adapted to walking upright hence they wear out and we end up we slipped discs, spinal problems and the need for new hips and knees (evolved from apes who moved more like chimps – on all fours)
I could go on with a long list of ‘design’ faults! Evolution is a bit arbitrary. We function imperfectly but we function. The faults extend to cellular and molecular anomalies – genetic defects, cancers and various disease – all of which all faults.
d. Science knows much more than religion.
Religion was born out of superstition. Science is born out of investigation, observation and testing of results. Science can be replicated and is based on the verifiable. Religion is a mixture of wishful thinking and guesswork.
e. The earth is not flat. We did land on the moon. The Nazis were ultra right-wing. The genocide of 6 million Jews did happen. The CIA did not blow up the Twin Towers. The Russians are interfering with Western elections. Covid vaccinations only have a small risk. Vaccinations have transformed our survival rates for numerous diseases with very little risk. Immigrants are not all rapists, murderers and drug dealers. These are all conspiracy theories.
f. The election was not stolen from Trump. The counting of the legitimate postal votes came late after the other counts and were predominantly Biden votes. The Republicans had dissuaded their voters from using postal votes.
g. Gun ownership does not make anybody safer. It merely arms criminals, psychopaths, political/religious extremists and those who are mentally/emotionally unstable. The statistics show how crazy it is.
h. The American constitution was written hundreds of years ago and really is no suited to modern-day civilisation.
i. Populist politicians like Trump, Johnson, Oban, Erdogan……….. spread lies about immigrants, election fraud, trans people, in order to spread hate and fear and drum up support. It’s an age-old tactic. Their simplistic, draconian policies do not solve problems but are geared to pull the triggers for emotional responses.