SOME FALSE BELIEFS - OR MENTAL DISEASES

This title is a bit misleading. It should be called: Beliefs that I consider to be dead wrong. And that I have heard being said by - let’s call them: alternative - people

Nothing is real.
This is a favorite with people who want to seem deep to themselves and to others. Look how courageous and open-minded I am! Are you courageous and open-minded enough to follow me into this wild and open country?
If nothing is real, the person who is saying this is also not real, so who cares?
The right take is that whatever we experience, is less than what is out there. Or, when we are introspective, whatever we experience about ourselves, is less than what is in there. Our perceptions and our thoughts are limited - and they may be twisted. As there is something like fantasy. There is often unreality in our assumptions, our expectations and even in our perceptions.
Real is what makes a difference. A nice saying, rather practical, but too glib. Canopus is a real star, but does it make any difference? Not to the stock market, not to my love life. Difference to whom? In what?
Anyway, you don’t want that a brain surgeon, operating on you, believes that nothing is real. Cutting at the wrong place may make a difference. Unless life and death aren’t real either. And what about pain? Some maintain that it is also an illusion.

Nothing really matters.
What matters or not depends on whom we are talking about. And matter or not matter for what? The weather in Siberia doesn’t matter. Not to me, as I am not there and I have no family or friends there, no business interests, no plans.
X is important to A in regard to Y. If you don’t specify who and what, the question of what matters is gloriously empty. Importance or lack of importance doesn’t exist. It doesn’t grow on trees. Something may or nor be important for someone, in some respect. For survival, for example. Or health. Or success. Or happiness. Everything is important. Also an empty slogan by empty minds.

Definite causes have definite effects.
A causes B. So if we encounter B, there must have been A. Speeding leads to more road accidents. Pretty true. But there are many factors involved here. The state of the roads, the state of the speeding vehicle, the mental and physical state of the driver, the weather, the time of day or night. The presence or absence of other traffic, of people, of animals even. According to some, the positions of the planets - and the natal horoscope of the driver.
A causes B, all other conditions identical. But conditions are never identical. A causes B may be a correct and useful statement, as long as we don’t forget that is dependent on conditions. And as our knowledge is limited, we are never 100% sure. To be 100% sure in general is a mental aberration.
Sometimes we may get close. Which is good enough. But never forget: there are conditions.

Scientific facts are more important than direct experience.
Especially in the social sciences this is a widespread idea. People are amateurs when it comes to evaluate human situations and human behavior. That is true. Unfortunately, what social scientists call facts are the conclusions of research that is always partial and always on limited samples that are never completely representative. Facts that are established by research should be taken seriously, but not as gospel.

Direct experience is more important than scientific facts.
Alas, the opposite is also flimsy. Our personal experiences are valuable, our personal conclusions may be right, but not necessarily. Chances for misreading the so-called facts of experience are legio. The more experience we have, the larger the chance that we read right. But experienced people may make grave mistakes also. Clear-mindedness and especially open-mindedness are essential to increase the chance that our perceptions and evaluations are right - and useful. Only people low on uncertainty avoidance can stay open-minded.

There are parallel worlds.
There aren’t, at least no worlds that don’t interact. The assumption seems that our mind can somehow enter parallel worlds. That may be true, but that implies an interaction. If there is a truly parallel world, its existence is meaningless for this universe. There is no way to know and there is no possible interest in this empty assumption.

Time doesn’t exist.
Or, only slightly less idiotic, time is circular. Well it isn’t. There is always before and after. And there is the idea that time is relative. Okay, relative to what? Time measurement of course is relative to place and speed (speed itself is relative to places). ‘Time is the fourth dimension.’ Well it isn’t, it is no dimension at all. It is a vector.  In a dimension you can return to a place of departure, in time you can’t.
And there is of course the notion popular in stories, especially in movies, of time travel. The only time travel that exists is the kind all of us do, every moment of our life. We can’t travel to the past, we can’t travel to the future. Also not in the future. We can remember, we can visit recordings of the past. And we may visit plans and projections, scenarios, expectations. Mentally, we may both dwell in the past and in the future.
There may be some precognition. We can see the tree in the sapling. But not all saplings grow into trees. Leave time travel to SF and Ground Hog Day.  Let’s not spend more time on this.