The Real World Out There

The RWOT is where we go to test our scientific theories to see if they are true.
Does the RWOT really exist (independently from us)?
Do we continuously modify it?
Does it depend on the stories we tell about it?
Does it modify us?
Do we modify it?
Perhaps the idea of the RWOT came after the invention of windows? (No not the Microsoft one!)

Who created God?

It is my belief that we created the idea of God, just as we have created other useful concepts like Energy, Matter, Time and Space.
Is it possible that we created God AND God created us?

What is the universe made of?

The universe is made of events and stories.

What beliefs matter?

Some beliefs affect our individual lives and the way we live them, the decisions we take and the goals we set for ourselves. Other beliefs though they seem at first to be fundamental, don't make two hoots of difference to our behavior.
Some beliefs which matter 
The power of prayer, destiny, The existence of Good and Evil forces, Heaven and/or Hell, Karma, A belief in the Divine Right of a ruler, belief in an interventionist God, magic, that you are invulnerable, patriotism, that one race or group is superior/inferior to another, that mankind is basically good/evil, greed is good/bad, we should follow a set of divine rules.
Some beliefs which don't make any difference
Cosmology, the laws of Physics, evolution, determinism, that God created/did not create the universe, that a non-interventionist God does/does not exist, that we have an immortal soul but we don't remember anything of our past life.

"But the Solar System" I protested.
"What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently, "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would make not a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work".
A Study in Scarlet - Mr Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Duration and size

This graph plots Duration (the length of time for which something lasts) against its size (Volume). The axes are both approximate logarithmic scales (with a few gaps so I could squeeze everything in). The arrows show how some things change in size over their lifetime. I could not think of many things which get smaller, but put in the polar ice caps as an example.

Determinism and fatalism

Determinism is the belief that every event in the universe is caused by previous events and so all outcomes are inevitable and (theoretically) predictable. In other words the present state of all the particles in the universe is the inevitable consequence of its initial state (the big bang). This would seem at first to annihilate the idea of 'free will', since whenever we 'seem to make a decision', in fact the outcome was inevitable. But in what way is 'seeming to make a decision' any different from actually making a decision?
Fatalism is the belief that some events are pre-determined. For example the bullet or lottery ticket 'has your name on it' - whatever you do you can't avoid the Finger of Fate. Many stories  (e.g. Macbeth, Oedipus) explore this assumption. The doctrine of Karma is a variation of this where a cosmic balance sheet is kept which subtly adjusts fate to influence future outcomes.

The last drug

Research for a cure for dementia produces a drug which miraculously rejuvenates the nervous system. But only for a day. You experience a day of bliss - then you die.
Available on the black market, the drug kills old and young in large numbers.