A pause to explore

I am having a pause in posting the blog as I am reading two books.  The Koran ( English translation) and 'God is not Great' by Christopher Hitchings. More than a casual reading.

Attribute of God ..2

 “stars re-aligning to spell “I am God” in the sky....

When I immediately moved from the subjective conversion experience based on a few verses of the bible, I need to find the anchor of belief. It must be more concrete that the vague experiences people shared, more precise than the denominational idiosyncrasies and more timeless than the current published books. It must be relevant to my daily life and diverse enough to cover challenges I faces. There is a need of my philosophical test of the existence of an intelligent creator. If there is such a God, He must speak out!

To me He did! He inspired and coordinated the Bible. Below are some of the facts about the bible, that when pulled together showed evidence of divine intervention.

1. The sixty six books that complied together made the bible were written over 1600 years. Not a coordinated effort of one or two life span.

2. Written by over 40 different authors from varied walks of life. This includes kings, peasants, philosophers, fisherman, poets, statesman, doctor, tax collector and scholars (and a few more).

3. Written in different places (Asia, Africa and Europe) and circumstances.  Moses in the wilderness, Jeremiah in the dungeon, Daniel on the hillside and in the palace, Paul inside the prison walls and John in the island of Patmos.

4. It was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

5. “ The writings include a great variety of literary types. They include history, law (civil, criminal, ethical, ritual, sanitary), religious poetry, didactic treatises, lyric poetry, parable and allegory, biography, personal correspondence, personal memoirs and diaries, in additional to the distinctively Biblical types of prophecy and apocalyptic.

For all that, the Bible is not simply an anthology; there is unity which binds the whole together. An anthology is compiled by an anthologist, but no anthologist compiled the Bible.” FF Bruce

Biblical authors spoke on hundreds of controversial subjects with harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation. There is one unfolding story: “God’s redemption of man”.

To me God did spoke out. He did it in black and white. That’s anchoring. 

Attribute of God ..1

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not seek or conjecture either of them as if they were veiled obscurities or extravagances beyond the horizon of my vision; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence." 
" 
— Immanuel Kant

  

As I reflect on why I came to believe in Jesus Christ as a teenager, I had to struggle not to superimpose with the sophistication of my present thinking as an adult. This will not capture the truthfulness of that crucial moment by giving reasons and justifications for my decision when they were not there at the point of belief. Although these I later found it to affirms that the experience was valid and resonates with the study of the Bible. In that crucial moment, what I needed to know to believe was there, and all that I knew at that moment need not be corrected.

Two significant strands (attribute of God) of thought impacted me.

The Holiness (as regards to moral purity) of God.  Rather than rejecting this to stamp a wanting to be fully autonomous, not having to contend with a moral requirement (that I failed), I find this truth to be a solace in an uncertain cruel world. This cruel world I find even within myself, and how I hurt others externally. I may not be the worst moral failure, but to me I am. As the Bible put it ‘all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God”, I am that.

The second strand is “God is love”, and in His plan He provides a way for reconciliation, of forgiveness through the suffering, death and resurrection of the historical incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. It was not the theology of the event, but an act that define the extent of God’s love and charity to even me who am undeserving.  

I responded to this love in thankfulness.

Ps

Can I suggest you also consider this presentation by a Nobel Prize winner

Francis Collins
California Institute of Technology
5 February 2009

Why do we have a moral law within us? Francis Collins, renowned scientist, director of the National Institute of Health, and former director of the Human Genome Project, explains how this puzzle impacted his journey to faith. From The Veritas Forum at Caltech, 2009.

By going to www.veritas.org and create an account(free) for yourself. 

Certainty of Science part 2

God or leprechauns..we could never be certain they don’t exists. Science cannot disprove their existence. But the implication of the possible existence of God is weightier. In my observation, it comes out in the academic world in debates and thesis, not counting the amount of books written.  ‘...eternity had been set into our heart’ (the Bible Ecclesiastes 3:11), and it gnaw into our private thought. We can choose to position ourselves to reject it, but we just cannot dismiss it. It does come back again and again.

We can try to drown this thought by structuring our lives with seemly more urgent issues and concerns of the present. It will still creep in.

We try to claim of having intellectual integrity by not accepting what we cannot manipulate or replicate in the laboratory. Then we have a long list of other important things that we had accepted as real to reject. We even have to contradict the philosophy of science that we hope will support our claims. So much for intellectual integrity!

What we perhaps can only claim is the selfish lack of revelation by the transcendence. If IT would not show up, don’t expect me to conclude.

Before that we should explore and test the claims of revelations in the belief systems that exist.  We need to define even the concept of ‘revelation’.

Certainty and science

A scientific theory is empirical, and is always open to falsification if new evidence is presented. That is, no theory is ever considered strictly certain as science accepts the concept of fallibilism. The philosopher of science Karl Popper sharply distinguishes truth from certainty. He writes that scientific knowledge "consists in the search for truth", but it "is not the search for certainty ... All human knowledge is fallible and therefore uncertain."^[38]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science#History_and_etymology‘

Gravity existed in the most elegant form even before Newton’s postulation. Actually Leonardo’s experiment of dropping weights from the tower of Pisa predates Newton. But up to now, the wisest of the scientists cannot answer his/her own question, ‘What actually is it?’.

Are we alone or are there aliens in other planets? In order to prove conclusively that there are none, extensive searches through every nooks and corner of the universe have to be made. Such thoroughness is required.

In engineering we used the knowledge known through science within the limit of perceived reality. You cannot ask the most accurate laser cutter to produce dimensions with zero tolerance, but within the tolerance the product can be useful.

The above are truth statements. How much authority do we now give to scientific claims? Engineering pimped science by churning out fascinating toys, but it is a discipline that recognizes its limit and would be paralyzed if absolute are demanded.

Science has not being able to measure and test the substance of a transcendence being..yet. It maybe because of its own evolution of skill or it maybe it is out of the range of thoroughness. It cannot say that the transcendence being only starts to exist when science can detect it.

Davids and the Goliath

She was rich, sophisticated, and intelligent. Coming from an ultra modern city when she married to the local dentist, she was our school senior science teacher. Her passion and leadership helped our local school win the country’s science project many times. Being the movers and shakers of the town, she helped and inspired many of the students to achieve educational and career significant. If I were to as for one person of whom I will model as a good teacher, she is it.

There is only one indiscretion she had. She loves to run down Christianity in her classroom and Christians loudly in the staff room. I never found out why. Maybe as a biology teacher she has to hold on the evolutionary theory to that extent.

He is retarded. This may be due to the trauma at birth. I later found him to be gentle, friendly and always look at you with vulnerable eyes. I remembered when walking back from watching his favourite sport of football, where he named the players in the team, he asked me ‘who won the game?’. He was her sixteen years old child.

They were a bunch of youth, from fourteen to sixteen years. From just three of them, I and two others, managed to grow the group to about twenty. Other than the first three, the rest did not have any church background, and most came from incomplete or broken homes. Although there were engaging funs activities like picnics and games, the main regular activity was bible study and worship. They seem to enjoy the meeting and keep up to regular attendance. When the group was going past twenty, concerned about the dilution of care to each of them, I whispered a prayer that the group will not grow any larger.

Through another friend, she asked for her son to join this group of youth. She had tried with her influence and resources to fit him to many groups. Somehow he always came back with a sense of being rejected.

Happy with just my small corner of service, I was thinking of how to politely say no to the request. Anyway isn’t a more specialised skill is required to handle a retarded child? When I shared about the request to this bunch of youth, almost in unison they said, “Let him come, and we will take care of him.’  That was how he came to join this group. When I saw how the group really took care of him and helped him, I was both ashamed of my initial selfish reluctance, and proud of how far these youth came through. When he participated in the study discussion and contributed inadequately, he was not laughed at but was listened patiently by the youth. When they go out to play, he was included in the game and not blamed losing the team. I must remind myself that these a bunch of kids who are in their private world quite challenged as compared to his privileged home. Learning about the love of Jesus over the past six months had transformed them.  I remembered my transformation was nearly the same. Jesus’ love changes lives.

She was promoted to be the principle of the school. She never confessed to have changed her mind as to the Christian’s claim of belief, when she passed on due to cancer. But six months after observing how her son was well and respectfully treated by this bunch of church youth, not only she stopped castigating the Christian, but openly praised the Christianity, as represented by this group of youth, in the staff room. Since then the burning of Christians was off the menu in the staff room.

Half and half a baby does not make one

In the dispute of the parentage of a baby between two mothers in Solomon’s court, the real mother denied her right of claim to stop the sword dividing the baby into two equal shares as settlement. Two half baby do not make one.

There are some important questions that we struggle with because it has implication to our outlook, conduct and wellbeing. I think the four are about origin, ethics, meaning and destiny and these questions need answers that unites them as a whole without compromising the integrity of each. Although each of them is already a tough challenge, we have to raise the stake otherwise we won’t be satisfied (‘two half of the baby does not make a whole’).

Charles Darwin at the end of his life saw the implication of the theory he proposed. He knew that once we go for an impersonal origin, we also change our outlook on ethics. This linking was also prophesized by Friedrich Nietzsche stating the 20^th century would be the bloodiest once he buried God. In the book Freedom Paradox, Clive Hamilton links ethics and meaning, and found that if meaning was about enjoyment without the boundary of ethics, it is disastrous. (“Sex out-side the bound of committed relationship is not just tagged as a moral mischief but harmful’). He did not write from a religious platform as found in the later chapters of the book.

 The suggestion of answers to each of the question has implications to the other answers. It is a high standard we must set, because only then we can have satisfaction. 

What is convincing ….to me

I was asked the basis on my confidence of my belief. In a nutshell, I like to relate this in three parts; the initiation, the maintenance and the testing.

Before I was introduced to the belief, I was a troubled youth. I hurt and disappointed my parents in my violent ways, stealing, cheating and gambling. Within me, the guilt and the despair of hurting the very people I love and who loves me. That had not been enough to turn me around.

When I was introduced to the teaching of God’s love and forgiveness through the bible in one particular instance, I responded. Although there was a fair bit of emotion at that moment, the greater joy was a year later when my parents remarked that they saw a total change in me after I started going to church. They did not know the conversion incidence. It was the joy of seeing the joy in my parent.  They even started to direct troubled kids to get help from me.

After this, the reading and study of the bible had been a constant part of my life. That is what can be seen from the outside. On the inside, I become more convinced of the reality of a living God who is active in my life (see blog about the accident). Although many people and Sunday’s sermon had helped, it was the authority of the Bible that these are measured against. I pegged my belief not on people or the churches, but the Bible. That was a journey of about forty years. The troubled youth had so far got a degree in engineering, a master of science, married and with children.

Since the last twenty years (and still doing), I had ventured out to explore other beliefs systems. It cannot be said to be comprehensive. Most people only hold lip service to a belief system, and there are many systems of beliefs. I read about their belief from their literature, and appreciated the honest interactions with some who valued their belief to go beyond superficialities. In this limited study, I analyze each belief’s answer (view) to the four questions of origin, ethics, meaning of life and destiny. I was willing to give each a best shot to the answer. I have found in this journey (so far), the bible had been the best to give a reasonable answer to each and that it also knitted them together as coherence whole.

Each of the above can be taken apart and be explained away with counter perspectives by some cleverness.  It is really personal, and only referenced to me. But for me, in parts and as a whole, it is real and convincing.

Irrational's comment on Pascal's wager...number 4

"What if the Islamic God does indeed exist, and all kuffar (including Christians) will be banished to hell for not accepting Mohammed as His prophet?"


All the monotheistic faith make such claim. The Christian included. 


We have to study the rest of the claims with some critical thinking. The Christian faith has a robust tradition in looking inwardly critically. The Christian is encouraged to do so. 

Irrational's comment on Pascal's wager...number 3

"How can you be sure if you have placed your bet on the right god? Why not believe in every single god that have ever existed, just in case? Within the context of Pascal's Wager, doesn't it follow that we might as well be polytheistic, to cover all basis?"


Pascal made the wager from the standpoint of belief of the Christian faith. The polytheistic position is logically unattainable, as the fundamental faith statements are fundamentally different, although they may have superficial similarities. For example, the monotheistic standpoint is that you choose that particular God, or you are not with them.


Faith statements have to be fundamental in one choice. When considering a critical mind is helpful. 

Irrational's comment on Pascal's wager...number 1

"Believing in God to obtain some meaning in life or to avoid Hell is merely paying lip service. It is akin to pretending to believe out of fear. Will God not judge on such blatant insincerity and intellectual dishonesty? "


Resounding YES!, the God of the bible abhor (to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly;loathe; abominate) insincerity. Jesus took pain and risk to expose this hypocritical stand. He said "many will come calling him Lord, claiming doing many acts in his name....but he will deny knowing them". Unless the nobility comes from the internal, even the good deeds will be counted as filthy. 


Intellectual dishonesty? To judge that a person who chose to be on the side on holding on a belief of God with such categorical condemnation, one must completely, absolutely know for sure that there is no God. 
When Christopher Hitchens wanted to promote his book "God is not great", he wanted to have it debated. He could not find any other faith except the evangelical Christians, who organized the debate.(http://www.fixed-point.org/templates/theme184/pensees/An%20Unlikely%20Friendship.mp3). And many more such debates, with Peter Singer, Richard Dawkins and others. It is either being utterly stupid for the Christian to do so and continues to fund and organize or that we had found that the argument put on by the best had not being adequate, and we are putting the faith to the test. That is Intellectual Sincerity and Honesty

I have found the foundation of my faith robust, and allows me to consider it critically, as well as trying to see it through the eyes of others.

Pascal's wager

"Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist Blaise Pascal that even if the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a rational person should wager as though God exists, because living life accordingly has everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Pascal formulated his suggestion uniquely on the God of Jesus Christ as implied by the greater context of his Pensées, a posthumously published collection of notes made by Pascal in his last years as he worked on a treatiseon Christian apologetics."  wikipedia


In a simple application to choices 
                                                              God exist                                           God does not exist
 living in belief of God                         1. a meaningful life now                            1. a meaningful life now
                                                       2.  a hope of meaning life after death          2.  no life after death
 living opposing to the belief of God      1. a meaningful life possible                 1. a meaningful life possible
                                                        2. no hope after life                                   2. no life after death

So the correct and safe choice is to live in belief of God, the fate is same (Blue) or better than living opposing to the belief of God. The critical difference of the later is red.


A bit on elaboration on the meaningful life living in the belief of God. Pascal's background is Christian, and a life of joy and charity is fundamental. That is in contrast to the belief that such life with ethical constrain is a deprivation. 

Sex and the bible..a conversation with a Muslim

“You know Andrew, don’t you find the bible a bit of pornographic …” my colleague Zainal asked with an innocent smile over lunch. You must give it to Zainal. He had always pushing the boundaries in conversation, always testing you.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked, putting the ball into his court.

“Well, the bits about so and so slept together..”

“Oh like the bit about Samson and Deliliah?”

“Yes, and so how can the bible be termed as a holy book”. It may be from his Muslim background that a holy book must be a sanitized from any descriptions of ‘evil’.

“You know Zainal, sex in the Christian belief is a gift of God. Sex within the bound of a marriage, an intimacy that expresses the commitment of a relationship of love is a gift from God. Of course, we are more acquainted with the abuse of it, a shame and dirtiness that shrouds this precious act. In the media it is an oversold and undervalued commodity. “

“And Zainal, if your father and your mother, my father and my mother did not have sex, you and I will not even be here to discuss this. And you would like to believe that the moment your father and mother came together that conceives you, it was out of the overflowing of love, and not the kind of dirtiness and shame the media want sex to be acquainted with.”

For me Zainal had brought out one aspect of our quest for meaning. I found this in relationship with people, and then the greater quest finally must be in the relationship with God.

Because I value it to be true....

In the comment by Irrational, an important consideration is required as a sieve to ascertain that our observations are not skewed by our bias expectation. The term used is 'confirmation bias'.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
From brand loyalty to alternative medicine, many more in between and even exceeding the range, we confirm a lot of our opinion with choice facts, and very often ignoring contrary facts.
One friend of ours boasted that he refused to take certain medicine for his heart condition and chose to take wheat germ to prove the product he was also marketing. Armed with a lot of attractive brochures he would point out the testimonies of remarkable cures. Sadly, this friend of ours had to drop dead due to a heart failure not long later in a social gathering.
How I admire the love of parents on their child, and even more if their child is disabled. Nothing of what we could put on paper, some equations, list of pro and con or a scrap of justification, could explain the love that turned into a duty of care to such child. This child is still loved, even if you would sympathies with their state of affairs.
World views held with the conviction at a personal level should be tested this way. Some objectivity and with critical thinking should be done  in interpreting observations. It may not be easy to step out from our bias, but we should try to. It must be true because it is and not that because we want it to be true.

Thanks Irrational.

The car accident and the invisible hand

A nasty accident happened to me with my fellow staff in the car. Taking a turn too sharply, and maybe the tires was a little worn, the car skidded, spun and crashed into a wooden fence. A block of timber came through the window, missing our faces by just a couple of inches. The car was damaged, but both of us came out unhurt but a little shaken.

If I turned around and told my staff  “Thank God! See my God had protected us”, he might just give an equally valid remark “If your God had really protected us, there should not even be an accident, with the consequence of a damaged car after all!”

But what if, before I started the journey, I told him of a dream, a premonition of God’s soft prompting that something nasty is going to happen on the journey, but we shall be safe. Than the validity had been taken to another level (let’s call this the second level) ‘.

Such experiences cannot be verified in the lab. It is purely a personal perspective. But to the person who had experienced this and continued to see such things in his life, to him the logic is equivalent to a truth statement. And if he is in the community of like-minded people, who experienced these providences  (especially similar to the second level)and continued to do so from time to time, the reinforcement of an invisible hand of providence is quite hard to shake, even in the face of disbelief by others. I am not limiting this experience to just one distinct community of religion.

The test for me is that both the logic of the truth statements, and the logic of personal experiences must be present. There is a bridging that is required.

There's Probably-No God...reasonable statement?

While we cannot prove the certainty of the existence God, nor with certainty we cannot disprove it. While it can be argued that the God or gods presented in the religious scriptures, or beliefs, whether be it the Hindu, the Muslim, Jewish or Christian beliefs, may not fit into one’s liking or opinion to be adequate or reasonable, the extension does not lead to the conclusion that God does not exist.

Richard Dawking’s sponsoring the message on buses in England that goes like this “There’s Probably – No God” is a reasonable statement, but the categorical statement that “There is No God” is wrong. Of course you would have to take the risk in living the life believing the absence of God. 

Never let me go....I walked out halfway

We use cultural tools, like songs, dances, stories to reflect our worldviews and struggles. I love movies. The whole range of movies from ‘X man’ to ‘Cider House Rules’. But as far as I can remember, this was the first show I walked out half way.

If you haven’t seen the show, the summary is as below.

“As children, Ruth, Kathy and Tommy, spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.”

The haunting reality was that they were reared (a fitting word) to be organ donors, to the point of death. Unlike stories of similar genre (eg Coma), a rebellion or a saviour would rise to right this. In the show, characters seen to resigned to the fate and the society seen to accept this.

My innermost sense of justice, of right and wrong was assaulted. It is not that I can boast of high moral standing or sensitivities, but I found the context too vulgar.  My innermost cries out “People are PEOPLE...not animals !”. But why not? How does your worldview draw a line on this? What reference could you take from what you believe to partition this?

Is God there?....

I think it is appropriate that before we conduct a test on anything, we should first design the test first. This is the basic principle that applies from the laboratory, in engineering right to the court room. So... 

Taking a bit back from the fast track of debating whether God is there or not, let’s just ponder on what the proof that is required to satisfy this.  It does not matter on which side of the fence you sit, I value your comment. If the comment could be brief, it is easier to be understood.

Thank you

IPhone....learning about worldviews

I did had some skills in writing computer programs using stone-age language like BASIC, FOTRAM, Dbase ,Fox and C. Enough to write some entertaining as well as useful business packages. As a logical extension my family expects me to be the forefront of knowing how to use every electronic devices, from coffee machine to IPhone. It is a curse.
Actually I found it easier to learn from another user then from the instruction manual (however idiot proof it was). The pace and efficiency of such learning is helpful.
I have found the comments left by 'Irrational' and Rachel to be very insightful and exhibit rationality. If you are reading my blogs, do go back and read the comments. Irrationals had also given me some areas (exponentially increasing) to reflect on that I hope to attempt to. When I do not comment, I hope to reflect in further blogs. When I do comment, it is not the push to have the last word.
About my views and reflections, I am only claiming as much as 'I see it meaningful to me'.
Thanks for the comments.

Teapot Overturned...teapot part 2

When I was around 8 years old, I was the only one in my class who knows enough of the rules of chess to play. I went about teaching my friends how to play. When I was losing the game, I changed the rule. I cheated.

Russell’s analogy of the teapot, presupposed that a teapot exhibit features with the elegance of design and must be manufactured. It is beyond our human acceptance that such an object can be there unless an agent planted it there. If it looked designed, there must be a designer, and if it looked manufactured, there must be a maker. It is ridiculous to think of the teapot’s existence without a designer and a maker.

It is funny how the same rule does not apply to the universe as well. It is stated that chance plus matter plus time is all that it needed for the complex universe to happen, and finely tuned. If there is not enough time (since the big bang), there we can have another theory, the multi-universe. Why then cannot there be a teapot orbiting round the sun? Given time, the bombardment of particles and radiation, multiplied by a system of multi-universe, I would think the teapot is much easier to be created then a blade of grass.

I was caught by my friend who pointed out my inconsistency in applying the rule of chess. I contradicted myself. It only took another 8 years old to see it. Surely you can detect someone cheating here.

Russell's teapot...Teapot Part 1

Before I comment on this analogy, I am putting it up in it’s original form.

Russell's teapot, sometimes called the Celestial Teapot, was an analogy coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell to refute the idea that the burden of proof lies somehow upon the sceptic to disprove the unfalsifiable claims of religion.

Russell wrote the following:

If I were to suggest that . . . there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

To me what it is trying to say is...

The Christian’s assertion about the existence of God is as unlikely as finding a teapot orbiting the sun, and as ridiculous. The teaching gains acceptability because of its root in traditional practice.

I will give my thought on it in the next blog.

Of golf and heaven

My golf had been going from bad to worst. I struggle with my imperfections making the occasional success memorable. I love it. I would be disappointed if heaven does not include such activities. But will the hole be bigger and the course easier?

That will be another disappointment.

Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkin’s suggestion of the nothingness that we can expect after death is just as frightening to me as hell. I love living, and I gather most do as well. We have statements as ‘I feel so alive’ when people want to express a wellness they are experiencing, as contrast to ‘I feel so empty’ in dark days.

The hopelessness of nothingness is frightening. 

lesson from the tombstone

Coming back after visiting a friend who is battling a terminal condition is always sobering. A few weeks ago I also visited the deathbed of another. I am sure you had such experience as well.

While it seems right to go alongside with people in that situation, I always struggle on what to say or even to say anything at all. We are crushed to honestly reflect internally of the immensity of the moment and while yet trying to be polite, and politically correct. At some moments during such times, like flashes, certain thoughts dogged us. Is the confidence we placed on our worldview enough? It is not about scoring points in an argument, a display of superior intelligent or just mental entertainment. Just listening to our self and maybe we need to go just another mile in our search.  

Carved on a tombstone

“Here I am, there you are.

There you are...here you will be.”

happy when drunk

Last week our scrappy volleyball team lost in the A group final. It was a great achievement for a team that had not ever even made it to B group final. I thought that my spike could be even a more effective killer if the net was a little lower. Mentally I started to dismantle the rules to suit me, ending up taking out all the challenges. Where I finally end up, even the ball is not there. The games not only become meaningless but non existence.

I believe that activities become meaningful when fenced with rules, just as life with the fencing of ethics.  This again exemplify the suggestions (answers) to the philosophical questions is bounded by the need to be coherence to the other questions. This is an important test to any suggestions of answers.

In another as found in the suggestion below,

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

- George Bernard Shaw

Meaning is lost by the drunkard, when ethics is trodden, and destiny is a hangover and damaged kidney.

Somehow  I suspect that everyone (even the drunkard) with a sober mind will disagree with GB Shaw. We don’t play games with life without having to pay.

Going to the dark side...reading 'The God delusion'...

Yes, I was more than just contemplative, apprehensive or just wondering is it a waste of time when I look at the thick imposing book (actually an audio version). I was scared that my precious belief would be explained away, and God will disappear. Will a simple mind like mine being able to comprehend and think critically when I am led down the corridor by a writer of such brilliance?

I am glad I did. The experience had given me courage to also think through my beliefs and also to read more of the other views, but more….I am now more prepared to listen to others respectfully.

Durian (or blue cheese) philosophy

To those uninitiated to the stinky fruit found in south east asia (durian) ...one word ..don't. The experience may be like slupping strawbarries ice cream in a filty toilet. To some it is the same as the stinky blue cheese. Durian, I hate, but blue cheese, I will die for. The tangy taste of the moulds growing out of a well matured cheese explodes to a thousand flavors.

I guess philosophy, world views or belief that is based on religion is similar to a certain extend. There is a certain divisiveness when philosophy is on the plate at any discourse. Unfortunately, some to extreme results. Although the answers given by sectors are different, the questions are similiar. As there is a universal hunger for food, the philosophical hunger brought about by the questions are similar. This evidence in the song we sing, the book we write and read, the stories we tell. There is also a universility in the question. Four questions seem to be the main, whereby other subsets are derived. 

The question of Origin

The question of Ethics

The question of Meaning

The question of Destiny

The belief system must answer them with logic as we know it, and all the answers must be nitted together as  a coherence whole.

Betting on creator..or creatorless

Something I find it rather obvious rationality as to the choice one make as to place our bet on believing there is or there isn't a creator behind creation.
The supporter of creation by chance acknowledge that in the view of the complexities we see that it is a very very very ( a lot of verys) small chance for it to happen. But never the less IT MUST HAPPEN THIS WAY.
So there is no meaning to life, and also no meaning after life.
Another person living believing and being accountable to a creator (he call God), had constructed a purpose as well as a hope for life after death.
If the first person is right, the second person do not suffer any worst off from his bet.
But if the second is right, the first is doomed.
I rather follow the second, it is the most rational choice.

Religion motor powered by fear

I watch a debate between john lennox (prof of math)and peter atkin (prof of chem),and one of the point atkin brought out was that fear is what drove us to religion.
I admit that for me it is, but is it un natural?
Admit it that hard wired withing our core is a healthy respect for our welfare. We decide, behave and carries every moves to promote this welbeing. We nevigate our self out of the path of a truck tundering down the highway. Even when the road is empty, we make a habit of not walking in the center...it is not cowardly...it is wise.
Believe in a religion through some fear is natural, does not take away the honesty of our motivation, does not stain the believe or diminish its sincerety.
A good proverb says..the fear of the Almighty is the begining of wisdom