Unbelievers turn God into a impersonal, amoral, fickle woman - Mother Nature. When you do a good deed, Mother Nature may not reward you. When you do a bad deed, Mother Nature may not punish you. Mother Nature causes rain and sun to fall on the good and the wicked. Saints and evil men die in earthquakes, floods, cyclones and tsunamis. You may be the nicest person on earth, but a drunk driver may kill you and many wicked have prospered. If it were consistently so, we should all be wicked. But many good people have their rewards and many wicked people have their just desserts. It is also obvious to us that things well-planned would go well. The place is nicest when there are a lot of good people. So we cannot be too sure about being wicked all the time may bring good. Oh, Mother Nature! You are so fickle.
Mother Nature becomes an impersonal force, an uncertain factor to be considered in our plans. Mother Nature also creates jobs and is good for the economy. She helps to create jobs for philosophers and religious thinkers, to ponder why the good are suffering, and evil are prospering, and the world is so imperfect.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Justice, Mercy and Grace
"Justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve." When others sin against us, we always want Justice for the other person. When we sin against others, we want Mercy and Grace for ourselves.
Many years (or maybe decades) ago, there was a popular TV show in Thailand called "Justice Pao". I read in some news (no internet then) that it was popular because the Thai were tired of their corrupt government and wished for someone like Justice Pao.
There are many people today wishing to get rid of their corrupt government. But would they truly be happy, if the Perfect Just Ruler were to rule their country? They always want justice for the Corrupt Big Fish who take the 50 million dollar bribe. They believe that if the Perfect Just Ruler were to rule their country, the Corrupt Big Fish will get his due punishment.
But did the people examine themselves? Did they take the 50 cent bribe? Would the Perfect Just Ruler be just, if he only punish the one who take the 50 million dollar bribe, but not the one who take the 50 cent bribe? Or are these people wishing for Justice for others, but Mercy and Grace for themselves?
Many years (or maybe decades) ago, there was a popular TV show in Thailand called "Justice Pao". I read in some news (no internet then) that it was popular because the Thai were tired of their corrupt government and wished for someone like Justice Pao.
There are many people today wishing to get rid of their corrupt government. But would they truly be happy, if the Perfect Just Ruler were to rule their country? They always want justice for the Corrupt Big Fish who take the 50 million dollar bribe. They believe that if the Perfect Just Ruler were to rule their country, the Corrupt Big Fish will get his due punishment.
But did the people examine themselves? Did they take the 50 cent bribe? Would the Perfect Just Ruler be just, if he only punish the one who take the 50 million dollar bribe, but not the one who take the 50 cent bribe? Or are these people wishing for Justice for others, but Mercy and Grace for themselves?
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Changi Airport Terminal 3
My flight (SQ963) landed in T3 for the first time. Not very impressed. Looked very much like T2, except newer. And for the first time, the finger print reader cannot read my thumb. Just coincidence, or is T3's finger print reader inferior to T2's?
Monday, May 19, 2008
Why I am not a Buddhist
Today is Vesak Day. It is a nice day to tell all why I am not a Buddhist. Bertrand Russell once wrote a book "Why I Am Not a Christian". It was long and thick and I never read it. I shall keep mine as short as possible.
He who asserts must prove. To be provable, it must be an event that can be objectively processed by our five senses and happened in this dimension of time and space.
Of the three religions that I know, they all have one thing in common. They rest on one important assertion. Take away that assertion, the religion collapse.
Christianity rests on the resurrection of Christ. "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins ... we are of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)"
Islam rest on the fact that Mohammed is a prophet of God, the same God of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus. If you can prove that Mohammed is not a prophet of God, or his God is not God of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus, you can dump the Koran in the rubbish bin.
Buddhism rest on reincarnation. If reincarnation is not true, you can throw away Buddhism.
Christianity and Islam rest on provable assertion. The resurrection of Christ can be proven as truth or lie, because it is an event that happen in the past, in this time and space, and can be testified with our five senses objectively. Whether Mohammed is a prophet of God can be proven by comparing what God told Mohammed and compared with what God told Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus.
Reincarnation does not happen in our time and space dimension. We cannot sense it by our five senses. We need extrasensory perception (ESP) to prove it. I can see. If I tell a person blind from birth that the sky is white in colour with black polka dots, there is no way he can prove whether I am right or wrong. Since I cannot sense reincarnation, you can tell me any rubbish about reincarnation, I would not know if you are telling the truth or not.
If the foundation is an unprovable assertion, how can I trust the truths that are derived from it? How can I be a Buddhist, if I cannot trust the Buddhist truth?
He who asserts must prove. To be provable, it must be an event that can be objectively processed by our five senses and happened in this dimension of time and space.
Of the three religions that I know, they all have one thing in common. They rest on one important assertion. Take away that assertion, the religion collapse.
Christianity rests on the resurrection of Christ. "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins ... we are of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)"
Islam rest on the fact that Mohammed is a prophet of God, the same God of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus. If you can prove that Mohammed is not a prophet of God, or his God is not God of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus, you can dump the Koran in the rubbish bin.
Buddhism rest on reincarnation. If reincarnation is not true, you can throw away Buddhism.
Christianity and Islam rest on provable assertion. The resurrection of Christ can be proven as truth or lie, because it is an event that happen in the past, in this time and space, and can be testified with our five senses objectively. Whether Mohammed is a prophet of God can be proven by comparing what God told Mohammed and compared with what God told Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus.
Reincarnation does not happen in our time and space dimension. We cannot sense it by our five senses. We need extrasensory perception (ESP) to prove it. I can see. If I tell a person blind from birth that the sky is white in colour with black polka dots, there is no way he can prove whether I am right or wrong. Since I cannot sense reincarnation, you can tell me any rubbish about reincarnation, I would not know if you are telling the truth or not.
If the foundation is an unprovable assertion, how can I trust the truths that are derived from it? How can I be a Buddhist, if I cannot trust the Buddhist truth?
Friday, May 2, 2008
May Day Worker Seminar
Learned something interesting after attending my Church's May Day Worker Seminar yesterday.
First, I realized that we have an employment contract with Jesus:
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.'"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
(John 15:14-27)
Then we have the Model Employee's testamony:
serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
(Acts 20:19)
Finally, we have an example of a Job Interview with God:
But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else. "Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
(Exodus 4:10-16)
The moral of the story is:You are God's INSTRUMENT. His plan will succeed, with or without you. Your job is basically stress-free. Your project is guaranteed to succeed by your Boss. It is up to you to decide if you want to have the privilege of being part of His plan, or perish.
Hmmm... if you did not see the link between the moral and the quotes, it is because I did not write the whole sharing.
First, I realized that we have an employment contract with Jesus:
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another."If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.'"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
(John 15:14-27)
Then we have the Model Employee's testamony:
serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
(Acts 20:19)
Finally, we have an example of a Job Interview with God:
But Moses said to the LORD, "Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue." Then the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." But he said, "Oh, my Lord, please send someone else. "Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses and he said, "Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do.He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.
(Exodus 4:10-16)
The moral of the story is:You are God's INSTRUMENT. His plan will succeed, with or without you. Your job is basically stress-free. Your project is guaranteed to succeed by your Boss. It is up to you to decide if you want to have the privilege of being part of His plan, or perish.
Hmmm... if you did not see the link between the moral and the quotes, it is because I did not write the whole sharing.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Chicken and Egg Problem
Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Which comes first, the intelligence that created the universe with all its rules, or the rules are always there, allowing the universe to be form?
The Bible solves this problem by telling us that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1)". Therefore the chicken came first.
Which comes first, the intelligence that created the universe with all its rules, or the rules are always there, allowing the universe to be form?
The Bible solves this problem by telling us that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1)". Therefore the chicken came first.
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