oh but i succumb to blogsphere, help!

i haven't succumed to facebook yet.

joshua harris voiced out his reasons for bailing out. kinda agree.

c'moen, go ditch friendster! (something ending with -ster doesn't sound right supposedly ;)

Read more...

according to an atheist

four days ago a colleague was discussing on atheism over lunch. many points were brought up of why he doesn't believe in a god. his definition of an atheist is simply a person who lacks belief in a god, not necessarily a belief that there's no god. he also thinks that all humans are born as atheists without any fore-knowledge of god. therefore, atheism is a valid proposition since it's the baseline at which life begins. in other words, all religions are simply human's made-up beliefs which validity need questioning.

i have to make a remark that he was polite from the start until the end and his tone of voice wasn't raised as we discussed, a very decent and thinking atheist indeed. he even apologised a couple of times that he wasn't meant to be offensive in anything that he said. eh?

with regard to the cn God, here are some of his objections (loosely quoted):

• what sort of God would allow such cruelty that Jesus who did no wrong was punished harshly for other people's wrong doings.
• God creates evil. why does He allow fatal things to happen to innocent people (i.e. babies killed/abused). this kind of God doesn't deserve to be worshipped.
• if God is a powerful and omniscience God, why didn't He prevent adam and eve from sinning at the first place. it's only fair that He created them so they sinned and deserving punishment. if He foreknew all things, wouldn't that mean that everything is pre-determined, including the fall of humans. God is unfair.
• if there is a God, why doesn't He just show Himself to humans in a way that people can understand or verify of His existence.

other comments:

• the fact that there're more religious people in the world than the atheists doesn't make religions to be right or its validity need not questioning. rather, people are brought up and taught in life of the things that make them feel they need something to believe in. as for me, i don't see that need.
• the Bible was written by humans. we can't believe it to be God's word that we should take everything written as the truth. why believe in miracles anyway, the accounts were written by a person and we can't verify whether they truly happened or not.
• as for the criteria of the evidences that i'm looking for, they need to be something reasonable to the mind and can be personally experienced.
• religions create problematic society. they breed killings and wars.

by the end of the convos, he was given a pamphlet of 'Jesus for the Sceptics' by the Matthias Media and Josh McDowell's More Than a Carpenter. as for how i went through the experience, it was automatical that my mind was kept busy trying to form answers to the objections. this can be unproductive since it halves my learning ability to attend to the things put forward by the other end. and it felt as if i haven't got all the opportunities to answer each objection properly. so it's kinda rushly which has the potential that the other party might not get a full picture and easily digestable responses.

ps. i see that he was moving from 'i lack belief in a god' to 'i don't believe there's a god', whether he realised and liked it or not, have i wrongly assessed? if this is the case, no matter what responses or evidences are given, the person will dismiss them as unqualified evidences.

2 Cor. 4:4
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Read more...

grieve, mourn and wail

we had a bible study on the overview of the OT on sunday. and so we came to the application part asking on the question regarding holiness. the question goes like this:

throughout this period of history, Israel and her kings refuse to be God's holy people. as followers of Jesus we also are called to be holy (1 Pet. 1:13-16).
a. what does this mean in practical term?
b. how are you going at this? is there any real difference between your life and attitudes and those of your non-cn friends? why, or why not? *

having come to the study thus far, i can only conclude that God's judgement was dead serious as He had been warning since the very beginning. it's a matter of life and death. obedience means life and disobedience will only result in death. however, tainted by adam's sin, it means that human beings have no hope of their own. how great is the love that God has lavished on us that we should be called his children. my imperfect track record will only be swallowed by Christ's perfection. i know this thus far.

ps. i happened to sneak through to the answers of the person sitting next to me (sound dodgy, but i didn't do it on purpose, my eyes were fixed as i turned my head around, sorry hin! :)

* "i don't know. i tried. hahaha"

i thought it was an honest non-textbook answer despite the lack of sound theology (hehe, i'm only kidding!). i ought going back to this question myself as i'd also only been putting a quick thought at it.

James 4:7-10
Submit yourselves then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Read more...

the philosopher's question

[an excerpt from the Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder - p21]
...

'Where the hell do the likes of us come from? Have you thought about that?' he said, instead of really answering me.

I had thought about it many times, but I knew he wasn't really interested in what I had to say.

So I just let him talk. We had known each other for such a long time, Dad and I, that I had learned it was best that way.

'Do you know what Grandma once said? She said she'd read in the Bible that God is sitting in heaven laughing because people don't believe in Him.'

'Why?' I asked. It was always easier to ask than to answer.

'Okay', he began. 'If a God has created us, then He must regard us as something artificial. We talk, argue and fight, leave each other and die. Do you see? We are so damned clever, making atom bombs and sending rockets to the moon. But none of us asks where we come from. We are just here, taking our places.'

'And so God just laughs at us?'

'Exactly! If we had managed to make an artificial person, and this artificial person started to talk - about the stock market or horse racing - without asking the simplest and most important question of all, namely how everthing had come to be - yes, then we'd have a good laugh, wouldn't we?'

He laught that laugh now.

'We should've read a little more from the Bible, son. After God created Adam and Eve, He went around the garden and spied on them. Well, literally speaking. He lay in wait behind bushes and trees and carefully followed everything they did. Do you understand? He was so enthralled with what He'd made, He was unable to keep His eyes off them. And I don't blame Him. Oh no, I understand Him well.'

...

Read more...