Modern Day Demigods—

We human beings are wired to seek heroes to worship. And even with the advancement of technology our propensity to appeal to higher authority has not changed. Even though the buzz word for modern day humanity is independence and personal freedom, we have never been so bound – we are bound to our technology; we are bound to our excessive spending, we are bound to pleasure; we are bound to comfort and list goes on. As J.J. Rousseau claimed, ‘man is free but, everywhere he is in chain.’

In the midst of our current crisis, we have various institutions claiming the promises they could never keep. Usually, their sales pitch goes something like – ‘if you give us authority, we will take care of you.’ But, we always have to remember that if we buy into their sweet talk they will come back to enslave us. It is no different from the idols our superstitious ancestors worshipped. The only difference is that we’ve moved from worshipping our religious institutions [pre-modern] to worshipping our secular institutions [modern]. It’s quite amusing that those who loath organized religion fall down and worship in the presence of organized government, organized education, organized media, organized community, organized sports and on and on… We are so against institution, and yet, we have never been so institutionalized!

As for me, I know who my GOD Is; and he is the only One who will receive my allegiance and loyalty. As for human hero – I am extremely suspicious of those who claim that they’ll take care of me. The ones who earn my hearing aren’t the ones who claim they know what’s good for me. No, the ones who earn my hearing are the ones who teach me the price of being a free man and challenge me to go through the tougher and often lonely road. In other words, the real heroes in my life are the ones who help me to become my own hero.

musings of a cigarette-smoking man...

‘How many historic events have only two of us witnessed together, Ronald? How often do we make or change history? And our names can never grace any pages of record… No monuments will ever bear our image. And yet once again tonight, the course of human history will be set by two unknown men, standing in the shadows.’ – Cancerman

This has been one of my favorite X-file episodes. You really get to see the ‘human-side’ of Cancerman. Unlike previous portrayals of him, here, you see a person who’s trapped in a path of life he cannot get out. Towards the end of episode, after finding out that his last desperate effort to change the course of his life has failed, he utters these words,

‘Life is like a box of chocolates: a cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you’re stuck with this indefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there is nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while there’s a peanut butter cup or an English toffee, but they’re gone too fast and the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts. If you’re desperate enough to eat those, all you’ve got left is an empty box filled with useless brown paper wrappers.’ – Cancerman

It really struck me b/c I was reminded of a statement made my G.K. Chesterton [I think]:

‘For the life of unbelievers, sorrow is central and joy is peripheral; for the life of believers, joy is central and sorrow is peripheral…’

what do i really want?...

I realize that many times when I’m praying for something, I’m also struck w/ the thought, ‘Do I really want what I’m praying for?’  How many times have we heard people say, ‘when you get to the top, you realize that there’s nothing [and no one] there’ or ‘the joy is in the journey not in destination’?  Most of the success stories are coupled w/ either sense of disappointment or boredom.  I’m remembering Inigo’s dilemma after avenging his father:

‘it’s very strange.  I have been in the revenge business so long…now that it’s over, I don’t know what to do with the rest of my life.’

Well, anyway, getting back to the point. I’m realizing that the main issue in life isn’t so much about I get what I want or making the right decisions all the time.  I got things I wanted and ended up being disappointed; I didn’t get what I wanted and ended up not needing it after all; I thought I was making the right decision and turned out to be a disaster; I thought I was heading into the trouble but turned out to be the most important turning points in my life.  The truth is that…if I really look deep inside of my heart, I really don’t know what I want.  Rather, what I want is an idealistic fantasy of things I crave…

Good Friday Reflections...

“…I painted swiftly in a strange nerveless frenzy of energy.  For all the pain you suffered, mama.  For all the anguish this picture of pain will cause you.  For the unspeakable mystery that brings good fathers and sons into the world and lets a mother watch them tear at each other’s throats.  For the Master of the Universe, whose suffering world I do not comprehend.  For dreams of horror, for nights of waiting, for memories of death, for the love I have for you, for all the things I remember, and for all the things I should remember but have forgotten, for all these I created this paining—an observant Jew working on an crucifixion because there was no aesthetic mold in his own religious tradition into which he could pour a painting of ultimate anguish and torment.” – My Name Is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok

 

The wounded surgeon plies the steel

That questions the distempered part;

Beneath the bleeding hands we feel

The sharp compassion of the healer’s art

Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

Our only health is the disease

If we obey the dying nurse

Whose constant care is not to please

But to remind of our, and Adam’s curse

And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse.

The whole earth is our hospital

Endowed by the ruined millionaire,

Wherein, if we do well, we shall

Die of the absolute paternal care

That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere.

The chill ascends from feet to knees,

The fever sings in mental wires.

If to be warmed, then I must freeze

And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

Of which the flam is roses, and the smoke is briars.

The dripping blood our only drink,

The bloody flesh our only food:

In spite of which we like to think

That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood—

Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good. – Four Quartets [East Cocker], T.S. Eliot

 

Atheism and Their Subtle Double Standards—

I’ve been watching lot of Atheist/Theist debates online and can’t help to recognize the subtle double standards they use to refute theism.  These are few:

1. They use microevolution and by the use of inference, justify macroevolution [which is not observable scientifically].  On the other hand, they don’t allow theists the luxury of inference to argue for the Designer from the creation.
2. They are very quick to recognize and zealously distinguish between those who are true scientists [evolutionist] and those who misuse science [creationist].  At the same time, they don’t seem to be able to distinguish between those who held onto true religion and its perversion.
3. They claim that science does not have all the answer, but will find it one day!  But if the theist claims he does not have all the answer, then they’ll accuse him of committing intellectual suicide.  On the flipside, if the theist does claim to have an explanation, then he is arrogant and presumptuous for thinking he does.
4. If a scientist is corrected his response is, ‘well, that how science works; we learn from our mistakes’.  But, if they find flaws in religious thinking, they use that as the reason for disproving and discarding religion altogether.
5. When the scientist claim that science will eventually find an answer he is – a) putting just as much faith in science as those who believe the ‘flying spaghetti monster’ as the source of everything; b) so closed minded that he cannot see anything beyond physical realm w/ its explanation via scientific method.
1. On a side note, from my few observations, I’ve come to recognize that for the most part, those who are adamantly atheists are the ones who specialize on Biology.  But when you move beyond and observe scientists who study Cosmology and Physics, their minds are more open to accepting a possibility of an Intelligent Design.  Of course, biologists admit that evolution does not deal w/ origins of universe and anything beyond the beginning of life on earth.  But then, why are they trying to force their view as the only way to explain reality?

These are some patterns I observed.  And quite contrary to what Dr. Dawkins believes, we theists don’t claim to have all the answers either.  All we know is that this unknowable being broke into this physical world and revealed himself to few of us for some unknown reason – we are just trying to make sense of all these.  And of course, if you deny the reality of miracles and supernatural from the premise, I don’t know how else to prove God who is by definition a supernatural being.  That only says that perhaps the paradigm used for analyzing the existence of God is flawed.

a second journey...

Second Journeys usually end quietly with a new wisdom and a coming to a true sense of an adult who has regained equilibrium, stabilized, and found fresh purpose and new dreams.  It is a wisdom that gives some things up, lets some things die, and accepts human limitations.  It is a wisdom that realizes: I cannot expect anyone to understand me fully.  It is wisdom that admits the inevitability of old age and death…

For the Christian, this second journey usually occurs between the ages of thirty and sixty and is often accompanied by a second call from the Lord Jesus.  The second call invites us to serious reflection on the nature and quality of our faith in the gospel of grace, our hope in the new and not yet, and our love for God and people.  The second call is a summons to a deeper, more mature commitment of faith where the naiveté, first fervor, and untested idealism of the morning and the first commitment have been seasoned with pain, rejection, failure, loneliness, and self-knowledge… - B. Manning. Ragamuffin Gospel. 164-165.

Not quite sure if I ever completed my first journey…

A Case of Syncretism—

The Christmas pageant was over—or so I thought.  Christ’s birth to Mary and Joseph had been announced by angels, dressed in pure white.  Their faces were brown and their message In Telugu, for we were in South India.  The shepherds had staggered on stage, acting half drunk, but herding the smaller children down on all fours as the sheep.  Not quite what I was reared to expect, but something I could explain in terms of cultural differences.  Unlike Palestinian shepherd, who are known for their sobriety and piety, Indian shepherds are known for their drink and dancing.  But the message was not lost, for at the sight of the angels the shepherds fell to the ground, frightened sober.

The wise men and Herod had appeared on stage in regal splendor.  Now we sat cross-legged and crowded, as the shepherds, wise men, and angels gathered with Mary and Joseph around the manger.  A fine ending to the Christmas story.  Suddenly, out jumped Santa Claus!  With a merry song and dance, he began to give out presents to Jesus and the others.  He was the hero of the pageant.  I sat stunned. – P. Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries. 13