Light, Einstein, Relativity, Particle, Wave and blah,blah,blah...

Light has puzzled human beans from the beginning of time (except the blind) when they saw that sunlight creeps every morning to chase the dark of night away. Many stories have been made up about the primary source of our light, the sun. The sun has been deified ever since humanity discovered that sunlight could  make daing and tuyo and that it can dry clothes.

Anyway…this piece of crap is not about the sun, I am going to talk about light-the mysteries of light and how Einstein put his eggs on light. No, I did not mean that egg, what I meant is how Einstein hmmmm…made light as the constant in his relativity theory. The most famous of all equation: E=mc2 where c2 is the constant a.k.a. the speed of light (of course, ask any ordinary citizen what is c2 and they will tell you that it’s a bottled tea drink). Why light? Here’s the problem: everything is relative. What constant can be used from which to measure things? The problem is that mass and size is affected by velocity. As you go faster, you become shorter. That is why short people walk faster, or it’s the other way around. As a body goes faster, it becomes shorter and its mass increases. The problem is that the earth is in constant motion; everything is motion-no constant here.  Einstein was eating his sandwich when he saw sunlight bouncing off Niels Bohr’s bald head. Einstein was hit by the bouncing light and intuition hit him and he shouted, “Hey, light is constant.” (nnaaaa…not true)

Anyway, again, this piece of crap is not about Einstein’s relativity Theory, it’s all about light. So how is light constant? Of course we all know want constant means. We do not have to be theoretical physicist to understand that constant is something that does not change. Applied to ordinary things the word constant is relative. For example, my neighbors are constant gossipers which is true but when my neighbors die (hope not) they are not constant anymore….They become dead neighbors. The way we apply the word constant in our daily lives…I would call it the contingent constant (my blog, my term!) because it is relative to many things like time, space, mass etc. To quote Jose Mari Chan, “Life is a constant Change….rah,rah,rahhh…”

We need to find a constant becuase without a constant we could not tall a  relative truth from another relative truth. Everything is lqiuid becuase there is no solid...hmmmm...something from which things or ideas could be take shape--everyhting is moving. So, a constant from which to stand is necessary. Its like Archimedes boasting, “Give me a place to stand and I shall move the earth.” Scientist realized that in order to measure or state something truthfully (mathematically, theoretically and even ethically speaking) there has to be a constant! A terra firma to stand from which any explorations could be made or else, without this terra firma, we are like the fly inside a car telling his friends “look guys! I am the fastest among you!” Then the driver opened the car window and they all got sucked by the partial vacuum created by the speeding car’s velocity and they were splattered on the next car’s windshield.

Anyway, again and again, this piece of crap is not about constants, it’s about light. We may be wondering what made light a constant. What is it that made light the terra firma of theoretical physics explorations? Here we go into the realms of the metaphysics. The spiritual and the mysterious realm of reality where our common sense will leave us begging cursing, what the…..

What the… what’s matter anti-matter?

Let us first explore the nature of light. There were many speculations about the nature of light. Some have proposed theories about the nature light that seemed reasonable because of the lack of sophisticated equipment, they were refuted and debunked. Anyways…let us leave the heavy stuff to Wikipedia and other sites…Some says light are particles--whatever they are called (electrons or phtons etc.). Imagine sand or buhangin, imagine that every time you turn a flashlight there are billions of tiny glowing sands that flies out of your flash light giving illumination. This is true because light gives off particle energy. Light particles can be detected bouncing off things the fancy name for this phenomenon is the photoelectric effect. This is observable in solar panels. Heee…getting heavy…but unfortunately the particle theory is wrong or may just be incomplete. One simple experiment that made the particle theory inadequate or (wrong) is the flashlight experiment. Take two flashlights; turn it on, cross their beams. If the particle theory is correct, that light is composed of particles…there would be a detectable disruption or distortions… but there is none…To show the point of experiment more clearly: hold two water hoses, turn them on, and cross their squirt the water and cross them, there is disruptions because water molecules are getting in each other’s way. The same with light, if light is particle then these particles should bump into each other creating disruptions and distortions.

Another theory of light is the wave theory. Light is compared to sound. It has no particles but it emits waves. But the problem is…if light is like sound. It needs a medum to travel or to for a conductor. Here on earth, the theory holds because we have air to conduct sound and light. But what about light in vacuum? We all know that the light from the sun travels gazillion of miles in vacuum to reach earth. So, defenders of this theory proposed a medium called the lumineferous ether that conducts light everywhere…unfortunately…up to now…the lumineferous is still in the dark. No one has proved that it exist and is now considered one of those hypothesis meant to support another theory….does not work that way (Occam’s razor).

So a third theory was proposed the wave-particle theory. Basically it’s the combination of both particle and wave theory-ha, pretty obvious. The two slits experiment proved this.

Ayaw ko na….tuuloy ko na lang tomorrow maglalaba pa kami ni myra…nagagalit na na! Panay daw ang type ko! Ano daw ang ginagagawa ko! Bye.

Just listen to Dr. Quantum explain this experiment and introduce you to quantum paradoxes.

 Damn...I did not discuss why light is constant! Later, I will talk about it....

Tielhard de Chardin, noosphere, evolution, computers, internet...blah,blah,blah

“…I am convinced that only when the church sets out to re-examine the relationship between Christ and a universe now grown fantastically immense and organic will she take up her conquering march again.”-Tielhard

 Tielhard de Chardin was a mystic who foresaw the development of the information and communication technology web to its ultimate evolution-the emergence of a planetary consciousness or as he called it, the noosphere and the culmination of the convergence of consciousness into the Omega point.

My view of Chardin’s thoughts is not authoritative and I do not I claim complete understanding of his writings, I am just exploring and meandering in the richness of his ideas.

Chardin’s view of evolution did not end with the progress of individual species into its culminating ultimate development. The Darwinian view of evolution is biological and adaptational. Darwin’s  theory is a natural conclusion of formulation based on the observations that each specie adapts to its environment by mutating certain characteristics for adaptation. To differentiate Chardin’s view, Tielhard proposed that the evolution of Homo sapiens will lead to the development of a collective consciousness.

What is this collective consciousness? Most of us think of consciousness in our own subjective ways, a feeling, communicating and interacting. That is why we do not attach the term conscious to inanimate and non living objects like a stone, or a house, etc. and we also do not attach (though some may disagree) the term conscious to nonresponsive living organism like plants, trees, etc.  Consciousness is not necessarily an exclusive attribute of  a living organism. Our definition of life is unfortunately too specist . Such properties we relate to life like movement, reproduction, growth if we really think hard about may also be applied to "inorganic" on to non-living things. Are we sure that mountains do not move? Are we sure that rocks do not multiply? All these attributes of life are also time-bound-observable. What I mean is this what if a thing or a living thing breeds once in a thousand years? What if they move 1 millimeter in a century? What if they speak one syllable in a millennium? How could we be sure that they are not conscious? Imagine an organisms whose life span lasts a second, their definition of life and consciousness would be bound with their perception of time. For them an organism that lived up to 80 years old...their definition of life cannot comprehend it.

To think of consciousness as a detached or a separate entity would result to inconsistencies. The question of the relationship between the physical body and the non physical or the psychical consciousness has led to the meandering speculations of philosophers and to the growth of the different schools of thought from Plato’s dualism to the epistemological conflict between the idealist and the materialist, to the skeptics’ and even to the diverging schools of the philosophy of language. Though the relationship may not be clearly understood as to how a non-physical or the psychical mind is able to relate to the body, it is still clear that they exist as one and whether the mind has precedence over the body or the body over the mind is still open to exploration, experience shows that both exist indeterminate from each other.

Now what I’m leading to is that consciousness may not necessarily be an exclusively to an organic or carbon based organism.  Quantum physicists have wondered and some have hypothesized about the relationship between the relationship of the observed and the observer.  They have often wondered why these sub atomic wave-particles behave in an unpredictable manner as one physicist humorously puts it “the damned electron is watching us…if we observed that they behave like a particle, they change their minds and starts to behave like a wave and vice versa.” This phenomenon is called the Heseinberg Uncertainty Principle. 

This (may) shows that consciousness, or its basis or units, may well be that we are composed, theoretically and with some science behind it, of conscious units of sub-atomic wave-particles, judging from their behavior of indeterminism, this may well be the foundations of our consciousness. The observed and the observer relationship shows that as each observation is made and as each observation produces new result ,sit shows the direct relationship that the observer is directly changing the observed. Imagine every time this happens where in the interactions of change between the observed and the observer happening at the quantum/atomic level continuously working at the very atoms and molecules of our beings, organizing and somehow despite the randomness and the in-determinism there’s an ordering and organizing that may have its principles in the…here’s where I go blank…God factor.  As Einstein puts it, “God does not play dice.”   Einstein’s supposed said this when he   saw the implications of quantum mechanics. 

Our bodies are (or maybe) composed of conscious units at the sub-atomic level or at the quantum level. This may well explain the freedom in our thoughts because of the un-deterministic behavior of wave-particles at the sub atomic level and the programmed growth and development of our body as a result of the deterministic behavior of the macro world. In a way, and maybe using a larger picture, we are, our consciousness, may have its analogy in Chardin’s idea of the noosphere on a planetary scale.

Chardin proposed the development and envelopment of thinking layer over the earth. This he called the noosphere. This is the “collective consciousness of humanity which will have its convergence in the “Omega Point.” The Omega Point is open to many interpretations especially theological ones, and I will leave it at that. One way of understanding Omega point is that there will come a time when humanity will stop thinking as individuals, and as time progresses, humanity will also stop thinking in terms of nations and nationality, and there will come a time when the whole humankind will converge at one point and think on a planetary level and usher in a new age of consciousness ruled by peace and harmony. 

Imagine this at the quantum level. This convergence on a sub-atomic and atomic level and imagine each individual sub-atomic and atomic wave-particle as having consciousness and converging to form a higher state of unity and consciousness each one contributing to the development of a larger consciousness, the energy forming matter and then controlling these matter to combine to form organism with evolving consciousness as each micro-consciousness converge and merge. This is comparable to the coalescence of materials of the universe right after the big bang and what is happening on the sub-atomic level may be happening at the planetary level, of course the perception of time , space and consciousness differs at each  level.But with each converging materials it carries with it the consciousness of the sub-atomic units of matter. Are inorganic matter conscious too? It now depends on the instability and relativity of the term and definition of "life." It may be that all matters possessed some parts or may I call them units of consciousness at their subatomic level. 

If we look at the human and understand the human nervous system, even at an elementary level, we could see that what makes the nervous system, which is the physical seat of our consciousness, works-the neural network. Without the neural network each individual nervous cells, though it contains the information, the electricity or the energy, individually it cannot create a system capable of collective consciousness. Though it may not be far fetch to think of them as having consciousness since they are capable of retaining and transferring information, unfortunately individually each nervous cell or neuron (whatever you call them) is incapable of processing all the data. The solution is the networking. The idea  of this neural network when applied on a planetary level may be unthinkable because we think of neural network exclusively pertaining to our body. Also we cannot think of an inorganic object creating and having tnrves. This is because we are biased into thinking that a living conscious organism is mainly carbon based. We cannot process the possibility that life and consciousness may exist other than that of a carbon based. But it may not necessarily be so.Its  just we are to biased and a specist-individualist that we find it hard to picture each individual person as just part of a nervous cell or a neuron in the evolving planetary nervous system as is now happening with  the  growth of the earth's neural network- the net. The evolution is now on its second phase.

Using the nervous system as an analogy of the development of the omega point, we may also take to notice how the computers have been evolving. There is a possibility that we may be creating life in an evolutionary fashion. From monster mechanical computers to vacuum tubes to transistors and solid state to integrated circuits to microchips etc. and then there’s the development of the internet. The internet may be likened or maybe it is the neural network that is slowly making the convergence of humanity into the creation of the noosphere and the culmination of the systems called the omega point.

The creation of a larger consciousness with the transformation of the earth to a living conscious Gaia amy have us wondering what will happen to me or to humanity…would they exist in a ‘Matrix like world” feeding the machine. I don’t know….I dare not speculate….but if I understand the relationship of the sub-atomic world to the macro world, the sub-atomic “people” somehow maintained their  in-determinism or freewill, if I may so, while at the macro level the laws of physics and determinism applies. 

___________________________________

I am troubled because quantum mechanics seems to be favorable and compatible the eastern religions that's why many quantum physicist are taking up Hinduism and Buddhism. Tielhard is the only Christian theologian that I know of (actually I only knew and read a few hehehe) that somehow offers possibilities for the exploration and dialog between Christian theology and quantum mechanics. There is an impending paradigm shift and are we prepared for it?

Anyway….ayaw ko na nagugutom na ako....

A Modest Proposal

I have not been hearing much about General Light lately. I am worried because many Filipinos have a short attention span and the propensity to leave things half done. Now that Ex-General Ligot and his cohorts’ case are taking a backseat from the media’s limelight because of more important news like the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Harry and Miss Kate Middleton and Honorable Rep. Manny Pacquiao’s bout against Mosley, I fear that Gen. Ligot could wriggle and pay his way out of the plunder and tax evasion case being heard against him and his wife.

The government filed tax evasion cases against El Heneral de Mandarambong Ligot and his alipores. This strategy was first used by the FBI to prosecute the gangster Al Capone since no criminal charges could be filed against him for lack of witnesses. Now the government is using the same strategy against Ligot.  I think the government may be using the strategy as a plan B lest the plunder case filed against the general does not prosper in court. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t but the tax evasion case should be treated as a secondary importance to the plunder case being built up by the prosecutors because all the paper trails, the properties acquired and other shadowy investments made by Ligot, his wife and their dummies are pointing to it. 

I heard that one of the outcomes of this case is the turning over of some military operations like acquisitions to the civilian people of the Department of National Defense. This may be good, but any new proposals or corrective steps that the government might undertake may not be taken seriously by everybody unless Ligot with his family and the other generals are persecuted and convicted of plunder.  It has so far been the practice of government to change the system in within a department whenever corruption was discovered but few perpetrators have been convicted and punished because most of them are just transferred or relieved. What is needed now is to show to us, the concerned citizens, that big fishes are actually being caught and punished to the full extent of the law. This is more important than changing the system, for now, because this will show that corruption does not pay in the government. Any system has its flow, and any official who has inclinations to steal could always work and play around it.

I have suggestions for the military:

Since many generals, especially those in administration and in services, grow fond of their tables and lose their sensitivity to the needs of the frontline soldiers, I propose that these generals should be given frontline combat assignments as a sergeant for three months so that they could be in touch with the real situation on the ground. This way they would experience firsthand how it is to fight in battles using substandard equipments. Also, generals should be issued Huey Helicopters as a standard vehicle for transportation.  

 As for congress, both houses should create laws specifically designed to give equitable retribution in the military for generals convicted of plunder. My suggestion is to make a special law specifically designed for the military to make plunder and other corruption in the armed forces punishable by a public firing squad or a public guillotine beheading. I don’t know if the bullets will penetrate their skins or if the guillotine blade will cut through their skins but the effort is worth the try.

And for the family members of the generals that benefitted from the plunder money whether they are the wife or the children above eighteen years old, they should be given combat duty in Basilan or in the NPA infested mountains of the country. This is just fair because they benefited from the soldiers pay. They should be made to experience the ordinary soldiers’ combat situation so that they could realize that the luxury they are experiencing are at the cost of the misery of ordinary soldiers and the family of those who are slain in battle.

The dummies used by the plundering generals to hide their money should be used as dummies for testing nerve gasses, rubber bullets and tactical nuclear shells. They could also be useful as cannon fodders.

These are some of my modest proposals…

Reunion stories

What I love about our reunions is not the food (though the food is always outstanding); it’s the preparation of the food. The women in one corner chopping, washing and cooking while talking, giggling like they were little girls and then bursting into peals of laughter. They “murder” their husbands, complain about their children, complain about money, complain about the weather…. Their stories sometimes meander to actors, national issues, about neighbor’s lives, classmates, jueteng…and of course, sex ( they could be very naughty at times). They are enjoying their company. 

As usual, the men were under the tree drinking and laughing and telling jokes and tall stories that we all knew were meant to be humorous rather than factual. The family is a musical family, the guitar and the naughty songs were there. 

My brother-in-law bought a half gallon of lambanog. There are good lambanogs and there are bad lambanogs. The best way to judge them is to taste them. Anyway (look around) I looked at the lambanog .It looked good because of the fruits floating in it. I smelled it and decided to taste it. No, I don’t drink anymore but this time it’s out of curiosity. So, I asked for a taste. I took a shot, and booommm…like drinking gasoline. 

One thing I don’t like about lambanog is the after taste. I have tasted many types of liquor before, but lambanog is different because it’s after taste lingers for hours that even chewing a gum could not remove it. According to my father in law, it is not safe to drink lambanog anymore because some distillers add chemicals to their products. The shot gave me a throbbing head ache anyway. 

It was a good thing that my brother in law had a motorcycle because I was able to enjoy the trip to the market. I did not have to ride in a tricycle- a bumpy, uncomfortable that takes about thirty minutes to get to the public market. But with the motorcycle, I felt freedom. The coastal road was lined with trees and the panoramic view of the sea overrode the desire to go fast but rather, it made me slow down to enjoy the breeze and the views. 

Everybody was looking for their children. Everybody was shouting somebody else’s name. Of course they could not find them, they were swimming in the sea. The little children that used to run naked were now young girls conscious of the minutest details of their looks. Taking pictures whenever the urge came…they were lucky because in our days pictures use film so every shot had to count. But with digicams, they could take pictures of anything, anytime and anywhere. In a few years from now the generation gap would be evident. 

The children loved the reunion. They had special food, the beach, games and what was most important was that they felt love not only from their parents but also from their uncles and aunts. The memories will forever bound them till they grow old. 

There was also sadness. When we left to go home, my parents-in-laws were crying tears of joy and tears sadness. My wife’s parents are getting old, and I could see the longing in their eyes to be with their children more often. My father in law even proposed that we held our reunions twice a year. Of course, if this was possible, we would not deny them of this request but there were many things to consider like time, money, the distance etc. But it’s hard to say no especially when they started talking about death and dying. Why do they have to blackmail us with death? Maybe I’ll understand them when I reach their age. It’s the empty nest syndrome.

We must please our parents especially in their twilight years.. They have sacrificed so much and the least the children could do is to grant their requests whenever possible. They deserve it. It is good that our children see how much we love their grandparents for it would set a good example for them when we too became old.

Reunions...

As a Chinese proverb says: "Reunion after long separation is even better than one's wedding night." 

Looking forward to next year’s…

Drake Equation, Alien Abduction and, Is Jesus an Alien? Questions a Christian would not dare explore, but I do

I have been watching much sci-fi lately and one of the most troubling areas of exploration of sci-fi, i.e. if one gets past the monsters and the fight scenes, is the question are we alone? Are we the only intelligent life on this universe? I think this question requires exploring just as much as the profound existential questions that has troubled humanity ever since they discovered that life is not just about hunting, propagation and war, or in the more contemporary setting, life is not all about birth, school, work and death. There must be something more to this world rather than the archaic thinking that this big, elaborate and incomprehensible expanse we call the universe was created for one single life form, the miserable human bean…err…I mean human beings.

In mathematics the probability is enough to convince even the most skeptical skeptics that there is other sentient life in the universe. The most famous mathematical expression that shows the probability of other sentient life existing in the universe is the Drake Equation. N = R* f_p n_e f_l f_i f_c L Click on the video for Dr. Sagan's explanation of the equation. 

Though most of the alien researchers are being ridiculed as nuts and insane with the exceptions of the astronomers and the astrophysicist with their equations and hypotheses which some how gives them credibility, yet the exploration requires serious contemplation because the realization that there are intelligent life form other than us will create another paradigm shifts or a Copernican revolution that will move our intellectual equilibrium as well a our egotistical belief that we are special and by default the owner of the universe. Paradigm shifts in history maybe observed as from a theocentric (God centered) to an anthropocentric (humanity centered) to a non exclusivist and this time to an inclusivist understanding (we have neighbors in outer space! It’s just that they are too far away) that we maybe just one of the many life existing in this universe.

Will this affect our self understanding and even our understanding of God?

Though humanity by its nature is a xenophobic creature, I think we will have no problem encountering aliens if we would get past the Roswell and H.G. Wellsians misconceptions of aliens as hydrocephalic belligerent creatures out to destroy and conquer this planet. Aliens that are so far ahead of us technologically but are not even aware that germs and (or computer) viruses exists which may annihilate them in a sneeze. I am with Isaac Asimov in the belief that alien abductions and alien invasions are too below the aliens to even conceive to do. Why would they abduct people and invade this miserable planet if they are too ahead of our technological development? Why would alien abduct humans and study us if they could establish direct contact? Would they waste all that energy just to abduct a few individuals? For what? And it is really nothing but pure egotism and delusions to think that aliens may be interested in us.  It is even more presumptuous to think that aliens think and behave the way we, humans, behave-warlike and destructive out to conquer anthills.... Anyways…

Christian theology is not ready to tackle this alien question because Christian theology is grounded upon the revelation and the understanding that God’s life and existence revolves around humanity. Though the belief is the humanity is for God, in actuality, and if you really think about it, the relationship is reversed. (Feuerbach may have a point here).  Everything that God designed, created and planned is for the benefit of humanity. We may still call this the humanity-centered cosmology of Christianity (This is my blog, so I will use any terms I like!). Though the destruction of the Christian theocentric view of the world which was brought upon by the skeptics who espoused doubts and denying the truth of experiences and facts that freed humanity from the yoke of ecclesiastical control and restraints and ushered in the modern era in the industrial, economical and especially in the intellectual sphere, humanity has not escaped the belief that he is unique-a one and only begotten son. Of course the skepticism has its culmination in the Humean denial of a God to even the nihilistic destruction of God and religion by Nietszche and the existentialist thinkers who espoused atheism and Sartrean responsibility which freed humanity from the fear and even guilt of atheism. Though I am still on the belief that the atheistic freedom carried with it the unbearable burden of living an absurd and meaningless existence which Nietszche tried to soften by espousing the concept of the Uberman and Sartre’s suggestion that by being free and living an absurd existence, we could create our very meaning for our existence, there is some hope in faith. But of course the realization that we live our lives so that we could have salvation to live an eternal life in heaven has its own absurdities too that is more painful…

Anyway, his provincial outlook that we are God’s one and only begotten son in the universe may have to change to take Paul’s words we should not be confined to Jerusalem, we have to go to Judea, Samaria and all the nations….err…why not to the other life forms… The ladder of consciousness may take another step further directing our scientific as well as our intellectual and even our theological enterprise to get past our understanding of our souls and our confinement of our little planet to the reality that God may have other children and flock outside the fold and outside this planet (no, I’m not losing my mind…).

Of course, with the alien question, the greatest threat and Christian theology’s greatest fears are the repudiation of God’s revelation and the displacement of humanity from God’s universe. (Personally, I, me, and myself alone, believes that the existence of alien life forms or ETs does not, in anyway, endanger God.) The fear is that with the possibility of even thinking that there may be life in the universe other than ours runs counter to God’s special creation of humanity and God’s special revelation . This thinking, unfortunately, may be the last firewall and defense to the acceptance of the probable reality of the existence of alien life forms. This cannot be avoided since Christianity, just like other religions, are built upon special revelations. And special revelations are not open to emendations, they only allow re-interpretations.

Is God an alien? Is Jesus an alien hybrid?

I believe that God will not take it against me to sometime think this way because I believe when he has given me an intellect (distorted to some it may be) God has given me the freedom to think on my own. God has given me the freedom to question, to think, and to even make up my own reality. God will be the last to call me an heretic and insane. Anyway, is God an alien? Yes! Because if we study the Bible, Jesus is always telling us that this is not God’s world. This is not God’s plane of existence. God’s has plans for us, God has created a world with many rooms for us. This is what we look forward, this world is not ours. God will give us a new body, an alien body designed to inhabit a new alien world. By the fact that God cannot show his face to us, gives me inkling that God is an alien-he is not of this world.

Is Jesus an alien-human hybrid? After an introduction into the bloody christological controversies and the mind bending and unintelligible solutions of what is termed as the hypostatic union of natures in Christ, which is really a medieval construct  influenced by the medieval thinking…anyways…maybe its time to look at it through our postmodern eyes and to define terms using our own world...looking through it using the lens of our time.


 I’m having headaches already…

More into the future….

  

Motorcycle, Disco, Penitensya and a little theology of pain

Yesterday, I was on a motorcycle and listening to KC and the Sunshine Band singing “That’s the way” and following a crowd shouting “crucify him!” while two centurions carrying two large bamboo piggy bank go from jeepneys to bystanders asking for donations made me stop, look, listen and scratch my head. The irony and the incongruity of it all almost made me want to get down from the motorcycle, grab the cross, carry it, then sing “That’s the way I like it” while swaying to the rhythm of disco’s groove and horn…Of course this  sounded sacrosanct, but, sometimes the mind had its own way of dealing with absurdities, go insane or to be more adaptive and survivalistic,  think of little crazy things. 

Anyway, for all the traditions and the holiness we attached to holy week, there’s one thing that I need to talk about. It’s the question that nags me every time I see penitensyas done in the street: Why there has to be pain? If you ask me, Lent especially Good Friday is one big sadistic traditional festival very similar to that of the hedonistic Mardi gras that is also, incidentally, part of the observance of the Lenten season, where exhibitionism and flagrant sensuality rules the day. (Mardi gras in English is fat Tuesday. It is the tradition of celebrating and eating all you can before the beginning of the fasting season of lent which is Ash Wednesday). There is a thin line, actually the relationship is direct and complementary, between pain and sensuality.Orgasm and dying are both ecstatic-medically speaking of course.

In the Philippines it is belief that self inflicted suffering like whipping and the literal crucifixion of a devotee to imitate the sufferings of Christ brings with it forgiveness and washing of sins, and, also expected are healing, blessings, and the granting of prayers.

Although many religion practice self inflicted pain as an initiation rite and also as a way to induce ecstatic experience, the Christian tradition, or understanding,  of pain and death of Christ is that of representational  or vicarious in that the sufferings and death of one man, the second Adam, all may live. So, if I follow, Christ suffered and died to give life, and that is by ransom, by redemption, that resulted in our justification before God. Christ's death sufficed. Although many saints suffered and was martyred, it’s not because they intentionally chose to, but it’s because of the hostility of their era to Christ and Christianity and to expect Christians to suffer in the way these saints did is absurd. That is why Paul stressed the spiritual aspect of suffering and the nailing on the cross of our fleshly nature because of the dangers of Christinity going the way of Stoicism, which Paul fought vehemently during his time. The teachings that espouses the denial of the body and the glorification of suffering and physical pain. Unfortunately, the mythologization of the lives of the saints, real or fictional, resulted to the glorification of self mortification at the expense of the joys and the blessings of a saving relationship with Christ.

Penitensyas, unfortunately, still espouses the discredited and dumped dogma of indulgences because it deemed self mortification as a bargaining chip, not different from that of the excess merits of Christ and the saints, to win favor from God based on what humanity could give and not grounded upon the grace and perfection of God. What can humanity add to the sufferings of Christ? Nothing. It is the acceptance and the realization that the suffering of one man is enough for us all-that is what we must to-accept grace for we cannot add anything to God's perfection.  

Penitensya is odd because if it is to be understood as an imitation of Christ, it does not accomplish much. Observe that after the lashings and the crucifixions, after a few days, most of these people are back to their former selves with not a trace of change in them. Experiencing Christ does not necessarily has to be painful, but it must be life changing.

The practice and tradition of self mortification has its scriptural source in the writings of St. Paul; Romans 6:13 “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye live through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”; Col. 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Though the implications of the verses are spiritual and do not necessitates self mortification, the traditionalization of the penitnesyas may well be the result of the Catholic Church’s institutionalization or at the very least toleration of the penitensyas.  

 It is only lately that the church, as a whole, started issuing strong repudiation of the necessity of self mortification on a Biblical as well as for health reasons. Also, with the attention that penitensyas are getting, the evil of commercialization is starting to rear its ugly head. People are not getting nailed on the cross for religious and even ecstatic reasons; the primary motivation now is manna-money, the love of which St. Paul rightly said as the root of all evil. Because of this the Catholic Church realized that the religious and spiritual aspect of most penitensyas is taking a backseat and is now just a peripheral justification for the observance of penitensyas and what is emerging is one lucrative business: the religious-cultic-tourism. They are now taking steps but centuries of traditions and the pull of making money cannot be changed in a day.

Why is there pain? I don't know gaadddaafffi...

 The absurdity of it all is saddening. Its like riding on a motorcycle, listening to KC and the Sunshine Band singing “That’s the way” while watching a young boy dressed like a Christ re-enacting crucifixion. Where is this leading to?

Back to basics people! Jesus saves.

And back to my breakfast...I like blogging while eating!

Pronoun Blues...or why I hate the "He/She" thing...

This is a recycled post.

Each manager is responsible for his/her department. He/She must ensure that productivity meets the company’s projection. Each manager is also responsible for the welfare of his/her workers. He/She must ensure that they get the best provisions in operational safety both in training and equipment. Each manager must also ensure that his/her boss is always happy, and that he/she always smiles because a person who smiles a lot is a happy person.*

The introduction of this essay is not supposed to make any sense. It is just a series of sentences I made up to show something that has been bothering me for a long time, the he-slash-she thing. I like my reading to be smooth, but whenever I encounter this he-slash-she thing it slows me down. It’s cumbersome, complex, and the slash gave it the appearance of a mathematical formula. (I suffer from a genetically acquired psychosomatic allergy to mathematics. Translation: I hate mathematics.) What made it more difficult is that it destroys the rhythm of a sentence. To illustrate: A student should turn his/her assignment on time. How will one read this sentence? “A student should turn his or her assignment on time” or “A student should turn his, her assignment on time”. Both readings are correct but there is a price to pay—fluidity.

The he-slash-she is the modern solution to one of the difficulties in grammar, the gender pronoun antecedent agreement (as the opening paragraph shows). The he-slash-she is the convention used to avoid sexism. Before, the generic (covers both sexes) pronoun used is “he”. Although still acceptable, it is now considered as sexist, chauvinistic, and politically incorrect. The argument is obvious, “he” is a masculine pronoun and the gender sensitive people feel that it connotes “male priority and superiority”. But this was not always the case. The generic “he” is an innovation introduced by grammarians only in the 18th and 19th centuries. Before, at least from the 1500’s, the correct sex-indefinite pronoun is “they”, which is still used in casual English today but is now considered as ungrammatical.

This hullabaloo about generic pronoun is a linguistic quest for accuracy and for political correctness and gender equality. But to press this search for gender equality in language further would result to absurdities. If the argument in using the he-slash-she is to avoid sexism, then why not push it a little further and use she-slash-he to prioritize “she”. In fact, I read an article arguing that for those people who find he/she cumbersome, in the name of fairness, since “he” has been used for generations, should consider using “she”. Fine, but isn’t that sexist too. (Even in theology (religious study) this sexism in language is creating debates. Consider this footnote from an essay on the Holy Spirit and Liberation Movements by Dr. Richard Tholin: “One form of oppression is found in language, in this case, the use of masculine for all generic terms. Much of the quoted material in this paper uses male generic language. In the lecture form that language was changed to more inclusive terms. Readers might well attempt the same discipline. In addition, where the pronoun is used for the Holy Spirit the spoken version used “she”…there are some hotly debated linguistic arguments for this usage. In any event, use of the female pronoun for the Spirit can be a constructive way to move beyond exclusively male designations for the triune God (Trinity).” This is absurd. What should be done instead is to avoid using pronouns for God. 

If gender sensitivity is the issue, then we should also reconsider using the word “woma(e)n”. Since woman is derived from the root man—in short, woman is a marked man (no pun intended). “Marked” in linguistics refers to the alteration of meaning by adding a linguistic particle that has no meaning of its own. The unmarked (base) form of the word carries the meaning. The word mann in old English denoted either “man” or “person,” and the compound word wifmann meant female person. The base “man” is masculine and the “wo” from “wif” is the added linguistic particle denotes the female gender to the root man. So, woma(e)n should be out for the obvious reason.

“Female”, following the above argument should also be out. “Male” from Latin ”mas” is the unmarked word that means “man” and “fe” from the Latin “femina” (women) is the added linguistic particle, thus, “female” transliterated could mean “feminine man” (no pun intended also). Female, definitely, should be out too.

Although many consider “lady” as aristocratic and inappropriate in a classless society, it is still used today. In greetings, it’s “Ladies and Gentleman” (notice the precedence of Ladies which is condescending to some), in comfort rooms it’s “ladies”, etc. for some “lady” denotes class but for some it is an anachronism. Is lady then an alternative to “woma(e)n” and “female”. This may come as a surprise but “lady” comes from the old English “hlaefdig”, “kneader of bread”. No expounding necessary, “lady” definitely is out. That pretty much clears the slate.

To be free from masculine tinge, this search for a term for the other gender can go on (“other gender” is problematic too since “other” implies the precedent existence of the “first” gender thus the need for the qualifier “other”) but still it will not solve anything. Words mean what we want them to mean and its connotations can change with convention. Today, in Hollywood, the word actress is disdained. Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives), an Oscar nominee for best supporting actress says she identifies herself as an actor because “actresses worry about eyelashes and cellulite, and woman who are actors worry about the character we are playing.” I once heard a Filipino woman government official insisted she be called “The Chairman” and not “the chairwoman, or the chairperson (I think it was the late PCGG Chairman Haydee Yorac) because she reasoned that she is as good as any man. The suffix –ess and –ette can also connote frivolousness that it is now seldom used formally. It’s now director and not directress, host and not hostess, etc. Isn’t this confusing?

If “women” is historically derived from man, hence connotes inferiority hence it should not be used, and if female is also a derivative of male, hence inferior too, and if lady is a “kneader of bread”…no discussion here, definitely out. Who knows, why not also object to the use of the noun and the adjective “human and humane” because of the “man” in there. Why stop there? “Humanity” has man in there too.

I’m not a linguist. Heck, I’m barely into grammar and punctuations. But what I’m trying to say is, why complicate things, why not just be politically or grammatically incorrect than use this he-slash-she thing. The damned formula disrupts my reading!

It’s a good thing Filipino pronouns are neuter maybe it shows that we look at both gender equally.

*(Of course the paragraph can be rephrased using the third person plural. Managers are responsible…They must…etc. I used the third person singular for illustration.)

Matrix, Quantum Physics, Principle of uncertainty, Schroedinger's cat...Gutom lang

After watching the Matrix I was dumbfounded for a while. The scene where Neo achieved the level of consciousness where he could see the reality in the matrix in binary numbers, thus achieving a higher consciousness of reality enabling him to suspend or even break the physical laws of existence that governed the reality contained in the Matrix may allegorize actual state of consciousness achieved by individuals through transcendental practice or through their giftedness. Maybe that's how prophets or sages saw reality too.

Even the reality in the Matrix may not be as different as that of ours. In the matrix reality is built upon by programs. It is not so different from ours. Most people still believed that atoms are materials. Of course, this is because the physics still being thought in school is the 17^th century Newtonian physics which is governed by deterministic laws. Newtonian physics is also characterized by its materialistic and mechanical view of the universe. But with the advent of quantum mechanics brought about by the theories, discoveries and experimentation on subatomic level of particles, our classical view of reality must change. The Newtonian or the classical view of reality, unfortunately, will be superseded by the new physics. Of course it does not mean that the Newtonian physics is useless; on the other hand, it is still relevant in the study of reality on the large scale or at the macro level of reality but at the atomic and subatomic level, classical physics loses its coherence.

In the schools, it is still taught that atoms are particles. Atoms are pictured as miniature solar system giving the impression that they are solid-materials. But that is not so, atoms behave like a particles but they behave like a wave too.  This is called the wave-particle duality. This has many implications but the most shocking implication of this is that reality or the universe may not be composed solid atomic particles but may be composed of waves or even probabilities-reality may be an illusion-residues. Here is Neo looking at binary figures with the idealist and Cartesian philosophers smiling.

Also another problem that makes quantum mechanics weirder than science fiction is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. This means that an observer affects reality. It means that just observing realties, we are actually changing it.  An experiment was done on how subatomic particles behave, measuring devices were used. According to our classical understanding of reality, an observed result will be consistent trough out. For example, if ball a moves to point A, given the same parameters like speed, gravity, and friction, would move to the same spot but this is not happening at the sub atomic level. Just by observing the ball, the ball changes its direction as if aware that it is being observed-the observed and the observer have a direct relationship. And each observation produces different results. Thus calculations breaks down here and one can only talk about probabilities and not exactitude. Also subatomic particles may occupy the same space at the same time thus collapsing our classical perception of space-time.

Alternate reality is another area of quantum mechanics that have spurned a lot of sci-fi stories. To put it simply alternate reality is the many world interpretation of quantum mechanics. One thought experiment that illustrates this is the famous Schrodinger’s cat. To put it simply, a cat is put inside a box lace a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. It will be killed at a specific time. According to Schrödinger the cat is both dead and alive until the box is opened. But there is also the possibility that two realities may exist, one where the cat is alive and the other where the cat is dead. To stretch it further, it is also proposed that for every choice we make we create an infinite number of alternate worlds or realities. Wooohhhh….

Do not ever think that quantum physics is purely theoretical because most of our technologies now uses quantum principles, look at your computer..

New Physics is exciting though I cannot understand its mathematics yet its hmmmm…implications are profound, freeing us from the deterministic yoke of classical physics. This also provides a more open and harmonizing insight on the relationship between freewill and determinism. Determinism do exist in the macro level of reality where Newtonian laws applies, and freedom subatomic level where the principle of uncertainty rule, or does not rule , or there are no rules at all.

Of course believing in these stuffs, though there are those who believe them and there have been researches and experiments that support one or more of these propositions made by quantum physicist, requires more faith than believing in God.

That is why faith must be deconstructed, criticized and must survive….because in reality, we may all just be residues of probabilities.

Heeee……gutom lang.

Musings...

The end of the school year is now officially over. Though we are still required to report to the school, to man the desk, so to speak, the atmosphere at the school is relaxed. The decompressing effect of vacation is being felt and enjoyed by all. I can see the faces of my co-teachers are aglow, fresh. I too, when I looked at the mirror notice that I have fewer lines than I used to have. I’m not saying I looked younger; I looked relaxed. Teaching is a very stressful job considering the population, the teaching load and the compensation.

Of course this relaxed aura will change when the school year begins this June. The smiles and laughter will be replaced with stern and authoritative looks. This is the lesson I learned from last school year: I did not keep a serious and stern countenance. I was too soft and inconsistent. A soft approach to the classroom is disastrous to a teacher because, like one of the master teachers told me, the teacher's softness will be taken advantaged of by the pupils. Generally speaking, she was correct. I was not feared. It has its good side though; my relationship with my pupils is a relaxed. Of course, in big classes relationship is the least of concern-classroom management is. So, I am practicing my new bull dog look and a new "marine" haircut to go with it.

One thing about teaching is that every year is a new year. What I mean to say is that every school year is like a being employed a new with a new company. Though physically I am still working in the same building, with the same people, each new classroom brings with it new things-people, situations and challenges. Each year is very, very different from the previous ones.

I will not be handling an advisory class next school year. This is good because I could not really handle all the administrative part of an advisory class. I found it difficult to keep tabs of the collection, the issued books, the classroom maintenance, the assigned ground area maintenance which must be done on a daily basis add to this the canteen trays…I sometimes wonder how I was able to accomplished all of this; poorly, may I say.

Looking forward to a new school year…I must now condition myself to waking up early in the morning.

Horcruxes, and Laptops-a reflection

It’s taking me too long to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Potter Series. When I was younger, I could finish a thousand-page novel in one single sitting.  Now I could barely read a hundred pages without my concentration being distracted.

Anyway, Harry Potter is busy looking of You-Know-Who’s horcruxes and this takes him to many adventures. (The name is tabooed and I don’t want death eaters appearing in our neighborhood because they might get beaten up by the neighborhood drunks that congregate by our gate). What interests me in the story is the concept of horcruxes. Horcuxes are magical materials where You-Know-Who has hidden fragments of his soul in order to attain immortality. So, in order to stop You-Know-Who Harry has to find and destroy these magical objects.

This has got me thinking about souls and laptops. The soul is a person. It is not the physical body for that is what we call a body. It is not the body and consciousness alone, for then we could call that an individual. We could then call the whole of our being, our existence, our memory, experiences, the whole gamut of our physical existence and also our subjectivity and inter-subjectivity and interaction with the inner and outer aspect of existence as the soul-breath of life inspired into a physical body. (Whew) I do not agree (I think the Bible is with me) that our soul is an evanescent-material or presence that leaves the body as we die. Or, I tend to take this more leniently, the soul is energy. Maybe it is,  If the soul is energy, then there is a  grain of truth in reincarnation, that is, it is in harmony the law of the conservation and transformation of energy: all of us are part of the never ending transformation and conservation of energy into matter and matter into energy, our existence and energy being transferred and transformed into organic and inorganic materials existing in an interrelated environment. Matter is energy and energy is matter. 

Somehow, it is not wrong to think that my consciousness may be experienced by another human being or an animal in the future since I am an energy transferred and transformed. And also, it is not wholly wrong to think of God and all of us as part of one whole-the Hindu Atman. There is truth in everything for we could only grasp parts. Anyway…

As Harry Potter destroys the horcruxes one by one, You-Know-Who is partly aware that a part of him is dying. Pieces of him are being killed and he is doing everything to stop it.

  I was watching foreign news on TV a lady being interviewed was crying because her laptop was stolen. “My whole life is in that laptop. Everything is in there.” So, the news organization helped in the search for her laptop; they set-up traps by leaving a transmitter equipped laptop on a table while a hidden camera watched if anyone would take the computer. The laptop was stolen and traced. Although, the lady’s laptop was not recovered, the show, showed the need for more security features for future laptops or any other mobile computers. But most important is that the incident showed how dangerous it is to put everything, informations and memories in an external mobile memory device/s.

It is amazing how a simple electronic device like laptops and mobile phones contains so much of an individual’s life that its loss could be so devastating that I could only liken it to You-Know-Who losing one of his horcruxes. A memory device, like a laptop, could contain a lifetime memory. It could contain pictures from birth to the most important events in the life of its owner that its lost could mean the lost of a part of  memories of his/her life. It could also contain important information like bank accounts, bank statements, deeds, and other documents; diaries, researches; in fact someone’s whole life may be encapsulated in such devices. Imagine a graduate student with all his/her research in a laptop and it gets stolen. 

Memory is an integral part of the soul. Even Biblically speaking, Jesus describes heaven as a place where residents knew each other; they have relationship based on prior acquaintances here on earth. Also, memory provides us with the foundation from our experiences from which we could process another experience to a higher experience and its assimilation and application to our existence. We cannot do anything without memory. According to Bergson, there is no consciousness without memory.

It is established that with the invention of writing, man’s (or humanity’s) capacity for memorization also declined because an external device has been invented to encode information and the need to store information in the head was lessened by cataloguing them in a list, and, even later in books. That is why in the earlier times, when few people could read, books are treated with reverence and awe, even sometimes they are attributed with mystical and magical properties. Of course today, we all know that they contain information and if they are imbued with revelations, the book itself and its contents have no power unless translated into belief and the belief transformed into a living faith by the reader.

As the need for information grew, also the need for storage devices grew. More and more memories are kept outside the head. Now our external memory device could store almost anything, even our genetic make up. It is now possible to think of Noah’s ark the size of coin.

 External memory storage devices are slowly containing not just information, somehow, I think; it is also starting to capsulate parts of our soul.

 This getting nowhere...I better eat my brunch..gutom lang.

Hot summer days and Those Young Girls

Summer is already here. The heat is already oppressive but the occasional gusts of wind provide relief. I can’t help but be nostalgic about summer vacation.

Every time summer comes, whenever my friends and I meet together, we have an unforgettable story that we always talk and laugh about.  This may sound embarrassing but since it happened a long time ago, and is now just one of those experiences from our youth that we reminisce with fun and a little embarrassment, I can tell about it without fear of hmmm…judgment.

We were 17 years old then. It was summer. My five friends and I had nothing to do, so we decided to watch a movie on my best friend’s Betamax. Our hormones were still pumping too much libido in us, so we decided to watch a dirty movie by Traci Lords called “Those Young Girls.”

We went to MRJ Taytay and rented the movie to the chagrin of the cute, young lady storekeeper. It’s Good Friday and we were renting a porno movie! Though we felt a little embarrassed, and she looked a little concerned, maybe, about her duty as a Catholic to observe the solemnity and holiness of lent, but still business is business; she gave us the tape.

My best friend and I were Baptists, we knew that it was a major, major sin to watch dirty movie. Though we were afraid of divine wrath, we were more concerned about being caught by my friend's older brother. So, we posted someone by the veranda to act as a look out to warn us if someone came home unexpectedly. We didn't want to be caught watching porno, it would be big trouble for all of us.

We were glued on the hot scene on the TV screen when we heard footsteps. We were surprised because our look out was also glued on the TV that he didn’t notice someone was climbing up the stairs. The unforgettable part was how we managed to eject the tape, threw the tape under the sofa, turned off the TV and pretended that we, the six of us,  were just having a wonderful time talking about nothing. Of course, our silence, the sweaty and the flushed look gave us away easily.  The first thing that my friend’s brother did was to look under the sofa…we scrambled for our lives.

The tape was confiscated and according to my friend…hmmm...His brother also watched the tape. (Of course, I  don't know for sure.)

Wiling wili sa issue

What’s the brouhaha with Willie’s show?

TV is being dominated by Willie Revillame, again. What is it with Willie? A few years ago, he was caught cheating on a game portion on his TV show. Another issue that will forever hound him was the Ultra stampede where there were deaths and many injuries. Now, he is being charged with child abuse when he made a young boy perform a macho dance on his show.  

Though I find nothing wrong with the performance of the little boy because even little girls sometimes do sexy dance on live TV too, but what is offending is that the Willie made the little boy dance for cash, urging him like a professional gay bar dancer. What made it worse is that the boy was in tears. Willie is doing this for fun, I know, but this is distasteful; he has to be sensitive to his audience for not all of them are crass, or naive or ignorant. My former professor in graduate school loves Willie. Even I, sometimes watch his show because of its unpredictability and spontaneity. There are really funny portions in the show, especially the family apir.  A little political correctness would not do his show harm.

Anyway, I just don’t like the way he manipulates his audience especially the poor, elderly and the children with special needs.  Also the image of a financial messiah cum Santa Claus that he is projecting gets on my nerves. The way he twitches his face to show compassion to his needy audience some how seems too artificial to me. I could be wrong, of course.  Anyway, he is still a good entertainer and live TV shows especially comedies are not known for their propriety and correctness.

I wish Willie well for despite everything, he has gone a long way from being one of Randy Santiago’s hawi boys to being one of the most popular, if not the most popular, TV host and this attests to his industry, perseverance and talent. He is a survivor. He is tough for he stood his ground against TV moguls which in itself deserves a little hmmm…respect. But he has kicked a lot of butts and somehow, as the saying goes, these butts maybe the butts that he maybe kissing on his way down in the future. One can only make so many enemies.  

For Willie, this time the most prudent thing to do is to apologize, admit his errors and move on. He should not resist public opinion for he knows that the sponsors of his show depend on public opinions for their endorsements. They sell products; they need to project an impeccable image.  Some advertisers have already pulled out their sponsorships because of the issue.

Another, he should also change his lawyer because his lawyer’s arguments and defense are illogical and insane. De Vera is appealing to the emotions, attacking personalities, and not exploring the issues at hand.

Also Willie should not mobilize his fans or at least he should discourage them from holding rallies-it’s pitiful to see them holding those placards. These people do not know the issues at hand-they do not have a grasp of what’s happening and he should not give the impression that he is manipulating these poor people for his own self interest. If he really loves his fans, he should tell them to stand down for these are legal and ethical issues that do not concern them at all.

The two weeks self imposed (or is it network) suspension should give him time to think these over and its time he start listening to people who would tell him things as they are.

 I have said too much…

Baguio weekend

A lot of people are going up to Baguio. Most of them are students taking advantage of the summer break.  On the bus, with us, are soccer players and mountaineers. From the snippets of conversations I hear from them, the climbers are going to Mt. Pulag, also, obvious from the T-shirt that they are wearing. They are from UST and I think they are philo majors because they are discussing a lot of philosophy-or maybe they just like to discuss philo.  The soccer players are from La Salle, or their opponent maybe from La Salle, hard to tell from their conversations. There’s an inter-school or inter-organization league of some sort going on in Baguio. I can't help but hear people talk even though I try not listen to them. The bus is a claustrophobic place to be in.  

Baguio looks nice. The flowers are in bloom especially in Burnham Park. Last year, when I went there, the city looks dry and dusty.

 Nothing’s changed much in Burnham since I first visited the city about 10 years ago. The chess players out to gyp a few pesos from unsuspecting victims are still there. The cameramen with their shutter cameras offering to take portraits are also still there.  In this age of digital cameras, I don’t know how are they still able to eke out a living out of taking portraits using their old film cameras- they are becoming anachronisms.   

The Seventh Day Adventists are still very active engaging passers by with offers of Bible studies. I admire them for their dedication. What I miss are the Buddhists with their percussions, guitar and chants handing out literatures and friendly smiles to promenaders. Hmmm….come to think of it, they may not be Buddhist; they maybe Krishnas or Hindus…they are fun to watch and to listen to.

There’s a little difference that I notice though. One part of Burnham Park is now an open food court. Street foods, meriendas as well as lunch are served in kiosks. I assume that the food being served, somehow, passed the city’s health inspection. Anyway, I ate siomai, halo-halo, fishball, kwek-kwek all in succession. The milk in the halo-halo must have reacted with the acids of the sauces that I felt bloated, up to now.

My mother and my sister are hooked on Baker King. I had to go to the bedroom so that I will not be infected with the Korean virus. My mother loves the series so much, that, I think, this is the fifth time she had watched it in marathon.

My daughter is disappointed because the internet connection is down. Good for her, may I say.

I am sleeping when my wife wakes me up because my grade leader texted her asking me to report on Monday for some corrections in my reports. I have to go home. Anyway, two days rest did a lot of good for me physically.

Sometimes to take a meaningful rest, you have to physically get away from it all.

Heretical thoughts...rated R

Will Jesus (Christ) qualify to be a Christian when he ate with sinners in one table before the public eye?

I was intrigued by this question that I have read from sister’s FB wall. My personal and hypothetical answer to this question is that he would not. I think he himself would disown Christianity (the organized religion) as it is today. I was reminded of Nietzsche’s words:

Truly, too early died that Hebrew whom the preachers of slow death honor: and that he died too early has since been a fatality for many. As yet he knew only tears and the melancholy of the Hebrews, together with the hatred of the good and the just - the Hebrew Jesus: then the longing for death seized him. Had he only remained in the desert and far from the good and the just! Perhaps he would have learned to live and learned to love the earth – and laughter as well!

Believe it, my brothers! He died too early; he himself would have recanted his teaching had he lived to my age! He was noble enough to recant! But he was still immature. The youth loves immaturely …

Jesus was rebel.  He was a rebel against organized religion. He saw the absurdities that religious dogmatism created. The idea that the law of God interpreted and then reinterpreted to the point that it run counters to the basic law of common sense drove Jesus to teach common sense. There is nothing earth shaking about the teachings of Jesus. In fact, the simplicity of his teachings testify to its divinity. 

Most of his teachings are contained, if not verbatim at least in principles, in the teachings of other sages. There are other religious teachings and myths analogous, but not similar and the same, with the teachings of Jesus. It is quite unproductive to prove the originality or uniqueness of the teachings of Jesus to prove his divinity or deity. I think, the fact that his teachings has some, even at a superficial level, analogy with the teachings of other sages of other religions is a testimony to the truth of God’s general revelation.

The teachings of Jesus are simple because they were not really meant to be complicated and highly abstract. His teachings were meant to be understood by the people of common sense and to be confounding to people who are experts of the laws. The teachings of Jesus was difficult to understand to the experts because they run counter to the way they think, they could find no permutations to his teachings that they could reconcile with their laws.  

Why?  Experts of the laws think differently. They are, as Jesus when describing them, aptly used these words…”whited sepulchers…filled with bones.” They think they are just; hence Jesus describes them as whited sepulchers, because of the specificity of their laws and it’s careful word for word and step by step study, interpretation and its application gave them legalistic righteousnesses for the technicalities of the law shod them with authority and prerogatives that somehow, in the process, Jesus saw that the spirit of the law has died and what emerged is a monster that has become a tyrant to his people.

 Now look at what happened to Christianity? Its two thousand years of History? Isn’t Christianity has become the very thing that Jesus’ fought? Would Jesus even recognize it? 

Sometimes I wonder about Paul since most of the Christendom’s conflict came from his theologizing of Christ’s simple teachings.  I have often wondered that if Jesus was alive during Paul’s missionary time, would he have accepted Paul’s theology. Would he have acknowledged Paul’s teachings? Paul has given too much Greek abstractions to the simple teachings of Jesus that it somehow destroyed the unity, harmony and graspability of the teachings of Jesus.

Of course, this is just a hunch, isn’t it possible that the teachings of Jesus is a different gospel form those of Paul’s? Isn’t it possible that the message of Jesus was so diluted with Greek that the legalism that killed Judaism is now being repeated by a hydra with a different head, instead of legalism, Christianity is being  killed (or was murdered) by abstractionism?

These are some of things that have bugged me for a long time. Haa....faith. Drives me crazy! How wonderful must it have been to experience the simplicity of the early, pre-Bible Christian's faith-centered on Jesus and not on a book.

 To answer the above question,  I think, if Jesus is alive today, he would be dining with gays, lesbians, pornographers, drug addicts in the same way he has done two thousand years ago. He would not expound Christian doctrine but he would expound the love of God. We, who call ourselves Christians will, I am sure, crucify him again!

My gulay, I have eaten too much ice cream!