'If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.'

Woody Allen

Who designed the designer? That is one strong argument.

Talking about forgiving...

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even “sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners’, expecting to be repaid in full. But love you enemies, do good to them.”

Luke 6:32-35

The other day I was talking about forgiveness with my friend and my friend pointed out that I was being could not be bothered with someone from my past instead of choosing to forgive him. Could not be bothered as in I carry on with my life and whatever happens to him and his life is none of my business, out of sight, out of mind. He then proceeds to convince me that I should TRULY let it go.

What does it mean to truly let it go? What does it mean to truly forgive? Forego your right to get even with someone when opportunity gives you the chance to do so to someone who hurt, offend and causes you so much pain at one point of your life? Do you have to go extra miles than that?

If you chose to forgive because your Father in heaven forgave you at the first place, does it mean you did that because you SHOULD forgive like your Father instead of you WANT to forgive? Is there a difference to you?

Then there is a fine line between to THINK that you forgave someone and you ACTUALLY did. How could you tell which is which? Where is the line again?

Luckily it takes me a lot to hate someone. Hate is a strong word. I have people telling me that they do not hate anyone, which I am, quite surprise to hear that and there are people who dislike so many people in their life. People annoy me from time to time but that is life. Sometimes it could be you are just having a bad day and sometimes people decided to be mean or they think they are being funny, unknown to them in expense of a “stab” on your chest.

It takes a lot of energy to hate someone and worse of all, it is not harming the person in any way at all unless the feeling further propels you to take action to get back at him. It is also hard to pretend that something never happened and forgiving is just so hard.

Where do you draw the line? Did you choose to love instead of seeking revenge? Did that make you feel that you are a little superior compared to others deep in your heart? When the person repeatedly took advantage of you, will you still be persistence and continuously choose to love him back?

We are constantly comparing ourselves with others in life, from the gadgets we have, academic results to our parents and basically just everything and suddenly we are not allowed to compare anymore when it comes to certain thing. If not, we are considered substandard and fall short of some prescribed new norm. Some people believe in doing more, pushing the boundary, edge and limit but that itself is a comparison.

Where is your line within the greyish area at the end of the day or you believed in lingering in the white extreme only?

Religion....

I was browsing through the e-book lists when this book by Robert Spencer hit me by surprise.

The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion

No offense to the Muslims out there. It even made it to the bestseller list.


Mahatma Gandhi's words too surprises me a while back.

I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.

Lastly, something Mother Theresa wrote..

How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, ... What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true.

GOD

Let’s start writing before I forget.


First of all, posting this for someone to read.

Romans 8:18-21
18.I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19.The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20.For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21.that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

My thoughts: I believe even before your eternal life, you will enjoy the fruit of what you are sowing right now. Every incident in life would make us grow in a certain way.


Matthew 19
The Rich Young Man
16.Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17."Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
18."Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19honor your father and mother,'[d] and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'[e]"

My thought: I kind of ponder upon the similarity of Christianity and Buddhism at that time. If we look at Exodus 20,

3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."


My thoughts: And so now I know why Christians go to church on Saturday or Sunday.

So now we shall look at the eight percepts of Buddhism. The main difference of percepts and commandments is that they are to be taken as recommendations. This means the individual is encouraged to use his/her own intelligence to apply these rules in the best possible way. Second, it is the spirit of the precepts -not the text- that counts, hence, the guidelines for ethical conduct must be seen in the larger context of the Eightfold Path.

The first five precepts are:
Prevent taking life of beings. Every living being has a right to life and it should be honoured by one and all.
Prevent taking things not given. One should neither steel nor accept things meant for someone else.
Prevent sensual misconduct. One should not only refrain from sexual misconduct but also avoid excessive sensual pleasure of any kind (like gluttony).
Prevent making false statements. This not only includes lying but also slander and speech that might cause harm to others.
Prevent taking substances that cause intoxication. This precept is important in the sense that it could be the cause of other four precepts being broken.

The Theravada Buddhists however also observe three more precepts on special holy occasions.
Prevent taking food at unsuitable time – from noon one day to sunrise next day
Prevent any form of entertainment as well as items used to beautify one.
Prevent the use of high, luxurious beds.

Taken from here and online bible sources.


Part 3,
Two weeks ago someone said,

Some people always said in order to understand it; you have to go through it. To help those drug addicts the best you could, it is better if you have experienced it before.

[My thoughts: you will be in a better position to help people because you understand them, so it is true]

But I am here to tell you that that is a lie. It is not true. Why? Because it would immediately disqualified Jesus from helping people.

[My thoughts: These make sense as well. I have never thought of it that way.]

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30)

Jesus Christ was the visible image of the invisible God. Christ said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (John 14:10)

[My thoughts: Why are we comparing ourselves to someone that is perfect. Although we are created in the image of God, we are not perfect because we sin and sinned. ]

I guess I would stick to “Some people always said in order to understand it; you have to go through it.” part for now.

THE RIVAL TO THE BIBLE

Just as I thought I wouldn't be posting anything tonight, I saw this article in facebook.

By Roger Bolton

What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern equivalent. What's left out?

The world's oldest surviving Bible is in bits.

For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found - or stolen, as the monks say - in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.

Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation.

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible.

The Codex, probably the oldest Bible we have, also has books which are missing from the Authorised Version that most Christians are familiar with today - and it does not have crucial verses relating to the Resurrection.

Anti-Semitic writings

The fact this book has survived at all is a miracle. Before its discovery in the early 19th Century by the Indiana Jones of his day, it remained hidden in St Catherine's Monastery since at least the 4th Century.

It survived because the desert air is ideal for preservation and because the monastery, on a Christian island in a Muslim sea, remained untouched, its walls unconquered.

Today, 30 mainly Greek Orthodox monks, dedicated to prayer, worship there, helped as in ages past by the Muslim Bedouin. For this place is holy to three great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam; a land where you can still see the Burning Bush where God spoke to Moses.

The monastery itself has the greatest library of early manuscripts outside the Vatican - some 33,000, and a collection of icons second to none.

Not surprisingly, it is now a World Heritage Site and has been called a veritable Ark, bringing spiritual treasures safely through the turbulent centuries. In many people's eyes the greatest treasure is the Codex, written around the time of the first Christian Emperor Constantine.

When the different parts are digitally united next year in a £1m project, anyone will be able to compare and contrast the Codex and the modern Bible.

Firstly, the Codex contains two extra books in the New Testament.

One is the little-known Shepherd of Hermas, written in Rome in the 2nd Century - the other, the Epistle of Barnabas. This goes out of its way to claim that it was the Jews, not the Romans, who killed Jesus, and is full of anti-Semitic kindling ready to be lit. "His blood be upon us," Barnabas has the Jews cry.

Discrepancies

Had this remained in subsequent versions, "the suffering of Jews in the subsequent centuries would, if possible, have been even worse", says the distinguished New Testament scholar Professor Bart Ehrman.

And although many of the other alterations and differences are minor, these may take some explaining for those who believe every word comes from God.

Faced with differing texts, which is the truly authentic one?

Mr Ehrman was a born again Bible-believing Evangelical until he read the original Greek texts and noticed some discrepancies.

The Bible we now use can't be the inerrant word of God, he says, since what we have are the sometimes mistaken words copied by fallible scribes.

"When people ask me if the Bible is the word of God I answer 'which Bible?'"

The Codex - and other early manuscripts - omit some mentions of ascension of Jesus into heaven, and key references to the Resurrection, which the Archbishop of Canterbury has said is essential for Christian belief.

Other differences concern how Jesus behaved. In one passage of the Codex, Jesus is said to be "angry" as he healed a leper, whereas the modern text records him as healing with "compassion".

Also missing is the story of the woman taken in adultery and about to be stoned - until Jesus rebuked the Pharisees (a Jewish sect), inviting anyone without sin to cast the first stone.

Nor are there words of forgiveness from the cross. Jesus does not say "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".

Fundamentalists, who believe every word in the Bible is true, may find these differences unsettling.

But the picture is complicated. Some argue that another early Bible, the Codex Vaticanus, is in fact older. And there are other earlier texts of almost all the books in the bible, though none pulled together into a single volume.

Many Christians have long accepted that, while the Bible is the authoritative word of God, it is not inerrant. Human hands always make mistakes.

"It should be regarded as a living text, something constantly changing as generation and generation tries to understand the mind of God," says David Parker, a Christian working on digitising the Codex.

Others may take it as more evidence that the Bible is the word of man, not God.

source: here. <--BBC NEWS WEBSITE.

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The best rebuttal I can find.. I am not going to comment on this.

The current Bible is God's word. Of course it was written by man, but it was breathed into life by God. The way that it has over time, evolved into is present form is not important. Only those scriptures, in the form that God intended, have presently become the Bible. What is important is that the message that God intended is there for us all, and it has the power to change lives.
David, Leicester

GOD

How many of us are brought up believing that God's love is unconditional? I am. Well, it is not without condition all the time. At least the bible didn't put it that way.

Disturbing? Yes, it is.

John 3:16-18
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

John 14:21
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 14:23
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

John 15:10
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.


Conditional expression can be written in "If [certain condition exists] , then [the consequence follow]".


Matthew 5:43-5
43 You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 4 4But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.


This time, his love is unconditional but it is true according to the bible that God do hate some of us.

Psalm 5:4-6
⁴ You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell. ⁵ The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong.⁶ You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors.

Psalm 11:5-6
5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. 6 6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.


So, God is love is acceptable but God's love is unconditional certainly is not. Thought provoking.

SPEAKING OF GOD

Speaking of G.O.D. Sometimes, out of no where I will recall one or two story(s) in the bible told by my ex tuition teacher.

One particular story I remembered today was the part in Genesis 18 and 19 where god destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The story told by my teacher ends with Lot's wife looked back after being told not to and she became a pillar of salt. Genesis 19:26

My that particular teacher didn't finish telling the whole Genesis 19. Sometimes I do bug her to tell me stories because lot of stories in the bible are kind of fascinating.

There is even one about God sending fireballs down from heaven but I have yet to locate it again, not that I intend to anytime soon.

And today someone was telling how good God is but one Q that hit me pretty hard is why there are still suffering, war, natural disasters etc. The guy said "It is because we can't read God's mind and therefore we don't know the purpose of his plannings".

Of course I am not satisfied with that answer because it doesn't sound realistic although it might be true if He really exists. Other theories being put on is He wanted to punish those who sinned or He just want to get some attention as people tend to forget Him.

One particular theory that got my interest is this - it is Satan who is the destroyer. Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Satan was once a holy angel at the right hand of God in heaven (Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28). He rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven. " Jesus said, "the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies" (John 8:44).


So, the next big Q is why does God give Satan permission to destroy?

Satan deceived Eve and through her he led Adam to sin. Since Adam was the first man and head of the human race, Satan claimed that Adam had chosen him to become "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

The chaos in this world is caused by the fact that Satan is fighting to hold on to his claim to be the god of this world. He makes this claim on the basis that many inhabitants of the world have chosen him to be their leader.

And since God is Love, and His character is perfectly unselfish and just, his own love prevents Him from doing anything that is unfair. Satan claims that it would be unfair for God to interfere with man's free choice. Satan claims that God must allow those who choose Satan to follow him. God lets Satan demonstrate to the universe the consequence of sin when Satan has his own way.

A rebellious teen may choose to leave home because he/she finds the rules too restricting. He or she may find a cruel world waiting to teach them the harsh realities of life. The parents do not stop loving their rebellious son or daughter. They do not want them to be hurt, but they can do little to prevent them if they are determined to go. The parents hope and pray that the difficult realities of the world will bring them home much like the prodigal son in the Bible (Luke 15:18).

The next big Q is why did God create the devil in the first place?

The answer is that God did not create the devil. He created a perfect angel called Lucifer (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28). Lucifer, in turn, made a perfect devil out of himself. Lucifer tempted a perfect man and woman to sin. When they did so, they opened a floodgate of evil.

Why does God not kill the devil?

Some will ask: If it is not God's will for people to die, why does He allow it to happen? If it is Satan doing the dirty work, why does God not stop him? Have things gone beyond God's control?

God could have destroyed Satan. He could have destroyed Adam and Eve and started over. If He had done this, however, He would have been ruling from the standpoint of force, rather than love. In order for love to flourish, it must operate on the principle of freedom of choice. Without freedom to choose there would be no such thing as real love. We would simply be robots. God could let us keep the gift of freedom, however, and let us see the reasons for making the right choice by allowing sin to run its course.

I don't really buy the answer above though. We are told to fix any problem before it propagates or becomes bigger and bigger. What happen to this now?

Why is it so often the poor, the elderly, and the children who suffer the most?

Some would say it is not fair for the innocent to suffer. This is true. The point is that sin is not fair. God is fair, but sin is not fair. That is the nature of sin. When Adam sinned he gave himself and the human race into the hands of a destroyer. God allows Satan to become active in working through nature to bring about destruction as a consequence of man's choice. God does not want it to happen. He did not want Adam and Eve to sin. But he allowed it because He gave man the gift of freedom of choice.

A son or daughter may rebel against good parents and go out into the world and become a drug dealer. They may have children. They may abuse the children. This is not fair, yet it happens when people make wrong choices. A loving parent or grandparent would want to rescue abused children. This is why Jesus came to this earth (Mark 3:27)

source: here.