30 October 2013

Do you believe in the Devil?

Justice Scalia surprised the New York Magazine by saying that he believes that the Devil is real.  Do you believe that the Devil is real too?

Apparently the interviewer doesn't.  It seems that the interviewer was surprised that any learned people today would believe in the devil.  So Justice Scalia had to explain himself.

He has read the Screwtape Letters.  He has read the Bible.  He believe that the Devil is alive and deceptive and continues to try to trick people away from the ways of the true and righteous God.

What do you believe?  Is it folklore to believe in the Devil?  Is it superstition?  Is it a concept from the old days that we no longer need today?  Should the devil be confined to the horror genre of fiction, and not be treated seriously?

What about the Bible?  Should the Bible be treated as fiction too?

Why do you believe what you do?

21 October 2013

The name Allah

Does the word "Allah" meant to be exclusively for Muslim use?  Or is it open for anybody in the world to use?  What do you think?

Apparently, this debate has resurrected in Malaysia.  I do not understand why Malaysian Muslims which to reserve that word for themselves instead of sharing it.

Apparently, it is only in Malaysia that this debate happens.  Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and other countries are okay for the word "Allah" to be used by non-Muslims.  And the etymology of the word shows that the word has been used for centuries even before Mohammad was born.  Historically and linguistically, it is not a word that is exclusively Islamic.

However, there are also issues like "blasphemy" - misusing the name of God, and "confusion" - people thinking that another god is being referred to when the same name is used.  I don't see a problem with these issues.  I understand that the names of Hindu gods are used by the Nepali, the names of Greek gods are used by Italians, etc, among cultures that share the same mythology.  But I appreciate that other people might.

I see the calls of the Perkasa leader to ban the Alkitab in Malaysia, and calling the Christians as ungrateful to be quite extreme, even so.  If there is freedom of belief and respect for the fact that the word is not exclusively an Islamic one, then there is no abuse and no need for "retaliation".

I think that people should be better informed and more accepting of each other than what that speech says.

What do you think?  Is this a provocative issue?  Should it be?  What does the word "Allah" mean to you?

14 October 2013

Patience

"Can you wait for God's timing" was the challenging question that came from my devotion time this morning.

The Bible passage I looked at was 1 Samuel 26.  David and Abishai crept into Saul's tent and stole his spear and water bottle.  David did not kill Saul at this point.  It was against his conscience to do so.

However, David is a man who has killed before.  And he was a hunted man.  He could have changed his situation for the better if he had taken this opportunity to kill his enemy.

This wasn't his first opportunity either.  David had previously spared Saul's life in 1 Samuel 24, while Saul was taking a leak.

David was prepared to wait it out for an indefinite period, knowing that Saul would meet his demise at some stage, and he would take over as king then.  He did not need to rush into that.  He did not need to end his suffering early.  He would just wait, even if it was years before it happened.

Are we like this?

As I think about my aging, and what I wish to do before I became too old, I realise that I am not always patient.

As I think about the many roles I play, and the rush from one task to another, I think that I am often in a hurry.  I do not wish to remain at University for too long.  I do not wish to be idle for too long.

And when I think that Jesus is coming back again, I too wish that it would happen soon enough before the Church went into too much suffering.

How unlike the early church, who was willing to suffer knowing with certainty that it will meet Jesus!

How about you?  Are you looking forward to meeting your Master?  Can you wait for it to happen?  Or are you in a hurry to get there?

How do you feel about hard times?  Are you patient, allowing your suffering to prolong?  Or do you wish to end it quickly?

07 October 2013

Comparing two cities

What thoughts would pass through your mind if you were needing to relocate to another culture?  Would you be filled with excitement or apprehension?

The play Manakottai reflected on these questions in a humourous way.

The play contrasted two families.  One family with two children were leaving Chennai, India for Sydney, Australia.  Another family had one child, and was leaving Sydney, Australia for Chennai, India.  Both families transit at Changi Airport, Singapore for a time.

Both families are Tamil.  They both have a teenage daughter.  The family of four also had a younger son.  The parents have lived in Chennai before.

The family going to Sydney looked forward to a culture where the mother has the freedom not to be housebound.  The family returning to Chennai was looking forward to a culture where the mother did not have to spend hours in traffic driving, and could concentrate more on cooking Indian dishes for her family.

The family going to Sydney was looking forward to higher wages.  The family going to Chennai was looking forward to a lower cost of living.

The family going to Sydney was looking forward to less congested housing.  The family going to Chennai was looking forward to more connectedness.  We are able to laugh at the fact that the family coming from Sydney had a doctor in the neighbourhood but did not know it.

One of the issues that confronted me were the teenage daughters.  The one who had gotten used to the Sydney environment did not want to return to her parents' homeland.  She thought it embarrassing to have to dress up in Indian clothes and have a plaited hairstyle instead of wearing shorts and having her hair dyed red.  She did not like the idea of living in a city where there were power outages every 15 minutes with high humidity.  She preferred to be with the friends she had come to connect with in Sydney.

The lass from Chennai too loved her friends in Chennai.  She loved that place in spite it being so different from Sydney.

Are we like this?  We love our friends and our conveniences, and do not wish to leave?  Especially after experiencing our adolescence with these peers?

How would you contrast these cultural differences?  Would you look forward to change, or prefer to be comfortable in the environment you are used to?  Why do people undergo the stresses of such changes in our global society these days?

How would you feel if you were forced to leave the environment you have become used to, and be expected to live in a different one?


04 October 2013

Arrested at a library

Ross was online with his notebook at the science fiction section of a San Francisco library when the police arrested him.  He apparently had posted a question on a forum using his real name.  He quickly changed to a pseudonym, but his "error" was enough to catch the attention of the police.  The police had been looking for him because of some computer hacking, narcotics trafficking and money laundering activities.

How closely do the police watch what happens on the internet?  How quickly can they act on this information?  There are millions of routers on the internet, and millions more hosts.  Each host may have several channels of data streams going simultaneously.  Most of these are encrypted, especially if they run across wireless networks as public wi-fi services are.  Even with the help of software to filter out keywords, I think it is impossible to track everything.  Especially in a matter of minutes.

I am amazed to realise that internet traffic can be policed so quickly.  We know that information stored on public servers such as Gmail is not private, as Google and the police have the ability to search these.  But for them to find anything quickly seemed unlikely to me - until I read about Ross' arrest.

What do you think?  Do police, hackers, data miners, etc. have the ability to track information that quickly?  Or was finding Ross a fluke that happened in the police's favour?

In any case, the story reminds me that the Bible tells us to "be sure your sin will find you out".  Do you think that is true?

Even if one can elude the police who has finite knowledge, it would be impossible to hide from God, who knows everything.

So what can we do?  How can we handle our sin?  Please share what you think.  Thank you.