Sunday, March 25, 2007
Argh!! I missed hiking!!!!! I can't believe i overslept! How can my alarm clock not have rung?!! :( :( :( i really wanted to do something with the outdoors club.... :(
Sigh. Oh well, i ended up playing badminton instead at Slaughter gym (i still think that name's amusing) and i realise i can still play, albeit very badly :p I guess i'll try to go regularly for this. They have it every friday, 7-9pm (i think) and saturdays, 11-1pm. Thereafter i decided to go for a run just to get rid of excess energy, so went back to the AFC, did a mile or so and saw Cecil playing basketball. Cecil's a pretty cool guy! I think he's (1) very intelligent - SIA scholar (2) damn buffed - topped OCS (3) really really nice :)
So i had lunch with him and some of his dorm people. We barbequed our own (very unhealthy) hamburger patties & made hamburgers for ourselves! Haha. I must say that that was the best tasting meal I've ever barbequed! Barbequing during chalets in Singapore result most often in buttery sausages, corn wrapped in aluminium foil and chicken wings/drumlets that take AGES to cook :p
Well, over lunch we had a very interesting conversation about religion. He, like Yi-Xian, is a monotheist freethinker. So although he's been to church before, he tells me that he has yet to take that 'leap of faith' into Christianity (or whatever other religion). Naturally, I invited him to come to church with me in Singapore, although I think I should try to bring him to one here, once I settle down in one myself. Anyway, he said that he feels that every monotheistic religion is probably worshipping the same God, just in different ways. I think it could be true, in a way, and thence proposed to him what i learned in personality psych about Carl Jung and his theory of Collective Unconscious. Jung posits that every human being has a part of the unconscious mind common to everyone else. This unconscious contains archetypes that are sort of symbols that are manifested by all people in all cultures and exists prior to experience. It can therefore be said to be somewhat instinctual (think Clan of the Cave Bear). So I feel that every human knows innately that God exists and religion is simply a human structure in response to His existence.
The one thing that differentiates Christianity, however, is Christ. The Son of God, the Son of Man, the Saviour, Redeemer & the Lamb. Christianity advocates that Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life" He himself said that "No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6). So although Christians believe in the Holy Trinity, it is undoubtedly a monotheistic religion, where the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God and each is merely a different form of the same thing (like ice cubes, water & water vapour). So even though Judaism, Islam etc are also monotheistic and in fact, share similar history and teachings as the Bible, they are still not saved, because they are not acknowledging God in His entirety. That was what Erin and I were talking about when i came back...
So Cecil's theory is that it doesn't matter which religion you choose. And that its what experiences you've had in your life that influences which religion you ultimately follow. But, as I've explained above. I really feel that it matters! So i need to work harder to save all my friends *hugs them* As with all humans, though, there is always the sense that we do not know everything and that nagging thought "perhaps we're wrong...?" This brought to mind one of the "if" questions that Li and i used to talk about a long time ago: "If you could ask God one thing, what would it be?" To which her sage answer was, "I'd ask him which is the 'right' religion" so that everyone can be saved and there'd be no need for religious wars and confusion etc. Still, i guess we're not meant to know the answer or He'd have told us already right? So life = dealing with imperfect knowledge and doing the best we can given our lot on Earth.
Today's newsbite
Heavy casualties in Sri Lanka amid fighting between the Government and the rebel Tamil Tiger forces as they were engaged in combat along the de facto border in the Vavuniya district.
History:
Tamil Tigers = Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are a rebel group who have been waging a 35-year campaign (since the 1970s) for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's 12.5 percent Tamil minority in this majority Buddhist nation of 19.5 million people. They seek to secure a separate state in the Tamil majority regions to the North & East of Sri Lanka. However, they are also listed as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries & was founded by Velupillai Prabhakaran who is wanted by Interpol for terrorism, murder, organized crime and terrorism conspiracy.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in a new wave of fighting in Sri Lanka since December 2005, despite there being a truce in place since February 2002.
4:39 AM