Sunday, March 14, 2004

Thoughts of the week

Here I am sitting infront of my computer on this quiet Sunday morning trying to add some new thoughts to my blog. This week had basically been quite low key. It’s pretty normal, always the same after concert, slacking around for a week or so before the pace starts picking up again.

The SAF Bands’ new White House Complex will be officially opened by our Chief of Defence Forces, Major-General Ng Yat Chung on 16th March 2004, next Tuesday. Preparations for this big day, a new chapter for the SAF Bands, had been going on throughout the entire week. It’s beginning to feel National Day’s around the corner with all the coloured flags and unit colours hanging all around the place. The White House now looks like some kind of plantation with all the new trees, real and plastic, standing around. I wish I could show Reader some photos but cameras are prohibited in camp.

Over dinner on Friday, I had a mini discussion with some of my friends on religion. For those who don’t know, I’m a free thinker. My rational is purely scientific; I had always viewed myself as a practical person who doesn’t believe in any superior being who controls your entire life. I always think that your own life is in your own hand! Perhaps I do say that I believe in fate, what’s destined to be yours will be yours. That same view is adopted by Christians as God’s will, am I right to say?

Frankly, I initially thought that this topic is quite sensitive and maybe I shouldn’t be even talking about this here. On second thoughts, this is MY blog and contains what I think. So it’s up to the Christian Reader to disagree with what I feel and think. It’s not that I’m aiming Christianity or anything, it just so happened that the other 2 friends who were sitting at the same table over dinner are Christians and so we just talked about Christianity.

I’m quite most of the non-Christian Readers would had have some experience whereby you are approached by Christians to share with you their teachings, etc. I myself had a very bad experience way back in secondary school. While eating lunch with my friend at an entertainment centre. This middle aged man just sit down next to us and proceeded to share God with us. In a way, I was quite disturbed and disgusted when he pointed out this verse in the Bible. I cannot remember the exact words but it went something like: People shouldn’t pray to wooden statues. Fine, I accepted that. What I couldn’t accept that was after that he went to criticise other religions by saying that the decorations on Hindu temples were hideous. That’s a TRUE quote. For the uninformed, Hindu temples normally have very high roofs on which there are many statues of Hindu deities. These deities may be in the form of a human being, animal or a human body with animal head. This man, in my opinion, was arrogant and extremely disrespectful of others!

True, I don’t believe in any superior being, but I respect all religions. It’s your own choice. I sometimes thinks Christianity is a bit “stuck-up” in the sense that it proclaims itself to the “correct” religion. Fine, that is correctly what a Christian should believe. But it doesn’t necessarily apply to the rest of us. If everything is true, I accept that I will go to Hell on Judgement Day if there is one. But there is one big “IF”. What IF it is wrong? There are so many religions out there. Some are closely related, like Islam and Christianity. Some are not. Just look at how Catholics and Christians don’t agree with each other. So who’s right?

I can list at least 2 relationships that didn’t work out because both girls were Christians. That got me to think a lot about religions. As my good friend put it, you can never be sure that you won’t accept anything at the end of the day. He labelled me as “proud” for refusing to accept God. Am I really “proud”? Maybe I am. Maybe I am not. I don’t know. I just seem not to be able to relate to anything. I’m still open to anything, anything could happen in the future. No one knows what’s in store for him or her. In my own view, life on Earth is just a small chapter in history. You make your own history. No one else do.

Just look at how the universe started. There is the “Big Bang” theory, or you can look at how God created the world. I’m more to the scientific side as I stated earlier. Had anyone wondered what was in the universe before the Big Bang? Is it like the Matrix? Another universe that had ended? Maybe the previous universe just exploded to create a new universe? The universe is so vast; you can take the whole surface area of Earth and draw a small dot in the middle. Even so, it would still be too big to represent the size of Earth in relation to the whole universe. Can we conclude that one God is looking after all this? Then what is His origin? What was He doing before the Big Bang? Why is God He? Why not Her? I don’t know. Let the learned and wise ones decide. I will just live my life as it is. For now.

Just in case Reader thinks I’m slamming any religions here. I sincerely tell Reader that I was not. Having grown up in a multi racial and religion environment, I had every absolute respect for ALL religions. These are just my thoughts. Should Reader have any disagreement or corrections to point out, kindly e-mail me from my e-mail link at the top of the page. Thank you!
fjozn at 11:02 AM