I was checking the stats on my blog (while I should be doing my perspective final assignment) and saw that someone had accessed my blog with the searchword "atheist" on Technorati. It was linked to my previous post. I checked the page he got my blog on, and saw a lot of other recent material with the word "atheist" in the posts. I searched through some Christian ones talking about atheists, and surprisingly, these were normal, critical people, not those "faith-only" religious nutjobs. Many others were atheistic websites and communities.
Then I clicked onto a link that said Penn had received a Bible. If you don't know, Penn and Teller are perhaps the greatest duo comedian magicians ever. And they're both very well known atheists as well. In Penn's autographs, he often writes "There is no God". Heh. Here's a video, his response to a gift of a Bible.
“I don't respect people who don't proselytize. If you really believe that there is eternal life and eternal damnation, how much to you have to hate somebody not to proselytize them?”
That coming from one of the more foremost atheists in the world. How humbling.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Aye... church today was nice.
I woke up at like 3pm today, and got ready to leave for church. My mom was going to Sunway area anyway, so she offered to drive me to church. Ah, nice. It's been a little tiring going to church with public transport in the last few weeks. I mean I went through worse when going to church in CHC SG, but well, I wouldn't mind if things are convenient sometimes =p.
It wasn't that convenient though. There was a huge thunderstorm and as a result, Federal Highway had a huge jam -.-. I reached church just in time for offering, and the sermon was the third (and it looks like final) part about Now That We Have Grown. Today it was about having greater capacity in the marketplace and in knowledge of our Christian faith. For the marketplace, Pastor Kevin expanded on more personal issues, like not being naive, even though we're told to be as innocent and harmless as doves in the Bible.
What really got my attention though, was the part about knowledge. Pastor Kevin touched upon the subject of Christian apologetics, my favourite. In case you don't know, Christian apologetics is not Christians apologizing -.-. Apologetics means a defense of a conduct or procedure, and for Christian apologetics, a defence of the Christian faith. He talked about how Christianity was a faith based on evidence, and that because of evidence, Christianity is an objective faith. It can be debated upon, and we need a reason for believing. Just believing because you believe is not a way to show how your faith is true.
Pastor Kevin also shared that our hearts can never rejoice what our minds reject. How can we enjoy the emotional part of Christianity if we reject the intellectual part? We'd be cheating ourselves. Also, he said that the resurrection was an actual event (which is backed up by compelling evidence, by the way), and whether we believe or not, it still happened. And that, by definition, makes all other religions false. That's why people who say that it doesn't matter what you believe, so long you're sincere, are deluding themselves. Sure, you can be sincere, but to quote Pastor Kevin "you can be sincerely wrong". Hitler was totally sincere in wiping out the Jews. Was it wrong? Yes. But he's sincere! If you truly believe that being sincere is more important that what you believe, then you are agreeing that mass murdering 6 million Jews is acceptable. And you can't say that's a special case, because then you'd be giving special cases to all the evil-doers of the world. Being sincere about doing good is also very ambiguous. Hitler did think he was doing good. In his eyes, Jews were the enemy of God because Jews were responsible for the crucifixion. What if the whole world believed in God, and agreed with Hitler? Would that make it right? No, it'd still be wrong, even if the whole world thought it was the right thing, sincerely.
Today's sermon gave me a lot of insights into the faulty arguments of the sincerity argument. It's ridiculous, but it sounds good. It makes us sound open minded. I was hit by it last time by a 12 year old kid. We were chatting, and he asked me what I believed in. I said I was a Christian. And he's like, it doesn't matter, so long as you do good and are sincere. He didn't say that in a very meek way either. He said it very firmly and quite arrogantly, as if he was trying to show that he knew more than me. Heck, kid, if that's what you really believe, go ahead. If you look at the argument though, and dig deeper, its a losing argument, as much as it sounds all so righteous.
I've always been more inclined towards the intellectual side of Christianity. Thankfully, I have a good mix of the emotional, spiritual and intellectual aspects of Christianity. But each person will have a main focus, and mine's intellectual. I like it 'cause its the best way of showing others why I believe, why I believe its truth. Spiritual things are very personal and hard to show others. Emotional things are not reasons enough for accepting a life-changing faith. You can feel happy about killing human beings too, and it would not be justified. That's why I value the intellectual issues, because it can be understood by all people (with an open mind, usually). Questions of honest integrity must be answered, and apologetics provides me with that.
I'm very touchy when people try to discredit Christianity. I am open minded, seriously. I can understand others views, their opinions and all, but it doesn't mean I accept it. But when people outright try to disprove Christianity, or bring up some huge biblical dilemma, then that gets me started. There's many reasons for me to believe, through spiritual, emotional and intellectual ways, and there's even more reasons why I defend it fiercely. That's why I read so much, Christian material, and anti-Christian material.
I rarely make such a long post on the weekend. However, the sermon talked about apologetics, a very intellectual issue for Christianity. I know many people aren't as focused in intellectual issues as I am. In fact, I only know 2. Anyway, why am I posting this? I was online and saw something mentioning Richard Dawkins, the so called high priest of atheism. Remember I bought The God Delusion? In the book, it claims to open up and enlighten people's minds, to show the problems religions cause in the world, and how religion (he says religion, but he's attacking Christianity in 90% of the book) as a whole is all fake and made up. He said he would open up minds to leave religion as a whole and embrace the freedom and life of atheism.
I finished his book last year, ironically during Asia Conference, the biggest Christian conference I've attended so far. He said he'd make the readers see the faults of religion and make them forget their faith. What about me? Has he fatally crushed my faith? Has he made a huge gap that's left me helpless in my faith? Did he do to me what he said he'd do in the book? No, my faith stands even stronger than before. Dawkin's said the book was the magnum opus of his atheist work. His best has only strengthened my faith, and from what I can see, it has done the same for many other Christians.
I'm getting my fire for apologetics back again, after last week's debate on religion, on whether it was relevant and holding us back. Now, after remembering about Richard Dawkins and his book, and today's sermon, I've got every reason to. Once my holidays start, I'll be writing a post, mainly a book review of The God Delusion. All the major arguments he makes, all the wrongs of religion and the problems it causes, I'll be countering them. He even uses a "God hypothesis" to compare to scientific hypotheses. What a faulty argument, although it sounds really good.
Heh... don't think I hate the book though. The God Delusion is one of my favourite books. Richard Dawkins has a brilliant sense of humour and scientific prowess to boot. Also, anything that strengthens my faith deserves good credit. Brilliant scientist as he is, he's a terrible philosopher and theologian.
He said that research and knowledge about leprechauns was not needed to disprove the existence of leprechauns. So why does he need to do the same for Christianity? Well, Darwin's dear dog (rottweiler, if you'd like to get specific), if what you're trying to disprove is little bearded men in green who have pots of gold, by all means. But if what you're trying to disprove is a faith on which the eternal lives of everyone in the world is hanging onto faith in Jesus Christ, I think you'd better damn well do your homework.
Chronicled
2:28 PM
e l e g y
Friday, March 13, 2009
The last few days have been hell. Yes,
hell.
Today, Friday, was our deadline for the InDesign project, where my group needed to reproduce an entire magazine. On Wednesday night, I had done quite a bit, and I thought I would continue at night and then send it. Then On Wednesday night, my internet was cut off, because my mom didn't pay the bills. Aiks. Okay, so I decided I'd go to school the next day, use the Wi-Fi and send it to Ryan, who'd compile it. No problem right?
At 3am, quite some time after I resumed my InDesign assignment, (since I had time) there was a blackout. What the hell! And I didn't manage to save my work. ZZZ! I had to redo all that again! Geez! I couldn't believe it. After the power was back on half an hour later, I continued my work till 7am, and I went to sleep.
Miki picked me up at 9am, and my sister tagged along 'cause she wanted to use the internet at my school. I spent the morning continuing the last few parts I didn't do, and that took quite a bit of time. Also "celebrated" Ruz's birthday by eating at Pasta de Gohan. The quantity is well... *sigh*. Went back to school and finished up the project, and I waited 2 hours to send it, but Ryan didn't come online, so I went to church for cellgroup meeting. Issey preached for the first time! Heh, about speaking in tongues, the sermon. After fellowshipping, I urgently needed to go back to church to send the assignment. Turns out that Ryan left his phone in the car, and didn't get my meesage that I was online -.-. Okay, after taking some time, it finally went through! Two bloody days just to send a file! And everything that could go wrong, did. Freak man. Zzz.
I went to school this morning at 11am, and we settled the remaining stuff for our group. Turns out we left quite a few details out. Aiks. Anyhoo, we also had our InDesign exam today, where we needed to recreate a pamphlet about tea. We only had 2 hours to reproduce 7 pages. It's bloody not enough time! I started out well, but around the middle it started bogging me down and in the end, I managed to complete all the pages, but I left out 3 parts, the section head, a table with figures and numbers, and a small icon. Zzz. Nevermind... at least its over, and I did satisfactory. To me at least -.-.
Neal and I joined Ruz, Kok Kin and Licia (happy birthday by the way) and some other girl in the arcade. My Time Crisis skills officially suck now. After an absence of God knows how long (and sucky guns, which adds to the factor why I don't play), I'm terrible! I was able to complete the game using only one continue (for all Time Crisis games, excluding 2), yet now I died in the 2nd stage for TC4. Crap man. Also there were Zi Yuan, Leno, Pauline, Chuan Ying and a bunch of other classmates who I still don't remember their names -.-. It's like it was a class gathering or something. Oh yes, I'm still undefeated in Para-para Paradise! I don't know why even though I don't know how to play, I still never lose, even to all the pros. Heh!
Today is also James birthday. Not the one in Singapore, but the cellgroup leader here in CHCKL. W32 (his cellgroup), W19 (my cellgroup) and a buncha other members from various cellgroups planned to go to his home and surprise him! W32 would spoil his mood by singing very pathetically for his birthday song, and ignore him throughout the meal. LOL! Freaking mean. So after a lot of phone calls to various people to track his position, he finally drove home... but not after spotting us on his porch! Aiks! He drove off instead of parking and wanted to counter-prank us by pretending to go to a friend's house. Lmao! In the end when he drove back to his house we just just ran to his car and sprayed and sang him happy birthday. Heh, had a few gifts given in his house plus the cake, and plenty of exchanging of words. Since I was following Ai Lee home, and she was tired, I needed to go off first. Oh well.
Best wishes, James! Hope we didn't spoil your mood and make you too emo before the actual surprise. LOL!
Chronicled
2:38 PM
e l e g y
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Children of older fathers have lower IQs, study finds
Children who are fathered by older men tend to perform worse in intelligence tests than the children of younger dads, Australian and U.S. scientists report in study they say is the first of its kind.
11/03/2009 7:42:53 AM
CTV.ca News Staff
But in an interesting contrast, children with older mothers tended to have higher scores in the same tests, the researchers found.
Lead scientist John McGrath, from the Queensland Brain Institute in Brisbane, says he found his own results "quite startling," as researchers had thought that the age of the father was less a factor in their children's outcomes compared to the age of the mother.
He notes the study has implications for men in Western societies who have delayed fatherhood until their 40s or older.
McGrath's examined data collected on more than 33,000 children in the United States between 1959 and 1965 fathered by men aged from 15 to 65, as part of the U.S. Collaborative Perinatal Project.
They found the children of older dads performed less well in intelligence tests conducted at age eight months, four years and seven years.
The older the father was when he had the child, the worse his children tended to do in the tests.
Regardless of their mothers' ages, children whose fathers were 50 years old had lower scores on all tests than those whose fathers were 20. The only exceptions were results of tests that assessed physical co-ordination.
The review found that kids born to 20-year-old men scored, on average, three points higher in the tests than children whose fathers were 50 years old when they were born.
In contrast, the older the mother, the higher the scores of the child in the tests, which measured reading, spelling, arithmetic ability, sensory discrimination and hand-eye co-ordination.
"Previous researchers have suggested that the children of older mothers may perform better because they experience a more nurturing home environment; if this is the case, this study suggests that children of older fathers do not necessarily experience the same benefit," the researchers wrote in a statement.
The research is published in the journal, PLoS Medicine.
The researchers said the lower scores from the children of older men may have to do with mutation in the father's sperm.
"Unlike a woman's eggs which are formed when she herself is in the womb, a man's sperm accumulates over his lifetime, which previous studies have suggested can mean increased incidence of mutations in the sperm at an older age," they wrote.
Women's eggs undergo 22 cell divisions in the womb, while male sperm cells have divided 150 times by age 20 and 840 times by age 50. This increased the chance of "copy error mutations" that could lead to health problems, the researchers said.
Recent evidence has demonstrated a link between older fathers and specific health problems in their children, including birth deformities and neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism and schizophrenia.
The researchers say that given the trend in the developing world towards older maternal and paternal ages, policy-makers may want to consider promoting awareness of the risks to children that may be associated with delayed fatherhood.I found that article from MSN Today. Hmmm... now I have an
excuse scientific reason to have kids earlier.
But not with online viruses though. Take a look at some screenshots.
What a moron. I know I didn't have a girl on Valentines, but you don't needa push it!
And here, these are some search words that people type and get access to my blog. Some are understandable, some are ridiculous. Celest Foo? Fine, I mentioned her quite a bit when I met her. My blog URL? Don't know who typed that, but obviously its normal. But Zelia the two faced bitch? How the hell do you link to my blog with those kinda search words? And kaobei ch** bye? Seriously, I don't type Singlish, how do you get my blog link with those words? And the ultimate one, he died while repairing a computer. LOL! What the hell! It amazes me what can link to my blog.
And you know what else amazes me? Identity theft on Friendster. Just for fun, I typed in my very first email address I had in my life, and I ended up with one match. It wasn't a forgotten Friendster account, but some moron called Rayner Tang. Oi! What's Rayner Tang got to do with Howe Foo? I'll sue you for identity theft I tell ya!
Chronicled
8:18 AM
e l e g y
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I've never hidden the fact that I love vampires. Then again, I haven't been very vocal about it either -.-.
And yes, I liked vampires
waaaaay before Edward Cullen and Blade came onto the scene. I'm not blindly following the trends like everyone else.
I hope this blogskin doesn't scare more people off. I know the previous skin freaked quite a lot of people. To me, this is even scarier. So uh... enjoy? Took around 3 hours for this to be done. The background was a killer -.-.
Anyhoo, I hate sunlight (that should be no surprise now), and apparently, so do these "vampires".
Chronicled
11:21 AM
e l e g y
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Ah, the weekends at last. Finally getting some rest. Well... my drama was a success! Woots! Most of us stayed at Ween Lin and Blake's place after our late-night practices and got ready in the morning for one final practice. I think everyone did really well. Except for a few scenes with really soft dialogue, and 2 particular sound effects, everything went as planned. The other groups also did very well too, and we all celebrated afterward. Yippee!
This is my group. I was the gruop leader (again, how predictable). We performed The Tempest. From left to right, is Ween Lin, acting as Caliban, my slave, Huey Fen aka Ah B, acting as Miranda, my daughter, and then me, acting as Prospero, the sorceror. Then there's Jonathan, acting as Prince Ferdinand, grandson of the king who betrayed me, See Jek, as Ariel, who's my spirit servant, Chew Li, acting as Stephano, who is actually Sycorax in disguise (an evil witch I supposedly killed last time), Blake as King Alonso, the son of the betrayer king, and finally, Pei Yeng, as Beatrice, a good but underappreciated crewmember of Alonso. Yeaps. By the way, that's not Chew Li's real hair. Its a wig -.-. We're all in full costume, except for See Jek.
There were 2 other groups who performed too.
This is Esther's group. I don't remember the original play. From left to right: Zi Yuan aka Philberta, Bee Khian, Esther (she's in CHCKL too), Hui Min aka Winky, Dien Tat aka Leno, Neal, Ee Jin and Meng Shen. During the practice performances in class, theirs was the messiest, but for the final performance, they did it really well. They've also got the most pretty gals in their group too -.-, lol.
And the final group that performed...
Ryan's group. They performed Othello. Nearly every major character dies, heh. In the group, there's Victor, Jun Yuan, Wai Yern, Pauline, Elaine, Wai Kwan, Chuan Ying (all the girls are lined up here -.-) and Ryan. Purely in terms of acting, I think theirs was the best.
Each of our groups had their strengths. For sound effects and costumes, my group rocked everyone elses socks. For Esther's group, it was the funniest (to me at least), and for Ryan's, most of them acted very well.
Our celebratory meal.
The people at the end weren't cast members, they were audience members. Anyhoo, after spending so much time practicing and getting to know my group members, suddenly, it's all over. Aiks. It was great getting to know them and all, and I must say congrats to all of them. You guys did very well, and its been an honour serving you. Heh.
Anyhoo, we also had Marion's final lesson, and debate. It was a free topic for the final one, and guess what the topic ended up being? Religion. Aye, that struck a nerve. I usually talk quite a bit during the debating sessions. Now that the topic was so personal, I shot back hard, except for one incident where I couldn't find my words -.-.
I had church on Saturday, and for the first time since moving here, my sister didn't make me late for service. At last. The second part of the new series by Pastor Kevin, it was very enjoyable. More on increasing our capacity to give and to serve, with a significant portion about ministries in church. I still haven't made up my mind... after being involved in cellgroup ministry for around 3 years, I'm at a loss when it comes to the other ministries. Pastor Kevin's words on serving others, not just in church or commmunity activities, struck a chord in me. Hmmm =).
Oh yeah, for pre-service prayer meeting, I ended up praying one-on-one with Heng, my cellgroup leader's boyfriend, and my subzone leader! Pressure alright! We also sang Here In My Life... its been ages since we sang it. Aye, my favourite Christian song, its one of the few that can actually make me drop tears just with the intro music.
Two more weeks till school ends. Luckily half the classes are over, and they're all ending soon. Aiks. I want my break. And I'm missing Singapore already.
Chronicled
12:33 PM
e l e g y
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The final performance of my drama is in 9 hours. And my group's the first group. Aiks. We're performing The Tempest (heavily modified), one of Shakespeare's greatest works, and I'm Prospero. God help us make it good.
Here's his final speech in the original play.
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own,
Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.*Applause*
Chronicled
12:30 PM
e l e g y
Sunday, March 1, 2009
It's been quite a tiring week. I finally slept properly on Friday. Anyhoo, on Thursday I finally did the finalized version of my East Meets West idea. It was approved on the spot, although it just required improvements. It was last minute work too. I did it in the car ride with Miki a few weeks back, and completed it in 20 minutes, coupled with an on the spot rationale I made up. It was accepted. Over half the classes ideas weren't accepted even though they spent hours at it too. Aiks.
There you go. East meets West. Statue of Liberty with a Japanese umbrella. There's a meaning to it, but I made it up on the spot, so it's not the real meaning, although it makes a hell load of sense. Oh yeah, on the left is a part of Toronto's business area. On the right is Singapore's. Just to make it more personal.
Weekends were fine. On Saturday we had service, although I was late, since Issey needed to pick up some new friends from KLIUC, quite a distance away. Both are from Africa, one from Nigeria, and I can't remember where the other guy was from. Keith preached that day, since Pastor Kevin was busy in Moscow. It was a light-hearted sermon about relationships, not the lovey dovey kind, but the normal type you have with everyone. Simple, but it was nice.
Afterward, we had fellowship at some place, and during the chatter, it somehow ended up being a topic of transvestites, gays, perverts and the like. All of us shared our experiences about our encounters with these kinda people. And man, it was just a revelation on how many people were victims to these morons. And yeah, I did share my "Good Service" story -.-.
Afterwards, on the way back home with Ai Lee, we decided to join Kean Hoong, Issey and Joanne for a midnight movie. It ended up being Love Matters, by Jack Neo. It's about the sexual issues that people face, and issues about fidelity and the like. It's a pretty good movie with a lot of humour peppered inside too. Makes you think quite a lot, and considering all the talk about sexual stuff during fellowship, this movie seemed like the "perfect" way to top off the whole day. I reached home around 3am, and played Resident Evil 4 on my laptop till 5am, where I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was dead -.-.
Oh, and hey, to a certain someone. Don't vent your anger on me when its unnecessary. Venting it to me is fine. Venting it on me is another thing. Watch it.
Chronicled
9:53 AM
e l e g y
What a moron. I know I didn't have a girl on Valentines, but you don't needa push it!
And here, these are some search words that people type and get access to my blog. Some are understandable, some are ridiculous. Celest Foo? Fine, I mentioned her quite a bit when I met her. My blog URL? Don't know who typed that, but obviously its normal. But Zelia the two faced bitch? How the hell do you link to my blog with those kinda search words? And kaobei ch** bye? Seriously, I don't type Singlish, how do you get my blog link with those words? And the ultimate one, he died while repairing a computer. LOL! What the hell! It amazes me what can link to my blog.
And you know what else amazes me? Identity theft on Friendster. Just for fun, I typed in my very first email address I had in my life, and I ended up with one match. It wasn't a forgotten Friendster account, but some moron called Rayner Tang. Oi! What's Rayner Tang got to do with Howe Foo? I'll sue you for identity theft I tell ya!
This is my group. I was the gruop leader (again, how predictable). We performed The Tempest. From left to right, is Ween Lin, acting as Caliban, my slave, Huey Fen aka Ah B, acting as Miranda, my daughter, and then me, acting as Prospero, the sorceror. Then there's Jonathan, acting as Prince Ferdinand, grandson of the king who betrayed me, See Jek, as Ariel, who's my spirit servant, Chew Li, acting as Stephano, who is actually Sycorax in disguise (an evil witch I supposedly killed last time), Blake as King Alonso, the son of the betrayer king, and finally, Pei Yeng, as Beatrice, a good but underappreciated crewmember of Alonso. Yeaps. By the way, that's not Chew Li's real hair. Its a wig -.-. We're all in full costume, except for See Jek.
This is Esther's group. I don't remember the original play. From left to right: Zi Yuan aka Philberta, Bee Khian, Esther (she's in CHCKL too), Hui Min aka Winky, Dien Tat aka Leno, Neal, Ee Jin and Meng Shen. During the practice performances in class, theirs was the messiest, but for the final performance, they did it really well. They've also got the most pretty gals in their group too -.-, lol.
Ryan's group. They performed Othello. Nearly every major character dies, heh. In the group, there's Victor, Jun Yuan, Wai Yern, Pauline, Elaine, Wai Kwan, Chuan Ying (all the girls are lined up here -.-) and Ryan. Purely in terms of acting, I think theirs was the best.
Our celebratory meal.
The people at the end weren't cast members, they were audience members. Anyhoo, after spending so much time practicing and getting to know my group members, suddenly, it's all over. Aiks. It was great getting to know them and all, and I must say congrats to all of them. You guys did very well, and its been an honour serving you. Heh.
There you go. East meets West. Statue of Liberty with a Japanese umbrella. There's a meaning to it, but I made it up on the spot, so it's not the real meaning, although it makes a hell load of sense. Oh yeah, on the left is a part of Toronto's business area. On the right is Singapore's. Just to make it more personal.