Truths or Lies: What Happened This Morning

What would you prefer, a comforting lie or a biting truth?

They say that truth hurts. But why hurt yourself with the truth when you can have a comforting lie? The answer to this question would vary from different people and depends on different cases/scenarios. Some people would prefer the comforting lie rather than the biting truth. Some would not.

Well I got the unfortunate chance to choose between these two this morning. I actually liked to solve or respond to these kind of ethical dilemmas but this morning was (I guess) a little different and a little serious (for me at least). When I was in college we have this subject called Philo 107 (Moral Philosophy) and we got the chance to solve different ethical dilemmas and situations and I really liked it. But we were in the classroom that time solving. This morning was different. It was real.

So here's what happened.. I just had my final interview for the company I am applying for this morning. I did my preparations before the interview. I did a little research about the company and I tried to anticipate and rehears some answers to some possible and common interview questions the night before the interview. Meaning that I already had prepared some answers even before the interview started. Then it was 9am and it was time for the interview. I was very relaxed and confident because I knew that I really prepared for that. The questions were really common (and I guess easy than I anticipated) and I had prepared answers to each of them.

BUT suddenly, there's this one question that made me think and ponder for a while. "What is your weak point?", the interviewer asked. I knew that I prepared an answer to that. But I also knew that the answer I prepared was a "strategic weakness". Meaning a lie. The night before that, I decided to prepare a "strategic-weakness-answer" when I would be asked by that question. It's because I don't want to expose my weaknesses so that no one could exploit it (WTH, oh the paranoid me). Also I knew and anticipated that if I would tell truth about my weakness, the interviewer (he's the Plant Manager btw) would not like my answer. Thus risking my application.

Two things ran into my head that time, "truth or lie". Should I tell the truth and risk my application or should I just stick to my plan and answer my strategic-weakness-answer? Well I cannot really imagine myself to lie to a such serious and good man and being labeled by my conscience as unethical so I told the truth. I told him my true weakness (w/c is I sometimes easily loose my temper). And as I anticipated, he (the way I see it) didn't liked it although I reasoned out that I am working hard on that weakness. He really asked a lot of questions about it. I really felt that my chance of landing that job just went from big to small. Heck.

As of now, I am still pondering and thinking if what I did was the right thing. I chose the biting truth over the comforting lie and risk my chance of landing that job. Well I could have chose to answer my strategic-weakness-answer but I didn't. I chose not to. I don't really believe in the existence of heaven and hell (meaning I'm not afraid of them) and I could have told a lie and know that I would not end up in hell yet I chose to tell the truth. But why? I guess I'm just too ethical that that could be considered as one of my weaknesses. LOL. I'm still pondering on that experience.

So if you were in my shoes, what would you choose? Comforting lie or the biting truth?

Theory of Evolution: just a theory?

Many [ignorant (forgive the word)] people really misunderstand the Theory of Evolution. These people (especially Christian Fundamentalists and blind believers) argue that the Theory of Evolution is not a fact because it is just a theory. According to these people, if Darwin's Evolution is really a fact then it must be called the Fact of Evolution rather than the Theory of Evolution. Thus for them, the Theory of Evolution is invalid.

Well in reality this is not really true. This only shows that the minds of these people are very limited. Now, the word 'theory' have many definitions depending on how the word 'theory' is used. The word 'theory' is defined differently in layman's term/common usage and in scientific terms. Below are the definitions of the word 'theory' from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition..

the·o·ry (thē'ə-rē, thîr'ē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. the·o·ries

1. A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
2. The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice: a fine musician who had never studied theory.
3. A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.
4. Abstract reasoning; speculation: a decision based on experience rather than theory.
5. A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment: staked out the house on the theory that criminals usually return to the scene of the crime.
6. An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.

[Late Latin theōria, from Greek theōriā, from theōros, spectator : probably theā, a viewing + -oros, seeing (from horān, to see).]

As you can see, the word 'theory' have different definitions/meaning depending on how the word is used. In the case of the Theory of Evolution, the word theory there is defined in item number 1 (the words in red) since it is used as a scientific term. This is also the same with the 'theories' of gravity (in Law of Gravity). Many people misunderstand the word 'theory' in the Theory of Evolution and they defined it as (just) an assumption based on limited information or knowledge (item number 6 [in green]). Many believers use this term and construct arguments disputing the validity of evolution not knowing that they misuse and misunderstand the word theory.

So is the Theory of Evolution just a theory? Well not really (so stop flattering yourselves).

I hope this clears this misconception on the Theory of Evolution. More about this topic here (wikipedia.com) and here (talkorigins.org).

Science vs. Faith

(Click here for a better view)
You be the judge.

(Untitled)

My memory of you is like the rain
Loud, disturbing, and cold
And every raindrop is a picture of you
Scattered all around disturbing nature
Keeping the birds to their nests
Forcing the flowers to sleep
And making the rational irrational

I can't really think of a title to this. These words just popped into my mind in one rainy afternoon thinking of her and drunk a long time ago. Love really can make one irrational. Good thing someone invented alcohol and chess and DVD and internet. LOL

Pope Ratzi Says Condoms Won't Solve AIDS

YAOUNDE, Cameroon -- Pope Benedict XVI said condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse, setting off criticism Tuesday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent where some 22 million people are living with HIV.

Benedict's first statement on an issue that has divided even Catholic clergy working with AIDS patients came hours before he arrived in Cameroon's capital - greeted by thousands of flag-waving faithful who stood shoulder-to-shoulder in red dirt fields and jammed downtown streets for a glimpse of the pontiff's motorcade.

Click here for the rest of the story.

What kind of logic does Pope Ratzi have? How can he come up with that kind of thinking?

Well I guess he didn't even think about it. He just follows what religious dogma tells him. Maybe the Pope is not aware of what kind of reality Africans face. They need condoms to protect themselves from diseases and AIDS. Condoms also help control their population. Big population means big problems. This only shows that Pope Ratzi (or the Roman Catholic Church in general) give more importance on religious doctrines/dogmas rather than the lives of the people or in this case the lives of Africans.

What kind of a leader is that?

Atrocities

While I was waiting in line for my turn in paying our water bill just this afternoon, I overheard two middle-aged women (I think they were Christians) talking about the atrocities by the Muslims. They talked how evil and unjust and brutal and unforgiving the Muslims were when they attacked the Twin Towers and when they kidnapped good people. I really want to join their conversation and share some of the information I know but I thought it would be useless.

There's a saying "Before you point your fingers on others, make sure your hands are clean". Maybe the two women I heard talking about the atrocities done by the Muslims don't know the atrocities done by their God. Yes, their God(or Jehovah/Yahweh). Little do they know that the God they are worshiping also committed a lot of atrocities. Yes, you heard me. Christians do not even know about these atrocities. They just think that they are worshiping a loving God because that's what the authority, tradition, and dogma told/taught them. Is stoning a man to death just because of a very shallow reason called love? (NU 15:32-36) We can really see a lot of atrocities done by Jehovah/God in the Bible. If one would just read clearly and critically the book of Numbers, Exodus, Revelations, Genesis and in some other books in the Bible they would see some or maybe a lot of atrocities done by (or done in the name of) God/Jehovah.

Some may react violently on this (especially the religious ones) but what I said are based on facts (well assuming the Bible is a fact). It is written in the Bible. The book which many consider to be the guide book of their lives. Well I guess the truth hurts.

To back up what I said, here's some example of the atrocities I was talking about. Just click them to read.
GE 3:1-7, 22-24
GE 4:2-8 , GE 6:11-17, 7:11-2
GE 19:26
GE 38:9
EX 7:1, 14, 9:14-16, 10:1-2, 11:7
EX 9:22-25
EX 12:29
EX 32:27-29
LE 26:29, DT 28:53, JE 19:9, EZ 5:8-10
NU 11:33
LE 26:22
NU 15:32-36
NU 16:27-33
NU 16:35
NU 16:49
NU 21:6
NU 25:9
NU 31:31-40
DT 7:2
DT 21:10-13
JS 6:21-27
JS 7:19-26
JS 8:22-25
JS 10:10-27
JS 10:28
JS 10:30
JS 10:32-33
JS 10:34-35
JS 10:36-37
JG 1:4
JG 14:19
2KI 10:17
2CH 13:17
IS 49:26
EZ 6:12-13
EZ 9:4-6
EZ 23:25, 47
MT 3:12, 8:12, 10:21, 13:30, 42, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, LK 13:28, JN 5:24

More atrocities here.

Deleted

Heck, while I was trying to change my template for a new look I accidentally deleted my widgets and other similar stuffs. Back again to square one in blogging I guess. Hmm.. As of now I am trying hard as I can to change my blog template, other decorating stuffs, and widget thing in my blog. I am still researching more about it in the net. Btw, I am just novice blogger (trying hard blogger).

Friends

It is 11 something pm (when I wrote this) and I just got home from a drinking session with my friends. I really did'nt plan to drink with them tonight because we already spent time last night at Bar-b-que Boss (@Torres) where we got drunk and wasted. I planned to just watch DVD series [24 (Season 1) and Weeds] tonight but they unexpectedly came here to fetch me to go at Dino's house. They bought food and I also brought some food (from Grandpa and ma's anniversary celebration) and went to Dino's house. I really did'nt like the idea of (again) having a drinking session with them because we already had one last Saturday night. At first I was not really in the mood for drinking but then after a coulpe of shots, I was in the mood and I felt great. Maybe it was just the alcohol that made me feel that way. Maybe not.

It really feels great to have some one to talk to about life, love, and other boy-stuffs. It feels good when someone is listening to your side of story in life and love. I noticed that we all have some complains in life (and of course love) and it really felt good to share them with someone although their advices were not that really good (LOL). The point is that they listen and they understood my side of the story and I understood theirs. At first, we were not really talking about some serious stuffs but after a couple bottle (liter) of Red Horse we eventually talked about some. We talked about how our lives are not going in the right track. We talked about our regrets in life and love. Of course we also talked about our succeses and other fun stuffs in life. We talked about the past and our rackets in college. It was very nostalgic. It really feels good to have someone to share these things. 

I am really grateful and thankful that I have friends like them. I spend the whole weekdays (sometimes the whole week) imprisoned here in the four corners of our house and it really feels great to know that somehow I still have friends to share my ups and downs, spend time with, and talk to at the end of the week. :D 

Nine-Year-Old's Abortion Outrages Brazil Catholic Church

The case of the pregnant 9-year-old was shocking enough. But it was the response of the Catholic Church that infuriated many Brazilians. Archibishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of the coastal city of Recife announced that the Vatican was excommunicating the family of a local girl who had been raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather, because they had chosen to have the girl undergo an abortion. The Church excommunicated the doctors who performed the procedure as well. "God's laws," said the archbishop, dictate that abortion is a sin and that transgressors are no longer welcome in the Roman Catholic Church. "They took the life of an innocent," Sobrinho told TIME in a telephone interview. "Abortion is much more serious than killing an adult. An adult may or may not be an innocent, but an unborn child is most definitely innocent. Taking that life cannot be ignored."

Click HERE for the full story.

Now here's my say..

I really do not think that the RCC's decision to try to stop the abortion was correct. Especially excommunicating the nine year old child including her mother and others who were involved. Yes, I agree that abortion is a crime. But she's just a child. And she did not want that to happen. Continuing the babies [twins] would just leave her a big scar [a bad remembrance of the rape incident]. Also her body is not yet ready for pregnancy. Her hips are still immature for a baby. And according to doctors it would be dangerous. What more with a twin. She's too young for it and she's too young to take care of the babies.

Its not that I am pro abortion. I just do not like the RCC interfering the lives of others. The RCC's attempt to stop the abortion and excommunicating the parties involved is very 'unjust' for me. The RCC should just let the child or the mother or the doctors who knew better than the RCC to decide what's right for the rape victim. It looks like the RCC is trying to control the life of the child and this is bad. The Church is taking away the freedom of the rape victim to choose what is better for her.

Lastly, I say that the RCC's leaders are hypocrites. They are teaching their believers to go on and multiply yet they themselves are not allowed or can't multiply. WTH. :p

Let's support our Reproductive Health Bill (HB 4110).

Origin of God

Why do we have a god? How do we[maybe you] end up having a god? Where do god/s came from? If we, according to theists, were created by God, then who created God? Or in a polytheistic religion, who created their gods? Why do people believe in a god/s?

The way I see it, man was not made by a god or gods. Instead, man made the [idea of] god and gods. Primitive man created the idea of god. When I say primitive man, I am talking about the early humans just before or during the one of the first civilizations. Now I can see two reasons why man created the idea of god/s. One is because of intellectual necessity and the other is because of emotional necessity.

Now imagine the situation of the early humans. They lack knowledge on their surroundings, their nature, their environment. Although they already have some technology by that time, but they really do not have the scientific mind the modern humans have. They may already have some knowledge on their surroundings or perhaps the universe or knowledge about their nature but the intellectual gap that time was still very wide and big. This intellectual gap is the reason why they created the idea of god. They created this idea because they cannot explain many things that time. Things related to nature, environment, the universe, their existence. Remember, they do not have the scientific mind the modern humans have. So they point to an entity or being that could explain all these things [gaps]. Example, when early humans first encountered a thunder, they do not know what it is, what caused the thunder. They also do not have the scientific mind and gadgets to know what it is. So they created the idea of an entity or being [god] that could explain thunder. This is also the same with the other phenomenas [rain, eclipse, earth quake].

Some modern humans still also believe in a god or gods because of this very same reason. Some people in this time still point to God or their god/s when they encounter things that they can't explain not knowing that science can already explain it. I know that there are some things that science cannot explain today. But I don't just find it reasonable to point a god/s to explain the unknown. Making god as the explanation to these things is a non-explanation kind of explanation. Science may not know some things today but it will be known in the future. Finding answers is a [long] process. I mean look at the phenomenas that were thought to have caused by god. Today, we can already explain the reasons behind it. And as the time pass by, the intellectual gap is getting smaller and smaller because of the findings of science.

The next reason is the emotional necessity. At some point or time in life, we encounter a crucial event or a turning point. This time in our life is the time wherein we are subject to some change [physical and emotional] because of the event. This crucial event changes the way we act, feel, and see things. It also changes our attitudes and behaviors toward things and life. This event could be a postive [marriage or graduation] or a negative [death of a close relative or your own coming death] one.

In a positive turning point, people tend to seek and thank a greater power or being that helped them achieve their dreams or helped them become a better person. Most people believe that the reason they succeed or the reason they changed to a better person is that some greater power helped them. As to the negative turning point [like death], people who encounter this also seek for a greater power or a divine power. They seek and need a greater power to hold on to. They need some power or maybe divine intervention or a miracle to help them accept and cope that negative turning point in their life. Who can give the people a greater power than a god/s. But the way I see it, the only being responsible for the positive turning point [like marriage] in one's life is the person who achieved/experienced it. And that is the same with the negative turning point. The only being that could help the person who suffered from a negative turning point [loss of a close relative or an accident] is just himself/herself. Who else could it be? Can the greater power that one seek can raise a dead person or heal an amputee? You know the answer.

These are the two main reasons why people believe in a god/s. There are also other possible reasons like some people were just forced because of authority or tradition or dogma. Other group/religion also have their own answers to the questions above. Now let me end this article/essay or what ever you call it with a question. Given that two reasons [emotional and intellectual necessity] I presented with my explanation, does man still need a god/s?

Sabbath-Breaker

Once upon a time, a children of some nation were playing on the wilderness.  While playing, the children saw a man that gathered sticks upon the day of rest and worship. The children knew that it was not allowed to work in the day of rest and worship. So the children then brought the man [who gathered sticks] to their elders or leaders of some sort and unto all the congregation. They put the man [who gathered sticks on the day of rest and worship] in ward because it was not declared what should be done to him. 

Suddenly, their lord said to their elder/leader, "The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp." 

And so they did. All the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as their lord commanded the elders and congregation. 

And the end [i guess].

So that's the story of the Sabbath-Breaker. I am not going to tell you what is the moral lesson of this story. I'll just criticize their lord. The truth is I can't really think of any lessons that can be learned from this story. Well maybe others would say that the lesson of this story is to follow rules and regulations to avoid the consequences. But putting a person to death simply because of not following a rule is very unjust. Killing him was not really necessary. If you were in the shoes of the lord, would you kill the man? Of course not, unless you are very unreasonable, violent, unforgiving control freak, vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser bully. 

Now, what makes my jaw drop here is not that the King was very unreasonable or violent or unforgiving bully or the violence. What makes my jaw drop here is that this story came from a book. A book which many people consider as the guide book to their life. A book wherein many people base their morals. A book from divine origin. Can you imagine if a child would read this kind of story? 

Well I got that story from the Bible [Numbers 15:32-36]. I never really thought before that God is that violent and unreasonable. I was taught in my Theology classes that God is love. But is killing a man because of that very shallow reason love?