Search in all things, the Tao
  
  Greetings from Quebec!  After two weeks without English, I'm not sure I've improved my French very much, but I`m quite sure my English has gotten worse.  Anyways, I'll save the trip update till I get back, but the beauty of the Internet is that one can wade into debates from half a world away (or a province away).  Here goes:
 
-I used the Tao analogy before in talking about politics, but it is applicable in many situations.  While the `middle way' of the Tao may sometimes seem like sitting on the fence, it is also a powerful tool of bringing divergent viewpoints together...  The idea being that it is a balance of two views that brings about harmony, if not truth.  The Tao is neither Yin nor Yang darkness nor light, liberal or conservative, Christian nor atheist, but a balance of two opposites.   I feel in this case the Tao is a small, but important dose of agnosticism.  Finding that balance is not necessarily ultimate truth, but is crucial in understanding each other. 
 
1) Agnosticism is NOT Atheism
 
  Agnosticism implies that there are certain truths that are beyond the realm of human understanding. One of these truths is the presence or absence of God.  Rather than jumping to a conclusion that there is a God (religion) or jumping to the conclusion that there is NO God (atheism), agnosticism implies a suspension of judgment.  The truth or falsity of God's existence cannot be fathomed beyond a reasonable doubt, and an agnostic is content to live with this mystery rather than jumping on one boat or another.   I am not an agnostic,  but I believe that absoute certainty on the part of both sides (Christian or atheist) breeds intolerance. 
 
2)  Why I don't understand atheism
 
  As theologian Paul Tillich has written, God is the matter of one's ultimate concern -- the absolute ideal that one lives by and aspires to attain.  This is the best definition of God that I know.  For a Christian, one's ultimate concern is obvious, but what is the source of ultimate concern for someone who is not religious?  Some have made an absolute concern (a god) out of money, others out of their families, others the human race.  While these are all important concerns, they are all temporal and, as the title of a novel says, Things Fall Apart.  But that's not my point right now...
  In my opinion, almost everyone necessarily must have a god -- some sort of ideal they live and strive towards, a raison d'etre en francais, whether eternal or temporal.  I guess a religious person has an eternal ideal, and a non-religious person has a temporal ideal, while an atheist holds nothing absolute, and hence follows no god. 
 
  This definition of God is important because in reality, He (for lack of a better word) is something beyond our comprehension.  Although I can`t say for sure, I`m pretty sure he isn't some old white male sitting on a golden throne hurling thunderbolts at non-believers and playing with human lives like chess pieces on a board.  But questions like that don't trouble me.  In Christianity, there is a saying that "God is Love" -- which condenses in a nutshell what I think religion is all about.   This means that Christians make love their ultimate concern above all else.  Regardless of what God actually looks like or does, as long as one keeps in mind that God is Love and conducts his life according to that statement -- holding love as one's absolute ideal -- that is what I would call a Christian life.  Thus, the essence of Christianity as I have come to know it is making a God out of love. 
 
-Agnosticism in Christian Faith
 
  This is the way I have come to understand my faith.  Everything else is secondary behind love-- the source of a Christian's ultimate concern.  While this is what I try to live by, there are certain aspects of my faith which I would consider partially agnostic.  I spend very little time thinking about what happens to me after I die.  Pursuing a Christian life is not a means to avoid the punishments of hell, nor is it a way to buy myself into Heaven.  I have no idea what words like heaven or hell actually mean, but I'm sure that whatever heaven or hell does exist will be so beyond my comprehension that I don't think about them all that much.   But I'm quite sure that if I held to the absolute ideal of love with all my effort and heart and soul, things will work out in the end.  And if they don't, hopefully those actions will have left the world a slightly better place
 
  I think that as sinners and imperfect beings, we need to hold a few mysteries sacred.  We're not supposed to know everything, and all of us are imperfect.   Can any one of us look in the mirror and really be happy with the person staring back?  Can any of us really say we've attained godlike stature?  And thus: How can an imperfect being really understand God's will and God's means?  I would think that scripture provides a clue, but to me, the most powerful verses are the ones that tell us to be careful with judging the actions of others:  "Judge Not, and you will not be Judged", as well as "Let he that has not sinned be the first to cast a stone".   We are accountable only for our own actions, but have no place speaking on the sins of others.
 
  For example, a lot of people jumped off Kobe Bryant's boat after he admitted to adultery.  Assuming that's all he's guilty of, who can really judge that situation?  If you were an NBA star and had beautiful women throwing themselves at you, can you say with perfect honesty and self-righteousness that you could control yourself every time?  To me, the situation just proves that he's a human being like all of us -- fallable and imperfect.  While a lot of other people don't commit adultery, all of us commit sins.  And if one of my friends committed adultery, I would stand by him or her just the same. 
 
  As Christians, we are meant to love above all.  If nothing else, that's one thing we're capable of doing.  Everything else -- making judgments of what is right or wrong is secondary in importance, and in my opinion, best left to God -- the only being who's really qualified to do it.  So while I don't consider myself an agnostic, I feel there are sacred mysteries that simply can't be known no matter how much time is spent on it.  And sometimes I feel that if only everyone -- religious or not -- simply lived by what they believed in and concentrated on their own actions and their own relationship with the divine rather than what others think or do, the world would be a better place. 
  
  
  
  

 

Random Links

I surf (A LOT) and collect links. Sometimes I put them on my blog:

This is a funny cartoon about Kerry and Bush.

Too bad I'm in Waterloo, because I miss out on Summerlicious. Kitty has already tried one restaurant this week while I'm stuck in Waterloo with my big pot 'o pasta. Unfortunately, it's already over.

Here's a set of pictures about Saddam Hussein making his court appearance. Although this is a serious matter, this page is still pretty funny.

I have cable in my Toronto home now. I now waste watching MXC (and the food network). Food network has 5 episodes of Iron Chef America, where American chefs "battle" Japanese ones. I caught one episode and it seemed like the judging was pretty unfair to the Japanese ones. But it must have been unfair to western cooks when it was shot in Japan. I wonder if they'll make more episodes.

Here's a critique on Brian Greene, a famous physicist. I think that trying to rouse the general public's interest in physics is generally a good thing. Unfortunately, it sounds like he may be getting carried away a little. Read the article to find out more.

Here's a disturbing article about the phallic properties of a wiener/hot dog and how a commercial highlights this fact. What a way to sell hot dogs. Good thing I didn't click on the link to watch the commercial before I read it or else i'd be totally ruined. And when it was on the front page of Slate, it had such an innocent title (which I have since forgotten).

For any software developers out there, here's an interesting article on Microsoft Windows API. The author has some interesting points, and makes some predictions that may seem outlandish, but are plausible. The following is an interesting excerpt:

I first heard about this from one of the developers of the hit game SimCity, who told me that there was a critical bug in his application: it used memory right after freeing it, a major no-no that happened to work OK on DOS but would not work under Windows where memory that is freed is likely to be snatched up by another running application right away. The testers on the Windows team were going through various popular applications, testing them to make sure they worked OK, but SimCity kept crashing. They reported this to the Windows developers, who disassembled SimCity, stepped through it in a debugger, found the bug, and added special code that checked if SimCity was running, and if it did, ran the memory allocator in a special mode in which you could still use memory after freeing it.

This was not an unusual case. The Windows testing team is huge and one of their most important responsibilities is guaranteeing that everyone can safely upgrade their operating system, no matter what applications they have installed, and those applications will continue to run, even if those applications do bad things or use undocumented functions or rely on buggy behavior that happens to be buggy in Windows n but is no longer buggy in Windows n+1. In fact if you poke around in the AppCompatibility section of your registry you'll see a whole list of applications that Windows treats specially, emulating various old bugs and quirky behaviors so they'll continue to work. Raymond Chen writes, "I get particularly furious when people accuse Microsoft of maliciously breaking applications during OS upgrades. If any application failed to run on Windows 95, I took it as a personal failure. I spent many sleepless nights fixing bugs in third-party programs just so they could keep running on Windows 95."

Wow. I can't imagine the resources it takes for Microsoft to look for so many bugs in third-party programs and fix them from the operating system. That's just crazy. I think they're the only company that's big enough to do something like this. But it seems like it was worth the effort.

Here's a subservient chicken.

Here's a site/survey about money/income. Try it out to find out where you rank. (if you're not working yet, try out your parent's income).

That's all for now.

BOOZER playing with JAZZ!!!!

No, this post is not about an alcoholic playing Jazz music - it's about my favourite basketball player becoming a member of the Utah Jazz. How'd this happen? Apparantly, Boozer made a verbal agreement to resign with the Cavs. But then after getting released from his rookied contract, he just reneged on his verbal agreement and went for the bigger money. Before this story, Boozer preseneted himself as an honest hard-working, likeable guy. But now, pulling something like that makes me like him a little less. But I think he's still my favourite player...i'm just going to imagine that his agent/wife pressured him into taking that deal.

This means that I might have to cheer for the Jazz. They are a young, promising team, with a collection of talented players, without a massive superstar and an excellent coach. Their starting center is from Turkey (Okur, who happens to be getting married with Miss Turkey), their best player's nickname is AK47, and they have BOOZER - what's not to like?

Although, it is disappointing that we don't get to watch BOOZER and Lebron James form the nucleus of a promising and exciting Cav team destined for greatness. Instead you'll have to watch the combo of James and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Catchy, eh?

The Raptors, meanwhile have announced that they've signed Rafer "Skip to my Lou" Alston. FOR 6 YEARS!!! That's going to be trouble. Although I know this is a low-point in the Raptor's franchise, and a true fan should stick by their team through the bad and the good times, I feel like switching my allegiance. But for now, I think i'll cheer for both the Raptor's and the Jazz.

Wait a second, I forgot another team that I want to cheer for. The Rockets, which now employs both Yao and McGrady. I don't know who to cheer for anymore!

If only the Raptors were able to sign Steve Nash. But he was way overpaid. Mark Cuban has a good take on the situation on his blog.

P.S. wow, this post was really suited more for the guys interested in baskeball. So if basketball bores you, read the previous post.

P.P.S Amid all this talk of booze, check out this link to reaffirm your hate for people who drink and drive. (thanks to Kevin's link site for the link)

P.P.P.S. Just at a party last night that involved some drama which involved alcohol. But that's not a story to be told here or preferably ever. It just re-emphasizes my belief that drinking alcohol requires responsibilty.

The Long Weekend

Just had an extra long weekend, thanks to my classes being cancelled on friday. And since Kitty and I haven't seen each other in a long time, we decided to go to Niagara for a couple days. This was a very last minute decision, but in a way that benefitted us.

So what's the best way to find a hotel? The internet of course. One of my friends from class, Ed Chen, is very savy with using internet sites to book hotels and plane tickets. So I asked for his help. He very kindly helped me through the process and actually booked it for me. He recommended www.priceline.com, which is a bidding site. For this site, you enter in some information, like the date and location and then you bid a price you're willing to pay. You don't know in advance what hotel you'll be matched with, but you can set the number of star hotel you desire (ie 3 star or 2 star, etc). Also they will book the hotel right away and you can not cancel your reservation. You are only supposed to be allowed one bid every 72 hours, but there are ways to get around that.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we finally got a hotel for $72 American dollars at the Sheraton on the Falls. Well you may think $72 is relatively pricey, but on this site rooms at the Sheraton during the holiday were going for $300-$500! As it turns out, Sheraton on the Falls is in a prime location, right in the downtown section and the closest hotel to the falls. When we got there, we upgraded (for USD$50) to a room with a view of the Falls, fireplace and more furniture. Check out the view:







IMO, the upgrade was worth it, although USD$50 is not cheap.

So the solution of course was to go to the casino to win it back. Just kidding, I didnt' pull a Matt and come back with $700 or anything like that. Here's a shot of the new casino that just opened last month. In fact, the whole area near the new casiono is new, with new hotels and restaurants. Unfortunately, it makes the area seem really overly commercial and breaks up the natural skyline.



Well, it was really commercial/tourist to begin with, so it's not that big of a change.



The canadian side contrasts sharply when compared to the American side. The American side seems more like a National park. The areas near the falls are all treed and have grass instead of concrete and cars. I've never been on the American side, so it was a new experience for me. We walked over Rainbow bridge and passed customs on foot. They were pretty lax. It was nice to walk around around and just enjoy being there. I think the majority of our time was spent walking...we walked everywhere all day, both days.

We couldn't decide on where to go for dinner, and ended up at an Italian place. It was a really nice day, so we decided to sit on the patio. We proceeded to order our drinks and meals and got the bread (really fresh and tasty) served when all of a sudden it began to pour. A thunderstorm had arrived. The wait staff was very frazzled and we made our way into the restaurant (which luckily had more than enough seating capacity). We carried all our food/utensils/plates/drinks in ourselves and the waitress had to come find out where we had seated ourselves. But it didn't really put a damper on the meal since the interior was really nicely/elaborately decorated. I ordered a prime rib, the "gentleman's cut" and it turned out to be quite thick.



By the time dinner ended, the rain had stopped, so we were lucky. It was Canada Day so there were going to be fireworks that night. Ever get annoyed at the mass of people that you have to contend with during public events. Things like finding a spot for yourself, arriving early to get a good spot, trying not to be squeezed between too many people, parking, etc. Well instead of all that hassle, we just went up to our hotel room, flicked the switch for the fireplace, turned the lights low, pulled the loveseat up to the window and enjoyed the fireworks and view of the falls from the comfort of our room. Pretty romantic, eh?



After the fireworks, we watched as a mass of people tried to leave the area amidst a huge traffic jam. We just leisurely walked down and walked around the city. We ended up at the casino, where we gambled a little. Neither Kitty or I are big gamblers, so we basically got a very, very low amount in chips: $20 each. Haha, that is pretty pathetic. But we both ended up winning some money, which is atypical. We made our money on the chinese dice table, where it is based upon pure luck (I managed to more than double my money....hahaha). The key to gambling is knowing when to leave. I left as soon as I won a 6 to 1 combination. Oh well, no grand stories like Matt's, but I had a good time, even though we didn't stick around too long.

Anyway, here's one last pic of us and the falls.



Overall, an excellent trip. Being apart (Kitty's in TO and I'm in Waterloo) is tough sometimes, but it makes the time you are together that much sweeter.

PS Didn't go to ribfest this year, breaking a long streak...