The movie Inner Visions and Running Trains is an interesting movie to watch. It contains a message about believe in God in every step of your life. Baba Faqir Chand provides his own example of his battle in Iraq. The moment when they are out of ammunition and probably will not survive, he has a miracle. His guru appears before him and gives a suggestion that help at that critical moment in their life.
After the war ends, he comes back to Baghdad and finds an astonishing moment there. People are worshiping him as the one who appeals before every one and save them at the battle field. Faqir is wondering about that because it is his guru who saves them not him. He can not do it if his guru does not appear and tells him what to do. People reply astonishing him and finally makes him realizes the true meaning of the miracle event. Whenever we remember God, he will appear to us any form that we believe to save us. It is not because we are a guru or having a holy power. It is simply because we believe in him, God.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
History of Freeman's Worship
When one read that article, one feels traveling through time. Russell has brought us the history of universe’s worship. He starts with the big bang creation version and ends with Armageddon. At first, we see extremely large hot ball hit each other from a big explosion thus create other small hot balls. Next those smaller hot balls cool down and become planets. After that, first living creatures exit then extinct themselves. Other living creatures are created, and at the end human exist.
At the beginning of human history, freedom has been known. People want to do anything they want including worship. Thus, they have been creating some form of worship for celestial God and Goddess. All kind of God and Goddess including the evil and jealous God are believed responsible for some human life. It is not end there. Whenever we learn about the unfairness, we start to look for other kind of worship.
We are creating an idol from clay now. Instead of believe in some God or Goddess that make our life miserable, we would rather idolize some sort of animal that is unique. Yet, that one does not work out. We change to gold idol now. The faith keeps changing on and on until we find the perfect one. Russell believes when the perfect one has been formed, the universe will extinct, and we have to start from the beginning again, the big bang.
At the beginning of human history, freedom has been known. People want to do anything they want including worship. Thus, they have been creating some form of worship for celestial God and Goddess. All kind of God and Goddess including the evil and jealous God are believed responsible for some human life. It is not end there. Whenever we learn about the unfairness, we start to look for other kind of worship.
We are creating an idol from clay now. Instead of believe in some God or Goddess that make our life miserable, we would rather idolize some sort of animal that is unique. Yet, that one does not work out. We change to gold idol now. The faith keeps changing on and on until we find the perfect one. Russell believes when the perfect one has been formed, the universe will extinct, and we have to start from the beginning again, the big bang.
What is Consciousness?
According to Professor Daniel Dennett there is no God. Believe in God only encourage us to do something risky because we are hoping that God is there and will help us whenever we get in trouble. Is it really true? If we believe in God then we will do stupid thing to prove it? Isn’t it giving us the support in our life? We believe God is somewhere watching us, so we will not give up that easy when there are obstacles in our life. It is like a mentally support to us.
At other point, he says that machine might be conscious. Computer or robot has consciousness. In some how the machine just has a special consciousness but not human kind or animal kind. I think it is absurd. Robot or computer is just human creations which never close to us living creature. How can he say that it has consciousness? Or, what is robot consciousness? What kind of things can robot feels to be considered conscious?
Where is the consciousness located? Is it located in its processor or motherboard? What is the special consciousness that different from human and animal kind? Is it because computer can do calculation when human can not in second? Can computer think? Does it have feeling? Human needs oxygen in order to survive? What about machine? What does it need? Is it electricity instead of oxygen or food? How in a future we will be able to create such a celestial creature? If we can do that then we will be God. Maybe that’s the reason why he believes there is no God.
At other point, he says that machine might be conscious. Computer or robot has consciousness. In some how the machine just has a special consciousness but not human kind or animal kind. I think it is absurd. Robot or computer is just human creations which never close to us living creature. How can he say that it has consciousness? Or, what is robot consciousness? What kind of things can robot feels to be considered conscious?
Where is the consciousness located? Is it located in its processor or motherboard? What is the special consciousness that different from human and animal kind? Is it because computer can do calculation when human can not in second? Can computer think? Does it have feeling? Human needs oxygen in order to survive? What about machine? What does it need? Is it electricity instead of oxygen or food? How in a future we will be able to create such a celestial creature? If we can do that then we will be God. Maybe that’s the reason why he believes there is no God.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Non-violence Act
Gandhi believes that ahimsa is the road to truth which is the goal. Non violence is the basic law of human being that is greater than brutal force. As a nature of human being, we do not want to be forced to do something that we are not willing to. We want the freedom of life. We want others to respect us, so we have to respect others in all aspects too, no matter what religion, ethnic, and idealism they are.
Is non violence the same as coward act? No. Cowardice act is always show fear and run away from any thing. When one chooses non violence, that person has to be ready for any sacrifice that may be required. Nature of men is freedom and we will always try our best to obtain freedom. The problem is, there is a lot of other way to reach the goal; non violence is one of them.
Non-violence act is not as simple as it seen because one has to sacrifice for it. There are still individual that believes violence is necessary for its reason. In this case, Gandhi gives an example of Koran Islam. In Islam, violence is lawful act to reach the goal. Gandhi disagrees with that opinion and he is sure that violence will not create a pure democracy instead leads to dictatorship.
Is non violence the same as coward act? No. Cowardice act is always show fear and run away from any thing. When one chooses non violence, that person has to be ready for any sacrifice that may be required. Nature of men is freedom and we will always try our best to obtain freedom. The problem is, there is a lot of other way to reach the goal; non violence is one of them.
Non-violence act is not as simple as it seen because one has to sacrifice for it. There are still individual that believes violence is necessary for its reason. In this case, Gandhi gives an example of Koran Islam. In Islam, violence is lawful act to reach the goal. Gandhi disagrees with that opinion and he is sure that violence will not create a pure democracy instead leads to dictatorship.
Eternal Recurrence
Nietzsche’s believes that if there is eternal recurrence, it will be the heaviest burden we ever had. We have to do the same thing again and again. We have to suffer from the same pain forever. Life will be very boring and meaningless. We do not have any desire anymore because we know what is going to be next, or when we are going to die and resurrected. After all, the same thing, memory, pain, and feeling will be the go over again.
Well, it is just a myth that a demon tells us the secret of life. Once we know the secret, are we going to take that life? We are people that always want freedom. If we have already known the future, are we going to go through the same process? For sure, we will make a change. We are not robot that will do the same thing over and over. We will always try to improve our life. If we are unhappy in this life, we will try to have happiness in next. If we know that we will die by car accident, for sure we will be trying to avoid driving a car.
Well, it is just a myth that a demon tells us the secret of life. Once we know the secret, are we going to take that life? We are people that always want freedom. If we have already known the future, are we going to go through the same process? For sure, we will make a change. We are not robot that will do the same thing over and over. We will always try to improve our life. If we are unhappy in this life, we will try to have happiness in next. If we know that we will die by car accident, for sure we will be trying to avoid driving a car.
Religous Belief
Sam Harris believes that there are two types of religious people, which is religious moderate and religious fundamental. In most cases, religious moderate acts in extreme such as suicide bombing and jihad. Because of the political power, religious moderate gets religious fundamental not to critic others. It has been set that it is taboo to criticize between religions no matter how irrational or insane their beliefs are. Even when we know that it is not right to kill other for one’s religion, but there is not much we can do.
Actually we do not respect other’s religious believe, we only believe their reason. Harris gives an example of the diamond buried in his back yard. When one hear that he said that, we might think that he is insane. After he explains the reason why he dares to leave the universe, we respect him now. Based on his illustration, it is clear that one only respect when other explains their reason to believe. It is not because of lack of education or knowledge, it is one’s belief that imply through reality.
Actually we do not respect other’s religious believe, we only believe their reason. Harris gives an example of the diamond buried in his back yard. When one hear that he said that, we might think that he is insane. After he explains the reason why he dares to leave the universe, we respect him now. Based on his illustration, it is clear that one only respect when other explains their reason to believe. It is not because of lack of education or knowledge, it is one’s belief that imply through reality.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Glorious Peace of Meat
Neuron vs consciousness is difficult to be separated. We can not tell which is go first, neuron or consciousness. We always say that consciousness is the work of neuron. How do we know that? The answer is because of our consciousness that creates awareness. Once again, how can we come up with that answer? The true is really hard to explain the consciousness because we actually do not know exactly what’s happened. Maybe we’ll be able to explain it comfortably if we gain more knowledge about consciousness. The only thing that we know now is cells of the neuron is the central nervous system of our whole body, therefore we can not survive without it.
When our eyes (vision) see or capture an imaging, it sends the message to the brain. The cells in our brain fire and send the command back to our body. Thus, creates the movement of our body. Therefore, we feel hungry when we see meals on the table. Then, we tend to reach out and get the food. It is an ordinary survivor behavior our body has. Besides that, do we really know why it happened? Why when we see food, the brains give a message “hungry” or “eat” or “why we have to eat?” The simply answer is to survive. We have not fond the answer to explain all the phenomena yet. Therefore we always refer it back to the neuron.
When our eyes (vision) see or capture an imaging, it sends the message to the brain. The cells in our brain fire and send the command back to our body. Thus, creates the movement of our body. Therefore, we feel hungry when we see meals on the table. Then, we tend to reach out and get the food. It is an ordinary survivor behavior our body has. Besides that, do we really know why it happened? Why when we see food, the brains give a message “hungry” or “eat” or “why we have to eat?” The simply answer is to survive. We have not fond the answer to explain all the phenomena yet. Therefore we always refer it back to the neuron.
Vegetarian Argument
The major issue of neuro-ethical argument for vegetarian is the moral consequences. The vegetarians believe that all creatures that have central nervous system can feel pain, so we should not eat them. The idea is the consciousness is created by the neuron and synapses. We can feel pain, think, taste, and aware of the surrounding because of consciousness. Animals can move, run away, and feel pain. Do they have consciousness? The answer is yes. We just do not understand their languages, besides they can not tell us or explain their pain and feeling.
Maybe we forget one major thing here, human and animals are totally different. Human have much more consciousness such us thinking, therefore we can improve our life. We can create varieties and delicious meals. Animals have more bind situation, most of the animals do not have finger that can be used to hold thing, or language that can be understood by human intellectual. Animal can not improve their life by themselves. Human can build house to protect them from extreme weather, but can animal do the same? If animals are not to be eaten, why they are created differently?
It is true that eating flesh or vegetarians is a choice. Researches and foods are two different things. If we have to use animal as an object research to save more animal or even human life, are we wiling to do so? Many arguments come into this issue. Most of them argue that we have to treat animal humanely. If the research can save hundred thousand lives or someone husband, wife, children, mother or father, why we don’t do that? If an animal is sloughed in order to save other life, isn’t it a noble thing to do?
Maybe we forget one major thing here, human and animals are totally different. Human have much more consciousness such us thinking, therefore we can improve our life. We can create varieties and delicious meals. Animals have more bind situation, most of the animals do not have finger that can be used to hold thing, or language that can be understood by human intellectual. Animal can not improve their life by themselves. Human can build house to protect them from extreme weather, but can animal do the same? If animals are not to be eaten, why they are created differently?
It is true that eating flesh or vegetarians is a choice. Researches and foods are two different things. If we have to use animal as an object research to save more animal or even human life, are we wiling to do so? Many arguments come into this issue. Most of them argue that we have to treat animal humanely. If the research can save hundred thousand lives or someone husband, wife, children, mother or father, why we don’t do that? If an animal is sloughed in order to save other life, isn’t it a noble thing to do?
Evolutionary Philosophy
Steven Pinker believes that human nature not only depend on natural selection because some part of it is form by the genes. Human has a guideline which is the moral standard that can not be replicated by any computer program or the most genius robot ever made. There are a lot of daily actions that human take for granted. He gives an example of a holding glass of water that can be done by four years old without any drop but can not be done perfectly by any robot in action.
The point is that neural in our brain can’t be created by human like us. Human may have the ability to create an advanced robot to do some amazing math calculation which is hard for our brain. Even though human can do the same calculation with their brain, it will take at least several hours and pages of calculation compared to computer that only needs second. Human can create any programs to computer thus make our life easier such as security device, computer, calculator, notebook, etc. No matter how perfect and advanced the technologies are, human still can not duplicate some human nature such as thinking, feeling, and tasting.
Other aspect that influences human nature is the gene. There are complexity interests based on the gene itself. We tend to be physically attaches to our gene. According to Pinker, that is the reason why people are traveling miles and miles to get to their relative for the holiday or a father would do every thing for his children because we are sharing our gene with our family.
Environmental also contributes in forming human nature. This explains why people in certain area speak certain language and maintains it cultural. The differences make human nature unique.
The point is that neural in our brain can’t be created by human like us. Human may have the ability to create an advanced robot to do some amazing math calculation which is hard for our brain. Even though human can do the same calculation with their brain, it will take at least several hours and pages of calculation compared to computer that only needs second. Human can create any programs to computer thus make our life easier such as security device, computer, calculator, notebook, etc. No matter how perfect and advanced the technologies are, human still can not duplicate some human nature such as thinking, feeling, and tasting.
Other aspect that influences human nature is the gene. There are complexity interests based on the gene itself. We tend to be physically attaches to our gene. According to Pinker, that is the reason why people are traveling miles and miles to get to their relative for the holiday or a father would do every thing for his children because we are sharing our gene with our family.
Environmental also contributes in forming human nature. This explains why people in certain area speak certain language and maintains it cultural. The differences make human nature unique.
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