America, The Litigation Society: Protecting individual rights 

Finally...

Having grown up in a tiny island of a population just shy of 4 million Singaporeans, who experienced the tremendous acension from third world country to first -
Our economic growth, the acceleration of the changing landscape of the country have become so part of the island's life that movement is relatively stagnant.
Having focussed so much resources in building up the economic strength of the country, the government and especially the newer citizens of this country who never experienced the poverty and scarcity of the 3rd world status started craving something more than simple sustenance - more than the basic needs - and that is creativity.

During my years as a teenager, I had the great opportunity to peek a little into the cultural scene within Singapore - more specifically the songwriting community. In my collaboration with Kenneth Lyen, we composed and produced(Ken did almost all of this) 2 musicals which recruited the top few artistic talents in Singapore. I must say as a teenager who have been exposed to quality music by various artistes around the world - I was quite disappointed by the lack of great english songwriters..
I distinctly remembered a song composed to celebrate the millenium by apparantly the most celebrated songwriter of that time. I saw it on television, heard it and I just felt like burrying my face in shame.
Well, not so much that the song wasn't up to scratch - every musician or artist have to have produced some piece of art that aren't so much but a precursor or a foundation to build upon.
I was disappointed that among all the talented musicians in Singapore, we could not find a better song to celebrate our Millenium.

Well, I must say that there were a couple of great songs produced over the years - some national day songs that were sung by a famous Singaporean Chinese pop star ( I believe the title was "home, truly")
But there wasn't that quality sound associated with that.. well, at least that special timbre and quality we get from Chart setters..

Well, I was just referred to a website - corrinnemay.com
Apparantly, this pop artiste - Corrine May has already produced 2 albums. And have been performing in L.A. as well as in Singapore.
Fortunately, she has been so kind as to provide full and good quality samples of her tracks on her website.

As I listened to the first few tracks... I instantly felt a sense of joy/pride...
I heard a Singaporean, a singaporean produced brand of music that was not another simplistically hummable tuneful piece of work - but one that's engulfed and infused with the tender and artful quality I've come to expected from my topmost favourite Jazz artistes.

At last, Singapore's answer to the apparant dearth of creativity and lack of musical talent. And I loved the fact that she's a musician trained with one of the best muscial education - unlike some of the raw experimental music coming out of American garage bands..

And what's really pleasing is the knowledge that she started off in a church - indeed - since ancient history - the church has always been the source and impetus for what's come to be the greatest things of the human civilization - science, music , etc...
And it probably shouldn't be surprising that within the bubbling and struggling music scene in Singapore, a church managed to cultivate it's little star/angel for one of God's greatest gifts - music..

As I relaxed and slide into Corrinne's music, I feel so satisfied, like resting on a bed of feathers, while feeling so carefree - no longer concerned about Singapore's music scene.. while being in a state of silent yet eager expectation of future talented young musicians who might propell Singapore into a greater music scene..

Well, I'm really pleased with you Corrinne, making my country proud, making my God proud..
Would be nice to be able to chat with you.

Well, thanks to all the musicians and artistes of Singapore who worked so hard despite being under possible financial strain, to cultivate a culture that encourages and inspires young musicians to attain great standards...
I hope every Singaporean can feel the little pride for a single success that trumpets the call for more to come...

Finally....

Cure for Cancer??

Exciting news!
A recent discovery in a research lab at Upenn Medical school found that a virus AAV-2 had an interesting effect on cervix cancer cells - it actually killed off the cancerous cells.. and what's more important is that it does not harm the human cell at all.

This is of course a very exciting discovery - modern methods of eradicating cancerous cells often involved killing neighboring cells as well - resulting in the slew of side effects most cancer patients and their families are all so familiar with.

However, if this virus proves to be a viable tool to kill off cancer cells, it's going to be one that does not cause any side effects to the surrounding "normal" cells.

What's even more interesting is that, once the researchers found that the AAV-2 killed the cervix cancer cells, they tested it on other cancerous cells and found that it has the same effect on the other epithelial cancerous cells( Like Breast cancer, Skin cancer.. etc)..

If scientist could somehow harness the AAV-2 into a safe and applicable form of treatment for cancer patients, it's going to revolutionize the whole idea of cancer treatment!

However, there is huge risks when it comes to Viruses. We have seen how flu viruses such as the avian flu virus jump from species to the human species - the nature is such that the probability of a virus undergoing mutation during its reproduction is very close to 1.
While most mutations are deleterious and impair the virus slightly or does not affect the virus at all, there is a chance that a mutation might lead the virus to start coding for proteins that enables it to attack "Healthy,normal" cells.

Unless they can somehow limit the mutation rate of this virus or introduce an RNA polymerase that checks and repair its DNA, this might be quite a risky venture.

However, I'm just elated that the possibility of precision targetting and eradicating cancer cells is finally here - and very soon - we'd be proficient in the mastery of nanotechnology.. and we'd be fighting a war that has been going on since the first man, but with a different battle plan...

lol.. I find this really amusing.. esp the drawing!
 

Come fly with me, let's fly fly away...

What a pity! I did not bring my camera on the best experience I ever had in Seattle.
Yesterday, I was semi-piloting a cessna 170 around the Puget Sound area - flew around places like Snowqualmie falls (which is about an hour's drive compared to a couple of mins by plane!)
Beautiful scenery, great thrill...

If anyone has the chance to learn flying, they really should..

I had such a blast.. obviously I wasn't allowed to land the plane, but it was just exhillarating to control this small piece of fragile metal, hanging precariously from the bright blue sky.
(Its actually quite safe - if there was an engine failure, the plane can glide comfortably down and land on one of the many golf courses below us... its such a small plane it only needs about 50 metres (I think) to land)

I'm excited.

"Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. "

This is a phrase from Oswald Chambers probably sometime near 1900... and about a hundred years later, it doesn't seem to have changed very much!

Sometimes you can wonder, why do people in church have so many discussions that sometimes ends up in furious debates/arguments?

"Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. "

I'm not sure how true the above statement is but very often, we are unwilling to accept things any other way than what we know in our minds is right.
For example, an orthodox Christian would view to slow Don Moen songs as offensive to God! A Charismatic church might feel that the same music might be too "bland" for people to get into worship.
How often do we get into theological fights with one another on what we know God wants?

"Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father."

This is interesting - when we have committees set up to produce an event.. especially evangilical ones.. most of the time, we're identifying needs of the people in order to structure the program.
Is that wrong or is that right?


Hmm...


"The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness."

Insignificance and meekness...


"Yet it is like a grain of wheat that "falls into the ground and dies"— it will spring up and change the entire landscape ( John 12:24 ). "

Like Mother Theressa

- a single life, devoted to God, can make a difference to the World - like a single flame on a candle, throwing light into the vastness of the dark hall.

Are you that single life?

great weekend!

Wow, I had quite a weekend..
I had a rooftop garden BBQ party on my birthday and it turned out to be simply fabulous!
The weather turned out, people brought extremely great dishes.. I had smoked salmon, had beef marinated in redwine sauce..and garlic.. it was just soo juicy... *mmm*
Had tons of people - you know, I really like it when friends from different groups come and meet each other.. they get a chance to know a different side of you and stuff.. lol...
I also had spent quite a lot of time cleaning up my house... so I had compliments like the "neatest guy toilet", etc etc... as tempting as it was to accept that.. I had to be honest.. lol.. my place was my typical warzone about 12 hours ago.


In anycase, last evening, I went to my second Baseball game with some pals and oh yeah! The Mariners won!! It was such an exciting match. For those who are unfamiliar with American sports - they are extremely fun to watch - people are allowed to boo referees, cheer their favourite players..
We were playing against the NewYork Mets and it was quite evenly matched - just that we managed to get 4 runs in one inning and had defended pretty well! (They only scored 1 run).
There were a couple of Met fans scattered around the stadium and there was this two Met fans that kept hollering "METS!!!!" while trying to wave to other Met fans seated 1 or 2 blocks away!

There was this particular Met fan infront of me with his wife. He had a score sheet on him.. and a Blue NY cap. Everytime the Mets falters or the Mariners do well, he would start grumbling to himself, and start counting points with his fingers.. etc etc.. and as the game progressed and especially when we started scoring our 4 runs.. he got increasingly irrate - you could sense it - especially when the whole stadium rose up to cheer.. he was that little dent in the sea of hands - sitting down, hands on forehead, looking pissed..
You know, at the end of the game, on the 2nd out of the last inning, he suddenly took off his cap, inverted it and put it on! I guess he was protesting the Met's bad performance!..

Oh well.. that's American sports.. some people can get pretty attached to the game! I was definately in high spirits when our Seattle Mariners won!

Well, it was a definately a fantastic night - free tickets - extremely good seats - beautiful weather and a perfect game..great company!

 

My Kids at Junior Achievement...


I was volunteering for this program called junior achivement where I had to be attached to a 3rd grade class and teach them about how a city runs - zonings/businesses etc.

So I had such a wonderful time with these kids.. 5 lessons in all.. but they've really warmed up to me... on the last day, they were saying such sweet stuff like "Bye Joshua! We will never forget you!!"... aww..

It was quite difficult at first - I'm used to giving presentations to adults and college students but with kids, it's a totally different thing. One thing for sure is that my sacarstic humor just bounces off them like a sword on a shield! And trying to keep their attention and to control them... that requires a lot more skill... I wanted to try to sound really excited and talk like Barney the dinosaur.. but lol... I have integrity.. I'll never stoop that low.. j/k.. everyone loves Barney huh?....

Well.. At the end of it all, I'm glad I got better, and you know, I was worried that I wasn't a kid-person.. when I couldn't get the same response from them as when i do it with adults.. but at the end... they all loved me... Yay!.. haha.. I'm actually quite relieved.. more than anything.. since.. being a future pediatrician.. its kinda impt for kids to trust and like you eh?

Anyway... bday !

It's time again for me to feel a little blue...
A good friend of mine, Yuka is leaving for Japan in a few days time...
We wanted to meet up another time before she went back to Japan but it seems like our timing just wasn't good enough.

She's a very sweet and pretty japanese teacher in a Elementary school in Oregon - a state south of Washington..
We met during a thanksgiving dinner last year and had spent such a good time chatting that holiday..
And after that we sort of promised each other that when she comes to Seattle, I would teach her piano and she would teach me a little Japanese.. lol...

Well.. I just got a call from her just now. She was feeling a little distressed over the application process of grad school in education and her house family's cat whom she really cared for that was put to sleep... Well, I was so glad to hear from her as well as to lend a listening ear.

In truth, I had really hoped that she could come to UW for her grad program this coming fall. Unfortunately, she missed her deadline and is trying to figure out all the little nuts and bolts about regulations regarding international students.. so she's trying to apply for Fall 2006...
*sigh*..
And also, she's planning a trip down to Seattle Soon!! Problem is... I'll be back in Singapore.. argh! Miss each other yet again...

Well, pray hard that she'll be able to successfully apply to UW and I'll be able to see her in a years time... =)

KPMG

No, not again...
The accounting industry is once again shaken up by news of a possible indictment of one of the remaining Big Four.
KPMG was said to have aggresively encouraged tax shelters which cost the IRS billions of dollars.

Not too long ago, during the Enron scandal and the subsequent demise of Arthur Anderson, it cost many perfectly good employees their jobs as well as reduced the choice of accounting firms available to the firms. (In fact it was the big 8 or 9 a couple of decades ago..)

Well, I have friends in KPMG as well as a couple of them doing their internship training at Palm Springs right now. And it won't be a pretty sight if I see them loose their jobs or future. However, I doubt KPMG will end up like Anderson as the social and economic cost of shutting down another big firm might not be for the best interest for the industry and that the Justice department is actually considering these factors.

So, even then, the Justice department cannot allow KPMG to go scott free and I'm glad to hear that there are some alternative resolutions to this matter. One of the possibilities is the deferred-prosecution agreement which basically mean that the company avoids a criminal trial but it agrees to have "extraordinary oversight" as well as huge changes in it's business practices.. not to forget, a huge fine too

Well, let's hope for the best - the mistakes of a few executives should not affect the thousands of employees who did not do wrong. However, in the nature of this situation (of legal reasons that I'm not too certain of), they have to indict the whole company rather than a few players.

Well well... a couple of years after Enron and the accounting industry is still in hot fire...
Pray for the best! There are many good people in KPMG

 

 

Smack the PIngU

Lol...
Miss Kaye Lee was telling me about this game;
http://casper.ru/temp/pingu/?namn=406

And I finally tried.. lol.. it's quite funny.. I do recall playing it before...
well I managed to hit the pingu till 296.8

Hmm.. is that high or low?

Opps.. new record : 315.7

Newer!
323.4!


ohh.. I managed to hit it till exactly 200 - it hit the ground like a javellin - I'm trying to get these kinda javellin hits.. its not very easy!

The Chronicles of Nardia

Hmm, movies have powerful mass appeal and can really churn the economy...
For the past week I have been going through every bookstore looking for a good and inexpensive C.S Lewis's " The witch, Wardrobe and the Lion" ( I'm not sure if they are in the right order).
Disney is coming up with the movie based on that book this december and it looks really good. So I have decided to find the book and read it before the movie.
Fortunately, I found it in the church library and have started reading it. It's actually a children book - somewhat Enid Blyton fantasy like...
but just incase you didn't know, CS Lewis is a christian author and his stories have biblical themes within them.
Infact one of the staff from a Christian bookstore, in her excitement, spoilt the twist in the story for me by telling me the story of the book.. oh well.. =)

In anycase, WSJ was just talking about a couple of movies coming out this year based on the christian theme - after "The Passion" by MelGibson, it seemingly sent a signal to the entertainment industry that there's a huge niche in the market that they have been ignoring for a while - the Christian audience especially in America.

Oh well, I'm just glad that for a short moment in my life, there'll be some form of entertainment that resounds well with my spirit!..

Look out for the movie!... As well as a couple of TV serials about Pastors coming from US! lol...

Ooh.. cloudy sunday..

Well, this is graduation weekend..
UW just had theirs yesterday - a wet and cold one I might add..
Hmm..it saddens me to think that most of my pals will not be with me by the end of next year..
I'm already missing the senior bunch of accounting friends. They're way cooler than the pre-med/biology students.. lol.. competitive yet supportive..




Anyway.. I doubt I'll be this excited for my graduation.. it's just going to mark the beggining of an even longer education path.. wait till I graduate from my doctoral..or M.D... then I'd probably feel as relieved...

Hmm.. Well, before the graduation, I spent sometime down at China town doing some reconnaissance work for our new VITA site (VITA is a tax-aid program to help low income families do their taxes - American tax are quite elaborate so many people enlist professional help that can cost up to $100)
Well, even with the short few hours working with my committee, I could already feel a nice bond of friendship and trust forming.. Imagine 1 whole year of toil and sweat together, compounded by the other 4 committees I'm heading.. we're going to be a huge family at the end of all this...
gonna make graduation all the more harder to bear..

Hmm.. perhaps I'll be used to it.. it seems like life in Seattle is based on making many new and sincere friends, and just when the friendship was going to be developed further, the person leaves the country or graduates..
But you know, I will always treasure the begginings of new frienships... my Seattle community are quite the nicest people anyone can meet..
I bet leaving here will not be that easy for me either! - the very same when I left home.

What are you doing with your life - Eagle and the Wolf

Well, I'm giving a speech on "Dare to make a difference" in about 2 hours time.. and have been searching for great stories online. And I keep getting so many stories that have such great meanings that I have to share them on my blog. This is particularly my favourite and I will be using it tonight... Just sit and absorb the implications - the truth about living Life exudes out of this one.. al dante...

Eagle and the Wolf, The
by: Author Unknown,

There is a great battle that rages inside me.
One side is the soaring eagle. Everything the eagle stands for is good and true and beautiful, and it soars above the clouds. Even though it dips down into the valleys, it lays its eggs on the mountaintops.

The other side of me is the howling wolf. And that raging, howling wolf represents the worst that's in me. He eats upon my downfalls and justifies himself by his presence in the pack.

Who wins this great battle?

The one I feed.

Spider Web

Hmm..
I was scouring the net for this Chinese Parable about a Chinese who was discouraged and while hiding in a cave, he observed how a spider kept re-weaving its web even though the wind kept breaking it. He later realised that he has to perservere in what he was doing ... Anyway.. I was looking for that chinese parable for my speech but ended up finding this.

And I really love the quote at the end....

Spider's Web A young soldier found himself in a terrible and hopeless battle. The enemy was soundly defeating this young man's army. He and his comrades found themselves hastily retreating from the battle field in defeat, running away in fear for their very lives. The enemy gave chase. This young man ran hard and fast, full of fear and desperation, but soon found himself cut off from his comrades in arms. He eventually came upon a rocky ledge containing a cave. Knowing the enemy was close behind, and that he was exhausted from the chase, he chose to hide there. After he crawled into the cave, he fell to his face in the darkness, desperately crying to God to save him and protect him from his enemies. He also made a bargain with God, one which I (and perhaps you too?) have made before. He promised that if God saved him, he would serve Him for the remainder of his days. When he looked up from his despairing plea for help, he saw a spider beginning to weave its web at the entrance of the cave. As he watched the delicate threads being slowly drawn across the mouth of the cave, the young soldier pondered its irony. He thought, "I asked God for protection and deliverance, and he sent me a spider instead. How can a spider save me?" His heart was hardened, knowing the enemy would soon discover his hiding place and kill him. And soon he did hear the sound of his enemies, who were now scouring the area looking for those in hiding. One soldier with a gun slowly walked up to the cave's entrance. As the young man crouched in the darkness, hoping to surprise the enemy in a last-minute desperate attempt to save his own life, he felt his heart pounding wildly out of control. As the enemy cautiously moved forward to enter the cave, he came upon the spider's web, which by now was completely strung across the opening. He backed away and called out to a comrade, "There can't be anyone in here. They would have had to break this spider's web to enter the cave. Let's move on." Years later, this young man, who made good his promise by becoming a preacher and evangelist, wrote about that ordeal. What he observed has stood by me in times of trouble, especially during those times when everything seemed impossible.

He wrote: "Where God is, a spider's web is as a stone wall. Where God is not, a stone wall is as a spider's web."

The parable of the caterpillar



Hmm.. this is an interesting and simple Flash clip I chanced upon...

Lol.. I always thought that this girl in the comic strip reminded me of someone... and I finally realised who! Have you ever seen Kaye Lee when she's sacarstic?... lol.. hmm.. interesting closure of this mystery girl.. 

Conjointed Twins..

Hmm, was just watching a NatGeo program about conjointed twins.
I personally did not really enjoy watching some of their Medical ER programs, but this one really caught my attention - especially when they were talking about navigating the way through the brain cells and the ruptured blood vessels.. - I liked the idea how the doctors planned the operation, went about it and make important decisions as they work through.
Well, one of the stories featured the conjointed twins from Middle East that came to Singapore for their surgery. It's a pity they did not survive, and felt a little dejected that our doctors did not manage to succeed but I was reminded that it was close to a 50-50 operation - they ran into a bunch of circulatory nerves close to the end of their 2 day operation that threatened to kill the twins - so they were deciding to go ahead and try their very best or to sew everything they had worked for up, and leave the twins conjointed but alive.
But the twins were so desperate for a normal life that their relatives recomended the doctors to go ahead - as they "would die of grief if they had woke up and found themselves still conjointed".

Oh Well... I guess many of us can never understand the kind of emotions those ladies went through - the desire to be normal.
I was asking myself, what if the world was devoid of emotions and that only the physical mattered. I would believe that any conjointed twins wouldn't be as determined to be seperated - as long as they are living well, and if the problems to normal living were just bare minimal or easy to get used to.

However, feelings of independence, feelings of wanting to be accepted by society can be extremely strong forces. We are a society that really values freedom and acceptance which could be pretty ironic at times - I'm thinking of adolescent teenagers... well, I was definately one before.. but looking back at those times, Freedom from our parents are valued very highly. Young guys wouldn't want to hang out with their parents, they want to make decisions of their own despite knowing full well that their parent's way have probably alot of truth in them.
Instead, they choose acceptance from their peers, to wear certain type of clothing, use a certain slang, enjoy certain music - just to feel part of a large group.
Interestingly, if one looks into this situation introspectively, one might notice that there's a simlarity in both cases - There's freedom and there's "shackles".

By running away from parents, the juvenile is gaining freedom from parents, however, he's taking on a new set of "shackles" - the gang's culture, dressing, behaviour..etc..
Or alternatively, by sticking close to his parents, he is gaining freedom from the pressures to wear certain "fashionable" clothings or to use the same slang. But he would be under the shackles of his parents - no late nights, no drinking... study... etc.

Therefore, it's pretty easy to see that there's no such thing as true freedom.
Gaining freedom from one entity simply throws one into the shackles of another entity, running from that entity would result in the inevitable binding of another shackle.

But why does shackles have a negative connoctation while freedom is so much more valued?
I believe it lies in the individual's perception.
When an individual flees the governing rules behind a certain entity into another, the new shackles are not seen as a negative thing, or it does not carry much weight - it does not cause the individual to feel oppressed. However, he feels much more exhilaration from escaping the shackles of the previous entity - a sense of freedom.
Strip the scenario of the emotions involved, and one can see that it's simple the act of switching from one shackle to another - not physically better off untill a value, a perception, or a bias is placed on some entity.


Thinking about the verse in Matthew 11 - "Take my Yoke upon you"...
One might question the validity of the verse - didn't Jesus promise freedom? Is this yoke a hidden clause, or something in fine print? Well, the truth is that, freedom from something simply means exchanging shackles - changing owners..
In most Christian interpretations of the verse - taking up Jesus's Yoke simply means changing owners - from the patterns of the world, the social norms that developed naturally through human interactions and perceptions - to being more concerned about what God thinks and feel about that individual.
So what makes God's rule more superior than the rules of the Earth to an individual?
It's entirely based on perception - a person who cares nothing much about the christian living would see the Freedom that Jesus described as a shackle rather than a desirable freedom.
And likewise, the reserved and conservative christian would hardly feel any joy or exhilaration if he had the freedom from Christian living but trapped in the shackles of a gang of motorcycle bad boys. Wearing those leather jackets would be a huge and heavy chore for him!

The Conjointed twins from Middle East wanted to have freedom from the physical and social shackles of being joint together - they wanted to live freely like the rest of the world.
But amongst us, the rest of the world, we know better - we have our own social and physical shackles..beauty, popularity, intelligence..
so what kind of freedom are they seeking?
What kind of freedom are we seeking?

I've been watching a couple of shows about conspiracy theories like UFOs or more specifcally - Man on the moon ( There's a group of people who are utterly convinced that Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon was a complete hoax filmed by the American government).. they just wouldn't listen to the scientists that proved their arguments wrong.. its kinda funny for some of us who have seen many evidences and are pretty sure about it - but for those people - it's amazing the amount of faith they have that it was all a hoax... Oh well, preconceptual science... the root of believable fantasy! 

"Everything to me"

Just had a couple of meetings with a few people from my committees for next year, and I got home, feeling very productive, and a little drained.. and decided to tinkle on my piano - jammed with a song on my iTunes - "Everything to me" by Avalon.
Its a powerful song and composed to impeccably well... at least to me. Unfortunately, I can find no friends who are able to sing it along with my playing.- the lead voices just have extraordinary voice ranges..
well, this has been one of my favourite songs, especially when it is a ballad with a memorable tune, great musical climax and very very intriguing key modulations..
But the lyrics itself speaks volumes about my life, and the lives of my fellow christian friends...

The song starts of with " I grew up in Sunday School, I memorized the golden rules..."

Wow... how true.. Over the years I've become pretty familiar with the rules of the bible and such, especially amidst the flood of liberal theology, the more it became important to hold on tight to the conservative golden rules... .
More important?

And in the chorus it says: "He's more than a story, more than words on a page of history"
Strong words indeed...but how ever true - nothing on a piece of paper can be the full embodiment of who Jesus and God is.

Recently, I've been reading two books - "Vital Dust" by Nobel Prize winner - Christian De Duve and "A Case for Creation" By journalist Lee Strobel.
It's quite obvious that this has to do with the debate of validity of evolution theory.
In Christian's book, he was merely telling a story based on experiments and observations including those which did not stand against scientific scrutiny about the origin of life - how it might have begun.
Strobel's book was focussed on criticizing certain key evidences for evolution as inconclusive and the validity of an intelligent design of evolution.

What was troubling me was that Strobel placed his entire faith on the basis that evolution is anti-God and eliminates the need for God. And quoted a few sources whereby the authors claimed that evolution wiped out the need for God.

In trying to filter his goal in his book, it seems to come down to one point - the mechanism of Evolution - given the intricate design of all living creatures - it is prespeterous to claim that all these were created by Darwin's proposed theory of Natural Selection - or randomness..
I actually like this analogy used by Christian - he said that evolution might seem like a Boeing 747 being formed and ready to fly bypieces of metal being caught up in a tornado. It's too random and improbable - scientists have to be kidding to believe in something so unlikely.
Unfortunately, the mechanism that Darwin proposed is not well-represented by a one time, short period event like that. So as a critical reader, I felt that a couple of Strobel's attack on Darwinism seems like it was missing the point.

But of course the main underpinning why Darwinism is not accepted by many of the Intelligent Design proponents are that it's very unlikely that Evolution was a random process - it actually has design of an intelligent being all over it.

Honestly, I don't see the difference between randomness and intelligent guidance from God.. other than through what perspective. I don't see why Christians become such antagonistic people towards scientists when they use the word "random"...

Take for example, the weather. When we pray for good weather - is that a simple ritual that we do? Or do we know that God will grant good weather if its within His will?
However, to secular meteorologists, its simply a random effect of certain winds and humidity pattern.
They will not attribute the sudden good weather to God but to randomness and the pattern of the winds.
Why do we not get angry with meteorologists who do not recognize that the formation of clouds and rain are due to God's working?

How about reproduction? To almost every secular biologist/doctor recognizes that fertilization is an entirely random event - which sperm gets to fuse with an egg is entirely not up to any person's control - save except for in vitro fertilization ( Which in actual fact are quite random in anycase).
However, to us Christians, we know that all of us are especially created by God- He knew which sperm among the millions that would fuse with the egg, He had planned for that particular sperm to hit the egg first. (Sperms are like blind bumper cars - they swim straight and when they realize they are getting further from an egg, they change direction and swim straight in hopes of hitting the egg)
Any scientist will know without doubt that it is a random process.
So why do we not bring it up against reproduction scientist? God clearly created every single one of us specially - how can you say we're all products of a random process?

We could go on into Quatum physics, chemistry, economics and so on and we'd find that for the same event / miracle, different people through different lenses have different interpretations and attribution of sources to them.
Science is limited to the "How?" question - therefore, it cannot go any further past randomization- it cannot explain God with "How" questions.
However, Christianity offers the "Why?" answers - that gives many people a purpose and the spiritual truth - it cannot be accepted as science because it doesn't answer the "How" question.

So there, Randomness or intelligent guidance, evolution or creationism, it still does not change the fact that God created all of us specially - seemingly random, seemingly improbable but definately planned.
Evolutionary Scientists are aware about the uncertainty at the fringes of their theory and they have heated arguments among themselves, but to take those arguments to claim that the whole or most of the theory does not stand to scrutiny
is almost equilvalent to picking up the contraversy between astronomers about the nature of darkmatter and by focussing on those few uncertainties, claim that there isn't such thing as darkmatter.

" I grew up in Sunday School, I memorized the golden rules..."

I don't see how important it is to hold on to memorized traditions or doctrines based on interpretations of other christians without first fully testing them

"He's more than a story, more than words on a page of history"

And more importantly, I don't see how my faith can be shaken by any scientific theory - infact, I see more of God in His design as we dwelve deeper into His Creations.


However, I must certainly put a caveat - Strobel is pretty right about one thing - Evolution Theory gives atheists another reason not to believe in God.

"Exceedingly..."


This is the title of the CD I just recorded. It's mostly contemporary christian music with 4 of my compositions. I wanted to put in more but that would have required me to set up a band.. which proved to be much more difficult that I had anticipated.. therefore, I just stuck with solo piano. That of course has its problems - coupled with an intensely hectic schedule juggling school work and obligations to different organizations.. I was left with a single saturday to record everything. It went well, but I was definately not pleased with my work - If I had more time, it would have been much better, but I'm going to leave it up to the sound engineers to twe ak it as much as they could. I'll probably do a proper one for December.. if I have time. It was quite a fun experience and a musical journey.. I was actually learning a few of them before recording them!
Anyway, I hope it does sell, there's quite a hefty initial investment to cover. I think it'll take 50 CDs to break even... that's quite a lot.. but I trust the people at the booth on Sunday..

Psalm 21:6
For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

 

Stick a fork in me... I'm done!! Well, save for an easy music final. In anycase, it seems like this break will be quite a busy one with me. Once the exams are over, it's time for planning - 5 committees and an organization. First weekday after my exams and I'm way behind my plannings and emailings.. oh well, I think I deserve to procastinate a little..