RE: Darwin (January 29, 2008 11:16 PM)

Darwin,

Thank you for contributing to our discussion. However I must disagree with you, there is a god. Your argument is not convincing at all. You claim that there is no God but yet you begin your post by crying out "oh my god!". Ironic, who is your God?

I do not disagree that animals and mankind evolve. If Charles Darwin is right about evolution then I believe it is God who gave us the ability to evolve into something better. Man gets stronger, faster, smarter. But claiming that God does not exist is not a step forward, it is a step backwards. There are many great scientist and philosphers who hold to the existence of God as well, who is Charles Darwin?

I know that there are some Christians who force their believes on others. I, on the other hand, believe that God gave us all the gift of free will. Nobody can force anyone on what they believe, but in the same way that you came into my blog and used strong words to state your case, Christians too feel strongly about their case and are passionate about it, and sometimes, Christians take it overboard. No matter, people can say what they want, the way that they say it might be wrong, but at the end of the day you must make a decision for yourself. You have to choose to accept God or reject God, there's no two way about it.

Indeed Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" is a classic, but have you heard of the Bible. It is still the top seller, translated into thousands of language. There are also many other "classics" that argue for the existence of God.

The great philosopher/theologian St. Augustine once said: "You have created us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you..." Deep inside everyone of us is a "God-shaped vacuum", it is the way the Creator created us. I believe it cannot be ignored. Trying to fill it with substitues (like money, fame, good works, etc.) will not fit, nothing will fit. God is the only one that can fill the God-shaped vacuum.

I quote from the greatest of all classics, the Bible. The wise man Solomon had everything. He had all the money, fame, fortune, wisdom and knowledge, he even had all the women he could want! And Solomon who had it all wrote in Ecclesiastes: "Also He (God) has put eternity in their hearts... All is vanity... Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all”.

... That is my conclusion of the matter as well.

GRM Question #2

So here we go again, this is the second question, in two parts:

"How can we know God? Deal with the issue regarding General revelation and Special Revelation?"

and...

"What happens to babies and young children when they die? Do mentally ill people go to heaven?"

I am already having headaches... but let's see where we can get with this.

P/S: In the meantime we can still continue our discussion on the previous posts.

RE: GRM Question #1 "There MUST be a God"

Thank you all very much for making your opinions heard. Looks like I've been thrown to the deep end of the pool. This is the main reason why I did not want to respond earlier. I acknowledge that I do not have all the answers, and I also did not want to frivolously give answers that do not hold water. Like some of my fellow classmates, this blog has consumed us, some of us are even blogging in our dreams. I have thought through the first question and now it's time to sink or swim.

Before I go any further I just want to clarify a few things. I seem to have offended some people by, what seems to me, some very innocent and neutral blog posts. The other reason why I did not make my response earlier was because I wanted to try to keep this blog a neutral ground for anyone and everyone who would like to join in this dialogue. So I did not want to make my opinions heard so soon. Remember, it's a dialogue, please try to respond with some respect to the blogger and especially to the other readers. We all have our own opinions on the issue, and although some of us may feel more strongly than others we should still respond with some respect to each other. Nobody is shoving anything down anywhere. Otherwise I can understand, and appreciate you, for your strong and passionate responses. Please continue to take part in my dialogue.

How I answer the question at hand depends very much on who asks the question. Since the question is thrown into the air, it is so much harder to provide good answer to satisfy everyone. Books can and have been written on this subject. So any response I make will be terribly short and simple in comparison. What I will do here is attempt to give a general respond. If there are some interesting comments I will try to respond more specifically.

Let me just recap the question at hand:
"Many religions claim the existence of God. Does God exist? How do we know He existed? There are so many gods, which is the true God? How do we define God?"

Many religions claim the existence of God. Does God exist?
Yes, I do believe God exists. (That was easy...)

How do we know He existed? (This is the difficult part of the question...)
I do not know how you would interpret the existence of God, but how I know he existed is through a personal experience/encounter with God. However, this answer holds very little water if you do not know the person giving the answer. This is what a Christian might call a life testimony. It seeks to proof the existence of God through a changed life. Christians claim that someone who has experienced God will be changed for the better.

But there are still other arguments for the existence of God. There is the argument of intelligent design. This view argues for the existence of God by claiming that the whole universe designed by someone intelligent. Nature in all its beauty and splendour is pointing us to someone, something. Every leaf on the trees, every grain of sand on the beach, every unique snowflake, every part of creation is pointing us to a creator who created the universe and everything in it.

There is also an argument of the "uncaused cause". This view argues that everything has a cause. For example, some people claim that humans evolved from apes, and apes evolved from monkeys, and monkeys etc... Long story short, we can all be broken down to individual cells, and cells broken down to atoms, and atoms to sub-atomic particles. If we were to follow this argument through all the way, we will inevitably realize that there has to be a supreme creator. Someone has to be there at the very beginning to cause the first chemicals to come into existence, and thus start the chain of reactions that ultimately led to the existence of homo sapiens.

I believe that there are many other arguments for and against the existence of God. However, as you can read, I clearly believe God exists. Perhaps some of you have other thesis for or against the existence of God, care to comment or respond?

There are so many gods, which is the true God? (Another toughie...)
These days people are not so concerned about the question of which is the "true" God. The post modern prediposition causes people have the opinion that whatever works for them is true and right, and whatever that does not work is discarded as "untrue". Post modernity does not have absolutes, no absolute right, no absolute wrong; just what works for each individual. However it is my belief that although there are many issues that are grey and without absolutes, and issues that require a tension of both extremes; I believe that on this issue of a true God there is only one and true God.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6)

How do we define God?
This is such a subjective question. Depending on who you ask "god" could be anything. To some their god is their money, to some love is their god. However generally speaking, God is defined as a higher supreme being or beings. Some religions who claim that we are all gods in our own way. Still some others claim that God is an unknowable being. However being a Christian, I believe in a supreme monotheistic God.

Responding to the question took me a full day. I think this blog post is worth reading as it took me almost a full working day to post! I really hope that we will all learn from each other through this blog. I do not just want to make myself heard but I also want to hear you out as well. Looking forward to hearing your comments.

"Gifts From God"

That is exactly what she is, a "gift from God". Just look at her. Mikayla Yee Rencai 余仁采 was born to Melanie and I at 11:22 on the 21st of December 2007. As of today she is a grand ol' 34 days old!

Incidentally, today is Elroi's birthday. Happy Birthday Elroi! No gift for you, you're too far away. Elroi has taken many beautiful pictures of Mikayla on his Nikon D80. The pictures above were taken and editted by Elroi himself. The pictures are beautiful mainly because Mikayla is such a beautiful model.

At the moment Elroi is enjoying his birthday in the cool breeze of Baguio with Anne. What a way to spend one's birthday. My parents are totally elated that Anne has finally made the trip to visit them in the Philippines. We (Melanie, Mikayla & Lemuel) will also be going over to visit the new grandparents sometime around Chinese New Year. Melanie's family will also be joining us on this trip. It's going to be fun! The grandparents in Philippines have already bought many gifts for little Mikayla's trip. She will have no shortage of sweaters.

Naturally, my parents miss their 34-day old granddaughter more than they miss their 26-year old son. They really miss her a lot. It is part of the price and sacrifice that they make in serving Jesus. They have missed, and will miss many events in Mikayla's life. This is also a price and sacrifice that Melanie and I pay, and so will Mikayla. But nothing beats being part of a family who are in the will of God. The greatest gift is to know God and to share it with others.

Mikayla has already celebrated her full moon with her immediate family members on the 18th of January 2008. Even Mikayla's Great Uncle Yee Tham Fuan

(http://themekongmission.blogspot.com) and Aunty Danica (http://danicayee.blogspot.com) were in attendance. They were passing by KL on their way back to Australia from their missions trip in South Asia. Yes! Even my uncles, aunties and cousins love Jesus with all their hearts, and serve him wherever they are called. What a gift to have an entire family serving God and being in his will. The full moon was a typical noisy hakkah affair. Mikayla was splashed with gifts, and angpaus. Seriously, she is richer than me now.

Mikayla has been showered with so many gifts from friends and family that we are totally overwhelmed. You really will not believe it. Just let me illustrate: at the moment we have THREE matress, pillows, and bolsters sets; THREE bottles of D.O.M. health wines; THREE car seats; and so much clothes that Mikayla would be able to wear most of them only three times before she out grows them! We practically did not have to buy anything ourselves. We really thank God for giving us so many friends.

Mikayla is now initiated into the Yee Family proper. However, there are still so many friends who have yet to meet our little gift from God. Especially the members of Faith Charismatic Center, BCM students, and the PKs (Pastors' Kids). We really want to share this gift with all of you, so even though it is a bit of a hassle, a grander full moon party is in the pipeline. Here are the details:

Date: 3rd February 2008 (Sunday)
Time: 7pm - Mikayla's bedtime
Venue: Our home - B104 Casa Mila, Bukit Idaman, Selayang, 68100 Selangor (pool side)
RSVP: ASAP

Food?: of course!

Map: Right here...

Please come if you would like to see Mikayla Yee and her proud parents. Many of the BCM students and PKs also have never set foot into the northern areas of KL. As many churches are located towards the south - PJ and Subang areas. This would be the perfect opportunity for you Southsiders to get a taste of the Northside.

Lemuel, Melanie & Mikayla are all looking forward to seeing you at the party. Please remember to RSVP.