Well It's April

 Happy Easter folks! What is the probability of my birthday coinciding with Easter Sunday?

Fifty-six years... how old is that? It feels I'm just beginning. So that's 56, but technically I'm closer to 56.75 because life begins at conception, so 9 months has to be added, but of course determining that date is uncertain. I've been here on earth for relatively negligible time, or 4.121 × 10^-7% of the age of the universe (that's 0.0000004121%).

In Easter we celebrate the triumphant resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, proving all what he uttered previously, and without it, there's no sense believing in God. Without Easter, there's no Christmas. And this is in the midst of the world's unbelief; there's a growing number of atheists and they're making it into a religion. Their atheism is no longer passive, ridiculing true religion at the drop of a hat.

As members of the body of Christ, Catholics (Christians in general) have the duty to remain truthful and repel attacks from the devil (many may point to the atheist themselves as culprits, but we believe it is part of an invisible and never-ending spiritual war between good and evil). Because they don't believe the scriptures, we have to study philosophy, theology or even psychology, or perhaps science in general. They are fond of quantum mechanics, saying it makes God irrelevant.

As we argue with the world, we shouldn't forget about doing everything for love. It's counterproductive to fight the human enemy... we have no enemies!

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, love is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:1ff NABRE)

As Catholics we have to be sure what we believe in, for we can't be soldiers otherwise. God understands our predicament and he gives us graces and courage for the task. When I was a medical student, I was besieged by doubts and perhaps God sees my struggles... not just the huge medical or scientific subject matter (no real time to study), but spiritual, religious or otherwise. I can't seem to tell the story (I want to relate the details but I don't know how to start), but I had a supernatural experience, and it's nothing short of a miracle. Many things remain the same, but the experience put God's stamp... game over. If only all people meditate and look deeply into the soul (yes there is such thing as a soul), they will find the answer. We just remain as little children, and God our Father will take care of the rest.

"May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance (Jude 2 NABRE)."

Bible

We are a unique species on this planet, intelligent and discerning, of limitless mind but so restricted physically, sharing the biosphere, following its cycles and mysteries.  Our lifetime is not enough to fully understand the things going on around us, the abstract and the concrete.  We see the beauty of the universe's design, rightly concluding that there must be a God in the back end.  But then there are those who object, needing clearer evidence.  In the end, we are responsible for what we believe in, but we must at least know individually.  We must believe in the lasting, in the really significant, in the bottom line.

Finding the truth is the beginning, but not the end.  Faith must then follow inevitably, whether it's about science or religion.  Hope then follows the train, perhaps to experience now what is expected, perhaps as a further push to our faith.  But then that is all useless unless it ripens to love, sustaining all of us.  Many times we hear deep inside the abyss, "what's the purpose of our existence?", or "everything is meaningless..."  Well the answer is love... love is the answer.  Spend your lifetime contemplating this reality.

Emerging from the oral traditions of early Christianity, one remarkable product is the canon of the holy scriptures or the bible.  Unknown writers put down these unwritten accounts (largly eyewitness) about this enigmatic figure—Jesus of Nazareth—son of man and Son of God!  It's understandable that many don't believe him as it demands a great leap of faith.  The presence of the Church for 2000 years is proof it is true, but this is not so for others.  The occasional (or not so occasional) scandals do not help at all, although believers are mortified by such evil, even happening in holy spaces.  As an aside, parents must teach their young children to report all inappropriate behavior targeting them, and do something about it (go to the civil authorities directly and possibly provide audio or video evidence, even by-passing the ecclesiastical authorities).  Talking about the incident years later may be explosive but more damage has been done at that point.  Individually, people experience God's presence somewhere, sometime, somehow, even something miraculous or unexplainable.  Such experiences are oftentimes not believed anyway.

While on facebook, I encountered a link about important bible verses that Catholics should know.  There are fifteen but I included another one at the beginning because it's reflected above.  All the passages are taken from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE).

1. "Faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor 13:13)
2. "Be still and know that I am God!" (Ps 46:11)
3. "The LORD is my strength and my shield, in whom my heart trusts." (Ps 28:7)
4. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." (Jn 3:16)
5. “Give thanks to the LORD for he is good, his mercy endures forever!” (Ps 107:1)
6. "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me." (Jn 14:6)
7. "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?  The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?" (Ps 27:1)
8. "I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me." (Phil 4:13)
9. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control." (Gal 5:22f)
10. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Lk 10:27)
11. "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior." (Lk 1:46f)
12. "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." (Jn 6:35)
13. "Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God." (Phil 4:6)
14. "As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)
15. "Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love." (1 Jn 4:8)
16. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Mt 7:7)

So why not read the entire 35,529 verses of the Bible?

Science and Faith

In these past few days, I've been involved with a friend debating via email on the existence of God because science for him seems to disprove God's existence. Obviously I defended God's existence, but I had a hard time explaining how can faith and science be not contradictory using his viewpoint. On my friend's part, he used knowledge of quantum theory in "demolishing" God, but I stood my ground. I had difficulty giving my side because he doesn't accept the usual commonsensical explanations, like the first cause and the designer principles. He's asking for direct evidence from science, and of course there's no such thing. You can't see under the electron microscope an angel's feather, or perhaps look through a very powerful telescope and see God there at the edge of the universe! So how can we go about that predicament?

And of course I could not offer up the bible because for him all these stories were "made up". He made the bible at par with fairy tales, and others like Greek mythology and other folk stories in many countries. It seemed the conversation was drowned by an ocean of relativism, where nobody can possibly know the truth, or which truth. And because one can never know the truth, no truth is accepted except that which is founded on the natural sciences. Such way of thinking is obvious scientism, but most of the time the one scrutinizing the truth only has a superficial scientific knowledge. God can't be "undone" by science, real science. In such a situation, what am I to do? There is no ground to stand on!

A few hours ago, while viewing EWTN, I encountered a certain Dr. Anthony Rizzi Ph.D., who providentially was the guest at EWTN Live! He's a physicist who seems to have all the answers regarding my problems. See his website at www.iapweb.org and look around the site. There is a book for sale entitled The Science Before Science: A Guide To Thinking In The 21st Century; I would try to obtain such book. Alternatively, I'll try to watch his upcoming TV series on EWTN this coming September; that way I won't have to purchase it. There are many other books dealing with the proper understanding of science in the real world.

I ended my conversation knowing that his issues were left hanging. If we see each other again (on-line), I'll be better prepared. I do hope that the Holy Spirit will be with him in his quest, and likewise to all of us believers.

Typhoon Egay

From PAGASA (our local weather bureau), at 2:00 p.m. today, Typhoon Egay (international code: Sepat) was located based on satellite and surface data 450 km east southeast of Aparri, Cagayan (17.7ºN, 126.2ºE) with maximum sustained winds of 215 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 250 kph. It is forecast to move northwest at 15 kph. Moderate to strong southwesterly surface windflow prevailing over Luzon and western sections of Visayas. The satellite photo here (taken 2007-08-16 13:11 GMT) shows the dog's head (storm) about to bite the northern portion of Luzon, but the entire country is covered by vicious clouds.

After being lashed by a typhoon last week, here we go again! Although the typhoons didn't traverse land, lots of rain did the actual damage. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crops and infrastructure are destroyed. Several levees are collapsing, no match to nature's fury.

For many people, especially policy makers, when they talk about the so-called global warming phenomenon, they become so abstract and academic as if it becomes a game for them. Perhaps that's the kind of attitude because they don't know what to do! With this prevailing attitude, nothing will come out from the warnings of several scientists. For us here in the Philippines, we actually feel the painful effects of the weather gone mad. I can't quantify it, but the storms that come our way through the years have become more devastating and claimed more lives. I'm afraid that there is no solution in sight.

No Conflict Between Science and Religion

There is no conflict between true science and true religion because both serve the truth; the contradiction is in the eyes of the interpreter, and those who write about such false interpretations. First, we look at the false interpretation of the so-called scientists. If you examine the works of eminent scientists, e.g., Albert Einstein, you will discover that they (or a majority of them) believe in God. The controversy happens when some scientists say that there is no God. They should know better! Science deals with things physical, and those that can be examined by the senses. The true scientist sees all the laws of nature and he or she knows its limits. While it is evident that there is an intelligent being that designed all these wonderful laws, that is also not direct evidence of God's presence. So it goes both ways. The point that I'm driving at here is that true scientists cannot make pronouncements on the absolute presence or absence of God; if they're honest, they will not say such things. If they insist that God does not exist, that is their opinion; they should not misrepresent science in general. This conflict is demonstrated in the movie Contact, which I saw recently (rerun from HBO).

On the other hand, there are those who call themselves religious teachers or evangelists who absolutely reject science because it contradicts the bible. After reading Genesis (describing the creation of the universe in just six days), they insist that God literally created the world in 6 days. They then start to discredit such disciplines as archeology, paleontology, geology, biology (evolution, e.g.) etc. and disrupt the proper education of their listeners. The bible is not a science book! Contrary to others' bias against it, the Church insists on the complementarity between science and religion, between faith and reason. Others may retort that the Church suppressed such scientists in the past like Galileo or Darwin, and surely some clerics overstepped their roles as ministers. If people try to examine what happened, perhaps they should focus on that the scientists said. People of faith cried foul when such learned scientists started to develop their own philosophies and overstepped their roles as scientists. How can science disprove God's existence? Without science we'll still be living in the dark ages, so it surely is very important. But theories cannot delve into things spiritual, as it is largely physical and intellectual.

Remember, the bible is not a science book; it's not even a history book (not written the way historians write history). On the other hand, a science book is not a religious book. There is really no conflict—Faith and Reason need each other.