The following is an essay written by me about God which has been extracted from my book - The Universe - A Personal View ( page 193 to 205 )
Link to my book :- https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk
Of God and Ghosts
The idea of the existence of a supreme being or deity who has created this world and overseeing it constantly has always been an important part of human history and culture. No view of the universe can be considered complete without
discussing this very vital and extremely human topic. At the beginning of human history, men used to believe in all kinds of gods because of their ignorance about their physical environment. They attributed the warm and rejuvenating power of the sun to a sun god and the deafening roars of thunder to a thunder god and so on. As mentioned in the previous section, it is men's nature to attach an explanation to everything they encounter as a mark of completion ( i.e. to have successfully discovered the reason they are looking for ) to satisfy their curiosity and yearning for knowledge. At the discovery of anything too complicated for their comprehension or beyond their existing knowledge, it is not uncommon for men to invent the concept of gods who are all powerful beings to be the ultimate cause of any unexplained phenomena. But this is not to say that this reasoning can be applied directly and indiscriminately as a logical argument to disprove the existence of the one true God who is by definition a self-existing, all powerful and benevolent being that permeates the whole universe and is worshiped by billions of people worldwide under different forms of religions. I do not think that most people believe in God for such a naïve reason. People's thoughts are far more sophisticated and complex than this simple reasoning. My view on this issue will be set out below. Suffice it to say at this introductory stage that it is inherent in human nature to look to a higher cause for the ultimate origins of all things and phenomena experienced in their lives. It is my contention that everyone ( from the atheists to those scientists who hold a materialistic world view and even the buddhists whose philosophy as set out in their Law of Dependent Origination excludes the possibility of any self-existing entity ) has , in one way or another, based his or her belief regarding the origin of the universe on some aspects of the concept of a self- existing and all powerful force which possesses God-like qualities or characteristics. I totally agree that such a contention as mine sounds outrageous to most, if not all, people. However, I would plead for your patience and forbearance until you have gone through my rationale for holding such an unconventional view.
I shall not go into the detailed religious doctrines of different world religions but simply dwell a little bit on the concept of God as perceived by each of the major religious groups. The major world religions that have commanded the worship of over three-quarters of the global population include the following ( in alphabetical order ) :- Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism ( of China ), Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism
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( of Japan ), Taoism ( of China ) and Universality (i.e. yin and yang concepts of nature )
also originating from China. There are, of course, other religions of a more ethnical nature
which are less structurally developed and all of them have their concept of a creator God
in one form of another. As these are less representative and concern only individual social
groups, we shall not deal with them individually. However, I think it is only fair to say that
the point about the concept of a creating force or deity for the universe being a universal
concept has been reasonably established. Without further ado, let me brief you on how my
unconventional view has come about. This will involve brief visits to the world views of the
major religions.
Buddhism has a number of branches the two basic off-shoots from the different philosophical outlooks being the Hinayana school ( the “ lesser vehicle “ ) and the later school of Mahayana ( the “ great vehicle “ ). The former school mainly concerns with achieving enlightenment or entering nirvana ( the western world of extreme and endless happiness without the need for rebirth to endure the human sufferings of birth, ageing, sickness and death ) for oneself. It was also known as Monastic Buddhism because it only places emphasis on the individual and isolated practice of the religion in monastery away from the materialistic world. This was not done for selfish reasons but on account of the strong belief that this materialistic world breeds evil that will prevent the achievement of enlightenment. Then, the latter school of Mahayana has the very noble concept of Bodhisattva. While the Buddha is the enlightened one, the Bodhisattva is the developing Buddha. The Mahayana teaching has the noble goal of selfless sacrifice by the Bodhisattva to remain on earth ( although they could have achieved nirvana and not to undergo the pain of rebirth ) solely for the benefit of other living creatures and to rescue them from their sufferings to help them towards enlightenment. That is why Mahayana is called the great vehicle to transport everyone to the western world of extreme and endless happiness. This magnanimous social goal is what causes this school of Buddhism to
become the main stream of the religion and a socially popular religion in the orient.
Let us now exaime the Buddhist world view in brief. According to Buddhist philosophy, the individual and his physical environment are subject to constant processes of birth and destruction in endless cycles operating under a strict and unchanging law called Dharma. Everything and everyone is nothing but a manifestation of this supreme law of nature. There is no real differences between anything and anyone. There are, in fact, no separate entities of any sort. The world is just one under the working of the supreme moral or natural law of Dharma. In my opinion, this is the best recipe and rationale for world peace. So there are really no such thing as :- you and me, subject and object, self and non-self, in here and out there, physical and spiritual. Every phenomenon we experience is just an illusion of the existence of a reality which is the result of never ending cycles of changes. I would again point to the famous example of the reflection of the moon on the water surface and the image of a flower in the mirror as concrete examples of this concept. They look so real but they are simply illusions. The Buddha explained this proposition in his teaching on “ Dependent Origination “ which actually means “ Conditioned Arising “ or the “ Formula of Casual Connection “. In short, it maintains that the aggregates are mutually dependent on the multi-lateral interactions between all the individual components. You simply cannot analyze which component has contributed how much to the overall aggregate. The reductionist approach of breaking up the the aggregate into parts to find an explanation is simply unworkable here because every part ( if there is any which I do not believe this to be the case in most instances ) is multi-laterally interconnected with every other part in the system in question. This is the concept of the part in the whole and the whole in the part that we have come across in chapter (vii) - the New Science of Fuzzy Logic. Here, the holistic approach though a less scientific one is more appropriate. There is simply no one to one relationship. If this sounds familiar it is because it is also the conclusion reached by the Theory of Chaos and Complexity in chapter ( v ). So, there is a closer relationship between science and religion than one would imagine. To complete the Buddhist world view, the working of Dharma creates these aggregates ( or phenomena, which I feel is a better term ) which endures beyond death of our physical bodies and form new combinations of the “ individual dharmas “ represented by each of our individual consciousness in the form of our rebirths. The only sure thing about our life is that it is painful and full of sufferings due to our
Buddhism has a number of branches the two basic off-shoots from the different philosophical outlooks being the Hinayana school ( the “ lesser vehicle “ ) and the later school of Mahayana ( the “ great vehicle “ ). The former school mainly concerns with achieving enlightenment or entering nirvana ( the western world of extreme and endless happiness without the need for rebirth to endure the human sufferings of birth, ageing, sickness and death ) for oneself. It was also known as Monastic Buddhism because it only places emphasis on the individual and isolated practice of the religion in monastery away from the materialistic world. This was not done for selfish reasons but on account of the strong belief that this materialistic world breeds evil that will prevent the achievement of enlightenment. Then, the latter school of Mahayana has the very noble concept of Bodhisattva. While the Buddha is the enlightened one, the Bodhisattva is the developing Buddha. The Mahayana teaching has the noble goal of selfless sacrifice by the Bodhisattva to remain on earth ( although they could have achieved nirvana and not to undergo the pain of rebirth ) solely for the benefit of other living creatures and to rescue them from their sufferings to help them towards enlightenment. That is why Mahayana is called the great vehicle to transport everyone to the western world of extreme and endless happiness. This magnanimous social goal is what causes this school of Buddhism to
become the main stream of the religion and a socially popular religion in the orient.
Let us now exaime the Buddhist world view in brief. According to Buddhist philosophy, the individual and his physical environment are subject to constant processes of birth and destruction in endless cycles operating under a strict and unchanging law called Dharma. Everything and everyone is nothing but a manifestation of this supreme law of nature. There is no real differences between anything and anyone. There are, in fact, no separate entities of any sort. The world is just one under the working of the supreme moral or natural law of Dharma. In my opinion, this is the best recipe and rationale for world peace. So there are really no such thing as :- you and me, subject and object, self and non-self, in here and out there, physical and spiritual. Every phenomenon we experience is just an illusion of the existence of a reality which is the result of never ending cycles of changes. I would again point to the famous example of the reflection of the moon on the water surface and the image of a flower in the mirror as concrete examples of this concept. They look so real but they are simply illusions. The Buddha explained this proposition in his teaching on “ Dependent Origination “ which actually means “ Conditioned Arising “ or the “ Formula of Casual Connection “. In short, it maintains that the aggregates are mutually dependent on the multi-lateral interactions between all the individual components. You simply cannot analyze which component has contributed how much to the overall aggregate. The reductionist approach of breaking up the the aggregate into parts to find an explanation is simply unworkable here because every part ( if there is any which I do not believe this to be the case in most instances ) is multi-laterally interconnected with every other part in the system in question. This is the concept of the part in the whole and the whole in the part that we have come across in chapter (vii) - the New Science of Fuzzy Logic. Here, the holistic approach though a less scientific one is more appropriate. There is simply no one to one relationship. If this sounds familiar it is because it is also the conclusion reached by the Theory of Chaos and Complexity in chapter ( v ). So, there is a closer relationship between science and religion than one would imagine. To complete the Buddhist world view, the working of Dharma creates these aggregates ( or phenomena, which I feel is a better term ) which endures beyond death of our physical bodies and form new combinations of the “ individual dharmas “ represented by each of our individual consciousness in the form of our rebirths. The only sure thing about our life is that it is painful and full of sufferings due to our
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ignorance of the working of the supreme natural law ( “ Dharma “ ). We have so often been
working against the natural law that our suffering is created by our own doing. The only
salvation for us is to see through the illusion of reality ( that nothing is permanent ) and to
adjust our attitiude and behaviour accordingly. Only by doing good and be compassionate
to other living creatures can we break this endless cycle of pain and suffering to achieve
enlightenment and enter nirvana as a buddha.
Since the law of Dependent Origination is so important to buddhist philosophy, some further insights into this concept is paramount in understanding the essence of the buddhist world view. As the logic of this concept relies on the argument that everything is interconnected as an undivided whole, it hypothesizes that all aggregates ( or phenomena ) both the grand Dharma of the universe and individual dharmas of each human being are mutually dependent on and as a whole determine one another. This is the essence of the holistic approach. The theory specifically hightlights 12 links or logical steps in the chain of dharmas. They are set out as follows :- ( 1 ) Out of the precondition of ignorance, the driving force ( 2 ) arises, this leads to the formation of our consciousness ( 3 ). Out of our consciousness, a spiritual and physical individuality is born. This is logical step ( 4 ). With this individuality, our six senses come into operation. This is step ( 5 ). From the sense of touch which is step ( 6 ), it gives rise to feeling. This is step ( 7 ). Once feeling is possible, the human nature is capable of craving ( the word “ thirst “ is actually used in the teaching ). This becomes step (8 ). Craving includes the inclination toward life. This is step ( 9 ). This desparate clinging on to life will in turn give rise to karmic becoming in life ( an unjustified yearning ). This is step ( 10 ) which logically leads to karmic becoming in rebirth. This is step ( 11 ) and with rebirth, the painful process of ageing, dying, worries, suffering , sorrows and despair reappear in the next life of the individual's consciousness. So, death and life comes full circle in step ( 12 ). No description of the physical processes were provided but on top of the list of the logical chain of events ( in this painful state of affairs that is life ) ignorance has the infamous honour. It is ignorance of the working of the supreme law of Dharma that has started all the troubles and that has led to our failure to break this sad chain of events which can only be dissolved through enlightenment. Now that you have some basic ideas about the philosophical reasoning of
Buddhism, we can turn to the rationale for my unconventional view.
Regardless of the validity of the buddhist reasoning, it has, nevertheless,
based its argument on a self-existing and all powerful law of nature called Dharma. This is the basic premises that possess the God-like quality ( in terms of the fundamental concept upon which the philosophy has been built ) to which I have been referring in my unconventional idea. Conceivably, there are two counter arguments that can be leveled against my contention. Firstly, the buddhist view does not require the creation of the universe which is considered to be an illusion according to the buddhist reasoning and, therefore, does not need a creator. To this retort, I would say that the whole idea of a never ending cycle of life, suffering and rebirth driven by the self-existing and all powerful natural law of Dharma, however unreal, requires the existence of the evil driving force of ignorance and the initial working principle represented by Dharma which is eternal and self-existing. The second possible counter argument may run like this.There is no beginning nor end for the cycle of life, suffering, death and rebirth except the breaking of the chain through enlightenment. Therefore, there is no need for the first cause because everything is an interconnected whole like a circle without beginning or end. However, the circle or the eternally existing state of affairs has to work on some self-existing or at least a spontaneous rule which in this case is the law of Dharma that has God like characteristics. Before we leave Buddhism behind for other religions and beliefs, let me summarize the buddhist arguments for the refutation of God's existence. The logic runs like this. Every phenomenon must have a preceeding cause otherwise there are no complete sequences to form a process that creates the illusion of reality. Besides, there must be interactions between all components of a meaningful system. Things that do not interact are not in casual contact with one another meaning they can have nothing to do with one another. Interaction must give rise to change on all the interacting components. Applying these logical steps to the concept of a all powerful and self-existing God, any phenomenon that is without a cause cannot form a complete and meaningful sequence of events or process. Even if there is interaction between God and men, both have to be changed to different
Since the law of Dependent Origination is so important to buddhist philosophy, some further insights into this concept is paramount in understanding the essence of the buddhist world view. As the logic of this concept relies on the argument that everything is interconnected as an undivided whole, it hypothesizes that all aggregates ( or phenomena ) both the grand Dharma of the universe and individual dharmas of each human being are mutually dependent on and as a whole determine one another. This is the essence of the holistic approach. The theory specifically hightlights 12 links or logical steps in the chain of dharmas. They are set out as follows :- ( 1 ) Out of the precondition of ignorance, the driving force ( 2 ) arises, this leads to the formation of our consciousness ( 3 ). Out of our consciousness, a spiritual and physical individuality is born. This is logical step ( 4 ). With this individuality, our six senses come into operation. This is step ( 5 ). From the sense of touch which is step ( 6 ), it gives rise to feeling. This is step ( 7 ). Once feeling is possible, the human nature is capable of craving ( the word “ thirst “ is actually used in the teaching ). This becomes step (8 ). Craving includes the inclination toward life. This is step ( 9 ). This desparate clinging on to life will in turn give rise to karmic becoming in life ( an unjustified yearning ). This is step ( 10 ) which logically leads to karmic becoming in rebirth. This is step ( 11 ) and with rebirth, the painful process of ageing, dying, worries, suffering , sorrows and despair reappear in the next life of the individual's consciousness. So, death and life comes full circle in step ( 12 ). No description of the physical processes were provided but on top of the list of the logical chain of events ( in this painful state of affairs that is life ) ignorance has the infamous honour. It is ignorance of the working of the supreme law of Dharma that has started all the troubles and that has led to our failure to break this sad chain of events which can only be dissolved through enlightenment. Now that you have some basic ideas about the philosophical reasoning of
Buddhism, we can turn to the rationale for my unconventional view.
Regardless of the validity of the buddhist reasoning, it has, nevertheless,
based its argument on a self-existing and all powerful law of nature called Dharma. This is the basic premises that possess the God-like quality ( in terms of the fundamental concept upon which the philosophy has been built ) to which I have been referring in my unconventional idea. Conceivably, there are two counter arguments that can be leveled against my contention. Firstly, the buddhist view does not require the creation of the universe which is considered to be an illusion according to the buddhist reasoning and, therefore, does not need a creator. To this retort, I would say that the whole idea of a never ending cycle of life, suffering and rebirth driven by the self-existing and all powerful natural law of Dharma, however unreal, requires the existence of the evil driving force of ignorance and the initial working principle represented by Dharma which is eternal and self-existing. The second possible counter argument may run like this.There is no beginning nor end for the cycle of life, suffering, death and rebirth except the breaking of the chain through enlightenment. Therefore, there is no need for the first cause because everything is an interconnected whole like a circle without beginning or end. However, the circle or the eternally existing state of affairs has to work on some self-existing or at least a spontaneous rule which in this case is the law of Dharma that has God like characteristics. Before we leave Buddhism behind for other religions and beliefs, let me summarize the buddhist arguments for the refutation of God's existence. The logic runs like this. Every phenomenon must have a preceeding cause otherwise there are no complete sequences to form a process that creates the illusion of reality. Besides, there must be interactions between all components of a meaningful system. Things that do not interact are not in casual contact with one another meaning they can have nothing to do with one another. Interaction must give rise to change on all the interacting components. Applying these logical steps to the concept of a all powerful and self-existing God, any phenomenon that is without a cause cannot form a complete and meaningful sequence of events or process. Even if there is interaction between God and men, both have to be changed to different
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degrees as a result of the interactions based on the law of Dependent Origination. But
God is never changing by definition. So there would be no result from the theoretical
interaction even if there is any. That means God is God and men will be men and that the
two entities cannot have anything to do with each other. Thus, the concept of a self-
existing, all powerful and unchanging God is superfluous under Buddhist reasoning. The
bottom line is that Buddhism requires no creation of the universe which is an illusion and a
non-permanent phenomenon created from our ignorance of the working of Dharma. There
is no place for a creator God, period.
Of the remaining major religions, all have the concept of a self-existing and all powerful God except Taoism and the Universality beliefs ( yin and yang - the negative and positive energy of the cosmos ) both of China. Taoism literally means the Path. This philosophy of the universe and human affairs originated from the teachings of Lao Tzu, a legendary Chinese philosopher who lived in China from 604 B.C. to 517 B.C. ( even before the time of the Gautama Buddha who lived from 560 B.C. to 480 B.C. ) His thoughts were embodied in his book called “ Tao-Te Ching “( the translated meaning is the Doctrine ot the Way ( Tao ) and Morals ( Te ) “. The Way refers to the working principles of the universe and Morals refer to ethics for human behaviour. The book is considered to be such an important work on philosophical thoughts even by western scholars that it was one of if not the most translated Chinese text. The book only contains 81 short chapters but it was written in beautiful and poetic language and full of imageries. The theme of his thoughts is the concept of Tao ( the Path ) which is hypothesized to be the eternal source of all beings and the force behind everything and phenomena both natural and human ones. It is similar in nature to a theory of everything so eagerly contemplated by the scientific world in the past few decades but the subject was treated at the metaphysical level so that its predictions are somewhat illusive and mystical. May be it is because the subjects of the universe and human behaviour are by themselves too all-embracing. Despite its highly subtle and comprehensive nature, the book is, nevertheless, amazing in its predictions which are in many respects consistent with modern scientific theories. Given the fact that it was written some 2500 ago, the foresights and insights of the book are nothing less than prophetic and remarkable in the scientific sense.
From a religious point of view, Taoism is not a well organized religion structurally. There is no hierachy of office bearers or leaders. Every follower of this philosophy of life may have their own way of interpreting the wisdom laid down in the book, Tao-Te Ching. The theory of the Taoist world view can be summarized as follows. The Tao is a kind of life force permeating the universe for all eternity. It is the law governing the world and the ultimate guideline for all human ethical behaviour. There is the emphasis on the Ultimate Oneness which is the highest principle of both the physical world of nature and the spiritual world of our minds. Again, the oriental concept of a holistic approach is very explicit in such a concept. Then, the Tao ( the Way or the Path ) is also described as the Absolute. No other law is above it. The Tao is both nameless and indefinable according to Tao-TeChing. Its indefinability and absolute nature is manifested in the cosmic and ethical laws in the form of numerous paradoxes that have become the hallmark of the Taoist way of teaching its philosophy. The Tao is also the primal source of the physical universe from which all things came into being. Tao-TeChing described the creation process as follows - out of the transcendental non-being, being emerges. The Tao in the form of undifferentiated Ultimate Oneness generates within its unity the duality of Yin and Yang ( negative and positive energy ) that leads to the breadth of life. Further development from this breadth of life brings about harmony between the two antagonistic forces that will give rise to Many ( all things ). So, we can trace the creation of the universe back to the Ultimate Oneness which is the Tao. Then, the Tao gives rise to Many ( through the dualistic idea of Yin and Yan that give rise to the Breadth of Life and subsequently all things ) and out of the Many, opposite values ( both in physical and spiritual terms ) such as good and evil, big and small which are mutually dependent on each other and did not exist before are derived from the Many. Taoist reasoning argues that the emergence of such opposite values or phenomena proves that the world and humanity have gone astray from the Path of Nature which is the Tao. Therefore, we have to turn away from materialistic desires and return to the Tao to be once again in harmony with nature. The Tao is the only truly permanent phenomenon in the universe to which we must all turn for
Of the remaining major religions, all have the concept of a self-existing and all powerful God except Taoism and the Universality beliefs ( yin and yang - the negative and positive energy of the cosmos ) both of China. Taoism literally means the Path. This philosophy of the universe and human affairs originated from the teachings of Lao Tzu, a legendary Chinese philosopher who lived in China from 604 B.C. to 517 B.C. ( even before the time of the Gautama Buddha who lived from 560 B.C. to 480 B.C. ) His thoughts were embodied in his book called “ Tao-Te Ching “( the translated meaning is the Doctrine ot the Way ( Tao ) and Morals ( Te ) “. The Way refers to the working principles of the universe and Morals refer to ethics for human behaviour. The book is considered to be such an important work on philosophical thoughts even by western scholars that it was one of if not the most translated Chinese text. The book only contains 81 short chapters but it was written in beautiful and poetic language and full of imageries. The theme of his thoughts is the concept of Tao ( the Path ) which is hypothesized to be the eternal source of all beings and the force behind everything and phenomena both natural and human ones. It is similar in nature to a theory of everything so eagerly contemplated by the scientific world in the past few decades but the subject was treated at the metaphysical level so that its predictions are somewhat illusive and mystical. May be it is because the subjects of the universe and human behaviour are by themselves too all-embracing. Despite its highly subtle and comprehensive nature, the book is, nevertheless, amazing in its predictions which are in many respects consistent with modern scientific theories. Given the fact that it was written some 2500 ago, the foresights and insights of the book are nothing less than prophetic and remarkable in the scientific sense.
From a religious point of view, Taoism is not a well organized religion structurally. There is no hierachy of office bearers or leaders. Every follower of this philosophy of life may have their own way of interpreting the wisdom laid down in the book, Tao-Te Ching. The theory of the Taoist world view can be summarized as follows. The Tao is a kind of life force permeating the universe for all eternity. It is the law governing the world and the ultimate guideline for all human ethical behaviour. There is the emphasis on the Ultimate Oneness which is the highest principle of both the physical world of nature and the spiritual world of our minds. Again, the oriental concept of a holistic approach is very explicit in such a concept. Then, the Tao ( the Way or the Path ) is also described as the Absolute. No other law is above it. The Tao is both nameless and indefinable according to Tao-TeChing. Its indefinability and absolute nature is manifested in the cosmic and ethical laws in the form of numerous paradoxes that have become the hallmark of the Taoist way of teaching its philosophy. The Tao is also the primal source of the physical universe from which all things came into being. Tao-TeChing described the creation process as follows - out of the transcendental non-being, being emerges. The Tao in the form of undifferentiated Ultimate Oneness generates within its unity the duality of Yin and Yang ( negative and positive energy ) that leads to the breadth of life. Further development from this breadth of life brings about harmony between the two antagonistic forces that will give rise to Many ( all things ). So, we can trace the creation of the universe back to the Ultimate Oneness which is the Tao. Then, the Tao gives rise to Many ( through the dualistic idea of Yin and Yan that give rise to the Breadth of Life and subsequently all things ) and out of the Many, opposite values ( both in physical and spiritual terms ) such as good and evil, big and small which are mutually dependent on each other and did not exist before are derived from the Many. Taoist reasoning argues that the emergence of such opposite values or phenomena proves that the world and humanity have gone astray from the Path of Nature which is the Tao. Therefore, we have to turn away from materialistic desires and return to the Tao to be once again in harmony with nature. The Tao is the only truly permanent phenomenon in the universe to which we must all turn for
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eternal peace and happiness. The highest state of mind in Taoism is “ wu-wei “ which
means non-action ( self-restrain ). It is contended that the truly wise man who is totally
immersed in the Tao will adopt the mild and subtle principle of “ wu-wei “ or non-action or
self-restrain to deal with the most difficult of problems. The rationale is that resorting to
short-term physical or even drastic measures will cause more harm than good. Such short-
sighted measures will not solve any problem in a fundamental way. Applying the concept
of wu-wei ( self-restrain and non-intervention ) that is in line with the Tao which is the
ultimate law of nature will prove to be the gentle and yet strongest and wisest move in the
long run.
The Taoist world view clearly points to existence of a God like concept of the Tao which is Absolute, Ultimate Oneness, eternal, powerful ( but gentle ) and permeating the whole universe. The Tao in the case of Taoism is the God-like concept I am referring to in my contention. The only likely counter argument I can anticipate is the reasoning that the arising of the Tao is a more illusive concept than the definition of God. However, the trinity concept of Yin and Yang giving rise to the Breadth of Life that can all be accommodated within the grand Oneness of the Tao strikes a very close image to the Holy Trinity concept of the Christian God. I cannot over emphasize that this is just my casual observation which must not be construed in any way as my claim that the two religions in question are linked in any sense. One last comment on Taoism is in order and it relates to the subsequent development of this religion among the lay population of China. Due to the fact that ancient China was isolated from the rest of the world and its lack of a well developed scientific tradition, the sophisticated philosophical ideas of Lao Tzu were subsequently misinterpreted and very often misused by the lay population. Many different dubious elements with mercenary motives such as fortune tellers, spiritual medium and alchemists introduced magic and other undesirable practices ( such as using harmful potions and drugs to prolong human life and to increase the male sexual potency ) into the popular version of Taoism in ancient China which is still one of the most favourite religions practised by the Chinese population today, second only to Buddhism.
As regards the teachings of Confucianism, they mainly concern the worship and respect for our ancestors, the theory of the state and moral standards for the laymen. The idea of heaven above ( shang tien ) is in the teachings but no specific reference is made to God or creator. But suffice it to say that this idea of heaven implies a transcendental principle governing the physical and spiritual worlds. Confucius, worshipped as the founder of Confucianism and the Greatest Teacher of All Times in China, was believed to be a major contributor if not the sole author of the 5 most important books on philosophy in China. These are the I-Ching ( Book of Changes ), The Shih Ching ( Book of Songs consisting of 305 traditional songs or poems depicting social practices ), the Shu Ching ( Book of History concerning important speeches and proclamations of various rulers ), the Ch'un Ch'iu ( the Book of Spring and Autumn Annals describing the history of his own state of Lu with his moral views appended to each historic episode ) and Li Ching ( the Book of Rites setting out different religious and social rituals of the time ). Further teachings of his school of thougts were included in 4 other classics. These are the Lun Yu ( the Book of Discussions containing conversations between Confucius and his pupils ), the Ta Hsueh ( the Book of Great Learning mainly dealing with moral standards partly written by Confucious himself ), the Chung Yung ( the Book of the Doctrine of the Mean – middle or balanced way - thought to be authored by Confucius' grand son Tsu Ssu ( Kung Ki ) proposing the philosophy of the mild way to solve problems and to avoid the extremes ) and Meng -Tzu ( a book about the philosophy of Mencius who is the most brilliant pupil of Confucius and successor to his school of thoughts.) Confucianism was elevated to the status of a sort of national religion by most subsequent emperors of China because of its teachings of absolute loyalty to the emperor who was considered to be the son of heaven ( tien tzu ), the upholding of moral standards, due respect for the older generations in ancestor worship and adherence to principle of justice and neighbourly love. Its demand for a high moral standard among all citizens has culminated in the well-known Golden Rule for human behaviour – “ Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you “ This is also known as the Doctrine of Reciprocity of Treatment. For all its moral guidelines for human and earthly affairs , Confucianism still holds the view of a God-like principle of heaven which is an eternal, self-
The Taoist world view clearly points to existence of a God like concept of the Tao which is Absolute, Ultimate Oneness, eternal, powerful ( but gentle ) and permeating the whole universe. The Tao in the case of Taoism is the God-like concept I am referring to in my contention. The only likely counter argument I can anticipate is the reasoning that the arising of the Tao is a more illusive concept than the definition of God. However, the trinity concept of Yin and Yang giving rise to the Breadth of Life that can all be accommodated within the grand Oneness of the Tao strikes a very close image to the Holy Trinity concept of the Christian God. I cannot over emphasize that this is just my casual observation which must not be construed in any way as my claim that the two religions in question are linked in any sense. One last comment on Taoism is in order and it relates to the subsequent development of this religion among the lay population of China. Due to the fact that ancient China was isolated from the rest of the world and its lack of a well developed scientific tradition, the sophisticated philosophical ideas of Lao Tzu were subsequently misinterpreted and very often misused by the lay population. Many different dubious elements with mercenary motives such as fortune tellers, spiritual medium and alchemists introduced magic and other undesirable practices ( such as using harmful potions and drugs to prolong human life and to increase the male sexual potency ) into the popular version of Taoism in ancient China which is still one of the most favourite religions practised by the Chinese population today, second only to Buddhism.
As regards the teachings of Confucianism, they mainly concern the worship and respect for our ancestors, the theory of the state and moral standards for the laymen. The idea of heaven above ( shang tien ) is in the teachings but no specific reference is made to God or creator. But suffice it to say that this idea of heaven implies a transcendental principle governing the physical and spiritual worlds. Confucius, worshipped as the founder of Confucianism and the Greatest Teacher of All Times in China, was believed to be a major contributor if not the sole author of the 5 most important books on philosophy in China. These are the I-Ching ( Book of Changes ), The Shih Ching ( Book of Songs consisting of 305 traditional songs or poems depicting social practices ), the Shu Ching ( Book of History concerning important speeches and proclamations of various rulers ), the Ch'un Ch'iu ( the Book of Spring and Autumn Annals describing the history of his own state of Lu with his moral views appended to each historic episode ) and Li Ching ( the Book of Rites setting out different religious and social rituals of the time ). Further teachings of his school of thougts were included in 4 other classics. These are the Lun Yu ( the Book of Discussions containing conversations between Confucius and his pupils ), the Ta Hsueh ( the Book of Great Learning mainly dealing with moral standards partly written by Confucious himself ), the Chung Yung ( the Book of the Doctrine of the Mean – middle or balanced way - thought to be authored by Confucius' grand son Tsu Ssu ( Kung Ki ) proposing the philosophy of the mild way to solve problems and to avoid the extremes ) and Meng -Tzu ( a book about the philosophy of Mencius who is the most brilliant pupil of Confucius and successor to his school of thoughts.) Confucianism was elevated to the status of a sort of national religion by most subsequent emperors of China because of its teachings of absolute loyalty to the emperor who was considered to be the son of heaven ( tien tzu ), the upholding of moral standards, due respect for the older generations in ancestor worship and adherence to principle of justice and neighbourly love. Its demand for a high moral standard among all citizens has culminated in the well-known Golden Rule for human behaviour – “ Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you “ This is also known as the Doctrine of Reciprocity of Treatment. For all its moral guidelines for human and earthly affairs , Confucianism still holds the view of a God-like principle of heaven which is an eternal, self-
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existing, all-embracing concept and it occupies an absolutely supreme position with regard
to the physical and spiritual world.
The remaining candidate for my discussion of the concept of God is none other than the scientific community. To be fair to all scientists, some of them do believe in God. However, according to the book – Big Questions in Science ( edited by Harriet Swain ), a 1996 survey had found that only 40 % of the US scientists believed in God. Nothing is known about the worldwide population of scientists. I would make a wild guess at less than the 40 % mark after taking into account of the large non-Christian population of China and similar countries. Despite this atheist attitude held by the majority of scientists, almost all of them rely on or believe in the laws of nature ( based on observable and testable evidence ) which possess the self-existing, self-organizing, all powerful ( every human being is subject to the laws of nature ), all permeating ( the various quantumn energy fields existing throughout the universe ) and eternal characteristics that bear many God-like qualities. The only major difference between the characteristics of the laws of nature and God is that the laws of nature do not engage in spiritual correspondence with human beings. These laws are cold and impersonal unlike God to whom we can turn for help. Nevertheless, most of the God-like qualities are present in the laws of nature. Scientists may argue that in time we may be able to understand how the laws of nature have come about but it must again rely on the working of a higher set of laws with similar God-like qualities. Or worse still, it could be like the example of peeling an onion. One layer of mystery is removed by us only to find another layer undeneath and finally when all layers have been removed by us nothing except the void is left. Or can we even say void with certainty because when there is no more substance to reveal the void in a comparative sense what is left is entity X or element X ! Or simply ????....... The saving grace seems to be in Quantum Theory which has put us or our consciousness in the centre of creation as the observer to at least validate the concept of the void by our physical presence and the act of making the observation. Notwithstanding this embarrassing situation, I think my point about the laws of nature having God- ike qualities has been borne out in the above sequence of reasoning.
My own view on God has, in fact, been partially revealed in chapter (i) about the origin of the universe. To me, God is the Life Force. There, I proposed my eccentric idea that both the scientific and religious views concerning the creation of the universe could be equally accommodated if the scientists can reserve their demand for an immediate proof of the existence of God through their own scientific method and accept that the laws of nature which they have thought to be self-existing and self-organizing anyway as the manifestation of the first cause (i.e. God's creation ). This is simply a proposition of asking them to put God and the laws of nature which is their existing belief on an equal footing only and not much more. Let me level with the scientists on their home ground. Quantum Theory has established beyond doubt the phenomenon of complimentarity. I boldly suggests that the laws of nature could be a the manifestation of God from a different perspective. Why can scientists accept that the laws of nature can self-exist and self-organize by themselves but not the existence of a self-existing and all- enbracing God as the first cause of creation ( of the laws of nature themselves which in turn give rise to everything else ) ? Of course they will strongly protest that there is no proof of God's existence in accordance with the requirements of the scientific method. But may I point out that the evidence of God's existence is everywhere if you care to look. The evidence is in the beauty and serenity of nature, in your family and relatives who love you, in the innocent children who are little angels on earth, in your friends who care about you, in your good neighbours who keep the neighbourhood watch, in the heroes who sacrifice their lives in the service of society and in the cause of peace and justice. An account of the unhappiness and evil side of the world will be given below. To me, the mystical ways in which the laws of nature appear to work may very likely have been the result of our still limited understanding of their true nature. Despite the present theoretical difficulties, scientists are still very bullish about the possiblity of attaining the ultimate and noble goal of the Theory of Everything in the near future which is currently still bogged down by the unsuccessful marriage between Quantum Theory and the theory of General Relativity on gravity. They are very obviously doing it on their own faith ( not to say that it may be bordering blind faith ) – the faith that nature is ultimately comprehensible. Surely, it may
The remaining candidate for my discussion of the concept of God is none other than the scientific community. To be fair to all scientists, some of them do believe in God. However, according to the book – Big Questions in Science ( edited by Harriet Swain ), a 1996 survey had found that only 40 % of the US scientists believed in God. Nothing is known about the worldwide population of scientists. I would make a wild guess at less than the 40 % mark after taking into account of the large non-Christian population of China and similar countries. Despite this atheist attitude held by the majority of scientists, almost all of them rely on or believe in the laws of nature ( based on observable and testable evidence ) which possess the self-existing, self-organizing, all powerful ( every human being is subject to the laws of nature ), all permeating ( the various quantumn energy fields existing throughout the universe ) and eternal characteristics that bear many God-like qualities. The only major difference between the characteristics of the laws of nature and God is that the laws of nature do not engage in spiritual correspondence with human beings. These laws are cold and impersonal unlike God to whom we can turn for help. Nevertheless, most of the God-like qualities are present in the laws of nature. Scientists may argue that in time we may be able to understand how the laws of nature have come about but it must again rely on the working of a higher set of laws with similar God-like qualities. Or worse still, it could be like the example of peeling an onion. One layer of mystery is removed by us only to find another layer undeneath and finally when all layers have been removed by us nothing except the void is left. Or can we even say void with certainty because when there is no more substance to reveal the void in a comparative sense what is left is entity X or element X ! Or simply ????....... The saving grace seems to be in Quantum Theory which has put us or our consciousness in the centre of creation as the observer to at least validate the concept of the void by our physical presence and the act of making the observation. Notwithstanding this embarrassing situation, I think my point about the laws of nature having God- ike qualities has been borne out in the above sequence of reasoning.
My own view on God has, in fact, been partially revealed in chapter (i) about the origin of the universe. To me, God is the Life Force. There, I proposed my eccentric idea that both the scientific and religious views concerning the creation of the universe could be equally accommodated if the scientists can reserve their demand for an immediate proof of the existence of God through their own scientific method and accept that the laws of nature which they have thought to be self-existing and self-organizing anyway as the manifestation of the first cause (i.e. God's creation ). This is simply a proposition of asking them to put God and the laws of nature which is their existing belief on an equal footing only and not much more. Let me level with the scientists on their home ground. Quantum Theory has established beyond doubt the phenomenon of complimentarity. I boldly suggests that the laws of nature could be a the manifestation of God from a different perspective. Why can scientists accept that the laws of nature can self-exist and self-organize by themselves but not the existence of a self-existing and all- enbracing God as the first cause of creation ( of the laws of nature themselves which in turn give rise to everything else ) ? Of course they will strongly protest that there is no proof of God's existence in accordance with the requirements of the scientific method. But may I point out that the evidence of God's existence is everywhere if you care to look. The evidence is in the beauty and serenity of nature, in your family and relatives who love you, in the innocent children who are little angels on earth, in your friends who care about you, in your good neighbours who keep the neighbourhood watch, in the heroes who sacrifice their lives in the service of society and in the cause of peace and justice. An account of the unhappiness and evil side of the world will be given below. To me, the mystical ways in which the laws of nature appear to work may very likely have been the result of our still limited understanding of their true nature. Despite the present theoretical difficulties, scientists are still very bullish about the possiblity of attaining the ultimate and noble goal of the Theory of Everything in the near future which is currently still bogged down by the unsuccessful marriage between Quantum Theory and the theory of General Relativity on gravity. They are very obviously doing it on their own faith ( not to say that it may be bordering blind faith ) – the faith that nature is ultimately comprehensible. Surely, it may
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probably be comprehensible but to what extent and what would the ultimate truth be ? I
sincerely hope that it is not the same as the example of peeling an onion set out above.
So, you will see that it is all a matter of one's perspective.There are more similiarities in
religion and science than one would expect. After all, everything is interconnected in this
universe. Only if the scientists can redirect a little of their faith to the concept of God.
There is no need to be fully converted. Just a little forbearance by not rejecting God
outright will suffice. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that my counter argument against
the atheists concept set out above is just another perspective on the issue of God. There
is not the slightest intention on my part to preach the gospels here. Everyone is entltled to
his or her own views. That is why I have specifically named this book with the important
emphasis on A Personal View. Suffice it here to reiterate my earlier point on the
importance of faith which is needed even in the practice of the scientific method as set out
in the foregoing example. Issues such as the belief in an all-embracing, all-powerful,
benevolent ( as manifested in the harmony and serenity existing in nature and the
compassionate and noble side of human nature in our good neighbours ) and eternal God
or the Life Force to some, belong to the category of concepts I have dubbed matters of the
heart ( where faith, inspiration and intuition apply ) instead of matters of the head ( where
logical reasoning is crucial ).
On the other hand, the religious camp must also relax their strict adherence to the Bible to the last word. After all, the Bible was written long, long ago in case of the Old Testament and even for the New Testament it was done not by direct divine authorship. There were, in fact, two versions of the New Testament, one in Greek and the other in Hebrew. Therefore, any rigid interpretation of the Bible ( or any religious dogma to the last word of the given text for that matter ) seems to be both dangerous and detrimental to the cause of discovering the truth. More often than not such a radical approach has given rise to great evil in the form of extremism and, ultimately, our present day scourge of terrorism. As a matter of fact, there is no absolute truth but only different perspectives of the truth. The last proposition must not be taken to mean that no moral or spiritual standards exist. Such standards can always be gauged according to the supreme laws of nature ( which in my view are the creation of God ). As my intellect is seasoned by my age, I tend to be more spiritual than religious. I always maintain a healthy suspicion on any form of bureaucracy including organized religion. Whenever there are people, there will be politics and politics is solely about power which in the absolute form will definitely lead to absolute corruption. The term religious dogma says it all about the absolute nature of religious teaching. Here is another one of my eccentric ideas. God has given us our intelligence. I really feel that He wants us to make use of it and not to blindly follow any set rules that may not be able to adjust to the changing circumstances. The stubborn religious stance against birth control is an example of such a dogma. I surely do not want to be cast into hell ( which to me is a state of mind ) for following anything my conscience ( through
my intellect ) has told me is incorrect but is dictated by religious dogma.
Now let us start our discussions on the world's sufferings and the
apparent existence of evil forces. We must do this now or the scientists and atheists will be getting impatient. The big question and, in my view, a well justified one is this. If God exists, why does He allow all these suffereings and evil influence to take place ? After all, He is all-powerful, all-knowing and, most of all, benevolent. This legitimate question is the argument most relied upon by non-believers as a proof of the non-existence of God. The first impression created by this challenging question is that it is non-assailable. But a closer look will reveal some loop-holes. It is not as water-tight as it first appears to be. I think that the first step to cast doubts on this contention is to be found in human nature. I am referring to the characteristic of human nature to spread the bad news but not the good ones.This is the nosy aspect of our nature. There is a Chinese saying that goes like this :- “ Good things never go out of the door while shameful things always propagate a thousand miles ( i.e. far and wide ). “ Owing to this lop-sided treatment of bad news, these are more often than not blown completely out of proportion. How often do we glorify the greatness of motherhood such as the example of the unknown mother taking care of her hopelessly crippled and mentally retarded child for decades I described in the topic of Heroes and Housewives, very seldom, indeed. We only come across billionare philanthropists giving away millions to charity which we mostly denounced as promotional gimmicks. What about
On the other hand, the religious camp must also relax their strict adherence to the Bible to the last word. After all, the Bible was written long, long ago in case of the Old Testament and even for the New Testament it was done not by direct divine authorship. There were, in fact, two versions of the New Testament, one in Greek and the other in Hebrew. Therefore, any rigid interpretation of the Bible ( or any religious dogma to the last word of the given text for that matter ) seems to be both dangerous and detrimental to the cause of discovering the truth. More often than not such a radical approach has given rise to great evil in the form of extremism and, ultimately, our present day scourge of terrorism. As a matter of fact, there is no absolute truth but only different perspectives of the truth. The last proposition must not be taken to mean that no moral or spiritual standards exist. Such standards can always be gauged according to the supreme laws of nature ( which in my view are the creation of God ). As my intellect is seasoned by my age, I tend to be more spiritual than religious. I always maintain a healthy suspicion on any form of bureaucracy including organized religion. Whenever there are people, there will be politics and politics is solely about power which in the absolute form will definitely lead to absolute corruption. The term religious dogma says it all about the absolute nature of religious teaching. Here is another one of my eccentric ideas. God has given us our intelligence. I really feel that He wants us to make use of it and not to blindly follow any set rules that may not be able to adjust to the changing circumstances. The stubborn religious stance against birth control is an example of such a dogma. I surely do not want to be cast into hell ( which to me is a state of mind ) for following anything my conscience ( through
my intellect ) has told me is incorrect but is dictated by religious dogma.
Now let us start our discussions on the world's sufferings and the
apparent existence of evil forces. We must do this now or the scientists and atheists will be getting impatient. The big question and, in my view, a well justified one is this. If God exists, why does He allow all these suffereings and evil influence to take place ? After all, He is all-powerful, all-knowing and, most of all, benevolent. This legitimate question is the argument most relied upon by non-believers as a proof of the non-existence of God. The first impression created by this challenging question is that it is non-assailable. But a closer look will reveal some loop-holes. It is not as water-tight as it first appears to be. I think that the first step to cast doubts on this contention is to be found in human nature. I am referring to the characteristic of human nature to spread the bad news but not the good ones.This is the nosy aspect of our nature. There is a Chinese saying that goes like this :- “ Good things never go out of the door while shameful things always propagate a thousand miles ( i.e. far and wide ). “ Owing to this lop-sided treatment of bad news, these are more often than not blown completely out of proportion. How often do we glorify the greatness of motherhood such as the example of the unknown mother taking care of her hopelessly crippled and mentally retarded child for decades I described in the topic of Heroes and Housewives, very seldom, indeed. We only come across billionare philanthropists giving away millions to charity which we mostly denounced as promotional gimmicks. What about
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all the good things done by nameless volunteers who are nobodies and toally ignored by
the media. There are lots of other examples of good deeds that are not being publicized.
But this is not to say that there are little or no sufferings and unhappiness in this world.
Sufferings and unhappiness are the facts of life but can they be mainly attributable to
God ? That is the vital question. My view is that the bulk of these sufferings are the results
of men's own misbehaviour out of ignorance and greed. Of course, there are many natural
disasters that kill thousands of innocent people but many of these like floodings and
drought can be traced back to the green house gas emissions causing upsets in the
climate systems that can be directly linked to greed ( the profit motive in businesses ).
Even for disasters such as the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami that occurred in the East Indian
Archipalego ( which claimed some 200,000 victims ) due to submarine earthquakes, the
death toll could have been much smaller had the governments of the countries concerned
been willing to spend some of their national budgets in setting up a co-ordinated early
warning system. These developing countries are poor mostly because of over population,
lack of an efficient government system but most of all because the well developed and
powerful nations of the world are too busy looking after the own interests and have
neglected their duty to other fellow citizens of our global village. No nation or individual can
act as if they are isolated from the rest of the world, not if they genuinely want the whole
human race to survive all these terrible odds.
Then, there are the totally man-made acts of war out of lust for power and misguided racial superiority which is a myth and total nonsense. It is nothing more than a pathetic attempt and pretext by power crazy dictators to justify their monpoly on absolute power and control of the people. The Great War ( World War I ) claimed over 9 million lives for the militaty on both sides as a conservative estimate and not counting civilian deaths which included the massacre of an estimated 1.2 million Armenians by the Turks for their alleged assistance rendered to Russia. Then the Second World War was even more bloody. Just think of the estimated death tolls in China ( over 16 millions from 1931 to 1945 ), Russia ( 9 millions ) and the rest of the Allied Nations ( must have been some 2.5 millions ) and the defeated enemies of the Japanese Empire, Germay and Italy ( another 4 millions ) plus the 6 million Jews in the Holocust and another 2 millions of various ethnic background in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The total number of war deaths for World War Two including both military and civilians is estimated to be 62 millions by the internet encyclopedia, the Wikipedia. Then in the 1950s, there was the korean War that killed another 6 million soldiers and civilians ( just the Communist Chinese volunteer army fighting in Korea had recorded 1 million deaths while the North Korea had suffered some 3 million casaulties ). The Vietnam War that lasted from the 1960s to the mid 1970s must have killed another 3 millions. The killing fields of the evil Khmer Rouge Pol Pot Regime did away with still another 2.5 millions. The civil wars in some parts of Africa and the Balkans that were purely man-made had also killed countless civilians and in the tens of thousands. How about the Middle East conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians and so on and so forth. Not even the Black Death in the Middle Ages had killed that many and for what ? Human insanity of lust for power and inflated ego ? Even worse, there are still day-in day-out accidental deaths resulting from drunk driving ( must be over tens of thousands worldwide ) and air disasters from human negligence and criminally neglected aircraft repairs due to greed on the part of the purely profit- oriented airline operators. There are so many of such incidents that are due to human misbehaviour that I am grossly ashamed to be a human being. So, dare you blame the good Lord ! There is so much suffering in this world that even the saintly Reverend Mother Teresa had confessed once that the questions of whether God really existed and why He has allowed such pain to be endured by his creatures did more than once come across her mind.
I am sure you are thinking that I am evading the vital issue of why God let all these happen. Because I am not. I only intend to save the best for last to achieve maximum effect. According to my own view, God has created the laws of nature and then let the universe run its course. It is not just a matter of intervening in the operation of our free will that God should not step in ( which is the traditional theological answer to human suffering ). More importantly, there would be no human and world system at all if God really chose to intervene against his own natural laws selectively. In that case, there may
Then, there are the totally man-made acts of war out of lust for power and misguided racial superiority which is a myth and total nonsense. It is nothing more than a pathetic attempt and pretext by power crazy dictators to justify their monpoly on absolute power and control of the people. The Great War ( World War I ) claimed over 9 million lives for the militaty on both sides as a conservative estimate and not counting civilian deaths which included the massacre of an estimated 1.2 million Armenians by the Turks for their alleged assistance rendered to Russia. Then the Second World War was even more bloody. Just think of the estimated death tolls in China ( over 16 millions from 1931 to 1945 ), Russia ( 9 millions ) and the rest of the Allied Nations ( must have been some 2.5 millions ) and the defeated enemies of the Japanese Empire, Germay and Italy ( another 4 millions ) plus the 6 million Jews in the Holocust and another 2 millions of various ethnic background in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The total number of war deaths for World War Two including both military and civilians is estimated to be 62 millions by the internet encyclopedia, the Wikipedia. Then in the 1950s, there was the korean War that killed another 6 million soldiers and civilians ( just the Communist Chinese volunteer army fighting in Korea had recorded 1 million deaths while the North Korea had suffered some 3 million casaulties ). The Vietnam War that lasted from the 1960s to the mid 1970s must have killed another 3 millions. The killing fields of the evil Khmer Rouge Pol Pot Regime did away with still another 2.5 millions. The civil wars in some parts of Africa and the Balkans that were purely man-made had also killed countless civilians and in the tens of thousands. How about the Middle East conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians and so on and so forth. Not even the Black Death in the Middle Ages had killed that many and for what ? Human insanity of lust for power and inflated ego ? Even worse, there are still day-in day-out accidental deaths resulting from drunk driving ( must be over tens of thousands worldwide ) and air disasters from human negligence and criminally neglected aircraft repairs due to greed on the part of the purely profit- oriented airline operators. There are so many of such incidents that are due to human misbehaviour that I am grossly ashamed to be a human being. So, dare you blame the good Lord ! There is so much suffering in this world that even the saintly Reverend Mother Teresa had confessed once that the questions of whether God really existed and why He has allowed such pain to be endured by his creatures did more than once come across her mind.
I am sure you are thinking that I am evading the vital issue of why God let all these happen. Because I am not. I only intend to save the best for last to achieve maximum effect. According to my own view, God has created the laws of nature and then let the universe run its course. It is not just a matter of intervening in the operation of our free will that God should not step in ( which is the traditional theological answer to human suffering ). More importantly, there would be no human and world system at all if God really chose to intervene against his own natural laws selectively. In that case, there may
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just as well be no creation of this universe at all. I am not so arrogant and egocentric as to
interpret God's mind for Him. I am simply putting forward a logical argument of what could
have been if God had decided to selectively intervene in the working of the laws of nature.
I also have this eccentric idea about the traditional belief of glorifying God by our suffering.
I do not support this point of view. I do not think God wants us to suffer at all or to glorify
Him for His own sake. That is why He has given us the intelligence to take care of
ourselves, our neighbours and Mother Earth. But for him to intervene selectively such as in
the case of human suffering and, in fact, in anything for that matter, would be to defeat the
purpose of our own creation and that of the universe. This is because there would be no
real control by ourselves over our own lives which is the perrogative of our consciousness.
It is not as if we were not given the right to quit life altogether but, of course, that would be
a coward's act. Without our independent consciousness there would be no questions
asked by any conscious being that is the pinnacle of creation. Everyone would simply be
puppets on a string. Thus, our exposure to suffering and other good or bad experiences is
just the price that must be paid for being humans. That is the process of life and living. Will
a stone or any other liveless objects suffer ? Of course, not. Therefore, I think our
consciousness is the ultimate prize of creation which is noble and untouchable. That is
also my basic rationale for respecting the individual's inborn rights. Even God respects
such rights. A very important corollary from my contention is that God did not create us for
his own glory. Glory is such an empty concept. It reminds me of the slogans soldiers use
when they go to war. But is there really any glorious wars ? Perhaps, only the glorious
dead ! There is no God and us as really separate entities. Everything is inextricably
interconneted as indicated by Quantum Theory ( this is a dose of the scientists' own
medicine ). It is definitely not a matter of being God on high and untouchable and we
human should stay down low and worship Him blindly. Instead, we find God everywhere in
nature, yourself and your neighbours and in LIFE. That is the reason why I insist on
practising one's belief in God ( for believers ) by one's daily actions rather than just by
doing lip and ceremonial service. If you find that it suits you to go to church, so much the
better. Having some religious routines to instil discipline into your children before they can
find their own way is a very good practice. But more importantly, we should discover our
God-given attributes and utilize them to their fullest potentials for our own good and that
of others and our environment ( which is truly the temple of God ). This is the holistic
approach I would like to adopt. Human beings are the manifestations of God's noble
attributes ( an extension of His persona ) and we should love ourselves and follow the
laws of nature to show that we cherish this precious gift of life ( one should again refresh
one's memory on the overwhelming odds against the existence of life in chapter (ii) – The
Origins of Life ). This is Nature's way. Hence my special emphasis on finding your own
meaning in life. Only by caring and loving ourselves, our neighbour and our environment
can this gift of life blossom to its fullest natural potentials. It does not matter even if there is
no particular built-in or preordained purpose for our existence as many scientists seem to
think. It is for us to find and create our own meaning in life ( using our God-given
intelligence ) which must again be subject to the laws of nature and all just laws of society
and men. Do not wait to be told what your purpose in life is. It is my earnest wish that
everyone could find their own and in concert build a better world.
At this juncture, I would like to advance my above argument one step further. Let me assume that God had granted us our wish that all sufferings would disappear from this world forever despite the worst of our behaviours. What would happen next ? Would we go further to ask for almighty power ? I can bet you on my life that we definitely will. This is the greedy aspect of human nature. We always ask for more than what we are having at the present moment. That is why a materialized measure such as a fixed 10 % service charge can never motivate good service. This is our natural instinct which is a drive provided by nature to enable us to improve our lives. When used in a sensible way, it is healthy ambition and motivation. But uncontrolled greed must ultimately lead to the demise of the whole human race. So, you will see that human nature is just like the famous request for food by Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens' book :- “ Please, sir I want some more ! “ The fact that we are faced with sufferings but possess free will is the harsh reality. Changing the existing system could reduce us to liveless entities which some people ( especially those who are suffering ) might prefer but once we were there, it would
At this juncture, I would like to advance my above argument one step further. Let me assume that God had granted us our wish that all sufferings would disappear from this world forever despite the worst of our behaviours. What would happen next ? Would we go further to ask for almighty power ? I can bet you on my life that we definitely will. This is the greedy aspect of human nature. We always ask for more than what we are having at the present moment. That is why a materialized measure such as a fixed 10 % service charge can never motivate good service. This is our natural instinct which is a drive provided by nature to enable us to improve our lives. When used in a sensible way, it is healthy ambition and motivation. But uncontrolled greed must ultimately lead to the demise of the whole human race. So, you will see that human nature is just like the famous request for food by Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens' book :- “ Please, sir I want some more ! “ The fact that we are faced with sufferings but possess free will is the harsh reality. Changing the existing system could reduce us to liveless entities which some people ( especially those who are suffering ) might prefer but once we were there, it would
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be no turning back because we would no longer be conscious nor intelligent enough to ask
for a reversion to our former ( or rather present ) selves. To me, suffering like risks and
ecstasy are an integral part of life and consciousness. You cannot remove such elements
without distorting the nature of life and consciousness. You may even diminish the
essence of life altogether. For example, mental pain may arise when we have made a
wrong decision out of our own free will ( such as loving the wrong person and getting
rejected ) but then is it the right solution to do away with such pain altogether ? If we do
that, we may never be able to learn from our past mistakes again. Or is the final solution to
this scenario to be found in banishing our free will altogether ? No choice means no wrong
choice ( and no pain ) but at the same time, also no sense of satifaction from making the
right ones. It is just like the complimentary nature of risk and return. Zero risk ( like keeping
your money under your pillow all the time ) will be rewarded by zero return ( no interest
income from the bank or any other investment income ). Do not think for a moment that if
we really did away with pain there would only be happiness for us. The simple reason is
that without pain we may not even be able to tell what happiness is because there would
be no comparison to bring out the good feeling. So, pain is just like death. It is bad but life
cannot do without it. You will recall that life without death would make us all horrible
creatures like the Dracula. The co-existing pair of concepts like pain and happiness ( or
pain and gain ) remind us of the Taoist concept of the necessary existence of many of the
opposite pairs of attributes in nature resulting from the working of the Tao ( the Path )
which is the Life Force to me.
Our wish to ask God to remove suffering against the laws of nature reminds me of innocent and ignorant children asking their parents for sweets instead of bitter medicine to cure their ailments because they cannot stand bitterness. It is also like asking for the bests of both worlds – having the cake and eat it or a square circle. The bottom line is that whatever are our existing circumstances ( in this case there is the existence of the laws of nature that sometimes cause pain and suffering due to the working of the special characteristics of our consciousness and free will which are integral parts of the human life ) they would always be less than ideal according to the demands of human nature. Nonetheless, there could always be only one given system operating at a particular time and we are simply stuck with our present one. The percieved reality (PR) can be different from varying human perspectives. As the wife of King Louis XVI of France, Marie Antoinette said during the French Revolution :- “ Let them eat cake. “ ( if the people were hungary ). From her personal perspective it never occurred to her that the people could be so poor that they could not afford to do so. If the poor French peasants could afford cakes there would never have been the French Revolution. Even with all the pain and suffering in this world there are still some people who are satified with their own situation. They are the lucky ones but then there will always be the majority of dissatisfied ones in any system. Whatever level of difficulty ( whether there are more or less difficulties ) our life could have been as designed by God, it would always be painful by the human standards because it is in human nature to strive for higher goals and better conditions. There could always be something better. The same argument can likewise be applied in the opposite direction. Why is life not worse than it is now ? Should we be equally happy that it was not worse (which could have been the case ) ? Therefore, do not lament over the dark side of life. Rather, do as I suggest in the next paragraph which is to take suffering as a challenge in life. That is my contention which I have ( though may be pessimistically but surely realistically ) based on human nature. We never notice the good with the same degree of appreciation as we feel the scourge of the bad because of our misguided assumption that life should be a rose garden as a matter of course. This same characteristic in our human nature has also led us to easily forget favours done to us by others while never forgeting any harm others have inflcted upon us. The logical explanation for this one-sided phenomenon is probably our survival instinct to avoid further harm from those who have done harm to us before with a naturally lasting impression. Having said all the above, it would only be fair to ourselves to add that the pains and sufferings in life can be overbearing at times. What is more is that the trials in life such as in the case of the brave mother with a son physically and mentally crippled for life can easily be overwhelming to say the least. Let us hope and pray that our own trials be bearable and when they hit us we would be strong enough to persevere in our set goals in life.
Our wish to ask God to remove suffering against the laws of nature reminds me of innocent and ignorant children asking their parents for sweets instead of bitter medicine to cure their ailments because they cannot stand bitterness. It is also like asking for the bests of both worlds – having the cake and eat it or a square circle. The bottom line is that whatever are our existing circumstances ( in this case there is the existence of the laws of nature that sometimes cause pain and suffering due to the working of the special characteristics of our consciousness and free will which are integral parts of the human life ) they would always be less than ideal according to the demands of human nature. Nonetheless, there could always be only one given system operating at a particular time and we are simply stuck with our present one. The percieved reality (PR) can be different from varying human perspectives. As the wife of King Louis XVI of France, Marie Antoinette said during the French Revolution :- “ Let them eat cake. “ ( if the people were hungary ). From her personal perspective it never occurred to her that the people could be so poor that they could not afford to do so. If the poor French peasants could afford cakes there would never have been the French Revolution. Even with all the pain and suffering in this world there are still some people who are satified with their own situation. They are the lucky ones but then there will always be the majority of dissatisfied ones in any system. Whatever level of difficulty ( whether there are more or less difficulties ) our life could have been as designed by God, it would always be painful by the human standards because it is in human nature to strive for higher goals and better conditions. There could always be something better. The same argument can likewise be applied in the opposite direction. Why is life not worse than it is now ? Should we be equally happy that it was not worse (which could have been the case ) ? Therefore, do not lament over the dark side of life. Rather, do as I suggest in the next paragraph which is to take suffering as a challenge in life. That is my contention which I have ( though may be pessimistically but surely realistically ) based on human nature. We never notice the good with the same degree of appreciation as we feel the scourge of the bad because of our misguided assumption that life should be a rose garden as a matter of course. This same characteristic in our human nature has also led us to easily forget favours done to us by others while never forgeting any harm others have inflcted upon us. The logical explanation for this one-sided phenomenon is probably our survival instinct to avoid further harm from those who have done harm to us before with a naturally lasting impression. Having said all the above, it would only be fair to ourselves to add that the pains and sufferings in life can be overbearing at times. What is more is that the trials in life such as in the case of the brave mother with a son physically and mentally crippled for life can easily be overwhelming to say the least. Let us hope and pray that our own trials be bearable and when they hit us we would be strong enough to persevere in our set goals in life.
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On the more practical front which is one of the main aims of this book,
we should learn to deal with suffering, again as in the case of death, by rationalizing it and
turning it to our advantage. For example, we should be psychologically prepared that
suffering is a fact of life as hight-lighted in Buddhist philosophy and take it up as a
challenge to our intelligence and creativity to overcome it. In the course of doing so, the
human spirit can be elevated to an unprecented level that may surprise even yourself. The
point on what good suffering can do was exemplified in an old movie starring the acting
genius, Anthony Quinn called “ The Twenty-Fifth Hour “. The story line was about a Jewish
Pole who was a simple minded peasant with a live and let live attitude towards life. The
irony of life is that he was mistaken for an outstanding specimen of the Arian master race
by the Nazis. His image was published in numerous propaganda posters by the Nazis
Regime to glorify the image of the so-called master race. During the course of the Second
World War he was a victim of fate ( in the ex post sense ) and was separated from his wife
and children over the war years after having been drafted into the Nazis infamous S.S.
Units. He was subsequently sent to the Russian Front and was captured by the Russian
army and became a prisoner of war in a hard labour camp in Siberia where he stayed till
the Stalin era. He endured so much hardship and pains both physically and mentally that it
breaks your heart. He was detained for so long because of his appearance in the Nazi
propaganda poster. Finally, he was released during a prisoners exchange with the western
allieds in Berlin in the late 1950s. That was only the beginning of his ordeal because he
was tried in the war crimes tribunal as a war crimnal on account of his distorted image in
the propaganda poster. He was offered clemency on the condition that he would admit to
his “ crime “ which he did not commit – in assisting the Nazis in promoting the concept of a
master race. After two decades of suffering which was not a single bit due to his own fault,
he finally realized that he was a human being whose basic rights should be respected.
Therefore, he steadfastly refused to plead guilty to the war crime charges and he
continued to struggled against the injustice leveled at him for another few years. All
through his life, he was a lost soul wandering everywhere at the mercy of fate and destiny.
His sufferings finally made him realize that what his own meaning in life really was. The
sanctity of the individual's human rights are unassailable and cannot be violated.
Therefore, he put up hunger strikes and other drastic measures to attract public attention.
Luckily, there was an ultimate happy ending when his plight was finally heard by a human
rights group that helped him to uncover documentary evidence of his birth and to find
witnesses from his home town in Poland to testify in his favour. He was able to rejoin his
family after losing their contact and his freedom for over 25 years. His story which was
based on a real life episode has become a classical case illustrating the evil and suffering
that war can inflict on the innocent individual. He himself has become a symbol of the
persevering and unrelenting human spirit to endure pain and suffering for the sake of
justice and human rights.
When it comes to the practical level of pain and suffering, it is no longer a question of why but how to turn it to our advantage. As I have stressed on a few previous occasions, human affairs are so chaotic and complex that it would simply be a waste of time and effort to even try to find out why. At the end of the day, there may not even be a simple and direct logical explanation as is the usual case because of multi- lateral interactions between all the different causes. There is simply no one-to-one relationship. Rather be wise and concentrate on finding a way to minimize the adverse effects of the pain and suffering by taking it as a challenge. Rely on your humour, creativity, intelligence and ingenuity to rise to the occasion. Be positive and have faith in your own ability to face the challenge. Remember that nature does allow for the fighting spirit in us to achieve the seemingly impossible. Still remember the real life example of the mother lifting a one ton car to save her baby ? The mind can sometimes win over matter but only if you care to try your best to realize your full and hidden potentials. Never say die
but rather let your potentials materialize !
I have one last comment to make on pain and suffering. From a
medical point of view, pain is part of our body's warning system. It alerts us to the fact that something may be wrong about our bodily functions. This is one of the main functions of the phenomenon of pain itself. However, it can also be misused in torture by evil people to achieve their own selfish ends. Thus, there are always two sides to a coin. It depends on
When it comes to the practical level of pain and suffering, it is no longer a question of why but how to turn it to our advantage. As I have stressed on a few previous occasions, human affairs are so chaotic and complex that it would simply be a waste of time and effort to even try to find out why. At the end of the day, there may not even be a simple and direct logical explanation as is the usual case because of multi- lateral interactions between all the different causes. There is simply no one-to-one relationship. Rather be wise and concentrate on finding a way to minimize the adverse effects of the pain and suffering by taking it as a challenge. Rely on your humour, creativity, intelligence and ingenuity to rise to the occasion. Be positive and have faith in your own ability to face the challenge. Remember that nature does allow for the fighting spirit in us to achieve the seemingly impossible. Still remember the real life example of the mother lifting a one ton car to save her baby ? The mind can sometimes win over matter but only if you care to try your best to realize your full and hidden potentials. Never say die
but rather let your potentials materialize !
I have one last comment to make on pain and suffering. From a
medical point of view, pain is part of our body's warning system. It alerts us to the fact that something may be wrong about our bodily functions. This is one of the main functions of the phenomenon of pain itself. However, it can also be misused in torture by evil people to achieve their own selfish ends. Thus, there are always two sides to a coin. It depends on
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the perspective from which a phenomenon is viewed. Should we do away with this
warning system because of its bad side ? A more sensible answer seems to be that we
should rather tolerate its existence and keep its adverse effects to a minimum without
removing this phenomenon altogether even though it could have been done by divine
intervention.
The second part of the title in this section is Ghosts. What is that all about ? I am certainly not going to tell you some ghost stories. It actually concerns our soul if you are a believer. If you are convinced that your own consciousness is not just effects of bodily processes or you do not hold a materialistic world view, it is easy for you to accept the existence of our soul. I unashamedly do. In my opinion, having a soul is what makes us human. There is no need to elaborate any further my reasons for holding such a view. My arguments have been set out in great details in both chapter (iii) on Quantum Theory as well as Chapter (ix) on consciousness. The only issue left to be discussed here is my view of the working mechanics of the human soul. My speculative opinion is that with the death of our physical self, our consciousness which was used to working through our physical body would become unattached energy that would now be our wandering soul. Furthermore, I feel that our unattached energy would usually be concentrated around the places where we normally conduct our personal activitiies before our passing. This is the reason I suspect that people who are sensitive to such energies ( which exist in different frequencies ) can sometimes detect unexplained ghostly images because of their special sensitivity derived from inborn biological-spiritual tuners. This idea is not as crazy as it sounds if we put ourselves back in the times before the invention of the radio. People then would say your were nuts if you proposed the idea of broadcasting to thousands of listeners located hundreds of miles from the studio all at the same time through the transmission of wireless radio waves. It is all a matter of tunning into the sensitive frequency range which is not such a farfetched idea. Based on the working of Quantum Mechanics,it is possible that the elementary particles belonging to the atoms that were once part of our body would remain in existence under the law of conservation of energy. There would also be a close affinity between these elementary particles from our former physical body which had once been interacting with those belonging to our loved ones over the course of our life. I futher speculate that our soul would remain wandering until our consciousness become attached to another physical body upon rebirth through some as yet unknown process. I also have some eccentric ideas on various speculative models of the rebirth process that may form the theoretical basis for further research into this mystical subject although it will be beyond the scope of this book. Nevertheless, I would give you an example from the experience of my personal life that has led me to accept the existence of the human soul. It concerned my maternal grandfather.
When I first started to work as an executive officer in the Hong Kong civil service back in 1971 immediately after my graduation from university, I was posted to the then Public Works Department in charge of all the 300 or so clerical staff. My maternal grandfather had passed away in 1961 while I was still a kid. He was a very serious and scholarly Chinese elderly gentlman of 73 at the time of his death. I and my maternal grandfather were not very close because my mother had a total of eleven brothers and sisters ( my uncles and aunties ) and over 30 odd nephews and nieces ( my cousins ). Therefore, our maternal grandfather only stayed with his elder son and family according to established Chinese tradition. We used to visit him in our uncle's home may be monthly for dinner but because my grandfather was still working right up to the time of his death there was not much personl contact between him and me. Therefore, we were not close in the sense that there was no discussions of personal matters between him and me. As children, we were even a bit afraid of him as an authoritative figure. Then, the night before I reported to work at the Public Works Department, I had a very vivid dream of my grandfather. The setting of my dream was under a beautiful and azure sunny morning sky on the busy waterefront of the Hong Kong business district of Central. I clearly saw him walking towards me wearing a smart navy blue overcost. He had a radiantly fresh and healthy look on his face with the sunlight shining on him as we walked past each other. We did not speak to each other except that he just smiled to me very warmly. In fact, the warmth was so deeply felt in my heart that I can still reminisce on that warm feeling once in a while right up to this day. As I had never dreamt about my grandfather before at any
The second part of the title in this section is Ghosts. What is that all about ? I am certainly not going to tell you some ghost stories. It actually concerns our soul if you are a believer. If you are convinced that your own consciousness is not just effects of bodily processes or you do not hold a materialistic world view, it is easy for you to accept the existence of our soul. I unashamedly do. In my opinion, having a soul is what makes us human. There is no need to elaborate any further my reasons for holding such a view. My arguments have been set out in great details in both chapter (iii) on Quantum Theory as well as Chapter (ix) on consciousness. The only issue left to be discussed here is my view of the working mechanics of the human soul. My speculative opinion is that with the death of our physical self, our consciousness which was used to working through our physical body would become unattached energy that would now be our wandering soul. Furthermore, I feel that our unattached energy would usually be concentrated around the places where we normally conduct our personal activitiies before our passing. This is the reason I suspect that people who are sensitive to such energies ( which exist in different frequencies ) can sometimes detect unexplained ghostly images because of their special sensitivity derived from inborn biological-spiritual tuners. This idea is not as crazy as it sounds if we put ourselves back in the times before the invention of the radio. People then would say your were nuts if you proposed the idea of broadcasting to thousands of listeners located hundreds of miles from the studio all at the same time through the transmission of wireless radio waves. It is all a matter of tunning into the sensitive frequency range which is not such a farfetched idea. Based on the working of Quantum Mechanics,it is possible that the elementary particles belonging to the atoms that were once part of our body would remain in existence under the law of conservation of energy. There would also be a close affinity between these elementary particles from our former physical body which had once been interacting with those belonging to our loved ones over the course of our life. I futher speculate that our soul would remain wandering until our consciousness become attached to another physical body upon rebirth through some as yet unknown process. I also have some eccentric ideas on various speculative models of the rebirth process that may form the theoretical basis for further research into this mystical subject although it will be beyond the scope of this book. Nevertheless, I would give you an example from the experience of my personal life that has led me to accept the existence of the human soul. It concerned my maternal grandfather.
When I first started to work as an executive officer in the Hong Kong civil service back in 1971 immediately after my graduation from university, I was posted to the then Public Works Department in charge of all the 300 or so clerical staff. My maternal grandfather had passed away in 1961 while I was still a kid. He was a very serious and scholarly Chinese elderly gentlman of 73 at the time of his death. I and my maternal grandfather were not very close because my mother had a total of eleven brothers and sisters ( my uncles and aunties ) and over 30 odd nephews and nieces ( my cousins ). Therefore, our maternal grandfather only stayed with his elder son and family according to established Chinese tradition. We used to visit him in our uncle's home may be monthly for dinner but because my grandfather was still working right up to the time of his death there was not much personl contact between him and me. Therefore, we were not close in the sense that there was no discussions of personal matters between him and me. As children, we were even a bit afraid of him as an authoritative figure. Then, the night before I reported to work at the Public Works Department, I had a very vivid dream of my grandfather. The setting of my dream was under a beautiful and azure sunny morning sky on the busy waterefront of the Hong Kong business district of Central. I clearly saw him walking towards me wearing a smart navy blue overcost. He had a radiantly fresh and healthy look on his face with the sunlight shining on him as we walked past each other. We did not speak to each other except that he just smiled to me very warmly. In fact, the warmth was so deeply felt in my heart that I can still reminisce on that warm feeling once in a while right up to this day. As I had never dreamt about my grandfather before at any
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other time in my life, I could not helped telling my mother about the dream on the evening
when I returned home from my first day of work at the office. What I heard from my mother
was a great surprise to me. She told me that my grandfather used to worked for the Public
Works Department through a building contractor who was a relative on a building project
which was the upgrading of the first reservoir ever built in Hong Kong. This could be a
pure coincidence but ever since that day I have never dreamt of him again. I cannot give a
sensible explanation for this strange dream except to speculate on the possibility of the
casual connections between my grandfather and the Public Works Department and my
own personal relationship with him and the Department for which I had my first job. The
Public Works Department seems to be the common factor in the timing of my dream. It
was as if my maternal grandfather had given me his blessing and guidance to me for my
first job although you might argue that the Selection Effect could have again taken hold.
But is this effect the sole and logical explanation ? It is anybody's guess. But to me, it is an
indication though not conclusive proof of the Quantum Entanglement phenomenon at
work. This theory suggests ( and this claim has been proven in laboratory experiments )
that any elementary paricles once interacted with each other in an entanglement operation
are always tied together in an inextricable way. Applying this theory to my dream, some
atoms involved in my brain's bio-chemical actions have originated from my mother who in
turn has inherited some from my grandfather. The common factor that could have
triggered my dream was the mutual connection between the Public Works Department, my
grandfather and myself. Before my mother told me about my grandfather's working relation
with the department, I had not known about it. So, there was no question of my
preconceived impression having given rise to my dream. When I said in the section on Of
Death and Destruction that I used to comfort my griefing friends by telling them that their
dearly departed relatives would be overseeing them like guardian angels, I really meant it
based on my own personal belief. You may brand my eccentric theories as pseu-do
science as the scientists most probably will but you definitely cannot reject them outright. I
may even be able to refine them a bit in due course to enable them to be put to the
scientific test using the already availble sophisticated brain monitoring apparatus. Let us
wait and see !
