A Test For Genuity

Over these past few weeks, I was thinking about the issue of genuity. We know that there are 2 kinds of people, the 'genuine' and the 'fake'. The problem is, how do we distinguish the two?
What standards are we going to use to test genuity? How are we going to find out the truth?
I find this topic a very crucial one to address! First, this is my reaction to the fact that indeed there are 'fake' people that loiters around us. Not only they disadvantaged their 'victims', but they also act as a 'parasite' in the society that spreads uncertainty, that people can't believe in one another, even something that's genuine! Thus, it has been my objective to unmask them, and I hope that I can increase the awareness of the public. So let's get back to the issue. How do we know that something is genuine?

No wonder, the usual attempt was to look at 'indicators'. This might be the form of actions, or behaviors, or anything that supports our hypothesis. For example, if someone estimated that the other person is 'genuinely' hardworking, he might look at indicators simply through observations! If he was found to be hardworking after a few observations, then he is 'genuinely' hardworking! Of course there's a catch! He might pretend to be hardworking! So now a new variable must be introduced : time! I believe that those who were fake will be 'exhausted' to pretend all the time. So..do we have a complete solution now? Sadly we don't!

Here's my point : we can't believe fully a 100% of something just based on observations, evidences, even though we have a 'big random sample' and over a long period of time! Y do i say so? Statistics are always statistics, they never prove anything. Hence, even though you always take abundant samples over a long period of time, you always assume something! Assume that the other person is "not strong enough" to remain as a fake! What I mean is, look at David Blaine! What do u think is the motivation behind his great perseverance?
I'm not saying that he has a 'wrong' motivation, but yeah, didn't it depict what great power humans have? And what could have driven him to do such things? Money? Fame? No offense, but i dunno.. but if those things can drive a man to do such things, to bear until that level of commitment, then how do we know whether there are people, motivated by the same things mentioned above, will not be a fake and persevere to obtain money? fame? or anything?

On the other hand, neither can we distinguish a genuine person! We're always subjective! Look at history! The most genuine person was not believed by many. Look at Jesus Christ! Isn't it a tragedy? Haven't we learnt anything yet??

So what's the conclusion of all? A deadlock situation?

Fortunately, there's one and only solution for this. In the Bible, notice how Jesus had repeatedly differentiates the genuine from the fake. He scolds the pharisees who are deemed as genuine by many people, as a fake! So the answer lies in God's wisdom. What is impossible for men is possible for God... Well, I think this is the only solution, and no other humanly attempts or thoughts would resolve the issue of genuity. We have to ask the answer from Him alone.

The Beauty of Irony

Perhaps i had gotten this idea a long time ago, now that i just try to formulate it in words.
Here's my simple and straightforward point : Irony conveys a sense of beauty. For me, perhaps it is the greatest, highest, and most beautiful form of artwork i had ever known so far, which seems most intriguing to me. We can find some form of irony in many artworks, starting from Romeo and Juliet, the Korean tv drama series, Comics, or even video games (mainly RPGs)!This is just a pattern that i noticed that applies to almost all 'masterpieces', is that 'irony' is indeed the recipee for the 'beauties' contained in these sources.

Let's take a closer look at some korean tv drama series. In Winter Sonata (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Sonata) for example, it's an irony that Jun Sang involves in a serious accident! Imagine a journey without a hurdle, well, no one would actually watched the tv series i guess. Next is the series Autumn in My Heart(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_Fairy_Tale). It contains an irony in the sense that Jun-seo indeed fell in love with his long separated younger sister! (You might argue that it is a drama movie so there's supposed to be a twist and turns in the plot. Exactly, and those dramatic twists and turns are things that make up the irony!)

Now, i'd like to discuss about comics. Not trying to promote anything, it's just that i think the most beautiful comic i've read so far is One Piece (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_piece). Perhaps it may look childish, but it contains a lot of ironies! The comic even started with an irony; The king of pirates Gold D Roger was about to be beheaded, and the irony is, he was smiling, despite him knowing full well that he was about to die! There are so many examples of ironies you can find in the comic. The frequent flashbacks in the comic often serve to begin the ironic situations. Monbren Norland for example, is depicted as a normal and righteous person, but was beheaded and is called 'a liar', just because he reported to the king that he found an island full of gold. When he accompanied the king to search for the island however, it was no longer there. In fact, the island had 'floated' in the sky. As a result, he was punished, called 'a liar' and beheaded in front of many people including his crews who was with him when he went to the island. This then became a legend, a legend of the east blue, called 'Monbren the liar'.

Thirdly, i'd like to assess the RPG's. Which gamers haven't heard of final fantasy? The most popular RPG (well i can say the best RPG) in the world. Now the reason that we find final fantasy a good game, is particularly because of their storylines. Twist and turns are there, together with ironies! In FF7, midgar, the very 1st city we visited in the game is destroyed later in the game, leaving memories behind. In FF8, it's the Balamb Garden. The same goes for FF9. In FFX, it's an irony that the main character in the game, Tidus, in the ending he vanishes as the 'time' was over. It was said by the fayth that he was just a dream, an illusion. After spending so many hours playing the game, gamers would have been attached to the characters! Well, yeah, in the end you lose everything. It's the taste of irony! But why do we still play the game? Knowing that it has twist in the ending? That it may not end like what we expected? Indeed, it was because the tragedy that makes the game beautiful! Well, yeah, and perhaps there's another reason on why I like most RPGs. Once you finished the game, you will realise that it's over. And you won't get used to not playing it for sometime. That's the effect of playing RPGs. We often think it as a 'dream', living in the ideal, virtual world! Once we 'woke up', it feels as if we had been transported back to the 'not so ideal' world. It's has the same taste as irony! It's ironic that once we came back to the real world, everything finally comes to an end. And what do we get lastly? Nothing! The pleasure won't last after you finished the game.

So far, I've discussed many things about irony. Well, here's an ultimate secret : This recipee for creating a good film, a good comic, a good storyline, a good game, etc, is indeed derived from 1 historical fact! A fact that God, the Creator, had sent his Only Son to save us! And yet, the ironic thing is that we, as creations, as sinful beings, tortured and crucified Him! This is the ultimate irony! God had started this great 'piece of artwork'. Besides saving human beings, He had shown the greatest piece of art for us to witness! And subconsciously, beautiful films, comics, stories, RPGs, all derived the very essence similar to this historical event. Irony!

For your information, more ironies are to be found if we look across the history. Einstein for example, died before he finished his last works, and thus the final equation remain unknown to us. And yeah, of course, many great people died at a very young age. Pretty ironic isn't it? I'm just wondering if this is the continuation of the works done by the 'Hand of God'...a continuation of the 'great masterpiece of art'?

More ironies I can think of :
-It's an irony that those who are willing doesn't have enough opportunity, while those who have the opportunity are not very willing and don't use it to the full potential.
-It's an irony that we search for the best, but the best searches for the worst. (Jesus Christ searches for the sinners)
-It's an irony that the more wealthy you become, the more you feel you need more! The more you feel you are insecure and therefore hard to live peacefully!
-It's an irony that wise people are those who say 'i understand nothing', while the fool often boasts for themselves, but they are the ones who get the opportunity for that 'boasting' since most people look from the 'outside'.
-It's an irony that the people of Israel nowadays, mostly don't believe in Jesus Christ, though they are the so-called "chosen" by God.
-It's an irony that 'straight' people faces trouble, while those unrepentant people lived happily (confirmed in the Bible)
-It's an irony that the more advanced technology is, it is used for evil purposes.-It's an irony that 'what has a beginning has an end'.
-Valentine's day irony : (http://seed1.wevision.com/tt2/board/ttboard.cgi?act=read&db=donghaeng_board2&page=3&idx=8)

Yeah..can't u see this great beautiful piece of artwork? I think it's consistent with one another. The world is created by God. And perhaps it's His style of creating things to be? Well, who knows?But it certainly makes it all look beautiful on the whole =)

Destiny, Freewill and Prophecies (Revisited)

Lately i've been reassessing my views about destinies, human freewills and the validity of prophecies which might be not so clear then for me. And here's what I got after I rethinked it through, trying to piece them up such that it's compatible with the Bible and other sources.

Let's take a look at the example from the Bible! Jeremiah 31:15 predicts the killings of male infants during the time Jesus was born. Isaiah 7:14 predicts that Virgin Mary will give birth to Jesus, and named him Immanuel. Isaiah 50:6 and Isaiah 53:3-7 predicts Jesus' sufferings, Job 19:25 and Psalm 16:9-10 predicts His resurrection. Well, what's the point of having all these?

I often asked myself, why would Herod make such a decree to kill infants? Why would Virgin Mary named the child Immanuel? Why would people make Jesus suffer? Why would they crucify Him? One might just say : Well, it's the prophecy, it's destiny! Exactly! But now i'm trying to assess what is this that we called 'destiny'? And how does it actually work? By what means?

In my opinion, for destiny to work, it makes use of human ignorance about the prophecies. It's due to Herod's ignorance that he issued a command to exterminate all male infants, which is according to the prophecy. Think about it! If he knows about the prophecy, then he would know that the prophecy is true because in it he issued a command to kill the infants, and thus he must also knew that the child Jesus would escape since there was the continuation of the prophecy that says about Jesus sufferings, he would be ressurected, etc. One might argue that it's impossible that Herod knew about this, exactly, my point is, prophecy works this way, due to our ignorance, we wouldn't do something against it, or intentionally opposing it!

I've stated an example on the other article. Suppose there was a prophet that tells us that we would die on a certain time, say, 50 years later. But practically, we can commit suicide to prove it wrong isn't it? "Dying isn't that easy" is a stupid argument if we look at terrorists who easily blast themselves. Here, we can try to escape the 'prophecy'. I believe no prophecy is to be told.

Next, destiny also bounds our freewill by using the freewill of others. Humans have freewill, but the freewills of other humans are beyond a person's power to control! Hence, destiny calculates that we don't have enough power to fight it! What do I mean by this? When Jesus was crucified for example, I believe that his apostles wanted to fight but they were overpowered. It's make more sense if we take the example about the signs of the ends of age. In Matthew 24:5-7 it was stated that at the end of age, many will come in Jesus name claiming to be Him, that is to be God, and many will be deceived. We will hear rumours of war, but see to it that we are not alarmed. Nation will then rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. Here, we see that we certainly do not have any power to oppose the prophecy! There may be ignorant people that not know about the prophecy, and they act acording to it, they fulfill it! While we who know about the prophecy, are not in the situation to control the situation. There are many opposing groups who is 'made' to fulfill the prophecy. And who are we that we can 'prevent' earthquakes? Who are we to prevent famines? or even rumours of wars? or the establishment of religious groups that, according to the prophecy, will have their leader claiming himself 'God'?

Destiny therefore, is imminent! It also predicts all the rules and regulations, countries policies and acts, such that it will point towards what was destined! In fact, there would be no meteor falls that exterminate living things before destiny is fulfilled, nor a terrorist group launching a nuclear weapon that will exterminate all beings on earth! This is logical, since if there were such a group, surely many nations will rise against them! And this is nothing but working towards the fulfillment of the prophecy.

And those who are reading this, no matter what your status or positions are..i believe, are those who are 'allowed' to know the secrets behind the prophecy and therefore do not have the power to oppose it.

1+1=?

It may sound funny, but have you ever wondered why is 1+1=2 in the first place? Or perhaps you may hear someone challenging you to explain why 1+1=2? If you're seeking for an answer, this discussion might be helpful.

First and foremost, perhaps there might be some people out there who would pose non-sensical questions such as "why 1+1 =2? why not 3,4 or 5?" Not wrong, but i really wanted to ask them whether they know what they are actually asking. What i mean is that here we're trying to play around with definitions. Two is just a notation for "two" objects. We can interchange the notation "two" with "three", and it doesn't change anything at all so long as they're just notations. Let's imagine that in the ancient times, people has made the symbols of 2 interchanged with 3, and therefore the sequence of numbers goes "132456789". Here, the argument is useless, and the answer on why 1+1=2 is all based upon definitions.

Now, there can be another interpretation when one encounters this question. When one ask why 1+1=2, they're actually asking why, if there's an A, and there's a B, then there's A and B? This seems like a more philosophical question. Well, it's illogical to have A,B and C if we started with only A and B. Let's extend our imagination a little bit. If we have "two" pencils, pencil A and pencil B, and we decided to "sum" it, it's impossible to get "three" pencils. A question would arise as to how do the system knows that we decided to "sum" them up? And how does the third pencil knew that it can inherit the property of the first two pencils? If we think that the third pencil suddenly "pops" up out of nowhere, then taking the 1st two pencils again leaving the third behind, we can sum them as many times as we want, and this would give an infinite amount of pencils enough to cover the entire earth!

Hence, from the two explanations above, I conclude that it is absurd to ask why 1+1=2!