Bored.

Osama bin Laden usually:

Osama bin Laden after shaving:

More Potentially Powerful Ponderings

And the deep questions keep on coming - or at least they were, a couple of weeks ago.. Read below, an extract from my Formspring page (feel free to leave a question, dear blog follower):

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What is the meaning of the universe? From a physicist's perspective?

I was just about to put in a long speech about the meaning of the Universe .. but then I realized that that makes no sense. What is the Universe? It is the physical realm within which we perceive our existence - it has no meaning in and of itself.

If you intended to mean the meaning of Life, I could say 42 and leave it at that.

Remember, the question "Why do we exist?" can have two meanings:
1) Why are we physically capable of existing?
2) What is the ultimate goal of our existence?
1) The point of physics is not to actually find a meaning for existence; rather, it is to (ideally) find a unifiable set of laws that completely and unequivocally explain all physical phenomena within the known universe, and, perhaps, even beyond.
In other words, physics aims to answer the first interpretation of that question "Why do we exist?".
While it is not meant to answer the questions of sentience or consciousness, I would not be surprised if it offers some explanation in those regards.

2) But the second, more controversial interpretation of the question - that's what philosophy and religion are for (or better yet - an unbiased, but discerning mind).

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To further clarify (or more accurately, to reiterate), the question "Why do we exist?" consists of the two components How and What, which are completely independent of each other. Specifically:

1) How is existence physically possible?

2) What is the ultimate goal of existence?

1) As answered above, the How component is the question that the ever-evolving fields of sciences hope to explain. It is somewhat clarified by this comic, courtesy of XKCD:

2) The What component is the one that inspires so much of the controversy we love. All them religious fanatics have no other answer than "to worship God", or "to get to heaven", or some other idealistic fantasy that doesn't really lend itself to logical evaluation. Of course, I believe in some of that illogical crap too, albeit in my own science-influenced way that would probably guarantee me death stares in more conservative circles.

However, something that not many people think about is a minor corollary to said existential question: namely, what is the definition of existence? How do we know we exist?

Perhaps we should take the example of The Ruler of the Universe and just all be solipsists .. but even then, how could we be sure of consciousness?

As always, I'm open to comments.

-- Everything's Relative.

Religion vs. Science, revisited, perhaps revamped.

I have been meaning to write this post for quite a while. It came to a head a while ago when I was honored with a particularly deep question on my Formspring page:
__________________________


Q: Why is it that physicists spend their time trying to discover the meaning or the secrets of the universe? What is it that they hope to gain by answering this question?


A: It's simple, really. We want to know why we exist and what the limits of this universe are, among other things. My own potentially controversial viewpoint is that the day we understand science in its entirety, we will truly know God. Because almost all religions teach that the only pure purpose of life is to serve God and others, and in doing so to come closer to God. God created this Universe and everything in it. He didn't simply set down laws (i.e. the laws of science) to govern its existence; He IS the Universe around us. Thus by understanding the Universe we will become one with God. ^_^ Thank you for this question; I've been meaning for weeks to write a blog post about it, and hopefully I soon will. :-)


__________________________


This, being synced up to my Facebook profile, sparked a minor discussion on how it makes sense. (If you are my Facebook friend you can see it here.)


A couple of days prior to that, my strongly religious buddy had posted a status update reading:
"Jesus is the answer to everything! Thank you Jesus!"  
(If you are his Facebook friend, you can see it here.) 
Being my comedic self, I had to ask a logical question to see if this was an indicator he'd lost all logic. Like, say, "What's your girlfriend's name?" Or "What did you do with the bodies?" You get my drift.


Now, while all of this may or may not have something to do with anything, the point is that virtually all religions, while far from a waste of time, are rife with uncertainties and instability*. For the more devout, there is pretty much no issue since everything is taken on faith; however, for the more logically-minded such as myself, science provides a calm, ever-developing haven for thought (and, theoretically, truth).
I have no problem with faith - heck, I'm a church-going, choir-singing Catholic. But my issues arise when the new discoveries and developments in scientific realms cause such tremors and tribulations in the religious world that you'd think, somehow, they were competing.


Take a look at my answer to the question I was asked, and you'll get my idea of why religion and science, far from being such bitter rivals, were meant to coexist.


At the very least: in a simple way, it gives us an answer as to how evolution could indeed be a way that God created us; it is a process that humans have used to a large degree, known as directed evolution. The name says it succinctly - evolution, but with an end goal in mind, and a hand guiding the path there.
Whereas the Bible says the Universe was created out of Nothing and Man was created out of dust (or clay, depending on the translation), science says that the Universe was most likely created out of Nothing, and that Man evolved from, and is still essentially composed of, many of the particles (i.e. atoms and molecules) that also compose dust (and clay). Why is there an issue about this? I'll leave you, the reader, to your thoughts on that.


_________________________
*Just as an example, the Bible has around ONE HUNDRED translations, just in English. God alone knows how much was lost in translation of each one, compared to the original Hebrew Bible.
In this regard, I respect the Qur'an of Islam, because they strongly advocate the use and study of their scriptures in the original Arabic.

Acknowledgement of Ambiguity

To Whom It May Concern,

I Love You.

Sincerely,
Anand Lobo.


P.S.: It does not say "To who may be concerned about it".

P.P.S.: Read the P.S.

In the Name of God ...

Has anyone ever stopped to wonder, what, in the name of God, is God's name?

I mean, we call Him God, sure. His Son is the great and awesome JC. We have the Holy Spirit moving around there too. (Being Christian, this is the Trinity we have faith in.)

He's omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and above all, benevolent.

Being such a powerful being, it brings me to wonder, what is His true name? A being of such infinite greatness would, I think, have its own name. We can safely say His name is not God. That was a name coined by humans to describe, well, gods. The Sun god, the Moon god, the god of the Underworld, etc. ... no, God is not God's name.

Perhaps Yahweh, or its anglicized representation, Jehovah? Yahweh (and by extension, Jehovah) is widely considered to be the 'proper name' of God. However, in the Hebrew Bible, it is written as YHWH; there are no vowels to guide the pronunciation. Therefore, we are not even sure how it is pronounced.

Potentially even the Muslims might have it: Allah. The supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.

But I don't think so.

Not because I think religion is wrong, but simply because I believe God is so powerful, and so divine, that His true name would be incomprehensible to us mortals.

Think about it. By most accounts (including my own), God is an infinite, supreme being, perfect in every possible way, and anyone who's religious enough will tell you that there is NO WAY to comprehend Him in His entirety while our minds are still limited to this world. Why? Simply because the human mind has little capacity for the infinite.

Therefore, by extension, His true name would be similarly baffling to us.

I think of this because I would hate to die and find out that our creator's true name was, say, Bob.

(I would almost be surprised if anyone gets that reference.)

And I would think, sure, God works in mysterious ways ... but Why couldn't you have TOLD US?

I would not be surprised if I get flak about this from any super-religious types, though. If you are the type who thinks a little healthy curiosity and expression of one's ideas is wrong, and if you 'care for my soul' enough to condemn me simply for philosophizing, then you can be sure you deserve the same judgment that you expect me to receive.

Baba Yetu

Be YOU (-tiful)

So many kinds of beauty in this world.

Not 20 minutes ago, I had an idea of what I was just about to say ... and now it's gone ...

*-*

Ever met that one person, who, no matter what - the angle; time of day; their emotional or physical state; the background; the surrounding environment; etc. - looked surreal?

I thought I did.

Again.

Perhaps this is indicative of glitches in the Matrix.

I'd better talk to them (or them to me, whichever) before I wake up and they've faded away ...

:: Pictures re-blogged from I Can Read ::

Why is Love?

Well, that's the immutable question, isn't it?
You figure out that answer to that, and you're made for life, if not eternity.

Where is Love?

Following up from my previous post - kind of - I figured I'd explore where love can be found, now that we all know what it is (after a fashion ... ).

Is it over here?

Or over there?

Under that rock?

Out on that branch of the tree?

I just love my little games, don't you?

I remember talking about relationships with my friend some time back. For some reason we'd fallen into the metaphor of "the relation-ship" and "many-fish-in-the-sea". I'm far from remembering the exact conversation, but this recently occurred to me:

If I'm sitting in my 'relation-ship' on, shall we say, the 'sea of relations', the only way I'll get my 'fish' is if I 'fish' for it.

Now, the 'hook' stands a chance of hurting my 'fish', so I'd feel bad using that; and using a 'net' would likely give me more than I need - not to mention I'd have to face the task of sorting out the 'inadequate' ones.

So I was thinking about the whole metaphor, and I realized that I had it wrong.

I am a 'fish' too, and not only am I hurting my own kind by being all high-and-mighty 'fishing' from my 'ship'; I am also slowly 'dying' out of the 'water'.

This has been a great 'talk'.

-- Everything's Relative.

What is Love?

"Love is just a word; what matters is the connection that word implies."

And to think I thought I might have had that kind of connection ... eh, well.

Is it like a wireless connection? Password-protected or not? Do you have a strong or weak signal?

Or is it like an ethernet connection? One-time setup and payment for upkeep?

Maybe I just need to find the right service provider.

Then again, my connection interface might be having problems, seeing as it's an atypical design.

Too bad the professional 'tech support' you get for this sort of thing is exorbitantly more expensive and infinitely more finicky than just smashing a computer to bits.

I freaking need to get back on track.

Well, It's been a long time since I last posted.

Like my loyal readers can tell.

Oh yeah, just craving for an update on my overly eventful life, eh? Well, here's one:

I spent a month in Dubai, after a year and a half away in the U.S.

Here's another:

I accomplished nothing there.

I wonder how many people have had the fun experience, of planning a get-together expecting 20 people - out of which only one person turns up with her buddy. What a wonderful feeling, to learn just exactly how much you are loved.

And what a wonderful feeling, too, to express your feelings to someone after two and a half years, and to utterly fail at doing so.

Nothing quite like it.

That looks like it in terms of real updates, although the fact that I've moved into a new, larger room should count as news, since that means this time I can actually have friends over without feeling suffocated.

'Til next time then, my loyal readers,

Yours Truly.

Wow, interesting year ..

Well, it's getting closer and closer to a year since I left Dubai and have been living in Virginia, USA.
Eventful year, it would seem.
Most notably, Barack Obama becoming President of the USA. How cool is that? Of course, it doesn't affect me nearly at all, unless he and/or the government pass laws (probably like they pass gas) that affect internationals.
But, all of that pales in comparison to the fact that I can't visit Dubai and the few friends I have left there this December like I had hoped.
Oh well. :-[
"The times, they are a-changing" as someone put it once. I dunno who. But LiveScience is the chronicle of that change in times. So much cool stuff.
Table Tennis, a.k.a 'ping-pong' in the USA, is my new addiction. And I am far better at it now than I ever was before. Haha. Screw you, homework.

Holla to people who mean a lot to me at this point ... LC, Ben, John, Emilie, Holly, Catholic Campus Ministry, ΘΤ (that's 'Theta Tau'), the International Students' Christian Fellowship, the Fantastic Outstanding Ridiculously Entertaining Immigrant Geniuses (with) Narcissistic (and) Egotistical Rationale Squad.
And, of course, dear Mita. =)

Well, I've been writing this blogpost over the course of 4 hours overnight ... it's 6.45am Tuesday morning and I woke up about 24 hours ago -- 7-ish Monday morning.
Eh, well.

Religion vs. Science .. will it ever end??!!

Oh, don't get me wrong, I love God.

In fact, I have now decided to state as unshakeable truth that, if religion (of any kind; I make no distinctions here) is the spiritual food and drink that we ingest, then music is the spiritual air that we breathe.
This must be so, because we can survive weeks without food, and days without water; however we cannot survive more than minutes without air.
And only God could have provided us menial Home Sapiens with the inspiration and creativity necessary to create sequences of sound vibrations of varying pitch, amplitude, and spacing, in the innumerable different arrangements that exist today and continue to be created, that bring joy to the over 6 billion people (and increasing) that live (and die) in the present.

But more to the point, it is also pure truth that religion (especially the ancient religions, now called mythology) evolved first and foremost to explain the things we do not understand.
The first religions centered on the sun, the moon, the seasons, etc. - all easily definable and explainable by modern standards, yet beyond the comprehension of our far ancestors.
As we Homo Sapiens have evolved, the discipline of science was created as we began to think more and more logically about the universe around us.
Throughout history, and continuing on to the present (and hopefully, on into the far future) things previously explained away as gods, or signs from the gods, or emissaries from the gods, or acts of the gods, etc. were slowly but surely replaced by true, logical, scientific explanations.
The rising and setting of the sun, first taken as the Sun God riding around the sky in his fiery chariot, was (eventually) discovered to be a ball of hot gas (although it was only after Einstein that we discovered it to be due to nuclear fusion).
The moon thought to be a Moon God, was discovered eventually to be the piece of spherical-ish rock that it is, that reflects light from the sun.
The planets, far away as they are, were taken to be different gods because they moved far differently from the ever-so-distant stars (which the Ancients believed to be stationary .. in fact, that is why planets are called that now. Look up the etymology of the word 'planet').
The oh-so-distant stars were considered representatives of the gods that their pattern composed - from which we get the signs of the Zodiac.

Anyone with a grain of common sense can see, that as time goes on - however fast, however slow - whatever we attribute today to God (or to the paranormal, or anything else not scientifically explained) will, eventually, one day be truly explainable and understandable by anyone, through science.

And yet, didn't I just say I love God? Indeed I did. And I believe that there will always be a place for religion in this world. Because even though science may eventually explain many of the mysteries of this world, there is always likely to be a small part of it that cannot be accounted for, and that small unexamined spot of research may be of equal complexity to the rest. Consider it as though it were a shape known as a fractal; no matter how deep one delves into a fractal shape, it never gets any less complex. Think about it. Or, read what Isaac Asimov said about fractals. If you can find it.

Wow, that was waay more than I expected from myself. =P
Still, it felt good.
I feel so wise. Let's see you convince me otherwise.
XD

Need I Say More?

Thanks to XKCD.

XKCD = 42. The Meaning of Life, The Universe, And Everything!! O_O

Douglas Adams = Awesome.
Check the letters, XKCD. They add up to 42. (-:

It means shuffling quickly past nuns on the street with ketchup in your palms, pretending you're hiding stigmata. ^-^

Did you shoot a man in Reno? Now, I don't mean to pry.^-^

How could you choose avoiding a little pain over understanding a magic lightning machine? ^-^

So, that is an extract from XKCD.
I must say, a really good comic.
Although PHD Comics holds an equal place in my heart. =P

That last one above defines the truth! The Truth, I tell you!

So here I am, taking solace in imaginary scenarios.
I miss sanity. Do you? .......
Was there ever a time before the loneliness? Because it seems that that's the only way of life I can remember ..... :-/

Russell Peters, man, c'mon, talk to me, dude!
I need a job. Any advice, anyone?

Tactlessness.

I'm so Stupid.
I would probably never survive on my own.
Should have confronted that damn homeowner immediately about the money he deducted from my deposit.
Why did I put time with my friends ahead of that?
Why would I do that?? And me, with all my talk of "I got it, mum" .. "Don't worry about it, mum" .. "I'm saving money, mum" .. "I'll take care of it, mum" ... I'm gonna feel that guilty pinch for years to come. (Ow. :-/ )
It's far too late to do anything about it now. It could be construed as a belated attempt to weasel some money out of him .. and I'm sure after taking that money from me he can afford to potentially make it a legal battle of I tried anything [I heard from one of the previous tenants that he'd already been in court for a similar occurrence previously]. Add that to the fact he's an American citizen and I'm an international student. See any inequalities here?