I have posted so many articles related to God..to remind myself that I need to walk closely with Him, in this relationship. This is not a religion but about having a relationship with God, our Father in heaven. I struggle striving to be a better person because i believe that we should all care about people around us, environment we live in and simply just because we care. And everyone deserves to lead a decent life on Earth. But I am far from being perfect. Like really far.
In a very commercialised first world society, everything is about me, myself and I and almost everyone is selfish and self-centered. Then the world would be a horrible place, and it sometimes is already a horrible place.
Do we do good because we want to feel good? Afraid of bad karma? Accumulating good karma? Trying to secure a place in heaven? Trying to be accepted by others? Are we all guilty of altruism? Are we all hypocrites?
I want a honest, genuine relationship with God. I want to obey because i am grateful for all that He has done for me, for my family. Yet, I am so disobedient at times. And i feel guilty for harbouring thoughts that God might just be an alien(s) from another planet whereby they are far more intelligent than human beings. But deep in my heart, i want God to be God, just like what I have been taught in school from young.
It is a constant struggle..by faith we believe what we cannot see. But science and logic got into the way. But I have made my choice..God
I am so sleepy and exhausted. Will ponder on altruism again..
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Alice Cooper - The prodigal son
“The world doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Satan,” said Alice Cooper. “We’re living with that. We’re bombarded with that every day.”
“[A]lmost everything I wrote was good and evil,” he said. “Don’t pick evil. Even when I wasn’t Christian, I was saying that. God and the Devil. Don’t pick the Devil. It’s a bad idea.”
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier) shot to mega-stardom in the 1970s and early 1980s with hits such as “I’m 18,” ‘Schools’ Out” and the 1973 album, Billion Dollar Babies. He also was notorious for his demonic makeup and costumes and macabre theatrics on stage, which included simulated suicide and the decapitation of baby-dolls, among other dark antics.
Alice Cooper was nominated for two Grammy Awards and he and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. He has played roles in several movies, including Wayne’s World with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey and, perhaps most ironically given his shock-rock music career, Cooper is an avid and skilled golfer.
Cooper scored a two-over par 74 on The Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a world-class course; he played in the All Star Cup in Newport, South Wales; he has appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf equipment; and he is the author of Alice Cooper, Golf Monster.
In an interview posted on YouTube about his Christian roots, his Prodigal-son waywardness in the 1970s and early 1980s, and his reversion to Bible-based Christianity and his life today, Cooper explained that despite all the wealth and fame he attained early on, there was a huge emptiness in his life.
“I grew up in a Christian house,” said Cooper. “My dad was a pastor, he was an evangelist for 25 years, and I used to go up and do missionary work with him with the Apaches in Arizona. My grandfather was a pastor for 75 years. I grew up in a Christian home. And my wife’s father is a Baptist pastor. So, I was like, we were PK’s – preacher’s kids – so we married each other.”
“So I always refer to myself as the real Prodigal Son, because I went out and the Lord let me do everything,” said Cooper. “Maybe didn’t let me but allowed it, and then just started reeling me back in. You know, you’ve seen enough. Let’s bring you back to where you belong.”
“When you get out there and realize you’ve had every car, every house, and all that, you realize that that’s not the answer,” he said. “There’s a big nothing out there at the end of that. So, materialism doesn’t mean anything. A lot of people say that there’s a big God-sized hole in your heart. And when that’s filled, you’re really satisfied, and that’s where I am right now.”
Cooper then explained that his return to Christianity occurred when he tried and eventually quit drinking alcohol in the mid-1980s. (He also had a dangerous addiction to cocaine, which he discussed in the 2014 movie, Super Duper Alice Cooper.)
“I stopped drinking and I started going back to church,” he said. “I was throwing up blood every morning; I was really a bad alcoholic. I wasn’t a cruel or mean alcoholic but I was certainly self-destructive.”
He continued, “And when I stopped drinking, I started going back to church with my wife, and there was this pastor in Phoenix who was just Hell-fire. I mean, there were 6,000 people there and he was talking to me every Sunday. Of course, he wasn’t, but he was – just nailing me. Every weekend I’d get out exhausted. I’d come out of there and be, ‘I don’t want to go back.’ It was like torture and I always came back.”
“I finally realized, I had to go one side or the other,” said Cooper. “I had to make a decision for one side or the other, because I was so convicted. The Lord really convicted me, saying, look, it’s time to make a decision here. I said okay, and I joined a church called Camelback Bible over there, and that’s where I go now. It’s a really good teaching church, good strong Bible-teaching church.”
As for how his life has changed for the better, Cooper said, “Well, before you are always self—you’re always self-centered. Everything is for you. Your self is God. And we make lousy gods. Humans make lousy gods, I think. We need to let God be God and us be what we are. I think that’s what changes: the focus on who you’re serving. You’re not serving you. You’re serving Christ.”
“God’s chipping away at your life all the time to try to make you more like Him,” said Cooper. “That’s what a Christian is, a person that’s being molded and shaped all their life …. I think the Lord expects you to do your best in His name. I had to struggle a long time about rock and roll. I realized it’s not really the music. It’s what’s being said with the music. So I think you have to be careful of what you’re writing, what you’re representing.”
For those people who may have been big Alice Cooper fans back in 1970s and 1980s but who are still following the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll lifestyle and not following Christ, Cooper said, “Well, they’re going to eventually know Christ, and I hope it’s not too late. If you’re at the wrong end at the wrong time, I think that’s going to be tragic.”
As for the temptations of this world, Cooper said, “Sure, what is the world made up of? It’s made up of that. The world doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to Satan. We’re living in that world. We’re bombarded with that every day.”
“So how do we react to that?” he said. “If you don’t have Christ in your life, then you’re a victim to it. So I think what we have to be very careful about is how we react to the world. If we have Christ in our life now, we have to react humbly. React in a teaching way and at the same time be humble about it.”
When it comes to politics, Cooper frequently says that he doesn’t like to get into the subject because it poisons rock music. In a 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, Cooper said he was “extremely non-political” and that he would “go out of my way to be non-political.”
He has also criticized other rock musicians for wearing their politics on their sleeves. During the 2004 presidential race, Cooper quietly supported George W. Bush but criticized Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, James Taylor, and Bruce Springsteen for enthusiastically and publicly backing Democrat John Kerry.
“To me, that's treason. I call it treason against rock-and-roll, because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics," Cooper told the Canadian Press.
"If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are,” he said. “Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."
Cooper continued, “Besides, when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."
In an interview with the evangelical Christian program The Harvest Show, Alice Cooper said that if there is Bible story that represents his life, it is Jonah and the whale. He also disclosed that despite the dark and demonic aspects of some of his early music, there were still Christian messages being conveyed about good vs. evil and that the songs did warn against Satan.
“[A] almost every thing I wrote was good and evil,” said Cooper during the interview. “Don’t pick evil. Even when I wasn’t Christian, I was saying that. God and the Devil. Don’t pick the Devil. It’s a bad idea. But all they saw was the image [of Alice Cooper].”
“And I gave Alice his perimeter, his areas where he wouldn’t go past,” said the musician, “and I still find songs from the first albums that totally all have Christian bywords going all the way through it. It comes out of you what’s in you. So songs like Second Coming, and that, were all warning about Satan.”
Cooper also said that if his life means anything remotely similar to what is told in the Bible, it is that “Jonah was swallowed by a whale.”
“I don’t believe this [notion] that it’s all parables and they mean just this – no,” Cooper said in reference to the Bible. “I say, if it says it, it meant it. People laugh at me and say you can’t really believe that. Look, if I can believe that God created the world and everything in it, why wouldn’t I believe a simple thing like that? That’s not a hard thing.”
“The very fact that He cared enough about me to save my life about 20 times, and help me survive a million different things, to put me where I am now, and the challenge I have now to be a Christian in the rock business,” said Cooper. “He kind of put me in the camp of the Philistines, which is okay.”
He continued, “What people don’t realize is that when you become a Christian it doesn’t make things easier, it makes them harder. It makes your life harder. It makes your soul at ease with God because you know where you are with Him. It doesn’t make your social life or your normal life in America any easier. In fact, it puts you under the microscope.”
“Sometimes I think that TV evangelism is one of Satan’s greatest weapons,” said Cooper. “They put these guys on a pedestal and all of a sudden they get caught with a prostitute, and every Christian I know then is under the gun. So you don’t think that’s kind of set up?”
“I’m telling you, the Devil is very smart,” said Cooper. “He’s not going to come out with the horns and the tail. He’s going to come in as the slickest car salesman you ever saw – and I’ve seen some pretty slick pastors on TV. Now that’s not to say they’re all like that. … But every time I hear something that goes a little left of center, I go, ‘What? What was that?’ You know, too much healing on TV, I don’t know about that. That’s showbiz I think.”
In mid-December 2014, Alice Cooper’s song “School’s Out” was inducted into the 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame, along with music from other artists such as Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Otis Redding, Neil Young and Harry Belafonte.
“[A]lmost everything I wrote was good and evil,” he said. “Don’t pick evil. Even when I wasn’t Christian, I was saying that. God and the Devil. Don’t pick the Devil. It’s a bad idea.”
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier) shot to mega-stardom in the 1970s and early 1980s with hits such as “I’m 18,” ‘Schools’ Out” and the 1973 album, Billion Dollar Babies. He also was notorious for his demonic makeup and costumes and macabre theatrics on stage, which included simulated suicide and the decapitation of baby-dolls, among other dark antics.
Alice Cooper was nominated for two Grammy Awards and he and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. He has played roles in several movies, including Wayne’s World with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey and, perhaps most ironically given his shock-rock music career, Cooper is an avid and skilled golfer.
Cooper scored a two-over par 74 on The Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., a world-class course; he played in the All Star Cup in Newport, South Wales; he has appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf equipment; and he is the author of Alice Cooper, Golf Monster.
In an interview posted on YouTube about his Christian roots, his Prodigal-son waywardness in the 1970s and early 1980s, and his reversion to Bible-based Christianity and his life today, Cooper explained that despite all the wealth and fame he attained early on, there was a huge emptiness in his life.
“I grew up in a Christian house,” said Cooper. “My dad was a pastor, he was an evangelist for 25 years, and I used to go up and do missionary work with him with the Apaches in Arizona. My grandfather was a pastor for 75 years. I grew up in a Christian home. And my wife’s father is a Baptist pastor. So, I was like, we were PK’s – preacher’s kids – so we married each other.”
“So I always refer to myself as the real Prodigal Son, because I went out and the Lord let me do everything,” said Cooper. “Maybe didn’t let me but allowed it, and then just started reeling me back in. You know, you’ve seen enough. Let’s bring you back to where you belong.”
“When you get out there and realize you’ve had every car, every house, and all that, you realize that that’s not the answer,” he said. “There’s a big nothing out there at the end of that. So, materialism doesn’t mean anything. A lot of people say that there’s a big God-sized hole in your heart. And when that’s filled, you’re really satisfied, and that’s where I am right now.”
Cooper then explained that his return to Christianity occurred when he tried and eventually quit drinking alcohol in the mid-1980s. (He also had a dangerous addiction to cocaine, which he discussed in the 2014 movie, Super Duper Alice Cooper.)
“I stopped drinking and I started going back to church,” he said. “I was throwing up blood every morning; I was really a bad alcoholic. I wasn’t a cruel or mean alcoholic but I was certainly self-destructive.”
He continued, “And when I stopped drinking, I started going back to church with my wife, and there was this pastor in Phoenix who was just Hell-fire. I mean, there were 6,000 people there and he was talking to me every Sunday. Of course, he wasn’t, but he was – just nailing me. Every weekend I’d get out exhausted. I’d come out of there and be, ‘I don’t want to go back.’ It was like torture and I always came back.”
“I finally realized, I had to go one side or the other,” said Cooper. “I had to make a decision for one side or the other, because I was so convicted. The Lord really convicted me, saying, look, it’s time to make a decision here. I said okay, and I joined a church called Camelback Bible over there, and that’s where I go now. It’s a really good teaching church, good strong Bible-teaching church.”
As for how his life has changed for the better, Cooper said, “Well, before you are always self—you’re always self-centered. Everything is for you. Your self is God. And we make lousy gods. Humans make lousy gods, I think. We need to let God be God and us be what we are. I think that’s what changes: the focus on who you’re serving. You’re not serving you. You’re serving Christ.”
“God’s chipping away at your life all the time to try to make you more like Him,” said Cooper. “That’s what a Christian is, a person that’s being molded and shaped all their life …. I think the Lord expects you to do your best in His name. I had to struggle a long time about rock and roll. I realized it’s not really the music. It’s what’s being said with the music. So I think you have to be careful of what you’re writing, what you’re representing.”
For those people who may have been big Alice Cooper fans back in 1970s and 1980s but who are still following the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll lifestyle and not following Christ, Cooper said, “Well, they’re going to eventually know Christ, and I hope it’s not too late. If you’re at the wrong end at the wrong time, I think that’s going to be tragic.”
As for the temptations of this world, Cooper said, “Sure, what is the world made up of? It’s made up of that. The world doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to Satan. We’re living in that world. We’re bombarded with that every day.”
“So how do we react to that?” he said. “If you don’t have Christ in your life, then you’re a victim to it. So I think what we have to be very careful about is how we react to the world. If we have Christ in our life now, we have to react humbly. React in a teaching way and at the same time be humble about it.”
When it comes to politics, Cooper frequently says that he doesn’t like to get into the subject because it poisons rock music. In a 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, Cooper said he was “extremely non-political” and that he would “go out of my way to be non-political.”
He has also criticized other rock musicians for wearing their politics on their sleeves. During the 2004 presidential race, Cooper quietly supported George W. Bush but criticized Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, James Taylor, and Bruce Springsteen for enthusiastically and publicly backing Democrat John Kerry.
“To me, that's treason. I call it treason against rock-and-roll, because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics," Cooper told the Canadian Press.
"If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are,” he said. “Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."
Cooper continued, “Besides, when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."
In an interview with the evangelical Christian program The Harvest Show, Alice Cooper said that if there is Bible story that represents his life, it is Jonah and the whale. He also disclosed that despite the dark and demonic aspects of some of his early music, there were still Christian messages being conveyed about good vs. evil and that the songs did warn against Satan.
“[A] almost every thing I wrote was good and evil,” said Cooper during the interview. “Don’t pick evil. Even when I wasn’t Christian, I was saying that. God and the Devil. Don’t pick the Devil. It’s a bad idea. But all they saw was the image [of Alice Cooper].”
“And I gave Alice his perimeter, his areas where he wouldn’t go past,” said the musician, “and I still find songs from the first albums that totally all have Christian bywords going all the way through it. It comes out of you what’s in you. So songs like Second Coming, and that, were all warning about Satan.”
Cooper also said that if his life means anything remotely similar to what is told in the Bible, it is that “Jonah was swallowed by a whale.”
“I don’t believe this [notion] that it’s all parables and they mean just this – no,” Cooper said in reference to the Bible. “I say, if it says it, it meant it. People laugh at me and say you can’t really believe that. Look, if I can believe that God created the world and everything in it, why wouldn’t I believe a simple thing like that? That’s not a hard thing.”
“The very fact that He cared enough about me to save my life about 20 times, and help me survive a million different things, to put me where I am now, and the challenge I have now to be a Christian in the rock business,” said Cooper. “He kind of put me in the camp of the Philistines, which is okay.”
He continued, “What people don’t realize is that when you become a Christian it doesn’t make things easier, it makes them harder. It makes your life harder. It makes your soul at ease with God because you know where you are with Him. It doesn’t make your social life or your normal life in America any easier. In fact, it puts you under the microscope.”
“Sometimes I think that TV evangelism is one of Satan’s greatest weapons,” said Cooper. “They put these guys on a pedestal and all of a sudden they get caught with a prostitute, and every Christian I know then is under the gun. So you don’t think that’s kind of set up?”
“I’m telling you, the Devil is very smart,” said Cooper. “He’s not going to come out with the horns and the tail. He’s going to come in as the slickest car salesman you ever saw – and I’ve seen some pretty slick pastors on TV. Now that’s not to say they’re all like that. … But every time I hear something that goes a little left of center, I go, ‘What? What was that?’ You know, too much healing on TV, I don’t know about that. That’s showbiz I think.”
In mid-December 2014, Alice Cooper’s song “School’s Out” was inducted into the 2015 Grammy Hall of Fame, along with music from other artists such as Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Otis Redding, Neil Young and Harry Belafonte.
3 Ways to Know If an "Open Door" is from God
Just because an opportunity presents itself, and it looks appealing, doesn't necessarily mean it is from God. And likewise, just because an open door looks a little uncertain, doesn't mean you shouldn't walk through it.
The key is knowing how to discern if an opportunity is really an open door from God. I don't want to miss those open doors because I was afraid to walk through them. But I also don't want to take every opportunity that comes along, assuming it is from God's hand and has his blessings attached.
In a recent conversation with a friend we talked about the faith and courage to walk through a door that God is holding open for us, even if we're not exactly sure of what's on the other side. But then the question came up: How can you tell if God is the one opening the door?
The Bible gives us some principles to help us discern if an "open door" or opportunity is really from God:
1. The Door that God Opens Will Never Contradict His Word
Many Christians see opportunities to make more money as an open door from God, even though the opportunity means a job that will keep them from regular fellowship or service in their church. However, God's Word tells us not to neglect meeting together for worship (Hebrews 10:25). Some women have told me that they believe God opened a door to a dating relationship for them, even though it meant being in a situation where they were "unequally yoked" with an unbeliever, which Scripture also warns against (2 Corinthians 6:14). God will not lead you toward an opportunity that contradicts what he clearly says in his Word. Nor will he open a door that would require personal compromise or disobedience in order for you to enter. As humans prone to sin, we have an excellent way of turning a clear mandate of God's completely around and justifying it by our circumstances, but that is not how God works. If there is a compromise in any way, or we have to bend Scripture to justify our "open door" then it is likely not a door that God is opening for us. I would call anything that contradicts his Word a temptation, rather than an open door from God. And God's Word clearly says that God does not tempt us (James 1:13-14).
2. The Door that God Opens Will be Accompanied by Confirmation
In Matthew 18:15-16, Jesus laid out instructions for confronting sin among believers saying "But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses'." I believe the same applies when it comes to God confirming something in his Word. He will often confirm or establish a matter by "two or three witnesses" whether they be verses from the Word of God, advice from a pastor or well-respected person who is grounded in Scripture, or a non-compromising circumstance that continues to present itself. Through prayer, discernment and seeking godly counsel, you should be able to tell if that "open door" and its confirmations are truly coming from God.
3. The Door God Opens Will Require You to Depend on Him
God is not going to give us something that will alienate us from him or make us believe we no longer need him. He is a God of relationship, and a God who insists upon being first in our lives (Matthew 6:33). Therefore, if you find yourself saying "I can't do this unless God goes before me," or "I can do this, but only with God's help and leading" I would say, in my personal experience, it's likely something God is calling you to do. Hebrews 11:6 says: "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." Many times an "open door" from God is one that allows our faith to be stretched and strengthened. That, after all, is God's objective for us: to grow in faith and Christ-likeness.
Take your opportunity or "open door" to God and ask for his confirmation - through his Word and godly counsel from others - and his peace in the decision, and you can have the assurance that you aren't just choosing a door at random, but you're carefully walking through the ones he wants you to enter.
The key is knowing how to discern if an opportunity is really an open door from God. I don't want to miss those open doors because I was afraid to walk through them. But I also don't want to take every opportunity that comes along, assuming it is from God's hand and has his blessings attached.
In a recent conversation with a friend we talked about the faith and courage to walk through a door that God is holding open for us, even if we're not exactly sure of what's on the other side. But then the question came up: How can you tell if God is the one opening the door?
The Bible gives us some principles to help us discern if an "open door" or opportunity is really from God:
1. The Door that God Opens Will Never Contradict His Word
Many Christians see opportunities to make more money as an open door from God, even though the opportunity means a job that will keep them from regular fellowship or service in their church. However, God's Word tells us not to neglect meeting together for worship (Hebrews 10:25). Some women have told me that they believe God opened a door to a dating relationship for them, even though it meant being in a situation where they were "unequally yoked" with an unbeliever, which Scripture also warns against (2 Corinthians 6:14). God will not lead you toward an opportunity that contradicts what he clearly says in his Word. Nor will he open a door that would require personal compromise or disobedience in order for you to enter. As humans prone to sin, we have an excellent way of turning a clear mandate of God's completely around and justifying it by our circumstances, but that is not how God works. If there is a compromise in any way, or we have to bend Scripture to justify our "open door" then it is likely not a door that God is opening for us. I would call anything that contradicts his Word a temptation, rather than an open door from God. And God's Word clearly says that God does not tempt us (James 1:13-14).
2. The Door that God Opens Will be Accompanied by Confirmation
In Matthew 18:15-16, Jesus laid out instructions for confronting sin among believers saying "But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses'." I believe the same applies when it comes to God confirming something in his Word. He will often confirm or establish a matter by "two or three witnesses" whether they be verses from the Word of God, advice from a pastor or well-respected person who is grounded in Scripture, or a non-compromising circumstance that continues to present itself. Through prayer, discernment and seeking godly counsel, you should be able to tell if that "open door" and its confirmations are truly coming from God.
3. The Door God Opens Will Require You to Depend on Him
God is not going to give us something that will alienate us from him or make us believe we no longer need him. He is a God of relationship, and a God who insists upon being first in our lives (Matthew 6:33). Therefore, if you find yourself saying "I can't do this unless God goes before me," or "I can do this, but only with God's help and leading" I would say, in my personal experience, it's likely something God is calling you to do. Hebrews 11:6 says: "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." Many times an "open door" from God is one that allows our faith to be stretched and strengthened. That, after all, is God's objective for us: to grow in faith and Christ-likeness.
Take your opportunity or "open door" to God and ask for his confirmation - through his Word and godly counsel from others - and his peace in the decision, and you can have the assurance that you aren't just choosing a door at random, but you're carefully walking through the ones he wants you to enter.
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Emile Durkheim On Religion
A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite in one single community called a Church, all those who adhere to them".
"The believer who has communicated with his god is not merely a man who sees new truths of which the unbeliever is ignorant; he is a man who is stronger. He feels within him more force, wither to endure the trials of existence, or to conquer them".
"At the roots of all our judgments there are a certain number of essential ideas which dominate all our intellectual life; they are what the philosophers since Aristotle have called the categories of the understanding: ideas of time, space, class, numbers, cause, substance, personality, etc. They correspond to the most universal properties of things. They are like the solid frame which encloses all thought; . . .They are like the framework of intelligence. Now when primitive religious beliefs are systematically analyzed, the principal categories are naturally found. They are born in religion and of religion; they are a product of religious thought".
"Thus there is something eternal in religion which is destined to survive all the particular symbols in which religious thought has successively enveloped itself. There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and the collective ideas which make its unity and its personality. Now this moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies, and meetings where the individuals, being closely united to one another, reaffirm in common their common sentiments; hence come ceremonies which do not differ from regular religious ceremonies, either in their object, the results which they produce, or the processes employed to attain these results. What essential difference is there between an assembly of Christians celebrating the principal dates in the life of Christ, or of Jews remembering the exodus from Egypt or the promulgation of the Decalogue, and a reunion of citizens commemorating the promulgation of a new moral or legal system or some great event in the national life?".
[Religion is] "an eminently collective thing".
"We must discover the rational substitutes for these religious notions that for a long time have served as the vehicle for the most essential moral ideas".
"Society is not at all the illogical or a-logical, inherent and fantastic being which has too often been considered. Quite on the contrary, the collective consciousness is the highest form of psychic life, since it is the consciousness of consciousness. Being placed outside of and above individual and local contingencies, it sees things only in their permanent and essential aspects, which it crystallizes into communicable ideas. At the same time that it sees from above, it sees farther; at every moment of time it embraces all known reality; that is why it alone can furnish the minds with the moulds which are applicable to the totality of things and which make it possible to think of them".
“The notion of the infinite, then, appears only at those times when moral discipline has lost its ascendancy over man’s will. It is the sign of attrition that emerges during periods when the moral system, prevailing for several centuries, is shaken, failing to respond to new conditions of human life, and without any new system yet contrived to replace that which has disappeared”.
“Whenever moral rules lack the necessary authority to exert, to a desirable degree, a regulatory influence on their behavior, we see society gripped by a dejection and pessimism reflected in the curve of suicides.
“The totality of moral regulations really forms about each person an imaginary wall, at the foot of which a multitude of human passions simply die without being able to go further. For the same reason—that they are contained—it becomes possible to satisfy them. But if at any point this barrier weakens, human forces—until now restrained—pour tumultuously through the open breach; once loosed, they find no limits where they can or must stop. Unfortunately, they can only devote themselves to the pursuit of an end that always eludes them”.
“During periods when society is disorganized and, as a result of its decadence has less power to exact the commitment of individual wills, and when, consequently, egoism has freer reign—these are calamitous times. The cult of the self and the notion of the infinite go together”.
“A group is not only a moral authority which dominates the life of its members; it is also a source of life sui generis. From it comes a warmth which animates its members, making them intensely human, destroying their egotisms".
“The old gods are growing old or are already dead, and others are not yet born”.
“Religion is in a word the system of symbols by means of which society becomes conscious of itself; it is the characteristic way of thinking of collective existence”.
“It is not possible for a social function to exist without moral discipline. Otherwise, nothing remains but individual appetites, and since they are by nature boundless and insatiable, if there is nothing to control them they will not be able to control themselves”.
“The unleashing of economic interests has been accompanied by a debasing of public morality. We find that the manufacturer is aware of no influence set above him to check his egoism. He is subject to no moral discipline.
The great things of the past which filled our fathers with enthusiasm do not excite the same ardor in us...In a word, the old gods are growing old or already dead, and others are not yet born...But this state of incertitude and confused agitation cannot last for ever. A day will come when our societies will know again those hours of creative effervescence, in the course of which new formulae are found which serve for a while as a guide to humanity; and when these hours shall have been passed through once, men will spontaneously feel the need of reliving them from time to time in thought, that is to say, of keeping alive their memory by means of celebrations which regularly reproduce their fruits. We have already seen how the French Revolution established a whole cycle of holidays to keep the principles with which it was inspired in a state of perpetual youth...There are no gospels which are immortal, but neither is there any reason for believing that humanity is incapable of inventing new ones. As to the question of what symbols this new faith will express itself with, whether they will resemble the past or not, and whether they will be more adequate for the reality which they seek to translate, that is something that surpasses the human faculty of foresight and which does not appertain to the principal question.
**********************************************************************************
I chanced upon this interesting article on religion by Durkheim...and it made me ponder on the complexity of the human brain.
"The believer who has communicated with his god is not merely a man who sees new truths of which the unbeliever is ignorant; he is a man who is stronger. He feels within him more force, wither to endure the trials of existence, or to conquer them".
"At the roots of all our judgments there are a certain number of essential ideas which dominate all our intellectual life; they are what the philosophers since Aristotle have called the categories of the understanding: ideas of time, space, class, numbers, cause, substance, personality, etc. They correspond to the most universal properties of things. They are like the solid frame which encloses all thought; . . .They are like the framework of intelligence. Now when primitive religious beliefs are systematically analyzed, the principal categories are naturally found. They are born in religion and of religion; they are a product of religious thought".
"Thus there is something eternal in religion which is destined to survive all the particular symbols in which religious thought has successively enveloped itself. There can be no society which does not feel the need of upholding and reaffirming at regular intervals the collective sentiments and the collective ideas which make its unity and its personality. Now this moral remaking cannot be achieved except by the means of reunions, assemblies, and meetings where the individuals, being closely united to one another, reaffirm in common their common sentiments; hence come ceremonies which do not differ from regular religious ceremonies, either in their object, the results which they produce, or the processes employed to attain these results. What essential difference is there between an assembly of Christians celebrating the principal dates in the life of Christ, or of Jews remembering the exodus from Egypt or the promulgation of the Decalogue, and a reunion of citizens commemorating the promulgation of a new moral or legal system or some great event in the national life?".
[Religion is] "an eminently collective thing".
"We must discover the rational substitutes for these religious notions that for a long time have served as the vehicle for the most essential moral ideas".
"Society is not at all the illogical or a-logical, inherent and fantastic being which has too often been considered. Quite on the contrary, the collective consciousness is the highest form of psychic life, since it is the consciousness of consciousness. Being placed outside of and above individual and local contingencies, it sees things only in their permanent and essential aspects, which it crystallizes into communicable ideas. At the same time that it sees from above, it sees farther; at every moment of time it embraces all known reality; that is why it alone can furnish the minds with the moulds which are applicable to the totality of things and which make it possible to think of them".
“The notion of the infinite, then, appears only at those times when moral discipline has lost its ascendancy over man’s will. It is the sign of attrition that emerges during periods when the moral system, prevailing for several centuries, is shaken, failing to respond to new conditions of human life, and without any new system yet contrived to replace that which has disappeared”.
“Whenever moral rules lack the necessary authority to exert, to a desirable degree, a regulatory influence on their behavior, we see society gripped by a dejection and pessimism reflected in the curve of suicides.
“The totality of moral regulations really forms about each person an imaginary wall, at the foot of which a multitude of human passions simply die without being able to go further. For the same reason—that they are contained—it becomes possible to satisfy them. But if at any point this barrier weakens, human forces—until now restrained—pour tumultuously through the open breach; once loosed, they find no limits where they can or must stop. Unfortunately, they can only devote themselves to the pursuit of an end that always eludes them”.
“During periods when society is disorganized and, as a result of its decadence has less power to exact the commitment of individual wills, and when, consequently, egoism has freer reign—these are calamitous times. The cult of the self and the notion of the infinite go together”.
“A group is not only a moral authority which dominates the life of its members; it is also a source of life sui generis. From it comes a warmth which animates its members, making them intensely human, destroying their egotisms".
“The old gods are growing old or are already dead, and others are not yet born”.
“Religion is in a word the system of symbols by means of which society becomes conscious of itself; it is the characteristic way of thinking of collective existence”.
“It is not possible for a social function to exist without moral discipline. Otherwise, nothing remains but individual appetites, and since they are by nature boundless and insatiable, if there is nothing to control them they will not be able to control themselves”.
“The unleashing of economic interests has been accompanied by a debasing of public morality. We find that the manufacturer is aware of no influence set above him to check his egoism. He is subject to no moral discipline.
The great things of the past which filled our fathers with enthusiasm do not excite the same ardor in us...In a word, the old gods are growing old or already dead, and others are not yet born...But this state of incertitude and confused agitation cannot last for ever. A day will come when our societies will know again those hours of creative effervescence, in the course of which new formulae are found which serve for a while as a guide to humanity; and when these hours shall have been passed through once, men will spontaneously feel the need of reliving them from time to time in thought, that is to say, of keeping alive their memory by means of celebrations which regularly reproduce their fruits. We have already seen how the French Revolution established a whole cycle of holidays to keep the principles with which it was inspired in a state of perpetual youth...There are no gospels which are immortal, but neither is there any reason for believing that humanity is incapable of inventing new ones. As to the question of what symbols this new faith will express itself with, whether they will resemble the past or not, and whether they will be more adequate for the reality which they seek to translate, that is something that surpasses the human faculty of foresight and which does not appertain to the principal question.
**********************************************************************************
I chanced upon this interesting article on religion by Durkheim...and it made me ponder on the complexity of the human brain.
6 January, 2015 - Assholes united
Today is the second day of work after the two weeks hiatus. And I am reminded that work indeed sucks. I don't know if things have changed or it is I who have changed. As i read my past blog entries, and discovered that i no longer feel like i have the same energy to play ping pong ball (emails) or entertain unreasonable requests from colleagues, suppliers, customers etc In fact i seem to be looking at this company using a magnifier glass. One that magnifies all it's flaws and and the stark difference compared to when i first joined.
Yesterday, I learnt that i might need to work with Sarah again. Like in Pemco days. Except that this time, we both have changed and the relationship has also changed. God works in mysterious ways...perhaps she is my "last job" in this company. I have to work on introducing more of God to her and then perhaps God can move me to the next place to serve?
I go to work with anticipation everyday..hoping that i will get selected for the social worker scheme. At the same time, while i feel refreshed from the break from work, I have been encountering irritating people and assholes from Hong Kong to test my patience to the very limit. There are so many people (let's just call them assholes) in this company who came to work not expecting any problems to be thrown on their lap, who expects smooth day everyday and by having this expectation, inconvenience others greatly because they would be lazy and try to do the most minimum work that they can.
I think i have mental block in writing..
To end off, JFK came to pick me up from work and we had a nice dinner at The Loading Bay. It was a cosy place to be at and much as it was a shit day, I had a great evening :)
Yesterday, my menses also gorily arrived. No..i am not pregnant. Again. At least it's not another miscarriage this time.
To all the assholes out there, I hope that one day you will realised what an ass face you have, get paid for all the asshole-ness you have been in due, and get stuck with other assholes for the rest of your life.
P.S. Forgive me for i have no forgiving heart to the above said asses
Yesterday, I learnt that i might need to work with Sarah again. Like in Pemco days. Except that this time, we both have changed and the relationship has also changed. God works in mysterious ways...perhaps she is my "last job" in this company. I have to work on introducing more of God to her and then perhaps God can move me to the next place to serve?
I go to work with anticipation everyday..hoping that i will get selected for the social worker scheme. At the same time, while i feel refreshed from the break from work, I have been encountering irritating people and assholes from Hong Kong to test my patience to the very limit. There are so many people (let's just call them assholes) in this company who came to work not expecting any problems to be thrown on their lap, who expects smooth day everyday and by having this expectation, inconvenience others greatly because they would be lazy and try to do the most minimum work that they can.
I think i have mental block in writing..
To end off, JFK came to pick me up from work and we had a nice dinner at The Loading Bay. It was a cosy place to be at and much as it was a shit day, I had a great evening :)
Yesterday, my menses also gorily arrived. No..i am not pregnant. Again. At least it's not another miscarriage this time.
To all the assholes out there, I hope that one day you will realised what an ass face you have, get paid for all the asshole-ness you have been in due, and get stuck with other assholes for the rest of your life.
P.S. Forgive me for i have no forgiving heart to the above said asses
2 January, 2015 - Paddington Bear
Today is the last weekday of of our little stay-home-vacation :) We had lunch at Great World city, watch the movie Paddington Bear and shop a little while. The pantone colour for 2015 is masala and i went to Sephora to pick up a lipstick in this shade. Couldn't find any..left the shop empty handed, might as well..save money :)
We drove to East Coast to watch the sea, and play some sand. Samuel was happily playing sand when he found a fifty cents coin! Lucky little boy. Earlier in Great World city, he had donated ten cents out of his pocket money to a charity box. He has been saving up to buy a toy by collecting ten cents from daddy everyday lol
After a tiring day, it was ice cream time!
When we got home, little Samuel wants to follow Keller and Kellie to Kallang Wave stadium to play with their scooter bikes. We have such fantastic neighbours :)
What a wonderful day it is to spend time with our family. It's a blessing just to be alive and and see God's creation everyday.
Thank God for this wonderful day, for family, for great neighbours and for keeping us safe.
Amen
We drove to East Coast to watch the sea, and play some sand. Samuel was happily playing sand when he found a fifty cents coin! Lucky little boy. Earlier in Great World city, he had donated ten cents out of his pocket money to a charity box. He has been saving up to buy a toy by collecting ten cents from daddy everyday lol
After a tiring day, it was ice cream time!
When we got home, little Samuel wants to follow Keller and Kellie to Kallang Wave stadium to play with their scooter bikes. We have such fantastic neighbours :)
What a wonderful day it is to spend time with our family. It's a blessing just to be alive and and see God's creation everyday.
Thank God for this wonderful day, for family, for great neighbours and for keeping us safe.
Amen
Thursday, January 1, 2015
1 January, 2015 - Happy New Year
Time
It's 2015, time did zoom past fast. I am turning 39 this August and soon I will be 40. I wonder if i can still make it in time for a baby number 2. After baby Joshua and Matthew's brief stay on earth, I have serious doubts about being able to have another baby. We didn't plan on having any kids when we got married. Ironically, this is one big regret that I have now..not starting a family earlier. But then again, thank God for Samuel. He is indeed the biggest joy in our life.
Family
They are the most important people to me in life. To put it bluntly, without them, I am nothing. Family reminds me that I am not alone in this world. We have our disagreements and tiffs now and then but we will always be family. Always.
I want to say I really, really love you. Jeffrey, Samuel, Pa, Mummy, Jervoise, Jervis, Marvin, Sharon, Jasmin, Benjamin, Dad, Mother...
Also my Aunties, Uncles, cousins..i do feel a tinge of regret for not hanging out enough with my cousins in their growing up years. But I am thankful that they so readily accept us back into their gatherings.
Family = love :)
Friends
I do not have many close friends. Not because I'm not sociable or unfriendly. On the contrary, I can be quite a "professional hala queen". There is an on-off button that I selectively press depending on my mood and instincts. But i choose to be cold so as not to make so many friends. Because friendships require time to maintain. I do not think I want to spend so much time with people who are merely "friends". I only keep friends who do not judge each other, who will be there when the going gets rough, who will be there and weep with you silently, who despite time apart, will always re-connect easily like distance never existed. Thank you very much for being there for me. You know who you are.
Work
Been in this company for almost eight years. There were good times and bad times. This is the same company that I joined since I started this blog. I would be lying if I say I have no feelings towards this company.
Having said that, I have just sent in my application for a mid career change, to explore social services in Singapore. If my application is successful, I will be doing two years of study at SIM followed by another two years of bond to the employer who hired me. If this is what God wants me to do, I pray that He will open doors. Sometimes I wonder why did God download this thought in my heart, why me? I am not sure if I have the criteria of a social worker in terms of personality. I'm not exactly even temper, I can be quite impatient, vindictive and the list goes on. But God works in mysterious ways. This time, i took the leap of faith and submitted my application.
Also, there is the online business that I am struggling to make it work out. I would really like to see it kick off..any small start is a great beginning. I need to find like-minded people, to share this dream and make it work out..for a better life style and a challenge I set for myself.
Thank You God for everything.
Concurrently, we will also try for a baby. As JFK said ~ leave it to God.
Counting my blessings everyday :)
It's 2015, time did zoom past fast. I am turning 39 this August and soon I will be 40. I wonder if i can still make it in time for a baby number 2. After baby Joshua and Matthew's brief stay on earth, I have serious doubts about being able to have another baby. We didn't plan on having any kids when we got married. Ironically, this is one big regret that I have now..not starting a family earlier. But then again, thank God for Samuel. He is indeed the biggest joy in our life.
Family
They are the most important people to me in life. To put it bluntly, without them, I am nothing. Family reminds me that I am not alone in this world. We have our disagreements and tiffs now and then but we will always be family. Always.
I want to say I really, really love you. Jeffrey, Samuel, Pa, Mummy, Jervoise, Jervis, Marvin, Sharon, Jasmin, Benjamin, Dad, Mother...
Also my Aunties, Uncles, cousins..i do feel a tinge of regret for not hanging out enough with my cousins in their growing up years. But I am thankful that they so readily accept us back into their gatherings.
Family = love :)
Friends
I do not have many close friends. Not because I'm not sociable or unfriendly. On the contrary, I can be quite a "professional hala queen". There is an on-off button that I selectively press depending on my mood and instincts. But i choose to be cold so as not to make so many friends. Because friendships require time to maintain. I do not think I want to spend so much time with people who are merely "friends". I only keep friends who do not judge each other, who will be there when the going gets rough, who will be there and weep with you silently, who despite time apart, will always re-connect easily like distance never existed. Thank you very much for being there for me. You know who you are.
Work
Been in this company for almost eight years. There were good times and bad times. This is the same company that I joined since I started this blog. I would be lying if I say I have no feelings towards this company.
Having said that, I have just sent in my application for a mid career change, to explore social services in Singapore. If my application is successful, I will be doing two years of study at SIM followed by another two years of bond to the employer who hired me. If this is what God wants me to do, I pray that He will open doors. Sometimes I wonder why did God download this thought in my heart, why me? I am not sure if I have the criteria of a social worker in terms of personality. I'm not exactly even temper, I can be quite impatient, vindictive and the list goes on. But God works in mysterious ways. This time, i took the leap of faith and submitted my application.
Also, there is the online business that I am struggling to make it work out. I would really like to see it kick off..any small start is a great beginning. I need to find like-minded people, to share this dream and make it work out..for a better life style and a challenge I set for myself.
Thank You God for everything.
Concurrently, we will also try for a baby. As JFK said ~ leave it to God.
Counting my blessings everyday :)
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