Rapture.

I’m sure that all of you must have heard about the fact that the end of the world will begin tomorrow. A Christian group is saying that tomorrow Christ will come to the Earth and take with him the souls of his true followers. As they ascend to Heaven, the rest of us heretics will burn in “death, disease, and destruction.” However, their suffering will only last for six months, because the world will actually end on October 21st. I, as a non-Christian, am slightly appalled by this statement. How can a group of people place themselves above us, and doom us all to torture while they reach the pearly gates? Why are we unable to go to Heaven with them? To me, it seems like a clear case of discrimination based on religion. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the Bible say something about treating everyone fairly and equally? It just seems a bit weird that Jesus would take a select few people with him, and leave the rest of us to die.

The sad part of this whole ordeal is that people are following this lunatic (Camping).  Mr Camping previously predicted the end of the world in 1994. When it didn’t happen, he stated that he made some “mistakes in [his] calculations.” Now, however, he states that his calculations are perfect, and that there is no chance that the Rapture will not occur tomorrow. Even so, thousands of people all over the world have quit their jobs, sold their houses and cars, and generally divested themselves of all of their material possessions so that they will be taken by Christ. These people are also draining their savings to fund this group. If the Rapture occurs, and they are not taken, their lives will be over anyway. I, for one, don’t give a damn. People are too impressionable, and if they decide to throw away their lives on the chance that the world may end on May 21st, then let them. It’s just Darwinism in action. Hopefully the gene that causes them to have this much stupidity will be weeded out of the general population, and will not allow idiots like Camping to gain more followers in the future.

Here’s to May 22nd.

Positivity.

I realized a while ago that I missed a key point in my last post. I forgot to say that we all enjoy life more once someone we know has it taken from them. We start to appreciate the beauty that is present in our surroundings more and more, each and every day. From this thought, an idea began to form in my head. I have decided to post, every day, one thing that made me happy. No matter how glum I feel, or how busy I am, I will do this regularly, even if it is just to remind myself why God gave me five senses, and why he made the world so beautiful at the same time.

TOK Assignment

I did this assignment for my Theory of Knowledge teacher, at  3 AM, in about 15 minutes. I wonder what I got on it?

Truth: TOK

The famous poet Oscar Wilde once said “Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.” In my personal opinion, I believe that truth can come from science as well as religion. Children all over the world are taught the most current truth every single day, through the medium known as education.

Mathematics is a very logical subject. That is, if one chooses to stay with numbers, and not deviate to anything else. To many people, mathematics is the epitome of truth in education; one plus one will always equal two, no matter the circumstances. However, a memorable example that I have heard states that “one plus one makes a baby, which equals three.” As far as logical truths are concerned, mathematics does an excellent job in conveying them to the mass public. The laws of mathematics have been proven many times during the course of history, by mathematicians ranging from Archimedes to Fibonacci, and continue to be proven by students all over the world. Mathematical laws only change to encompass new findings; they do not break down completely, or become obsolete once new calculations come to light.

Biology, the study of life, is naturally expected to provide the public with a measure of the truth. We now know the true reasons for our ailments, viruses and bacteria to name a few, as opposed to the past ideologies of evil humours residing within the body. Biology is a rapidly changing science, which adapts itself to new findings almost on a daily basis. However, this does not mean that the laws of biology will disintegrate once new findings are made public. Laws such as Darwin’s Theory of Evolution will remain constant throughout time, unless someone can prove the existence of God, and from there, provide the truth behind a Creation myth. To people in the past, even in the 20^th century, common old wives’ tales provided the basis for their medical truths. As an example, many medieval doctors believed that “bleeding” the patient through the use of leeches would lessen the pressure of the humours inside their head, thus alleviating their headache. To these doctors, this practice was the truth, as it seemed to work when it was applied numerous times. We now know that this would have reduced the blood pressure in the head of the patient, which may have caused a brief cessation of pain. Different practices such as this were common truths for medieval healers, and have adapted into the truths we know today. They did not disappear completely; they were changed in order to fit with the new research that is constantly being conducted.

History is one subject in which the facts are undeniable. In most cases, there is a plethora of evidence to prove that the event either occurred or did not occur. Eye-witness accounts, journal entries, historical books, video reels, audio recordings, have all helped to shape our knowledge of our own past. However, to quote Winston Churchill, “History is written by the victors.” The knowledge that we receive in our old texts may be completely false, as they could have been written by the winners of a war, who proceeded to destroy all of their enemy’s texts. Even within a subject with such a vast resource base, discrepancy exists. For example, some sources state that Grigori Rasputin, after being poisoned and shot, drowned in a river, while others state that he died of hypothermia, while still others state that he died of pneumonia. Though these causes of death do not differ greatly, it proves that we may never know the real truth of our pasts. Though we have the resources to provide us with all the information we need, we have no way of knowing which one of the sources is the real truth, or if they all are. It is perfectly possible for Rasputin to have contracted pneumonia before his death, become hypothermic by falling into a river, and then drowning after he fell unconscious in the late stages of hypothermia. The real truth may always remain a mystery to modern day historians.

Once upon a time, religion was the truth for most people on the planet. Once your Supreme Pontiff said the Universe revolved around the Earth, that became the truth, no matter how much scientific evidence mounted against that theory. In fact, criticizers of the Catholic Church were often burned as heretics, simply because they had their own opinion of the truth. There are Biblical references to the immobility of the Earth, such as Psalm 104:5, which states “the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.” Because of statements such as these, the Catholic Church’s belief that the universe was geocentric was widely accepted. In fact, when Galileo Galilei contradicted the Church’s “truths” in 1632, he was convicted of heresy and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

The “truths” that are present in religions are often false. At the very least, they seem false to us because we do not have the capability to scientifically explain some aspects of religion. It is for this same reason that many people believe wholeheartedly in these religious truths. Some of these truths may never be fully explained through science, and it will be left for future generations to decide whether these statements by religions are really truths at all.