Never too old...

Saw a documentary about a 80-year-old lady in China who is actively contributing to her own personal blog! I went to her blog and it just simply blew my mind away! She has this blog that is graphically more eye-catching than mine. It was probably set up by someone for her, I started telling myself, feeling a little envious. But as I read her articles, I found that she was someone with clarity of thoughts and whose mind was always forward looking and not afraid to learn.

She has a huge following and thousands read her blog every day and reading some of the comments, I begin to understand why they respect her so much.

You see, at 80, she has to first learn how to type. She probably can write in calligraphy faster than type. Then she had to learn how to use the computer. Then she had to learn how to use the Chinese software. Then she had to learn how to type in a particular way called Han Yu Pinyin. Then she has to recognise the Chinese characters in what is called Simplified Chinese rather than Traditional Chinese which 99.99% of people her generation would be more comforatble with. Then, she has to learn how to set up her blog and publish and edit articles.

My friends, if you are thinking that you are too old to do anything, stop and think of this old lady who blogs! Check out her blog at http://blog.sohu.com/members/nianfang80

Losing Hair

Recently, my friend noticed that I am balding and when he was overseas in Thailand, he actually sms-ed me to ask if I would like to get one of those medications that was touted to increase hair growth. Reluctantly, I agreed...

I reluctantly have to admit that I am aging. Not only is my hair getting thinner but white hair is getting more and appearing in places that I did not know could become white. And let's not talk about the wrinkles!

Time really flies. There was a time, that I thought I was invincible; now I wonder why my hair is getting invisible )):-((

Making Me Happy

Just the other day, there was a young girl who was carrying some curry puffs in a basket which she had used a newspaper to cover. A gust of wind had blown the newspaper away and she was frantically trying to retrieve it which was difficult because of the basket in her arm. There were quite a few people around but none helped her. I stepped forward to retrieve the newspaper for her and she turned to beam a big smile at me. She looked very happy; and she made me very happy too.

A Smile

People often comment that I am always smiling all the time. Some want to know what is there to smile about. Sure, everyone has their fair share of trouble and stress. Some feel that life has been unfair to them and they are always given the shorter end of the straw. But yet, we have all heard of stories of how despite insurmountable difficulties managed to face life with a smile. Here are some things to smile about.

1) You are alive!
2) You have food to eat. Hundreds of thousands are in perpetual hunger.
3) You have water to drink. Hundreds of thousands do not have fresh clean water to drink.
4) You have a computer to read this blog. Millions do not even know what a computer is.
5) You have a house to stay in. Millions spend the night under the "hotel of a thousand stars"
6) You are literate. Millions don't even know how to write their name.
7) You have money to spend. Millions do not even have a cent to their name.
8) You have clothe to wear. Millions have probably only one piece of clothe that they use to cover themselves.
9) You had a bath and brushed your teeth (hopefully). Millions had not had the privilege of doing this in many months.
10) You have/are __________________________(fill in the blanks)

My beloved friends, whatever situation you are in, there is always a reason to smile. If you really cannot find a reason to smile, how about this - that there is an Almighty God who loves you so much that He was willing to die on the cross for your sins. When you realise that you are deeply loved and greatly blessed, for sure, you are going to wear a smile perpetually on your face LIKE ME!

Facing Death

I was reading the Sunday Times yesterday and read about the stories of Joan Chan (21 years old http://onlyskindeep.blogspot.com/) who is suffering from tongue cancer, another (27 years old) suffering from breast cancer and the last about the late CEO and Chairman of KPMG who died last year at the age of 53 from brain cancer.

I think those who read the Sunday Times would have all been drawn towards these very personal stories. Death has a morbid appeal to everyone because it is an unescapable fact of life and we wonder how we would respond when it comes.

The late CEO of KPMG did something quite remarkable when he was told he had advanced brain cancer and not many months to live. He jolted down all his friends which amounted to more than a thousand and emailed them or phoned them and used it to capture or recall that "Special Moment" and used it as a closure. These were his outer circle.

He found that those in the inner circle, he often neglected and lamented that he did not spend more time with his wife and was absent from his daughter's important functions.

Which set me thinking. If death is a fact of life, and we all will have to face it one day, while not neglecting what is necessary for daily life, what are the things that are really important that I should do while there is still time?

While we all have different priorities and circles to draw, let me lovingly encourage everyone to draw an innermost circle and put the word GOD there. If you do not know who He is, make effort to find Him. If you know who He is, spend your life to have more "Special Moments" with the God who loves you and gave His life for you :-)

Practice Makes Perfect

Yesterday, I had a game of table tennis. I had probably played table tennis not more than 5-10 times in my whole lifetime. Someone was at an empty table tennis table who did not have a partner to play and I obliged. Initially, I started off badly. The balls were just going all over the place except on the table. But I persisted and gradually I realised that I started getting better. I began to have faster reflexes and the ball was dipping nicely onto the table after a while. I even made some spectacular smashes!While the game began quite agonizingly embarrassing for me, I ended enjoying playing table tennis with my new found friend.

The lesson I took back from the game, was that we should not give up easily. If we make a mistake, learn from it, persist at whatever you are doing and very soon, without your knowing, you will start to be good at it.

Worry

There are many people who are constantly worried. Some worry themselves to the point of depression.

I used to worry quite a bit myself. I used to have sweaty palms and was constantly anxious about things. But today, I do not have sweaty palms and do not let many things worry me. Perhaps I can share from personal experience 4 reasons why we need not worry.

Don't worry because 90% of what you worry, won't happen.

Don't worry because even if happens, 90% of it would be as bad as what you imagined it to be.

Don't worry because if it happens to be as bad as what you imagined it to be, you cannot do anything about it.

If we only had these 3 reasons, these should be enough for us to stop worrying. But there is one more -

Don't worry because there is a God who knows what you are going through and loves you.

Many people including Christians do not know the full impact of this statement. If GOD, the ALMIGHTY GOD WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND EARTH, loves you and you are willing to receive that love, WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT?

Count Our Blessings

I was walking home late on night recently when I saw an old lady squatting on a bench with a thin t-shirt pulled over her knees that were tugged to her chest. She obviously was going to spend the night in the cold there. She looked very much like the women in the picture except that this woman has a blanket. What was more heart-wrenching was that this old lady had a child beside her...

This sight really jolted me back to reality. Whatever your circumstances are, the fact is that we are all living in a life that 80% of the world who live in poverty can only dream of.

Count our blessings. We may be surprised at how many things we can be happy for :-)

Einstein Death Anniversary

Einstein died on 18 April 1955. That makes it his 51th death anniversary today. Last year was the 100th year anniversary of his proposition on the Special Theory of Relativity. His contribution to the world of physics and science in general is undeniably omnipresent.

Although he was not a believer in any particular god, his theory (especially his later Theory of General Relativity where we got E=mc2) demanded a "Beginner or Causer" which Einstein himself accepted that it could be God, because the universe must have the capacity to create dimensions, specifically all the space and time dimensions associated with the matter and energy of the universe.

While most of what he taught is way above our heads, just know that most intelligent brain in modern times, proved it in his theorem (a proved statement) of space-time that there must be a Beginner or Causer (whom Christians call God) who/that created space and time and matter and energy.

Discovery Channel

Just saw a documentary showing a new breed of scientists who look at nature and try to find out how to invent things that are as good as what nature can provide.

Examples include:

1) We bump into each other on a daily basis but we do not get dented as cars would. Certain animals e.g. rams have a habit of head-butting each other at ferocious speeds but have little injury to show for. How good it would be to invent cars that would be able to withstand such forces without any damage to show for.

2) Spider webs that are so flexible yet the tensile strength of it is harder than steel.

3) They are learning from the way abalone form shells to develop new hard laminated materials and also superfast computer chips of the future.

4) They are studying the senses that spiders have. Spiders apparently are very sensitive to their environment (hence spider-man) and yet they do not have a very large brain. Currently, if man were to try to process the amount of information that the spider is supposedly processing in a single second, he would need a huge super computer a few hours to do the same job. How can a spider do the same thing effortlessly in that tiny brain of his?

As I was watching the documentary, I was thinking, Hey, ain't it supposed to be the other way round? What are we "higher order" ones doing going "backwards" to "lower order" animals for answers?

Unless, it is not backwards but forwards, because it brings us closer to the One who created all these. Sadly, many will miss the forest for the trees...

WHY?

Cindy Sheehan asked President Bush, "Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"

Another mother asked President Kennedy, "Why did my son have to die in Viet Nam?"

Another mother asked President Truman, "Why did my son have to die in Korea?

Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt, "Why did my son have to die at Iwo Jima?"

Another mother asked President W. Wilson, "Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"

Yet another mother asked President Lincoln, "Why did my son have to die at Gettysburg?"

And yet another mother asked President G. Washington, "Why did my son have to die near Valley Forge?"

Then long, long ago, a mother asked, "Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem?"

The answers to all these are similar -- "that others may have life and dwell in peace, happiness and freedom."

This was emailed to me with no author and I thought the magnitude and the simplicity were awesome.

Waterloo and Watergate and Waterlocked

Many of us are familiar with Napoleon's waterloo where he suffered a crushing defeat and President's Nixon's Watergate's scandal.

However, apart from their historical significance, we should all be aware of its significance in application to the validity of the Christian faith.

You see, Jesus declared a statement that would have been his WATERLOO if he were not God. He said repeatedly that he would be killed, die BUT three days later he would resurrect! He said this not only to his disciples but publicly.

Matthew 12:40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mark 8:31[ Jesus Predicts His Death ] He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Mark 9:31He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."

Mark 10:33-34"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

John 2:19-21Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

Now, just imagine. If you wanted to start a religion, probably the most stupid thing you would want to say is to predict an event that would happen after your death! And most definitely not your resurrection from the grave! And even if you wanted to, you would say it secretly just in case it did not come true and there could be some face-saving measures done.

But Jesus spoke it everywhere which spurred the Roman guards to put a guard outside the tomb and to seal it with a Roman seal to prevent the prophecy from coming true.

But guards or no guards, Jesus resurrected all the same. And I am absolutely sure of it! Why?

Because the Watergate Scandal proved to the world one thing - that no one will be willing to suffer for a lie. When the FBI was questioning the suspects, everyone initially kept quiet but when the FBI started hinting that someone else had spilled the beans, everyone started confessing to save their skins.

ALL BUT ONE OF THE ORIGINAL DISCIPLES OF CHRIST DIED A MARTYR REFUSING TO DENY THE FAITH! The last one was banished to the Island of Patmos for not renouncing his faith. If they had known that they had stolen the body, or that Jesus was not dead, or anything else except that Jesus was killed, died and resurrected, they would have chickened out. NO ONE WILL DIE FOR A LIE.

Why I believe that Jesus is God and is alive today? Because the world thought that Jesus was dealt a Waterloo but they were greatly mistaken. This was the most glorious day that the world had known. Death has been defeated. Christ rose from the dead. No one will die for a lie. All but one of Christ's disciples die for the faith.

Now you can know that you can believe in Christ with WATERLOCKED confidence!

What Do You See - Part 2

About 1976 years ago, the day after what we now commemorate as Good Friday was a very gloomy day for many people. All the disciples of Christ saw their master die on the cross. It seemed like the end of a vision. The master did tell them that he would rise again on the third day... but is it possible?

Mark 8:31[ Jesus Predicts His Death ] He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Some people look at the cross and the death of Jesus Christ and see a hoax. Despite hundreds if not thousands of people who saw him from the courts to the cross, they imagine things like it was not Jesus on the cross. Despite the crucifixion being a instrument for death and a criminal is held there until he dies, they propose things like he must have just fainted but did not die. And even if he did not die, he was embalmed with a few kilograms of herbs and cloth so that he could not have breathed. They will also postulate that the disciples somehow managed to get pass hundreds of armed and well-train Roman guards who knew full-well that sleeping on guard is a death sentence, and managed to roll back a tonne of stone from the entrance of the cave and steal the body.

Well, I see God irrefutable ... and I will tell you why tomorrow :-)

What do you see?

Romans 1:20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Mark 15:39And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

Today is Good Friday. About 1976 years ago, a Roman centurion who was involved in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, saw something that changed his life. Many people were going about their daily work. The Roman soldiers did these crucifixion often enough and it wasn't the most pleasant of tasks and they wanted to get over with it and go home. But that centurion saw something that made him say "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

We go through life everyday and we see all the wonders of nature. The bible says that through it, man should see the clear (without excuse) signature of God in all the intricate designs. But many either pass all these by without a thought or some will choose to believe the lie of evolution (because they have already purposed in their mind not to believe in God).

Well, no one can force anyone to believe anything. The bible says that there are many who have eyes but do not see. I sincerely hope you are not one of them because God really loves you.

Good Friday

John 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Isaiah 53:5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Romans 6:23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is a Good Friday indeed!

Orchids

This post is especially for my all my Singaporean friends.

Darwin was fascinated by orchids; in his Origin of Species he mentioned the 'inexhaustible number of contrivances' by which orchids ensure their pollination, pointing out that these would have entailed changes in every part of the flower.

One of the most amazing members of the orchid family is the Bucket Orchid, which comes in two species, Coryanthes speciosa and Stanhopea grandiflora.

It has the following mechanisms in place for pollination:
1) It emits a special nectar with a particular smell that attracts males of two species of bee—Euglossa meriana and Euglossa cordata
2) The male bees love this nectar because ONLY this nectar will make the female bees attracted to it (we could stop here because unless both were present at the same time, neither the orchid nor the bee would have reproduced themselves. This is the concept of SYMBIOSIS which is a pain in the neck for evolutionists)
3) The orchid produces a slippery substance so that the bee slips into a bucket (thus its name) of "glue"
4) It can only escape from a tunnel where the walls of the tunnel contract, gripping the bee. The plant's mechanism then glues two pollen sacs to the bee's back, and after allowing time for the glue to dry, releases it.
5) If the bee then flies to another bucket orchid, the same process will take place, except that this time, when the bee attempts to leave the tunnel, a hook in the roof of the tunnel removes the pollen sacs, and the fertilization process is completed!

Now, we can put our heads in the sand and say that all these mechanism came about by gradual evolution over millions of years and somehow the flower still managed to reproduce itself (don't forget the bees) or we can say the most natural thing that would come to our mind. Yes, there must be an extremely intelligent designer who designed it so from the very beginning.

Still feeling lucky?

Evolution theory basically states that through a series of beneficial mutations, lifeforms became diversed. Sounds simple and logical enough.

Carrying on from the last article (Feeling Lucky?) where we discussed about the impossibility of forming even the first dna. Now let us say that the first DNA did form. What are the chances that the cell could have mutated to another beneficial organism?

Scientists all agree that mutation is very rare. The chance of it happening is about 1 in 10 to the power of 7 (i.e. 1 with 7 zeroes behind it). Now, the probability of 2 cells mutating in such a way that they interconnect with each other - (10 to the power of 7) x (10 to the power of 7) = 10 to the power of 14. What is the probability of 3 cells mutating in such a way that they interconnect with each other? Yes, you got it right - it is 10 to the power of 21 (1 with 21 zeroes behind it).

Now remember how old do scientists claim the earth to be? Yes, you got it right - it is 30 billion years or 10 to the power of 18 seconds old (1 with only 18 zeroes behind it).

An average animal has about 100 trillion cells. For it to mutate so that all the 100 trillion cells can interconnect with each other would lead to 1 out of 10 to the power of 700,000,000,000,000 (i.e. 1 with 700,000,000,000,000 zeroes behind it - don't try writing it, you can't finish it) chance.

Multiply that by the thousands of animals out there...

Only if you really really really really feel very very very very lucky (to the power of 10 to the power of 700,000,000,000,000), I would suggest you put your last dollar somewhere else.

Feeling Lucky?

Mathematician have calculated that the chance of DNA forming in the first place is 1 chance in 10 to the power of 40000 (i.e. 1 with 40000 zeros behind it)

So?

Let us put things in perspective.

Scientists (or rather proponents of the Big Bang Theory and evolutionists) claim that the universe is 30 billion years old. 30 billion years indeed is a long time. Do you know how many seconds are there in 30 billion years? There are only 10 to the power of 18 (1 with 18 zeros behind it) seconds in 30 billion years

Do you begin to get the picture?

Let say that nature could somehow produce trillions of genetic code combinations every second for 30 billion years, there is still not enough time to configure 1 cell!

Given these odds, don't you feel that you have been hookwinked into believing that evolution is true? Or do you feel lucky, and still want to bet your last dollar that it is true?

Mount Rushmore

This is the famous Mount Rushmore at South Dakota, USA. It is the product of thousands and perhaps million of years of weather erosion from the wind and the rain. It is the result of totally natural processes. No human being had a hand in it. It just came about by chance.

Or not...

I am hoping that those reading this, will say "Hey! Wait a minute. That is impossible! I have not seen the sculptor who did that but someone must have done it. It could not have come about by random chance of nature. You got to be kidding me!"

And you are quite right. Even though we have not seen the sculptor who did this, we know that there must have been intelligent planning and design put into this. Give it a million years, and we know that Mount Everest will never carve out a sculpture simply by nature itself.

If a stone sculpture could not have come about by itself, how much more impossible for a moving, feeling, seeing, breathing, thinking, living human being to have come about by itself.

Being brought up my whole life studying science, I was kidded by science into believing evolution. Great theory. Sounds logical. But falls flat when you consider the infinite impossibilities that come with the theory.

What are the options - Part 2

Now let's say you chose the option in Part 1 that there is a god. In the myriad of gods out there, which should we choose?

1) Choose a sacred text that claims to be revelation from God through man, not one that is by man writing about God. In my opinion, God must reveal himself, for us to know Him. Otherwise, how can a finite mind know anything about an infinite God?

2) Choose one that is good. This seems like a given but personally, I would not worship a god if I do not know if he is good. Why should I worship anything whom I do not know for sure if he is good to me? Check for historical records (factual) if there was anything done that showed his goodness.

3) choose one that is holy. I struggle with holiness and if this god is worse or just at par with my unholy character, why should I worship him? The important thing in this, is how does this god propose that we approach him since he is holy and we are not? Most simply teach by doing good works. But does good works negate evil works? How much good works is enough? Salvation by good works is the most common religion, but to me it only holds water if you are perfect from the beginning and that you never sin throughout your life. If you are not, choose another.

There could be more questions to ponder but if you could answer these 3 questions seriously and done your elimination, you might just be left with one option. Hurray!

Hurting the one I love

Sometimes, actions and words just don't come out right.
Thoughts get confused.
No harm was intended
but hurt was the result.
I am sorry.

A Poem - I AM

I AM byHelen Milcot

I was regretting the past and fearing the future.?
Suddenly , my lord spoke saying my name is I Am.

When you live in the past with it's mistakes & regrets, it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I was.

When you live in the future with it's problems & fears, it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I will be.

When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I AM here. My name is I AM.

Thanks Alastair for sending me this poem. Keep close to the I AM.

What are the options? - Part 1

There are people who are struggling over the existence of God. Let's lay out the options.

If there is no God, then
1) you have to believe that every matter/material that we see around us resulted from an explosion of a very concentrated focus of energy smaller than the size of the diameter of a pin head.
2) you have to believe that that energy was there from the beginning.
3) you have to believe that as a result of such an explosion, which as far as we know all explosions lead to chaos, resulted instead in law and order with precise mathematical, physcial, chemistry and every other known laws and equations.
4) you have to believe that all the living things that you see around started as a result of transformation from non-living matter at the beginning.
5) you have to believe that our earliest ancestor was just a single cell, so small we cannot see with the naked eye.

If there is a God, then
1) you have to believe that God was there at the beginning. Not the energy. Either way, you have to believe one or the other was there at the beginning.
2) you have to believe that the world did not come about by chaotic explosion but controlled decisive action by God.
3) you have to believe that the mathematical and the such laws and equations exist logically because God is the lawgiver.
4) you have to believe that God created all things with intelligence (see the design of the cell, of the eye, of the heart, the dragonfly from my previous post) at the beginning.
5) you have to believe that a dog will always remain a dog and a cat will always be cat. A dog cannot never become a horse even after a zillion years. (Creationist believes in micro-evolution but not in macro-evolution as taught by evolutionist but that is another deep topic altogether)

I know no one has seen God, but have you seen an explosion leading to order? Have you seen non-living things transform to living things? Have you seen any living thing change to another type of creature?

If you choose the option that God does not exist, you will be left with a thousand loose ends that can never be answered convincingly. But if you choose the option that God exists, then I think you will find that all the pieces begin to fit together.

Friends

Just got acquainted with 2 new friends over tea and we had so much to share that it felt too soon when we had to leave (3hours).

I am glad that I have friends who care for me and I know I can count on to help me when I am down.

For me, one of the greatest joys in life is to have friends. Thank you for being my friend :-)

The Humble Cell

These are pictures of typical animal and plant cells. The picture with the curly whorly tentacle-like protrusions is actually a detailed drawing of just the cell membrane that lines all cells! I won't even bother labelling them because I don't think they mean anything to most of us. But just know that the cell which we consider the smallest denominator in the animal or plant is so very complex that scientists still has not figured everything out about it. And to imagine we have trillions of cells in our body functioning harmonously together.

You cannot help but be awed by the wonderful design of each cell (which if you have read my previous articles, demands a ...? - yes, you got it right, it demands a designer)

Explosion!!!

Every day we read in the newspapers about explosions. Whether it is an accident in a factory, or an act of a suicide bomber, we know what an explosion does - it leads to chaos! It leads to disorderliness; it leads to a big mess!

Now scientists would like us to believe that the whole universe came about from the BIG BANG. The theory goes something like this. That in the beginning (eternally existing) was an immense concentration of energy all concentrated in the size lesser than the diameter of a pin head. It got unstable one day and EXPLODED! And out of that, we have all the planets, stars, galaxies that we see today. And that is how one particular planet called EARTH got its water and its sand and all the other elements in the earth like Gold, Silver, Sodium, Potassium, etc.

Now, that's what I would call unbelieveable!

Scientists Create Life In A Test Tube

A group of scientists finally got the formula to create life in a test tube and decided to show off their findings to the world.

Reporters and scientists from all over the world came and eagerly awaited the scientists to explain and demonstrate their findings.

One of the scientists stood up and proudly boasted, "Today, we will prove once and for all that there is no need for God to create life!"

Everyone was hushed as the scientist began to take some sand to begin the experiement.

It was then, one of the scientists who were there to watch the experiment, stood up and said, "Hold on, but I think God started without anything. So you got to start without anything to prove that life could have started without God."

Darwin wrote ...

In his “The Origin of Species”, he wrote: “ To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”

Even Charles Darwin realized how well designed the eye is and that was in 1859! He did not even know half of what we know now about the eye.

Below is an abstract from an article written by By Dr. Eric Lehr, Ophthalmologist. Indianapolis, IN

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the eye (and the brain) is the ability to process the visual information. John K Stevens has calculated that to simulate 10 milliseconds of the complete processing of even a single nerve cell from the retina would require the solution of about 500 simultaneous nonlinear differential equations one hundred times. Since there are millions of retinal cells, it would take the fastest supercomputer years to process what goes on in our eyes and brain many times a second.

What is even more amazing is that all these wonderful features of the eye are all interdependent on each other. For example, without the proper tear layer and eyelid function, the cornea would completely scar over. A functioning retina could be of no help if a clear cornea and crystalline lens were not present. And, of course, if the intricate organization of the nerve fibers in the eye and brain were not present, the eye would be rendered utterly useless. The idea that the human eye could evolve slowly over millions of years is absolutely absurd! Unless all the components of the eye actually “evolved” at precisely the same instant, the organ would be of no benefit!

Need more information? Read the full article at http://www.saintsalive.com/general/wonderfully.htm

Cleaniness

Saw an TV advertisement for a particular brand of washing detergent. It showed 2 kids who had muddied themselves playing football. They had mud all over their body and attire which included their socks and shoes. Obviously the mother did not allow them into the house. They had to remove their soiled clothes and gingerly walk to the bathroom to have a bath before they were allowed to romp freely around the house.

Whenever I see such advertisements, I am reminded that there is a house up there that I hope to enter. Humbly I admit that I am far from perfect and if every mistake that I make (which for me is on a daily basis) is a a spot of mud on my soul, I shudder at how dirty that would make me! How can I ever enter God's house in such a state, except that I be cleaned from the stains on my soul?

Are you washed in the blood?
In the soul cleansing blood of the lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?

Eminent Scientists

For those who are feeling "unscientific" in believing in God, here is a very truncated list of Eminent Scientists (past and present) who believe. Have a run through and see how many you recognise.

Gerald E. Aardsma (physicist and radiocarbon dating)
Louis Agassiz (helped develop the study of glacial geology and of ichthyology)
Alexander Arndt (analytical chemist, etc.) [more info]
Steven A. Austin (geologist and coal formation expert) [more info]
Charles Babbage (helped develop science of computers / developed actuarial tables and the calculating machine)
Francis Bacon (developed the Scientific Method)
Thomas G. Barnes (physicist) [more info]
Robert Boyle (helped develop sciences of chemistry and gas dynamics)
Wernher von Braun (pioneer of rocketry and space exploration)
David Brewster (helped develop science of optical mineralogy)
Arthur V. Chadwick (geologist) [more info]
Melvin Alonzo Cook (physical chemist, Nobel Prize nominee) [more info]
Georges Cuvier (helped develop sciences of comparative anatomy and vertebrate paleontology)
Humphry Davy (helped develop science of thermokinetics)
Donald B. DeYoung (physicist, specializing in solid-state, nuclear science and astronomy) [more info]
Henri Fabre (helped develop science of insect entomology)
Michael Faraday (helped develop science of electromagnetics / developed the Field Theory / invented the electric generator)
Danny R. Faulkner (astronomer) [more info]
Ambrose Fleming (helped develop science of electronics / invented thermionic valve)
Robert V. Gentry (physicist and chemist) [more info]
Duane T. Gish (biochemist) [more info]
John Grebe (chemist) [more info]
Joseph Henry (invented the electric motor and the galvanometer / discovered self-induction)
William Herschel (helped develop science of galactic astronomy / discovered double stars / developed the Global Star Catalog)
George F. Howe (botanist) [more info]
D. Russell Humphreys (award-winning physicist) [more info]
James P. Joule (developed reversible thermodynamics)
Johann Kepler (helped develop science of physical astronomy / developed the Ephemeris Tables)
John W. Klotz (geneticist and biologist) [more info]
Leonid Korochkin (geneticist) [more info]
Lane P. Lester (geneticist and biologist) [more info]
Carolus Linnaeus (helped develop sciences of taxonomy and systematic biology / developed the Classification System)
Joseph Lister (helped develop science of antiseptic surgery)
Frank L. Marsh (biologist) [more info]
Matthew Maury (helped develop science of oceanography/hydrography)
James Clerk Maxwell (helped develop the science of electrodynamics)
Gregor Mendel (founded the modern science of genetics)
Samuel F. B. Morse (invented the telegraph)
Isaac Newton (helped develop science of dynamics and the discipline of calculus / father of the Law of Gravity / invented the reflecting telescope)
Gary E. Parker (biologist and paleontologist) [more info]
Blaise Pascal (helped develop science of hydrostatics / invented the barometer)
Louis Pasteur (helped develop science of bacteriology / discovered the Law of Biogenesis / invented fermentation control / developed vaccinations and immunizations)
William Ramsay (helped develop the science of isotopic chemistry / discovered inert gases)
John Ray (helped develop science of biology and natural science)
Lord Rayleigh (helped develop science of dimensional analysis)
Bernhard Riemann (helped develop non-Euclidean geometry)
James Simpson (helped develop the field of gynecology / developed the use of chloroform)
Nicholas Steno (helped develop the science of stratigraphy)
George Stokes (helped develop science of fluid mechanics)
Charles B. Thaxton (chemist) [more info]
William Thompson (Lord Kelvin) (helped develop sciences of thermodynamics and energetics / invented the Absolute Temperature Scale / developed the Trans-Atlantic Cable)
Larry Vardiman (astrophysicist and geophysicist) [more info]
Leonardo da Vinci (helped develop science of hydraulics)
Rudolf Virchow (helped develop science of pathology)
A.J. (Monty) White (chemist) [more info]
A.E. Wilder-Smith (chemist and pharmacology expert) [more info]
John Woodward (helped develop the science of paleontology)

Listen to your heart

Consider your heart...

It is made up of muscles and 4 chambers that beat automatically without our thought.

It beats an average of 80 beats/minute, every minute of every hour, every hour of every day, and every day of our life! That could work out to pumping 4-5 billion times in our lifetime.

It is very sensitive and extremely quick to respond. Consider standing up from a sitted position. If the heart does not beat that little harder or faster, we might feel faint because the blood pressure to the brain is decreased at a higher height.

Although only the size of your fist, it pumps at least 2,500 gallons [9,500 liters] of blood throughout your body daily—roughly the equivalent of raising a one-ton weight to a height of 40 feet [some 10 m] every 24 hours!

If the blood vessels of just one adult were laid end to end, they would stretch out for 60,000 miles [100,000 kilometers] and could encircle the earth two and a half times!

Ever got a bruise? That's some blood vessels that had ruptured due to some trauma. The blood vessel would plug itself up and prevent further leakage and with time, repair the "hole" by itself!

Our blood vessels are very elastic and despite years of bending at the joints, it does not wear out and crack or break.

Scientists marvel at our heart and the circulatory system. This is only a very very short list of the marvels of the heart. Nothing has been invented that comes close to what the heart can do.

Still wondering if there is an intelligent Designer Creator out there? Just listen to your heart... it will tell you the answer.

Poor English

For those English purist out there, you probably spotted an English error in my last article. I said "I fell down".

Apparently, it is poor English to say "fell down" because the definition of "fall" is "To drop or come down freely under the influence of gravity". So the "down" is redundant in "fall down".

Sometimes, things can become very ingrained in our minds and they become part of our belief systems and character that we do them or believe them without a second thought about it.

But sometimes, we can be wrong...

I fell down

Yesterday, I had a badminton game with some friends. To say that I was not in the fittest of shape is a understatement. (Ah, and yes, I was the oldest among the whole group) But there I was playing my heart out and at end of it, both my big toes had blisters and my legs were a little wobbly.

When we came out of the badminton hall, it started to pour cats and dogs while we were waiting for the taxi to come. After quite a wait, we spotted one and in my excitement started to run down a flight of stairs which had become very wet in the rain and in an instant, I was flat on my back and sliding down that flight of stairs.

Yes, so here I am, writing this article with aches all over my ageing body from the badminton game, blisters on my toes and a bruised back from the fall.

Life's like that. Sometimes we fall, and it hurts, but the right thing to do, is to pick ourselves up, recover our footing and press on.

Hey, Baby!

The presence of a baby in a mother's womb is also an enigma for scientists because it is a foreign body!

Our body has this special protection mechanism where it will reject something that does not belong to itself. E.g. a patient who has received a kidney from another person, will have to take lots and lots of medicine to prevent the patient's body from rejecting the kidney. If the patient does not take his medicine, not only will the kidney be rejected, the patient may die.

Now, the baby is a foreign body because the genes of the baby are not the same as that of the mother. Scientists are still puzzled as to why it does not reject the baby.

Which brings us back to the sex issue again. Even if there was that first pair of a male and female and if the female conceived within herself, her body would have rejected the baby and she might have died in the process. End of story and back to square one again.

No Designer? Seems like you need a lot of faith to believe that.

Sex

When asked to give some examples of design in nature, one of my favourite response is SEX!

What do I mean?

The differentiation of sex is one of the most puzzling issue to scientists. How did we come to be male and female?

Those of us who studied science were taught that we "evolved" from asexual (i.e. having no sexual differentiaton - no male or female but able to reproduce by itself) to sexually differentiated creatures.

Sounds cool, but there is a problem. Science cannot explain how.

You see, let's say the asexual creature "decides" to evolve to a male, the problem is that it did not evolve to be a female at the same time (the mathematical probability of that happening at the same time is considered impossible). So without a female, the male is rendered useless and dies a natural death. Back to square one.

Now, to "evolve" to a male or a female is not simple thing either. The creature has to develop the external sexual organ, it has to develop the "seed", it has to develop the internal sexual organs (the receptacle, the tubes, etc), it has to develop a whole complex of hormone materials that has to adjust its amount in the body with precise accuracy (scientists admit that they do not have the whole picture on this even up to today), etc, etc. That's not to mention how an undifferentiated cell should differentiate into the hundreds of different cells necessary for this!

The other problem is that evolution states that all these happen in gradual stages. Therefore, let's say the seed forms first. But the seed does not have a receptacle to stay in! If it does not have a receptacle to be contained in, it will float around and will very soon be destroyed. So it is with the seed without the external sexual organs (it can't get out and will decay too!)

You see, the creature does not know the end product (in this case to be a fully functional male or female) so why in the world did it develop anything different in the first place!

Looking for designs in nature? Try paying more attention to sex! It is usually a very rewarding experience :-)

Faith

Recently, in a location near where I stay, there was a serious outbreak of food poisoning. A few hundereds of children were taken ill after apparently consuming some food from the school canteen.

Which is a good case in point about faith. You see, everything we do is based on faith. Without faith, you could not eat or drink unless you tested it in a laboratory to make sure that it is safe to be consumed. Without faith, you would not even be able to sleep at night for you will be worried that the building might collapse on you. Without faith, you would not even sit on your chair for how do you know it can support your weight?

Many people view my faith in God as a strange thing, especially since I am a scientist.

There are many reasons for my faith but one of the easiest one to give is this:

Everything that has design demands a designer.

I don't think anyone would argue that the computer could not have come about without a designer. Or anything else on your table right now for that matter. So is my believe in God. I look at the wonderful designs in nature and our very own body and come to the very natural conclusion - there must be a master designer - God.

Which makes me puzzled - what sort of faith is it that makes one believe that despite all the wonderful designs in nature in the world, there need not be a Designer?

Could it be blind faith?

Cancer

This week has been a very strange week for me because in one short week, I learned about 4 friends who had cancer.

One has bladder cancer. Another has brain tumour. Another has lung cancer and the last has liver cancer that has spread to the lungs and bones and maybe the brain.

While death is inevitable for each and everyone of us, it behooves us to really consider about our life and what we are doing with it because it may be shorter than we think.

Moving Words

Many of you may know the words of this chorus to the song "Above All". But I thought I would just put it here to record the day when these words moved me so much.

Crucified, laid behind a stone;
You lived to die, rejected and alone.
Like a rose, trampled on the ground,
You took the fall, and thought of me,
Above all.