Why do I need faith? Recently, I was listening to two fascinating theologians: Dr. John Lennox, a renowned scientist and mathematician, and Dr. John Hick, an eminent philosopher of religion. Both were erudite, sincere, and attractive to listen to. Yet they differed profoundly in their views on religion and how we should understand belief in our lives.
Continue reading FaithPodcast Episode 147: Family is the bedrock of society. It is accepting of our many blemishes and embraces us just the same.
Podcast Episode 146: In the breast of every human being is the desire to live life as if it were a great adventure. We are only stopped by our own fear of failure. We should imagine the excitement of success.
Find your adventure
From our youth, most are filled with an audacious sense of adventure and look to the legends of the past. Swashbuckling heroes fill countless schoolroom notebooks and libraries. Many times, we choose a favorite champion from history — King Arthur of the Round Table, (1) Robinson Crusoe (2) marooned on an island, or more contemporary heroes, such as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Real-life figures can further represent our men of courage; accordingly, Sir Francis Drake, (3) Christopher Columbus, or even Sir Winston Churchill (4) come to mind.
Continue reading Find your adventurePodcast Episode 145: You can achieve your own level of success. Don’t be dissuaded from what you truly want out of your piece of life.
Podcast Episode 144: Given a choice between optimism and pessimism, we all know which we would choose. That said, we cannot not be naive and must fully nurture our powers of analysis. Being prepared for any result is the intelligent way forward.
The positive versus the negative
As we proceed forward in life, we are constantly bombarded with a surfeit of negative news. This, of course, can be directly attributed to Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, and their style of reporting, known as yellow journalism. (1) They realized that “if it bleeds it leads,” (2) negative news sells! Why? It is probably biological. When we left the Rift Valley in Ethiopia, some 150 million years ago (3) or so, we were small in number and weak in stature. The animals that walked the plain feasted upon us. The only way we could survive was to be constantly vigilant and to look out for one another. This produced the “fight or flight” phenomenon that is so much a part of our natural being.
Continue reading The positive versus the negativePodcast Episode 143: We must all nurture our powers of observation. This will give us a sense of gratitude and modesty as we “fight the many battles” in life — undoubtedly, to a positive end.
Podcast Episode 142: We must take care of our traditions. Their lack of acknowledgement and respect is slowly eating away at the fabric of our society. The populace is not prepared for change because it has nothing as a replacement. This situation must be ameliorated, and will be in the end.
Violence
I am angry! I rail against the injustices in the world. Why don’t I act, strike you with blows, and try to incapacitate you? The reason, ultimately, is that it is pointless. All violence only begets more violence and in the end accomplishes nothing. It is only through dialogue that we move humanity forward. In every civilization, it is the written word and physical edifices that endure, not its destructive wars and killing of adversaries, though not all agree. (1)
Continue reading Violence