Exothermic

On one bloody Sunday I unexpectedly happened to observed one of the extreme of Japanese culture; chauvinism. I overheard somebody requesting for somebody to move a car parked in front of a Jaguar XJ Series. After the sleazy car was evacuated out of the Jag’s way a couple marches towards their shiny Jag. But wait, it’s the lady who is holding the key and then seats at the driver’s side. Well, nothing is unusual until after the Jag is about to move and the man opened not the front passenger door but the rear door, thus, completely making his wife look like his chauffeur. I called it odd since I cannot find any reason why he cannot drive or sit beside his wife.

After the utter disbelief of what I had witnessed I began to have flash backs of encounters that showed me the oddity of this chauvinist culture. I concluded that women in my country, the Philippines, should always have something to cheer about; most of the time they were treated like a queen. Well, except to some unlucky few, chivalry is still alive and widely practiced though on different level. You will often see men open doors, offer seats, carries her things and all sorts of gentlemanly conducts. Albeit all of these I can still hear incessant complaints about their treatment in the society. I guess she’s one of the unlucky few or she just can’t get enough. And by the way, I believe we are the only country who has two woman presidents.

“Women are the most wonderful creature, until she opens her mouth more than her brain can process”

Another saga of political adventurism in the Philippines that involves these runaway trains had happened. I could understand if these former soldiers, this disgruntled senator and his cohorts in the political arena would do what they have done; they’re tuned to be that way anyway. I just wonder when they will be put in the firing squad. But these priest? Supposedly expected of them is to lead in peaceful and lawful actions but instead participated in an extra-judicial adventure. I am really fed up watching these priests trying to lead the populace to rise up against the government. Can we get over with these Roman Catholic priest and other occultist hallucinated by their perceived supremacy over the people?　Clearly they have already crossed the thin line that separates the state and religion. The line is so thin in the Philippines that maybe they think that they have done the right thing. Hell no! They just did a crime against the people and once again tainted the image the Christian faith. Isn’t it clearly stated that it is a sin to judge a person a sinner? Yet these “pious” lead the way in judging whoever president is sitting; talk about hypocrisy.

It’s Christmas once again, the celebration of the birthday of the only perfect man who said, “Let the one who have not sinned throw the first stone”. But sadly these words are but a faint echo in my beloved country. In a largely Christian Philippines harmony is a thing in the past; a virtue that is almost doomed to extinction. On the contrary, this virtue is so prevalent in Japan, a non-Christian country where I am currently an alien. “Tatemae” as the Japanese called it, is the culture of basically not throwing the first rock to somebody just to preserve the harmony of the group. In both extremes you can find something to criticize about but I would have loved my country to still be largely Christian yet has the “Tatemae” embedded in its culture.

I wonder where the problem started. However, in my opinion if these priest and their ancestors have done their job, my country should have right now and in the future to come, better and conscientious politicians. I just hope that their flocks will listen to what they preach but not do what they do. Oh Pharisees why can’t you just fade in history.

“To judge a man’s character, give him power”.

From Wikipedia: The Milky Way Galaxy

“The Milky Way is estimated to contain up to 400 billion stars. As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if it were reduced to 130 km (80 mi) in diameter, the Solar System would be a mere 2 mm (0.08 inches) in width. The Galactic Halo extends outward, but is limited in size by the orbits of the two Milky Way satellites, the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds whose perigalacticon is at ~180,000 light-years. New discoveries indicate that the disk extends much farther than previously thought.

The Sun (and therefore the Earth and Solar System) may be found close to the inner rim of the Galaxy’z Orion Arm, in the Local Fluff, at a hypothesized distance of 7.62±0.32 kpc from the Galactic Center.The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years.The Sun, and thus the Solar System, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone. The Apex of the Sun’s Way, or the solar apex, is the direction that the Sun travels through space in the Milky Way. The general direction of the Sun’s galactic motion is towards the star Vega near the constellation of Hercules, at an angle of roughly 60 sky degrees to the direction of the Galactic Center. The Sun’s orbit around the Galaxy is expected to be roughly elliptical with the addition of perturbations due to the galactic spiral arms and non-uniform mass distributions. In addition the Sun oscillates up and down relative to the galactic plane approximately 2.7 times per orbit. This is very similar to how a simple harmonic oscillator works with no drag force (dampening) term. It takes the Solar System about 225 to 250 million years to complete one orbit (a galactic year), and so it is thought to have completed about 20 to 25 orbits during its lifetime or 0.0008 orbit since the origin of humans. The orbital speed of the solar system is 220 km/s, i.e., 1 light-year in ca. 1400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days.”

These are astronomically mind-boggling figures that one cannot fully comprehend it without being branded a nerd. And yet that’s only the Milky Way that my Physics instructor said is only one of the many. Now go figure the vastness of space while maintaining your sanity. From the figures above, it is easy to believe that we are not alone in this universe. There may not be another Earth but certainly there are other standing and walking think tanks somewhere out there. That is probably why Star Trek is one of the longest and most popular sci-fi stories ever created. The interest of knowing that there is somebody out there tickles our fancy.

As I come to gather my self after a few bewildered moments I couldn’t help but envisage the certain possibility that there is someone like me out there feeling helpless in the presence of this grandeur. Although this someone might not look like me but together with his kind might have been praising the same god. They may have the same intelligence like us or probably more advance. But in the same way they may have been a slave of sin just like us. Then they might have somebody like Jesus to save them from eternal damnation. But my question, would their savior die like our Jesus? Will they slay their Jesus in a crude way or by a super advance procedure? Anyhow, the meaning of His death will be the same so don’t dwell on it.

The story of their salvation should certainly be different. Consequently, the second coming of their Christ and the events that will follow will be different. During that time, will they witness and experience the same punishment like the one we will as it is written in the book of Revelation?  As I was pondering these possible events, it dawned on me a reason why in the final days the earth will not be totally destroyed. Just imagine what a scenario it will be if all the inhabitants of the universe will be gathered in one final place. How would you react if you meet somebody that looks like from one of the Star Trek episodes? Will you look at the likes Worf or Reman Viceroy and still feel the same? Oh, I remember, we haven’t figured it out yet if their Christ will look the same as our beloved Jesus. Alas! I didn’t expect these scenarios demands a lot of my minds graphic accelerator.

“Hey Master Yoda! You’ve actually made it! How about Obi-Wan Kenobi?

These ideas may seem too absurd but can be enjoyable to tackle sometimes. Anyhow, these immeasurable wonders are beyond comprehension. We can just marvel the power of the One who made all of these and be immense in the glory of His majesty.　And I wouldn’t have to wonder either about how and when my Christ will come.

These are the words of a song that defines it all:

“O Lord my God when I’m in awesome wonder,

consider all the worlds thy hands have made.

I see the star; I hear the rolling thunder,

thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul my savior God to thee,

How great thou art, how great thou art.

Then sings my soul my savior God to thee,

How great thou art, how great thou art”.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,

and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.

Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,

and then proclaim: “My God, how great thou art!”

Then sings my soul my savior God to thee,

How great thou art, how great thou art.

Then sings my soul my saviour God to thee,

How great thou art, how great thou art”.

GLORY BE TO GOD.

As defined in Merriam-Webster:

HYPOCRISY:  a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.

The people in this country where am living right now has a lot of it to offer but not all in a way that what we might understood hypocrisy would be. Hypocrisy comes in a lot of forms in this strange culture. But honestly, I am in a dilemma if I will look at them as hypocrite or just being more considerate. It put a lot of strain on my mind trying to comprehend their actions; a situation where I don’t encounter everyday in  my country. Oh how I missed Cebu. Eventually, I found a better way to avoid this unnecessary mental and emotional strain by not trying to fit into their culture. I can always look like a Japanese but I can never be one, thus the cliche’ “turning Japanese” can only do me more harm than good. So the hard part of living in Japan comes not with the real Japanese but with Gaijin ”turning Japanese”.

But hypocrisy in the context of culture is nothing compared to hypocrisy applied to the Christian living. This I think is probably the best way for somebody claiming to be a good Christian to get in somebody’s nerves; and the best way of keeping people away from the faith. I have seen people and certainly knew people of this kind and I always dread the moment I’m with them. But here comes the trick. What am I also to other people? Am I as hypocrite to them as I would think other people are? These are just some of the few questions in Christian faith that I want to address ASAP.

Do you call it hypocrisy when you’re trying to hide your hate to somebody because the Bible says, “Love your enemies”? Do you call it hyprocrisy when you’re trying to put a smile on your face while holding your blood from boiling over in front of people who qualifies to be the best jerk in the world because the bible tells us “to live in harmony”? Mind you, these are questions not from somebody who doubted his faith in the words of God in the Bible. But these questions comes from somebody who is trying to be as close, if not emulate the life of a Christian as define in the Bible.  Our hypocrisy is magnified in the eyes of somebody with the same faith. It can make us transparent and that it is in vain for us to hide it  because we are measured with the same scale. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.

I am not a good man myself, not by many people’s standard, and certainly not by God’s standard. Thus, reading and understanding the bible exposes my short-comings. In effect, I can at least superficially be able to asses a person’s actions whether they are acting in love or just plain hypocrite. I will not claim that I’m good at reading people but it’s just because I’ve been there and have done that. I was once in this Bible study and at one point  a question was asked, “In what way Christians can bring unnecessary criticisms to themselves?”. For me Christians bring criticisms to themselves by not acting in sync. What I mean by this is that every Christians are claiming to have the right kind of faith or practices and so in the eyes of non-believers there are two sheeps in different clothing. Everybody thinks they are spreading the faith by telling stories about it changing their lives but at the expense of their Christian brothers. Did you get my point? I think not, so here’s another basic example. As clearly mentioned in the Bible in Romans 14:17  ”For the kingdom of God is not of food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”. Now, I will rest my case with this verse. Some Christian drinks wine, liquor, beer, whatever you call it because it’s rooted to their culture or just plainly business. Of course everything in excess is a higway to sin thus drinking, short of being drunk, is clearly a bookable offense. In the bible, drinking wine is not prohibited (am sure about it) but being drunk is. Now then, when one Christian claims that a true Christian doesn’t drink wine in any form when the other Christian drinks because of the reason stated above, aren’t they bringing upon them unnecessary cristicism? One can consider this situation the other way around and still it will yield the same result in the eyes of non-believers. Can we call this hypocrisy? Clearly God judges the heart, men judges by sight. So why should each one claim in the presence of non-believers that they are correct in their own way. Why can’t we keep our mouth shut and walk the talk and let God be the judge of us all. Making ourselves as a measuring scale to the faith of our fellow Christian is hyprocrisy, and it can’t get any clearer than that.

Maybe my definition of  hypocrisy is far fetched or too shallow but it’s the closest word I can think of that defines some of the practices of the people adhering to the Christian faith.