Spirituality Guide

Yes, yes I too complain about a God who does not help me at all times; who leaves me to my own device especially in times of struggles.

But I would not have it any other way. I mean, I am not a defenseless or helpless person who needs assistance 24/7. I am a man - able, capable and independent. I don’t require a God who constantly breathes on my neck, telling me what to do every step of the way. Where is the fulfillment in being told what to do all the time?

We complain too much. We want Him to be near us. We want to see Him all the time. Yet we know if that happens then we would find another reason to complain. ‘He’s too strict!’ ‘He’s too mean! Too domineering! A control freak!’ I can just imagine the rest of our complaints.

We need proof of His existence. Otherwise we would rather rely on ourselves than rely on an invisible God.

Is not proof as plain as day, literally? “Consider the lilies of the fields, they never toil nor weep. Yet I tell you that even Solomon was not arrayed like this.� Everything we see speaks of a Superior Intelligence that took time to create the littlest cell to the largest creature.

But man, his complexity, does not believe that. The Big Bang theory is more reliable according to man. Well, I for one, could not comprehend the fact that I came about because an accident in nature occurred instead of a well-thought out design. I mean isn’t that too much of a coincidence that I don’t look, think and act like anyone else in the planet of six billion people?

So we find ourselves in a bind. If we suffer, God is the one to blame. Everything comes from God. Hence, our problems are entirely His fault!

If things go wrong, we take the time to pause and remember Him but not so much as to worship Him but so we could pin all the blame on Him. But if things are smooth-sailing, we do not even have to time to mutter a prayer of thanks.

No, we are just too busy. Success has gone to our heads. And there is no need for God in good times. Right? As failure looms however, ah, it’s an entirely different story. We complain why He made us in the first place when we all we do is suffer? Forget those times when we feel blessed, when success crowned our efforts.

We want always to be in a state of bliss. Our sins make that impossible though. Being imperfect, we are prone to commit sins of omission and/or commission. Free wills clash. This is the dilemma we faced. We are imperfect beings trying to measure up to a perfect God. We blame God for every little thing that bothers us. He serves as our shock absorber, the convenient excuse for all of our despair. We question Him. Why, we question His very existence. Is He really for real? Why can we not see Him? Why won’t He talk to us face to face? Is their really a God?

In the midst of our confusion, we cry out to our loving Father to heed our sufferings. He answers our pleas, of course, just like any loving Father would do. This may come as a huge surprise but He hears us often.

Unfortunately, our confused minds fail to listen to His voice. God whispers. He does not talk in a loud voice. His advice can only be heard in the deep recesses of our hearts and not through obvious, external means. When we are attuned to God’s voice, we hear Him even when He does not speak.

If we live in sin and are far from God, it is difficult to discern His will even if He shouts at us, even if the answer is staring at us. If man could not hear then he naturally assumes that God is indifferent to his plight. Man becomes discouraged. All hell breaks loose if man doesn’t get his way! Then man complains – about life, about other men, about things and most importantly, about God. There is no room for understanding in his heart. Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

It is free will that makes all the difference. Yes we all experience different degrees of suffering right now and we wonder if God ever listens to our woes. But that is only half of the story. The other half is that it is because of free will that we suffer.

Of course, we don’t suffer all the time. It would be unrealistic to discount the fact that Free Will does allow us to experience bliss also. But this view leads us to another valid point which is, the suffering around us is not a manifestation of an uncaring God but rather it serves as proof to man’s twisted use of free will.

Free will is tricky. Since all of us have free will and have the freedom to exercise it, conflict is inevitable. One man’s joy is another man’s burden, so they say. Due to our uniqueness and sheer number, it would be hard to agree all the time. Differences in opinion always occur. If conflicts got blown out of proportion, we consequently suffer. Chaos sets in.

God, in His omnipotence, knows what will happen if we all acquire free will or the freedom to choose right from wrong. He used the tree of knowledge as bait and put it in the middle of paradise because He knows at some point we would need it. It isn’t by accident that it is there.

God knows at some point in time, His most treasured creature would demand more independence from Him. He made man with the capacity to think. It would only be a matter of time that man would find ways to put his mind to good use. Rebellion was not farfetched. As exemplified by what happened to his most glorious angel, Lucifer.

Lucifer’s wiles to tempt Eve to eat the forbidden fruit were not accidents also. Lucifer became an unlikely instrument to hasten the rebellion and pave the way for its manifestation. God does not play a passive part. After all, He is the Creator. And things come about because He acted His part.

Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought us to the dilemma we are in. God’s punishment was His definition of tough love. It was God’s love that prevented Him from banishing our race from earth forever and to grant us free will.

The exercise of free will would inevitably determine the kind of fate we enjoy or live. This means, we all have a choice and a say on what kind of life we want for ourselves by virtue of free will which we inadvertently inherit due to our first parents’ original sin, stamped to us since birth.

Milton’s work “Paradise Regained� and “Areopagitica� offer us a glimpse of a God who is capable of both love and discipline. It is true that the reality we observed around us seem to blight that fact. We see sufferings, poverty, pain, injustice and all other negativities. It is hard indeed to imagine a loving God amidst all these. Where is the love in all that?

This indeed is baffling. God’s seeming indifference is puzzling. If He is truly a God of love how come all we see is suffering? In order to address that question we need to trace back our roots and see where we went wrong. We go back to the times when man was simply a meek and obedient creature, loved by God and not wearied by imperfections. Man was perfect, incapable of sin. At least, that was how we started millions of years ago. As times went on though, things changed. By common consensus, we could say things took a turn for the worst.

When Eve and Adam ate the forbidden fruit in paradise they became aware of their nudity and were overcome by intense lust. They made love for the first time. When confronted by God, they felt shame which meant they were aware of their mistakes.

God purposely made man incapable of choosing right from wrong. When Satan learned that the Tree of Knowledge is forbidden to Adam and Eve, he ponders “ignorance, is that their happy state, / the proof of their obedience and their faith?” Indeed would ignorance be bliss? The fact that they felt ashamed of what they had done made it all too plain that their mistake went beyond lust. Man’s biggest fall is brought about by disobedience.

Milton’s “Areopagiticaâ€? and “Paradise Regainedâ€? present an interesting view on God, man and redemption. For Milton, “God is the creator and sustainer of life and value” (51) and in “a God-centred universe… no value can exist apart from a commitment to deity” (484).

In Areopagitica, Milton creates claims and expound arguments which he himself contradicted and discarded in order to “disorient” and so prevent the reader from believing that truth and virtue is found in the external forms, like books and their assertion, and cause the reader to “just the kind of labor and exercise that is necessary to the constitution of his or her own virtue” (205).

Many facets also found in Paradise Lost, too, are answerable to Milton’s desire to “detach us” from expectations of drama, crisis, climax, plot, agency, and change, and “return us to a moment when nothing and everything is happening” (325).

In Areopagitica, Milton’s final argument for freedom of the press introduces the theme of Free Will which he will develop further in the later work Paradise Lost. The concept of which delves into the fact that God made man capable of free will. Due to this, men should be given freedom to choose between ideas.

In Paradise Regained, Milton again attempts to teach “a reversal of values away from the self and toward God” (343) by establishing in the reader “a need for resolution, in the form of some action or event” and then declining “to fulfill the need it has itself created” (330).

To put it in another way, the one reason behind Milton’s depiction of Christ in this poem as someone who refuses to do anything- except to maintain his inner faithfulness to God - is to annoy not just the nemesis Satan but also the reader who, due to his or her annoyance, will finally begin to assimilate the excellent examples of Christ.

Man’s appetite for knowledge is insatiable. The endless quest of information has contributed to more confusion. Things are blown out of proportion. So much so that everything appears to be complex, particularly religion.

Our own interpretations of religion have caused these apparent religious factions. It is sometimes disturbing to see humans getting lost in an endless cycle of pursuing truth. Although the truth is staring at him right in the face, he will not be able to recognize it.

In his complexity, the simple truth does not satisfy him. He needs more proof, more information, more everything which invariably results in utter confusion. Truly, “the more you know, the more you don’t know.�

It is because of this thirst for knowledge that humans incurred God’s disapproval. Humans transgressed against the laws of God through the attainment of knowledge when Eve and Adam messed up with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as they symbolically bit the forbidden Apple.

For their crime, humans were forever cast out of paradise, but with the knowledge that redemption by the Son of God was possible.

The Son was broken hearted. His Father turned a deaf ear to his pleas.

The Son was wrongfully accused of a crime he did not commit. The Father could attest to His innocence but could not help him.

Feeling alone and abandoned, the Son could only cry in utter desperation. Harsh as it may seem, the act was not cruelty on the part of the Father. Rather, it was meant for a higher, more noble purpose - to help His Son make a lasting mark in the world.

We could only imagine the intensity of Jesus’ agony then. It must have been heart-breaking to know that His own Father could not protect Him from hatred, from sins.

Jesus’ suffering offers us a glimpse of what happens when we suffer. Like Jesus, it could overwhelm us and we beg our Father to take it away. On the other hand, just like Jesus too, we could accept its existence and bravely face it.

Faith teaches us to accept our suffering without question. Hope allows us to face suffering with the inner certainty that we can overcome it. And Love from God, family and friends provides us with the strength to cope.

Suffering is a mystery that our minds could not possibly fathom. Like God, its scope is immense and far-reaching. We can only trust that it does serve its purpose. That, just like Jesus, we have not suffered in vain.

Feeling lost? Depressed? Desperate?

Don’t worry. You are not alone. At some point in our lives we all feel low, depressed, unloved. Even royalties and the so-called “perfect people” like the rich and famous go through the same experience.

No one is exempted. It is part and parcel of being human.

Emotions. Thoughts. Spirit. These are the things that complete our life. Without them, we merely exist. With them, life is more meaningful. Painful maybe - but still, meaningful.

That is what the heroine of the book “Change of Plans, Change of Hearts” realized. Gem, just like everyone else, has her struggles in life. But she didn’t let that affect her. She went on despite the pain. Despite the difficulties. Despite the endless struggles and broken dreams.

If you can empathize with Gem McQuinn’s plight and you love Romance books then “Change of Plans, Change of Heartsâ€? is a must-read! Please click this link to see the book.

Philosophical Analysis of the I.D. Issue

The debate between God or Form has continued to cause a stir among adherents to each view. Both views provide ideas that are to some extent true and verifiable. In the case of Intelligent Design theory, evidences pertaining to the presence of an ‘Intelligent Designer’ are not exactly visible. Still, the effects are highly observable. The signs of intelligence point out to the fact that a Superior Intelligence was behind the controversial ‘design’. These signs are the determining factors that lead for some to believe in an Intelligent Designer: irreducible complexity, information mechanisms and specified complexity.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution provides scientific bend to the whole story of creation. It is hard to overlook the fact that evolution theory could be a possible cause. Evolution could have equipped living things with the necessary make-up to adapt to their environment perfectly as if purposely ‘designed’ for that end. But, it is hard to discount the possibility that the alternative Intelligent Design theory which espouse the idea of a Superior Intelligence (we aptly refer to as God) could be behind the exquisite majesty and complexity of all living creations. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that we are not mere ‘accidents’ of nature. We are here by ‘design’.

Concept of God or Form

According to Wikipedia, the intelligent design controversy revolves around the concept that the universe and all the living things of the planet came about due to an ‘intelligent cause or agent, as opposed to an unguided process such as mutation and natural selection�.

Proponents of the said thought believed that the irreducible complexity, information mechanisms and specified complexity manifested in the living things require a “design� from a Superior Intelligence or God.

Irreducible complexity pertains to the complex design of the irreducible system that renders the organism functional. Without this system in place, the living thing would not be capable of performing. Adherents to Intelligent Design or I.D. believe that the functionality of the irreducible system of a living thing was in place before mutation took place. And that should mutation occur as claimed by Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, it would be in micro-levels only.

Specified complexity of living things pertain to the details being similarly characterized such as ‘patterns’ of molecular sequences in functional biological molecules such as in DNA that are too specifically complex and could not possibly be a result of physical law and chance.

These complex mechanisms could not have come about by ‘mutation and natural selection’ as contained in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Those in favor of Intelligent Design believe that a Superior Intelligence or an Intelligent Designer is behind all the wonderful creations. It is the concept of God as opposed to Form.

The use of the line of reasoning as applied to a Supernatural Designer is known as the teleological argument for the existence of God. The most notable forms of this argument were written by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae (thirteenth century); design was the fifth of Aquinas’ five proofs for God’s existence.

Richard Milner & Vittorio Maestro’s Intelligent Design? mentioned that the most well-known advocate of the idea was English theologian Willaim Paley. Paley created the famous watchmaker analogy to support his claim In this analogy, Paley in 1802 explained that if we happened to find a pocket watch lying in the field, we immediately jump to the conclusion that it was made by creative human intellect. To believe that the watch was produced by natural processes without employing the intellect or as an accident of nature is to deny the existence of a Supernatural Creator or God.

The idea of God responsible for creation of the universe and all living things is the core of the Intelligent Design argument. Richard Milner & Vittorio Maestro’s Intelligent Design? stated that this reasoning prevailed until Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was published in 1859. Darwin patiently accumulated evidences to prove his claim that evolution by natural selection best explained the diversity and complexity of life. In defense of his theory, Darwin wrote in 1868 “I cannot possibly believe that a false theory would explain so many classes of facts.�

H. Allen Orr Devolution stated that Darwin’s theory of evolution aimed to explain the complex features of living things like beaks and brains without the aid of a designing mind. In the Theory of Evolution, Darwin claimed that evolution is a product of random mutation and natural selection. The random mutation is responsible for the slight improvement of the function of some organ of an organism. The improved version of the organism then becomes more common in the succeeding generations. This process is called natural selection. Over time this process of repeated improvement or mutation could lead to the creation of a better organism that looks as if they were designed. This is the essence of Theory of Evolution as developed by Darwin.

On the other side of the coin, Intelligent Design theory makes use of the basic thought that the complexity of nature’s “design” that operates for complex purposes indicates the existence of a purposeful natural or supernatural designer/creator. Hence, what we refer to as God.

I was painfully shy growing up. I loathed the attention so much so that I’d rather melt in the background than be noticed. Unfortunately, circumstances did not allow me to remain anonymous. I was a consistent honor student. Whether I like it or not, I needed to go up the stage every month and be acknowledged. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life!

Suffice to say, my shyness brought me a number of misadventures.

Needless to say, it was a particularly hard time for me. I realized how many opportunities had flown out of my grasp because of shyness. I began to dislike myself. It reached a point where I could not take it anymore. I sought change desperately.

This was probably the impetus that I needed. It forced me to take a long hard look at myself. I decided to conquer shyness. I admit it was very difficult at first. I could barely utter a word even to friends. I had my doubts but my mind was made up.

My first day in college, I had to be there on my own. No friends from high school accompanied me. It was then that the jitters showed. Luckily, there were a few shy classmates too.

I forced myself to act confident. I smiled at classmates who were then complete strangers. I trusted my instinct. If there was someone I liked I would approach her and introduced myself. My heartbeat raced every time I did that but I was determined to get out of the shell I have unknowingly confined myself in.

My voice would crack. It was hard to maintain eye to eye contact. Sometimes I would fall in uncomfortable silence. Whenever I noticed that I would force myself to think of something and say it. It didn’t take long to become an adept conversationalist. I focused on mastering the art of conversation. It was the first step to conquering shyness.

The most important factor that probably drew me out of shyness was the fact that nobody in my new school knew me. I was an anonymous face in a sea of people. Nobody knew that I was very shy in high school. I could pretend I was not and nobody could tell the difference.

It worked!

Acting as confident as possible and learning to mingle with complete strangers inside the classroom gained me a measure of popularity. It made me a natural leader.

I became adventurous. I overcame shyness. Most of all, I did not just wait for challenges, I actively sought them out. I think these traits that I developed in college years served me well later.
Having gone through the worst enabled me to appreciate and live the present even better.

I pursued goals relentlessly. I formed lasting bonds. I excelled in my career. I became one of the very few international book authors from my country. “Excellence is a by-product of growth. Growth is a by-product of continuous pursuit of excellence.� I lived by that principle. In hindsight, I’d say I’ve grown tremendously through the years because I was able to overcome shyness.