Bball finally starts

1. (4) Kobe Bryant

2. (25) Gerald Wallace

3. (32) Brook Lopez

4. (53) Mehmet Okur

5. (60) Emeka Okafor

6. (81) Richard Jefferson

7. (88) Chris Duhon

8. (109) Raymond Felton

9. (116) Mike Miller

10. (137) Grant Hill

11. (144) Kyle Lowry

better late than never

ACL was awesome, but mainly b/c Pearl Jam played.

http://jasonwu7890795.wordpress.com/concerts/

Reply to Agnostic, Part 2

http://jasonwu7890795.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/reply-to-agnostic-part-1/

This is part 2 (see part 1 above) to:

http://blasphemousramblings.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/on-christianity/

The basics of faith is simply faith itself.  It cannot be science because science is not a belief system.  It only reveals things either as true or false in a very restricted setting.  Science cannot disprove the existence of God because God (even as a scientific concept) lives outside the realm of what science can prove or disprove).  There is an episode of Futurama where Bender has these beings growing on him as he floats thru space.  Funny how I related this to a cartoon but it speaks to the point sometimes:

God: “Bender, being God isn’t easy. If you do too much, people get dependent on you. And if you do nothing, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch, like a safecracker or a pickpocket.”
Bender: “Or a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money!”
God: “Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing. When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.“

Easy Answers to Difficult Questions
I think religion can sometimes be the easy answer to question you cannot answer.  Science does leave a lot of gaps that we are still struggling to close.  However, sometimes giving people an answer and giving hope is well worth any error in their thoughts.  I’m not talking about a religion that would not allow a blood transfusion because of a religious belief but simply having hope that God is in control and that there are reasons behind things that happen even if it is just because free will exists.

The explanation of death is a great example of how a faithful answer like going to heaven is better than simply no knowing.  Until science can prove heaven does not exist, I’d prefer to give a child the potential of a happy ending.

There is no arguing that the church and different religions have taught things that were eventually proven incorrect.  I think this is really more of a social and scientific influence on Bible interpretation than the Bible simply being wrong.  The words of the Bible are always more cryptic than that.  You can always argue one version or another and two different people read the same passage differently.  Bringing up the fact that I’m in law school, we go to some extreme lengths to just interpret the words written my mortal men who wrote the Constitution.  Our greatest legal minds who sit in the Supreme Court rarely agree on what people in the last 200 years meant when they wrote something.

You cannot blame God for the interpretations of man.  I know this is an easy explanation for anything but free will creates such a hole.  Most of the ‘errors’ in the Bible can be explained around with different theories but I can see the fear of believing truth from people who are so often wrong.

My personal view is that I do not go into church without a filter.  I know what is right and what is wrong and almost all of the time the information coming in is simply a reaffirmation of my own beliefs.  Not to say that I would not have believed Earth was the center of the universe but that I know and believe certain things that the church’s opinion on will never change.  Look around and see all the different denominations of churches.  Even Christians cannot agree on a single book their entire belief is based upon.  I don’t think anybody should go in thinking everything said is truth.  There are some very basic truths however that even the weirdest would believe and they always center around love, to and from God, and to and from neighbors.

I don’t think all the incorrect teachings have been weeded out but I also believe thinking science has all the answers is equally incorrect.  I know some things are proven without a doubt but not everything is.  Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is the one that pops up in my head.  Science has taught both sleeping on the stomach and sleeping on the back as solutions.  I’m sure one day they’ll figure it out, but until then you kind of go on faith which one you want to apply.

Philosophical Questions
The math problem of course restricts God to a finite form when in theory the whole ‘omni’ thing makes Him everywhere at once.  So the chances an outside observer with God’s ability to come to a finite point is 100%.  Time doesn’t really exist.  We cannot bottle it up, it just is.  God just is and this is where you were created and ‘when’ you exist in this form.  No way to explain it because it exists outside of science.

God’s image is something we can interpret differently.  We have a soul and a body and our image of body.  Just because I image something on another does not mean they are the same.  I see laptops based on Ferrari designs that don’t go from zero to sixty in under four seconds.  Vague I know, but not exactly a giant hole where you can assume God exists within time and space when the Bible clearly teaches otherwise.  Perhaps we are in God’s image at a specific time and place…say like Jesus.  I don’t know, but I do not believe God is restricted by any of the dimensions and creating something to be in His image does not necessarily constrain Him to it.  I have made me and many of my friends into hundreds of video game versions of ourselves.  We’ve been football players, Sims, and Nintendo Wii Mii’s.  All were created with their images in mind, yet none are restricted to the physics and limitations of each individual game.

Sorry, but this will have to run into a Part 3
Still to come:

Human body is poorly designed
Early Christian history

weekend update

This post will seem weird sandwiched between the two posts about religion but…
Friday:
We celebrated Duffy’s Bday at Outback followed by some bowling and drinking in Alief.  I bowled a pretty amazing 164 my second game.  It was a bit above average.

Saturday:
Bought some gifts and headed to Thuy and John Brown’s baby shower.  It was fun.  It was followed up by some flag football where I scored the first 3 of our 5 TDs during game 1.  Andrew finished it off though in game two with 4 INT returns for TDs.  We then headed to BW3 in SugarLand to watch the UT game and cheer on BYU defeating OU.  After that it was a short drive down to PL.

Sunday:
El Patio for lunch followed by a full day of doing absolutely nothing.  Then the greatest fishing night ever.  I’m sure everybody caught more than 10 fish and everybody had multiple keepers.  We caught so many fish we had to throw the smaller ones back.  I also saw Helen catch the biggest fish I’ve ever seen.  It was a 38 pound, 41 inch fish.
look at how small Ken’s feet are compared to the fish.  Sunny has better pictures, including one where I’m laying next to the fish for some perspective.

Monday:
Lunch at the new buffet place in PL that was decent and pretty cheap.  Watched Duffy play an old game on his brand spanking new gaming machine.  Drove back to Houston in pouring rain.  Got my free Chick-Fil-A sandwich for wearing my UT Longhorns shirt but also bought the most delicious milk shake ever from there.  Now back to school.

Reply to Agnostic, Part 1

This is my response to a former co-worker’s post about religion.  It is a touchy subject, and I understand if you are offended or have a response to part if not all of it.  I also know I am not all knowing.  His original post was very long and I really wanted to be able to address all of it, so I am going to split it up into two parts.  Here is part 1.  I respect this man a lot and his beliefs are important to me.

http://blasphemousramblings.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/on-christianity/

God is Evil:
Your example of the teacher and the attacker is a free will example, where the attacker is choosing free will, as is the teacher.  So God, who I assume also has free will, chooses not to affect the outcomes of the non-free will tragedies.  You cannot assume God chooses to allow tragedy for either a reason or for no reason at all.  Just because we do not know a reason does not conclude that there is no reason behind allowing such tragedies.  Many people will defend allowing tragedies because it shapes and forms the people who are affected by them.  I do not think this applies to all situations, but without knowing for sure, it is hard to draw conclusions.

It is kind of like those red light cameras popping up at intersections.  A still frame photo of somebody running a red light does not paint an accurate picture of an entire situation.  My dad successfully argued that an 18-wheeler was bearing down behind him approaching an intersection, so he choose to examine the intersection and speed thru a yellow light that eventually turned red.  The situation posed two choices, run a red light or get creamed by an 18-wheeler into the intersection.  Clearly running the red light is wrong, but the other choice was worse.  God may allow tragedies to happen that are not because of free will, but without knowing why it occurs I cannot draw a conclusion that God is evil.

Heaven is Terrifying:
In most situations the unknown is always terrifying.  People always relate things to things they know.  I’ve traveled with Texans to other countries and people always relate new experiences to places and things they know from home.  They fear trying new things, even though millions of other humans do it a different way.  I’ve been gifted to grow up in two cultures simultaneously, this opens up my mind to doing things in different ways, yet when I hear of a new way, it still seems strange and often scary to me.  Kind of vague but going on…

Dostoyevsky sounds like the scene from the Matrix where Agent Smith is questioning Morpheous.  He says the robots created perfect societies and the humans kept rejecting it.  I think this kind of defends God is Evil, because without knowing bad you cannot scale your good.  I guess just having free will would create enough evil in the world, but back to heaving being terrifying.  You assume because heaven is heaven, and because those in heaven know and have experienced the tragedy of the world, free will choices, while still choices, will always result in the better choice, keeping heaving at status quo.  Just because you have free will and can choose A and B does not conclude that eventually somebody will pick B.  That’s like going to a roulette table and seeing that the past 100 numbers have been red and betting black because it is ‘due’.  Each situation has its own independent probability.  Just because red hasn’t landed doesn’t mean black must land.  Just because people have the choice between A and B does not mean everybody can’t pick A all of the time, especially when influenced by being in heaving in the presence of God and having experienced tragedies in life.

I grew up in a Buddhist household.  The greatest mountain to climb in becoming a Christian was that I was basically condemning my family to hell if I decided a Christian God was the God for me.  I still struggle with it and my weakest moments of faith are hoping that I’m wrong and we all get to heaven.  So I can see that this is a strong argument that heaven isn’t all that it claims to be.  However, I cannot say that the happiness in heaven will not be greater than the sadness I feel that people I love are in Hell.

I’m not too sure about the wiping of memories theory.  I’ve never heard it but I’ve heard a bunch of crazy things people make up that aren’t in the Bible.  It is the flaw of man at work.  This is a difficult question, but one that cannot be answered one way or another.

Infinity is not something I believe our minds can grasp.  Once again, if we use our finite lives to examine infinite time in heaven with an infinitely powerful God, we will never get an answer.

Why did Satan rebel?  A logical argument is simply because he could.  Free will allows the choice between A and B and Satan and 1/3 of the Angels picked B.  I’m not sure if this made heaven a bad place or not, but if heaven is heaven I’m sure the only people who suffereed are Satan and his gang.  Some people just do not want heaven.  Look at society and crime.  If everybody picked the right thing we’d all be great and dandy but people pick choice B all the time, so I assume Satan can.  This doesn’t really affect those in heaven or even their status of happiness there, it only really affects Satan.  This may weaken my previous argument that in heaven people always pick A even with free will but having Satan pick B may or may not affect anything in heaven at all.  I think the most popular explanation about Satan is that he believed he was as powerful as God.  Not being God, Satan can make such a mistake and not know.  It shouldn’t affect what heaven is if Satan likes it or not.  Heaven wasn’t heaven to Satan like Christianity isn’t for all the souls in Hell.

I also have no issue with Satan being pure evil.  God could have created Satan as a gauge for people to view good and evil.  If I taste a mediocre fruit it is both the best and worst fruit I’ve ever eaten if I have never eaten another fruit.  Just like how we try to measure infinite things with finite things, we measure good to other good and evils.

Back to free will Satan.  Satan may have picked to leave heaven not because he thought heaven was boring and sucked, but that he could make a better heaven and being ‘not all powerful’ didn’t know he could not and that he would fail and be in the fire.  Sometimes people confuse Satan with an evil version of God, but Satan is really just a creation of God, without similar power or knowledge.

Why God doesn’t appear.
According to the Bible He did and people didn’t believe.  He came as Jesus and people didn’t believe.  What difference does it make now that we have cameras?  If I saw a man claiming to be the son of god on Youtube, I would believe it less than if I saw the same guy perform miracles in real life.  Yes there are questions, but nothing about the question disproves God, His power, or His choices.

Pope infallibility is a Catholic belief that I do not agree with.  Man stated in Biblical text is flawed.  You cannot judge a God by people who are not God.  Additionally just because a person claims to be Christian does not make them Christian, and their actions do not cast light about God.

I believe that the Bible is God influenced.  It is inspired and kept in line by God.  There are errors in translation and typos to be sure but the gist and meaning behind it are intact.  So yes there may be errors because of the telephone game but no nothing is so messed up that God’s ideals and path to heaven are wrong because of it.

I also do not believe the Bible needs clarification.  The steps are simple and at least the basics are easy to follow.  Jesus boils down the commandments to two simple things.  Just because humans are flawed and have a hard time following them doesn’t mean the Bible is vague.  As a law student, I’ve seen people argue over nothing more than comma placement, so I know that humans will always think something is vague.  If something is written too simple it is too simple.  If something is written more complex it is too complex.  It is hard to satisfy all.  My level of reading comprehension differs from that of an English major.  I already think it is admirable how well the Bible is read and by how many people.  Not that those facts are proof of God’s work in it, but it does weaken any argument the other way that the Bible is not clear so therefore God didn’t make it.

Luckily I fall into the category of people who were NOT raised Christian and apparently are not brainwashed into it.  Admittedly I grew up in the south and were surrounded by Christians who showed both hate and love.  I just feel a little more open minded than most people.  I argue the 1000 kid in a bubble argument doesn’t always come out the way we expect.  People’s brains are hard wired to believe in higher beings.  I’ve heard my brother the psychology major (now in med school) argue a thousand different points of views on religion.  The one that sticks out to me the most is why people pray.  It is normally about having control in a situation without control.  If I am in a tornado, I pray to God to save me, not really because God needs to be told, but because I want God to step in and do something when I cannot.  Logically, if I know the situation is without control, why would I bother praying unless I’m somehow hard wired to think something bigger than me exists that I can control.  While the control part may be flawed, the God part would clearly affect the outcome of people growing up in a bubble.

It is true that the majority of people will choose a religion based on where they live and how they grew up, but that doesn’t make the religion wrong.  I understand that my belief in Christ is no different than a Scientologist’s believe in alien beings, but faith is still faith, even if people choose differently.

I also do not believe in brainwashing children.  However, if I truly believe my religion is the correct one, you cannot fault me for wanting everybody else to believe it too.  Of course the easy way is to brainwash the children, which while I do not agree with is simply just one strategy used by some humans flawed in their methods doing what they believe is right.  It doesn’t make the religion wrong, it makes the people wrong.  Preventing somebody from going to Hell is a good cause.  No faith is so clearly right, else it would be science.  You worry people will go to Hell because you believe in your faith and not theirs.

Still to Come:
Easy answers to difficult questions
Philosophical questions
The human body is poorly designed
Early Christian history

screw you Chick-Fil-A

Excuse me sir but ‘Wu’ is a valid last name.

Incubus

It was a GREAT concert.
http://jasonwu7890795.wordpress.com/concerts/

National TV Schedule

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/2009/08/2009-10-nba-national-tv-schedule.html

The Rockets, who were one win away from the Western Conference Finals, have zero national TV appearances.

Considering the Rockets have no super star, I wouldn’t put them on National TV either.  I’m just glad I can still watch all the Rockets games because I live in Houston.

apologies

My short posts all go thru twitter now and comment threads are all on facebook.  I’m not saying this form of expression is dead, but it will surely shrink.  I at least have my twitter posts available there on the left.  Nothing new, I’ll be going out to Arizona Thursday to help my brother transition to his new home for medical school.  Other than that, I just have classes Monday thru Wednesdays at night.

Asia Post – Part 2

I’ve been to Hong Kong, but I’ve never actually been to China.  So instead of taking a side trip to Japan like normal I pushed for the family to take a trip to Beijing.  So in summary of what I thought of Beijing, China:  Great history, rude people, cheap labor, clean streets but dirty air.

My mom had a friend who had a friend who run some tour company or something.  Anyways, we ended up getting our own English speaking tour guide and a super aggressive driver.

Day 1:  Saw the local Beijing Olympic stuff, like the Bird’s Nest and the Bubbly Aquatic place where Michael Phelps did his thing.  I was surprised that China had Dairy Queens.  The Starbucks and McDonalds you expect just not DQ.  We also had Peking Duck.  Since it’s the city’s specialty I expected it to be good.  I did get a surprise but good, I dunno.  The skin is suppose to be what makes Peking Duck special.  It was very different, you’d put the skin in your mouth and BAM it would just melt.  It was nice but I like the crunchy skin and the ability to actually eat it.  We stayed at a nice hotel with plugs that fit my electronics and a shower with one of those rain from the roof showers.

Day 2:  We walked the most the second day.  We saw Tiananmen square which was just a big square that leads into the Forbidden City.  The thing that is so different about China from Taiwan is the amount of land available.  The palace was freaking huge.

so big

We ended day 2 by eating some old school hot pot.  Apparently the lamb hot pot was something special.  I still preferred the all you can eat personal hot pot we had in Taiwan.

Day3:  We had to go about 40 mins out of Beijing to get to a part of the Great Wall of China.

The thing about the Great Wall is that its a whole bunch of walls and pieces built at different times.  So, we went to this ‘part’ of the wall.  It was in the mountains so the wall itself wasn’t that high.  It simply used the mountain as part of the defense.  All I could think about was Mulan when the people were attacking and the guys would light the fires at the posts… “Now all of China knows you’re here”.  I easily answered the tour guide’s question about why they had to have the towers at set intervals.  Climbing up the wall was actually really challenging.  The steps are all different sizes, the mountain part was steep, and I’m afraid of heights.  My brother the mountain climber got up quick, it took me longer since I had to grab the side rails all the way up and down.  My dad went up with a 20 step strategy for stamina sake and my mom enjoyed the view from below.  It was cool to see, but it was a wall.  I knew the history so it wasn’t super amazing to actually see it in person.  It was good to see it finally though.

Funny story about the people while at the wall.  First, my mom was getting a picture with the wall and my brother squatted down to take it.  Some local decides to walk right in between them and just stand.  Second, while we sat and waited for my dad to come down the wall we saw two ladies waiting for their friends.  When a third person arrived, they both got up and one dropped a water bottle.  All three of them looked down at the bottle, and decided it wasn’t worth picking up and just left.  Who does that!  Luckily since labor is so cheap in China, they have a lot of trash people and the bottle was removed soon enough.

Rest of the time:
We saw the Temple of Heaven, went to a bunch of touristy spots where they try to sell you stuff, and had a dinner that cost less than the ice cream we bought after.  Ask me about stories, China is an interesting place.  I’m glad I visited but I’ll never go back.

The last days in Taiwan were fun, I got to see Grace, Richard, Jimmy.