Faith - Sophie's World

I love this book...

A novel that summarizes a 3000 years history of philosophy - Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard...even Karl Marx and Charles Darwin are there too.

But this time my writing is not about promoting this book...it's because I have something to ponder out of reading it...

The supposedly main characters were Sophie and Alberto Knox. Sophie was a fourteen-turning-fifteen year old girl (if you read the book, you would understand why I mentioned both ages) and Alberto was her philosophy teacher. Interestingly, their stories were written by a Major in UN Peacekeeping troop named Albert Knag as a 15th birthday gift to his daughter named Hilde.

There was one dialog between Alberto and Sophie that caught my attention:

“Sophie, either you are living in a wondrous universe on a tiny planet in
one of many hundred billion galaxies— or else you are the result of a few
electromagnetic impulses in the major’s mind. And you are talking about
grades! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

Now there comes the confusion...who are the real main characters?
Sophie and Alberto? Or Hilde and Albert The Major?
Or Jostien Gaarder - the writer of the whole book?

Funny isn't it...A character in a book realized that he might be a "creation"...
Also another funny thing is that Mr Gaarder did not make the Major realize that he might also be a "creation"...

Who are we then? Are "we" the result of Someone else's mind?
And that Someone else...is "He" the result of another Someone else's mind?
And so on...

It's like standing between two mirrors...You see your reflection and your reflection sees its reflection...and its reflection...
It's like dreaming of you're dreaming of you're dreaming of....dreaming...
It's like...well...I think you've got the idea...

The faithfuls believe that there has to be Someone Who is the first mover of everything...
The faithless believe that everything is there as it is...as a result of natural process...

The faithfuls counter that nobody in his right mind believes that something could happen without any cause...
The faithless counter that if everything must have its cause...then who or what causes the cause?...

I.e. If God created everything...Who created God?
I.e. If one could believe that God is the "uncreated One" and the Cause of everything...what is stopping people to believe that one thing's existence does not require a cause? Hence, God's existence is not required to explain anything...

The faithless believe not in heaven and hell because death to them is an end to everything that lived before...
The faithfuls believe in heaven and hell and death to them is just another beginning of another kind of life...And those who believe would go to heaven, those who don't would go to hell...

The faithless refuse to have faith in God because it is stupid to do so...
Reason being...it is unreasonable to believe in something or Someone Who cannot be empirically proven and wholly reasoned...

The faithfuls refuse to denounce their faith in God because it is stupid to do so...
Reason being...If God does exist - their reward is heaven and the faithless' reward is hell. Even if God does not exist - nothing is lost...everything ends anyway... So the faithfuls' reward is unlimited bliss and the risk is none, but the faithless' reward is none and the risk is...unlimited terror. This does not sound like a good risk-return model for the faithless...

Still...the debates go on...

I look at the empty tomb...and believe...

Roadway in The Wilderness...

2008...

Another year has passed...

I do not remember what has happened in the last one year...Oh yeah, some vague memories jolted my brain whenever I heard people were talking about certain things, but if you asked me straight...I might stare blankly at you and say...I don't recall...

But hey...magically...as I am struggling to pour out my thoughts here...I suddenly recall a few things that have happened in my life...

And I am grateful...for them...

Somehow, I have learned a lot about being grateful over simple things...like freezing in my apartment although the heater is on full blast...being hungry and forced to scrape for food cause there are no restaurants around my apartment...listening on my mom's rants over the phone...being together with friends who never fill the void of my heart...etc...

By the way, I just had a gathering with about 30 people and we had a "game" of writing "good things" about someone. And so most people (if not all) wrote that I look "mature"....Not sure if that was a compliment or they just couldn't find a better word for "old"....

Wilderness...that's how I look at my surroundings...Everything is so uncertain and I have no clear idea where I would be...

I do not even know what I really want...

I am even afraid to want...

But finally, I muster up some left over courage...and list my wishes for 2008...

May the Master open my eyes...to see a Roadway...in The Wilderness...

I will not, I will not, I will not leave you nor forsake you...