In the spirit of 1Malaysia! (Warning: Sarcasm overload)

On today's segment of "Did You Know?" (Actually this is my first segment ever... gotta start somewhere, right?):

DID YOU KNOW...
The Torah (which is the first 5 books of the Bible) were written well before 1000B.C, the 4 Gospels were written about 70 A.D. (about 40 years about Jesus died), the rest of the biblical books were written somewhere in between, but the Quran was written in approximately 610 to 632 A.D (that's waaaay after all the books of the Bible were written) ?

DID YOU KNOW....
Many stories and people written about in the Quran are the same people written about in the Bible? These include Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, King David, King Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Aaron, Moses, Zechariah, John the Baptist, and Jesus. Details of these stories are similar (with some differences) but the Quran describes them all to be men sent by the one whose name starts with "A" (I can't use the word coz' I'm not Muslim. Kinda makes me feel like a character in the Harry Potter books who uses "You-know-you" instead of 'Voldemort'.). More importantly, the Quran says Jesus were merely a prophet, although the Bible says Jesus in the Son of God.

DID YOU KNOW...
The English translation of the Quran also commonly refers to the one whose name starts with "A" as "Lord"? You can see this for yourself in the online version of the English translation of the Quran. The name 'Lord' is what Christians use to refer to our God and to Jesus.


I still hold out some hope that our Malaysian government does desire some form of equality among all Malaysians, especially our Prime Minister and his political party whose name befits their actions (because their actions usually make everyone else go either "Umm?" or "Noooo!!") whose dream is to have everyone united under '1Malaysia'. Under this vision of '1Malaysia', it is apparently very equal to ask people of certain faiths to not use a certain name to refer to their God, regardless of the fact that this name has been used by people of this faith for centuries. The very logical reason is because the people of different faiths have different beliefs of what their God is like, therefore it does not make sense to call the God of people of different faiths by the same name. It is equal to say that even though this certain name of God has been used for centuries by people this faith not only in Malaysia, but also Arab, Indonesia and the rest of the Arabic speaking world, restrictions on the use of this name only apply to people of Malaysia. Why? Well, because Malaysia is SPECIAL (so Arab and Indonesia, you just gotta deal with it. Ok? OK? O? Kay?)
It is also very equal to confiscate and ban 15,000 holy books using this specific name in this specific language. Under '1Malaysia', this is necessary to ensure that the religious sensitivities of a certain group of religiously sensitive people are not insensitively flared up. So to help further achieve our government's noble vision of unity and equality under '1Malaysia', in light of the above mentioned fun facts and also to ensure there is no chance of insensitively flaring up the religious sensitivities of potentially-sensitive people of other faiths, I think it may be necessary to make the following requests to our wonderful and fair government:

1) Kindly order that all English versions of the Quran which refer to the one whose name starts with "A" as 'Lord', be banned, removed from stores and ceased from printing. According to Cambridge Dictionary, "Allah" is defined as "the name of God for Muslims", whereas "Lord" is referring to "(in the Christian religion) God or Jesus Christ". As such, it is fair that if only Muslims can use "Allah" in reference to your God, then it must be that only Christians can be allowed to use the word "Lord" in reference to their God and Jesus Christ. The English version of the Quran cannot use the word "Lord", especially since it is already defined as a name specifically referring to the Christian God, which is obviously not the same as the Muslim God. If an English version of the Quran using the word "Lord" is read by a Christian, they might get confused and convert to Islam. We don't want any Christians to be confused. No sirree. Probably wouldn't be good for Muslims either, since they might also read the word 'Lord' in the English Quran, and think it refers to the Christian God, and therefore be confused and become a Christian. You don't want any Muslims to be confused either. No sirree.

Oh no! I mentioned the 'A' word even though I'm not a Muslim! I'm evil, I'm eeeeeevil!!!

But I'll get over it.

2) In the process, kindly also ban the printing of all English versions of the Quran that print the name of Jesus. This is because the Christians also worship Jesus as our Lord and Son of God, whereas the Quran only describes Jesus as a prophet and specifically states He is not the Son of God. Since the God of the Muslims and the Christians are different and they must be called by different names, then the Jesus of the Muslims and the Christians are also different. Christians might also read about Jesus in the Quran and become confused, thinking He's been demoted to a prophet. No good, no good, no good. You could, however, just refer to Jesus as 'Isa', which is the Arabic name for Jesus. No problem there.

3) While you're at this, kindly also make sure all the English Qurans do not use the names of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, King David, King Solomon, Mary, Moses, etc... since these were all people written about in the Christian Bible. Copyrights of stories goes to the first person who writes that story, and since the Christian Bible came WAAAAY before the Quran was written, then the Quran cannot use those names. Especially since the Quran also describes these people rather differently, so they can't be the same people as those in the Bible, therefore you have to give them different names. There is no problem if the English Quran used only the Arabic names of these people (Moses = Musa, Solomon = Sulaiman, Mary = Mariam, Abraham = Ibrahim, Noah = Nuh, etc, etc). Gosh, it would just be a catastrophe if the Christians read about all these biblical characters with biblical English names in the Quran. They all just get so confused and think the Quran IS the Bible and become Muslim! After all, there *might* be some Christians out there who are incapable of reading the front cover of a holy book, and therefore mistake the words "The Holy Quran" as meaning "The Holy Bible". Although I wonder how they can even read the book in the first place if they can't even read the front cover and differentiate the Muslim Quran from the Christian Bible. I'm just saying.

4) The government must also establish a new ruling that everyone who has a different opinion about a certain person must refer that person by one specific name. This is due to the very logical reasoning that if Muslims and Christians believe different things about their God, then this God must be two different entities and Muslims and Christians cannot call them by the same name. By the same logic, if I were to believe that the ex-president of MIC, Samy Vellu were a very noble and honest politician upholding the rights of the people, but another person believed Samy Vellu were a scoundrel out to swindle the people of their money, then we are believing in two very different people. As such, it is imperative to have a new ruling - all people with the same opinion of Samy Vellu as myself can only call him "Samy". No other name. And all people who think he's a scoundrel can only call him "Vellu". We cannot interchange these names. It could inflame some political sensitivities, and we don't want people to think we are referring to the same Samy Vellu. It is simply illogical. Same applies to all other politicians and famous people in the country, since everyone has different ideas and opinions about different people. You now have to come up with a long list of specific names that can only be used by specific people. You better get busy!


Yes, my dear Malaysian government and PM, I'm sure you will all agree that removing all English versions of the Quran with the above name being used is an absolutely necessary step towards ensuring the religious sensitivities of the Christians are not inflamed. It is also necessary that all Muslims and Christians make sure they use ONLY the names referring to their respectives Gods and people in the Bible, and not share these names among each other, because this is the true spirit of '1Malaysia'. '1' God for Muslims and '1' God for the Christians. Let's all ignore the fact that Muslims and Christians share a lot of common beliefs... sharing things in common is not in the spirit of '1Malaysia' at all. It is the fact that Malaysians do not know how to share that makes us all truly ONE.

So goooooo, 1Malaysia!

In the spirit of 1Malaysia! (Warning: Sarcasm overload)

Tuhan Akbar!

In other words, God is great, and since the 'A' word is claimed to be copyrighted by certain people who have some misguided belief that certain words can only be used by certain people of which I am not one of, I conveniently replaced the 'A' word with Tuhan. God is really really great. And awesome. And almighty. Coz' He not only protected his people, who by biblical definition are the real churches, He has also done a good job of protecting the buildings that His people go to worship.Why do I think so? To date, the number of reported attacks on churches, plus one convent school (they even dare to attack SCHOOLS where children may be at. These twerps truly have no conscience!) has risen to EIGHT, today some of which were churches outside of the Klang Valley, in Perak, Sarawak and Malacca. And this is what the papers have reported:

Reported in the News Straits Times on 8 Jan 2010:

The Metro Tabernacle church in suburban Kuala Lumpur was fire-bombed in a midnight attack that gutted its ground floor. Firebombs were later tossed into the compound of at least two more churches - the Assumption Catholic Church and the Life Chapel Protestant church - in Petaling Jaya, but both failed to explode. Another church also received a threat.

Reported today (10 Jan 2010) in the Sun:
In the first case outside the Klang Valley, a pastor at All Saints Church on Jalan Taming Sari in Taiping alerted the police after finding broken bottles and soot in the compound of the church at about 7.30am.

The 120-year-old Anglican church is listed as a heritage site.

Perak police chief DCP Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah, who confirmed the incident, said there was no damage to the timber building.

He said police received another report from SM Convent on Jalan Regat Convent after a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the security guardhouse at about 3.30am. The bottle broke a glass window but failed to explode.

Zulkifli said police were also informed of a broken empty bottle found in the compound of St Louis Catholic Church not far from the school.

In all reports of churches attacked with Molotov cocktails, so far not ONE has exploded. Like what? Either these guys are just so incredibly incompetent that they can't even make a proper Molotov cocktail, or these bombs just didn't go off because of divine protection. Actually I like both possibilities just as much, and the former is simply more hilarious, but still I'd rather put it down to divine protection. Of course, the thought occurred to me earlier, but I thought it would have been unfair to say God protected all the other churches when the ground floor of one of the churches attacked, the Metro Tabernacle, was destroyed by arson. Does that mean God protected the other churches but not this one??

Not so, as I read a report in the Star today that shows otherwise. The worshippers at Metro Tabernacle were already planning to relocate their church to a new area, which was all set up and ready to be moved in by Christmas last year, but they couldn't because they couldn't get the necessary approvals. Now not only will they certainly get their approvals, but our Prime Minister is giving a grant of RM500,000 to them to help them to relocate! So they not only already have a brand spanking new church to go to, but they have a hoopla of money to buy new resources and equipment for their church! It's amazing! Is God awesome or what? Fellow Christians, let's give our Lord all the glory and praise He deserves and trust that He will continue to protect us and His churches.

Our places of worship are not meant for this:


Our places of worship are meant for THIS:

This was my church service today. We had a combined service with all other CBC centres, and amid the hype of churches being firebombed, we CBC-ians came out in FULL FORCE to celebrate and praise God. And news reports also show that Christians in other churches were all out today, regardless of the security risks. There was no talk of fear or condemnation of any one of my church leaders. Instead, my church leaders asked us to bless our nation, to bless our country's leaders and government and pray for them to have wisdom and uphold justice in our country. Honestly, I found it SO difficult to pray that, considering everything we've seen so far shows our leaders haven't got much in terms of wisdom or ability to be just. But as difficult as it is, that's what Christians are called to do... not just to love our friends, but also to love our enemies. And I'm glad and proud that my church leaders encouraged us to do what is difficult, but what we know is right.

We don't need to turn our places of worship and joy into places of protest and anger.

We don't need to fight anyone else to protect the name of our God. Our God is fully well and able to protect us from harm, and He has already done so.

We only need to praise His name and enjoy every minute of it.

God is GREAT! :D

Tuhan Akbar!

More epic debates....

Goodness, I haven't updated my blog in over a month, I think. My days are pretty full now with work, and going to the fitness centre almost every day unless I'm busy, exceptionally lazy or sick (even THEN I still try to go unless I'm really bedridden). That's what happens when you sign up for expensive personal training... it motivates you to makes the most of the money spent on the gym. Heh. I'm also still busy with the whole online debate on Genesis I posted about a while ago, as in the meantime I also got into another debate on the bible's (supposed) contradictions on Bolt.com, which also veered off into other related topics on evidence of Jesus, etc, etc. I was initially replying to my atheist opponents in a very gung ho manner, spending whatever free time I could to come up with good replies. But after a few weeks, I'm taking it a bit more easy coz' I've presented my case for the most part and now it seems more like we're nitpicking on the details. And considering I'm the only Christian defending my beliefs in what I hope is a very logical manner against 3 atheists (with other commenters in between), it's rather the tiring for me, although I carry on in a labour of love because I hope against hope that somehow my arguments will at least cause my opponents and other non-believing readers to see things differently and come to know Christ. If not now then one day. Unfortunately, I think most non-believers hope for God and a good afterlife when they are close to death.

Anyway, on to more interesting posts.

More epic debates....

The epic Genesis debate

Hi guys, I know I've been rather missing in action lately (and I promised the scoop on my disturbing encounter with one of the local guides at Redang, but until now I haven't gotten round to it and I'm wondering if I should still bother). Actually the reason for my absence is that I joined an online community called Bolt.com, which has a lot of interesting forums and I have gotten myself wrapped up discussing topics with people around the world. I mostly discuss topics on religion, and especially pertaining to Christianity, which is great for me coz' I hardly get the chance to share my faith to my non-Christian friends (I won't bring it up unless someone else brings it up, and even if it does come up, I'm usually to shy to share too much coz' I might end up saying something stupid-ish), and so being able to do online in a forum specially made for discussing these things (and where I can really think about what I say before I say it, so I have less chance of saying stupid things) is a Godsend for me, especially since I spend most of my life online anyway.

Needless to say, discussing religion invites snide remarks from non-believers on the forum, and not too long after I joined, I was already in a hot debate with a very annoying atheist (not saying all atheists are annoying, but this particular one is. Very. Extremely. Rude. Thick-headed. And annoying) who 'claimed' he could debunk the book of Genesis. So I started a thread to discuss this, and along the way a couple of other non-Christians joined the fray (they were much nicer though) and I've had my hands full replying to their arguments ever since. The number of posts on my thread currently stand at 60! And I still haven't managed to reply to everything yet, coz' I have a day job to do. But even though some people might tell me such debates are pointless and never amount to anything, I don't think so. For one thing, it forces me to do my research, and I learned a lot of new things along the way, not just about the Bible, but also science, which I use a lot in my arguments against these guys. And I believe some of my arguments are making good sense (some of it sounds so insightful, I think it could only have come from God!), so I hope that it will at least open the eyes of some of these non-believers, though I think the annoying person is a lost cause coz' the way he replies to me, it's obvious he doesn't really care what I say and he enjoys acting like an retard (I couldn't help taking my own snipes at him, though in a more polite manner). It got the point where my annoyance at the annoying person was reflecting in my responses to one of the other guys posting on my topic, which was not my intention because he seemed like a nice guy (and also much smarter than the annoying person). So once I realized I wasn't sounding too nice to him, I apologized to him (off the thread) and I also decided to stop replying to posts from the annoying person, because I don't want the topic to degenerate into snide remarks and insults.

Anyhow, the thread still continues on, and if you are interested in reading the debate and possibly picking up some good answers you can give to your own enquiring non-Christian friends (or if you ARE a non-Christian and still interested in what I have to say), you can check it out here, under the topic "Debunking Genesis". :)

The epic Genesis debate