I am not sure if it’s a factor of getting older and hopefully wiser or if I just have too much time on my hands, but lately I am asking myself far too often what is the purpose of this life? What are we doing to and on this earth? What really matters? I cant help but feel that we as humans have definitely lost the plot. We kill frankly because we can. We have no patience for each other, no tolerance of each other. We think we are better than the other person because we have blonde hair and they don’t, we have dark skin and they don’t, we believe in our god and they don’t…we are all about me…me…f**king me!!
What’s brought this on some might ask, no one specific thing really, just a culmination of 30 odd years of realisation. But that is not the question right now the real question is when does it end? Or what can I do in my life to end it! As many of you can tell this is a topic very dear to my heart. I really fail to understand where all this intolerance stems from. On sunday i played tennis with some mates and i must be honest my tennis lately has been pretty sha ite, but i have had some good patches and on sunday i was playing some of the best tennis i have in a while. I have this pet hate of people talking on cell phones when we are playing. So on sunday my mates brother's cell rings and he asks his brother my opponent at the time to answer and so he does needless to say i was quite bleak and as a result my tennis went south. Very silly but thats sport the intollerence comes in when i left the court heading home. I was on the inside of a guy and i realised that the 2 lanes were merging into one. I was on the inside lane but i knew if i dropped foot i would make it. It was silly, my fault, and i immediately put up my hand and my hazzards to appologise. Oh dear nexr traffic lights are red. Guess who pops up next to me. I roll down my window to appologise. The guy starts letting me have it, i kept saying my fault didnt realise, he carries on....Jackal and Hyde boss, the profanities came spewing from my mouth...i felt bad, i should have just rolled up my window and moved on...short fuse, i could find some justification for it, but its just not cricket! I was wrong i should move on.
I guess the icing on the cake (other than things in my personal life) is this latest uproar about the pope’s rather unnecessary and careless inclusion of a 1931 discourseByzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus” and an unnamed “educated Persian”about Islam and Christianity, in his lecture apparently titled “Faith, Reason and the University – Memories and Reflections” on 12th September 2006 at the University of Regensburg in Germany. To put this in context, the Pope prior to becoming the pope was a master Theologian (if that’s how you say it). I am about to plagarise a section of an article i read on the net which is an extract of his lecture, ideally i would have liked to have summarised it but i think it may lose its essence. I guess it may have already lost a great part of it as this is a translated extract of 3 paragraphs of a 16 paragraph lecture.
Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy
I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on — perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara — by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between — as they were called — three "Laws" or "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an. It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point — itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole — which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason", I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.
In the seventh conversation edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that sura 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood — and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…
The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: "For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality." Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Muslim R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practice idolatry."
Ok decide for yourselves what you will on this, hence why we are all individuals, more than likely we may well all have differing views on this. Bottom line in this for me is religion (like many other things) should not be forced onto people. I believe that strongly. Fair enough an unfortunate reference was made to Islam, perhaps he was using this in context to what is currently going on in the world or perhaps not, he can only tell u what he was thinking.What i can say though is gross generalisation can breed nothing but contempt and this case is situation is no different. Be that as it may...I am a Christian by birth and by choice but i will go on and say that many a violent crime has been purpotrated in the name of Christianity, you guys remember this hymn we used to sing at assmbley or church...”onward Christian soldiers, marching on to war”, Bush's imposition of democracy on other nations, hollocaust, colonisation, apartheid, violent crimes against humanity the basis...religion. Its not religion that is at fault or Gods word that is at fault but mans interpretation of what the creator intended. Its definitely up to each and everyone of us in our hearts and in our minds through our in/actions and interactions with each other and the world at large to try as best as we can to portray the goodness and wholesomeness (if such word exists) that is meant to be God. For its through these actions that the world sees the religion with which we wish to be associated.
In summary, we are all individuals in this world with our own set of morals, value system and beliefs. But with the way the world is going at the moment, the world is but a flight away, a call away a flick of the computer switch away. As much as we must be sensitive to each others feelings and not unnecessarily ruffle any tail feathers, in the same breath we should be aware of the fact that criticism will be flung in our direction and engaging in constructive dialogue, u stating your stand point and me stating mine. How dam n hard is it? We are different thats why not every soul on this earth is tall dark and... called Yaw Peprah. You want to be with your own and act in isolation then i suggest get an island somewhere destroy all cell phones, tvs and pcs. I know religion is the essence of many of our beings, but many of our religions are so alike. I draw comparisons with 2/3 of the religions here. They believe in one god, one says beat your wife when she disobeys you another asks a woman to honour and obey her husband when they exchange their wedding vows i could go on. What i am trying to say here though although different in our ways we are all quite similar.
Thats me for the week. I wasnt going to write this but whilst writing this email, particularly the paragraph after the quote i was overcome by such a sense of clarity like never before, very weird, but it felt great...hmmmm
Birthdays for the week
19th Hannah
23rd Si Black
24th Vaughan
28th John K
29th Eve
Bottom line. Nowadays we are all on a mission with our lives. We are living a worldly existence and not one of the soul. We are all very concerned about me me me. How will/does the world see me. We are all in a rush to get somewhere, the only place at the end of this all is the grave boys and girls. Take some time. Let me repeat that TAKE SOME TIME. Get to know the people in your lives. Give ur children some time they wont need drugs, spend time you’re your spouse/partner get to really know them, there will be less spousal violence less divorce. Take some time to get to know your co-workers, gardeners, helpers, bosses. Just take some time out to get to know and understand people. Forget what the world has to say about x or y. find out for yourself. I should have taken my time on Sunday, I shouldn’t have crossed that guy, I shouldn’t have blown my lid. Maximum respect and to thine ownself be true always and most importantly live and let live!!!