John Campbell and the Problem of evil part 3

I want to make a tribute to a great musician that the world never got to know because of the early death of blues ace John Campbell. John died at the age of 41 from a heartattack in his sleep which seemed a cruel way to go especially since he was just peaking. His life story has been very interesting for me read up about. When he was 16 he got into a tragic accident and then decided to drop out of college and spent the next couple of years of his life on the road. He slept in dirty places and only had his guitar as his real prime companion. But it was during his travels around the US that he got exposed to different styles of playing the blues such as piano style in Louisiana, banjo style in Texas and slide guitar in Mississippi. He was proficient in mixing the 3 up, with a beat. If i never make it to music school, i'm going to do what John did and travel around india probably to learn different styles of music with a guitar.

Check him out, i hope you'll be hungry for more...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpcE15tM2Eo&feature=related

Problem of evil goes like this. Conventional attributes that are given to God of monotheistic faiths include terms such as God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent. So God is all powerful in the sense that there are no limits to what God can or cannot do and is wholly good in the sense that a good thing is always opposed to an evil thing and would seek to eliminate evil. So the argument works with the following three propositions

God is omnipotent
God is wholly good
Evil exists

If you accept that any of the above propositions is false the problem of evil is not applicable for you anymore. The existence of evil and an omnipotent wholly good being is incompatible. Well i've been reading a lengthy argument about the problem of evil from a guy named Mackie and it’s got me questioning my understanding of God intensely over the last couple of days. Well the argument is refuted in a number of ways but they all lead back to showing that God is actually either not omnipotent or wholly good. For example, one rebuttal from the theists is good and evil are necessary counterparts. So imagine a world without evil, where everything was good. Well then you would never be able to tell if something was evil or not and then you would be unable to make this distinction between a good and a bad deed. The rebuttal to the rebuttal is that well then it shows that God’s power is limited because God has to create evil in the face of good. God can’t create good without creating evil and hence this limits God’s power. Another argument is that God is not responsible for evil and its only humans that are responsible because God gave us freewill. This again limits God’s power if God has indeed given us freewill because God is no longer able to control our will. So God might have had the power to give us freewill but not necessarily command power to control our freewill. If God has made men such that in their free choices they sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil, why could he not have made men such that they always freely choose the good?

Paradox of omnipotence: Can an omnipotent being make things which he cannot subsequently control? Or can an omnipotent being make rules which then bind himself?

Well my reply to the problem of evil is as follows. The problem of evil is not really a problem at all because who are we to judge the attributes of God? If you wouldn’t judge a stranger in a country you’ve never heard of, how can you pass judgment on what kind of attributes are characteristic of God, a being who could be considered as a stranger residing in a location that you can’t even conceive. So I claim that our understanding of God’s goodness, omnipotence and reasons for the existence of evil are poorly understood. However this reply led to more severe problems. It started to make me question what do I really know or believe about God and God’s characteristics. Because the presuppositions that you make can lead to a very different outcome of conclusions you make. So here are my presuppositions. The universe was caused by something that transcends the universe itself, called the transcendent cause or the creator. Typically only a being who posses all pure perfections can have the power to create, to this being we name God. I think an excellent argument for the existence of this being is the Kalam Cosmological Argument for God which was defended by professor Nowacki from SMU. It goes like this

Premise 1: Whatever comes to be has a cause of its coming to be
Premise 2: the universe came to be
Conclusion: The universe has a cause of its coming to be

I’m not going to explain the arguments that defend the premises (as it’s pretty long but its based on math and science), but the important inferences are, the argument shows that the universe did not exists eternally in the past. The universe has a finite past and came to be out of nothing. It’s not like there was some preexisting matter and then it formed after the preexisting matter. Big bang theory is empirical evidence that confirms this argument since it predicts that the universe’s past is finite. It’s not through this argument that I have started believing in God. I think truthful knowledge about God’s existence comes in the form of divine revelation is impossible to predict of when it happens. So my belief in God’s existence prior to this course was based on an “irrational” belief. Now my beliefs are based on irrational and logical reasoning. I was born into a Christian family and have up till a short while ago only ever believed in the principles of Christianity. Today I don’t subscribe to organized religion anymore. It doesn’t mean that I reject Christianity, it just means I don’t believe that by going to church or through living your life as a “good Christian” is the only means of knowing God. I propose that you can believe in God without subscribing to a religion. Someone asked me the other day then isn’t this subscribing to the belief that you have created your own God? I said not necessarily because for all you know all the monotheistic faiths pray to the same God but have different ways of naming God. Although I know I need to do a lot more reading before I make such radical claims, there are things I find hard to reconcile that make me feel as though organized religion is detrimental. For one it gives you guidelines as to how to live your life justifying the guidelines in the name of God. I think choosing guidelines for living your life comes about as you grow up and they form based on your experiences with the world. I feel as though subscribing to organized religion can limit the experiences you choose to engage in with your life. On the contrary, I think it’s important to try everything at least once and make up your mind for yourself on what works for you and what doesn’t.

Here are the major mind boggles that have plagued me over the past few days though. So I don’t subscribe to a religious faith. I believe God exists. What is the purpose now or what is the necessity for me to know of God’s existence? Christianity suggests that there is an afterlife and that the target would be to make it to heaven and not hell. I think Hinduism and Buddhism suggest reincarnation based on what kind of a person you are in the current life. But not subscribing to religion entails that I don’t neither accept nor reject the above propositions of the afterlife.

Do I live the rest of my days in adoration of God? Do I carry on knowing God exists and live my life as though there is no consequence of my actions in the eyes of God or as though there are consequences for my actions in the eyes of God? My questions seem to be a borderline between finding the meaning of life and finding meaning in life. The more questions I ask the more confused I become. My presuppositions also confuse me. For instance I believe that everything happens for a reason. Which I think is the same as saying all effects/events have a cause. God can/is responsible for all events/effects and causes. That means on some level I believe everything that happens in my life is caused by God. There is one presupposition that I strongly believe in. God can help people achieve a high level of mastery in whatever proficiency they choose to concentrate on in life. I’ve seen it twice recently. One was in Goa where I saw a singer/sitar player of a band called Kundalini Airport perform as though he was communicating on behalf of God to his audience. It was the way he performed and his connection to the music that made me think this person is spiritually enlightened and that’s why he is so damn good. The same with another musician I met who was a part time missionary and part time guitar player. He played with such unique technique and flair that I felt such knowledge must have been imparted on him from a higher being. It doesn’t just have to be music. It can be in any field. Thomas Aquinas for instance, a great theist philosopher was blessed with amazing knowledge. He had 5 secretaries to whom he would dictate 5 different topics. He would dictate a few things for the first secretary to write down say about astrology, then go to the second one about theism, the third about math….and so on in a circle and come back to the first secretary and continue from where he left off. He could do this while reading! And he had a photographic memory so all the references you see in his books are not like references where he had to go find which book which chapter said what. He just knew it and he was damn smart. This is someone whom I convinced was blessed with superior knowledge from God.

Power of Protests

When i went on exchange to Mexico i happened to see 2 protests and unsurprisingly i followed and video taped the protests. The first protest happened in my exchange university, UDLA. Basically a number of students on scholarships had their scholarships revoked by the university without any explanation whatsoever. The move sparked a massive protest which spread via sms, msn and word of mouth. It was interesting to see so many students congregate, regardless of being affected, to start a movement to fight for the reinstatement of these scholarships. It started in the morning when students boycotted their classes, aggregated and moved around the campus chanting with protest signs. Finally the protest ended up in an office, where heads of the student unions vehemently verbalised their discontent with the situation to university representatives. This carried on for a few days and the students disrupted the whole system by blocking vehicles from entering the university compound. Eventually the university re-instated the scholarships and life went on as normal.

I didn't understand much of the second protests that i saw, but it was much larger in scale compared to the one in school because some people lost their jobs if im not mistaken and they started a massive protest outside the parliament house of the city of Guadalajara. I don't know whether this issue was ever resolved. Strangely enought when following this protest, i noticed quite a few people holding up pictures of Che Guevarra. I don't know whether his symbol is supposed to be a mark of rebellion, a well respected latin american figure or whether he just looks damn cool in that picture this chap is holding.

In India, i've seen a riot, but unfortunately don't have any evidence of it. What happened was that there was an american missionary who had come into the country to give a speech or a sermon or something of the sort near the village where i was staying. It sparked a violent reaction from Hindu extremists who began to spread pamphlets which had information stating that the missionary was trying to convert the Hindus into Christians and that he must be stopped and people shouldn't attend the speech. On the main road, people driving vehicles with Christian symbols, like the crucifix, were pulled out of their cars, the men were beaten and the cars were smashed.

What i found most interesting from these protests, is that more than half the people in a protest don't really have a reasonable reason to be there. They just know someone protesting but can get as emotional as someone who has actually been affected. Also both these protests had people holding instruments and singing out their protests. Music was being used as a tool unite the people and remind them that they had a common denominater worth fighting for.

How do you get people who are emotionally charged to listen you?

For one i think that there needs to be an open platform to communicate when agitated.

Turning points in life and the answer to the problem of evil

I went on exchange for a period of 6 months to Mexico and had the most memorable experience of my life to date. I grew up a lot because of the innumberable experiences and encounters that just moulded me into who i am today. I found love in many different beautiful forms and discovered a meaningful purpose for my life. We are all at different stages in our lives. We always come across turning points that can help us to grow significantly. We are always offered multiple choices be it with our relationships with people or with academics or entertainment to get involved with. There is a lot of clutter in the environment that can cloud judgment and make life confusing. I think its when you know what you want out of life that you are able to make better decisions. Making better decisions means you go down turning points that help you to grow as an individual. All of this growth proliferates your happiness and makes your energy more powerful because of the positive impact you can have on your environment. The video im sharing today was a turning point in my life. This was a performance in my Mexican university UDLA (Universidad de las Americas Puebla) during a dance festival. After the performance someone whispered in my ear, like it was a secret, why dont u take lessons? It was this video and this simple comment that inspired me to take up formal guitar lessons. It was through this process of learning about music that i learnt so much about life. Had i not seen this performance, i might have taken a much longer time to become the person that i am today.

The guitarist with the accoustic is Diego Martin Lanz and the drummer behind him is his brother, Arcadio Martin Lanz. Mexico is a wonderful country for art, music and incredible people

My most favorite answer to the argument for evil

So in case you haven't read, the argument from evil is from a Greek philosopher named Epicurus. The argument presented highlights attributes such as omnipotence (all powerful), omni-benevolence (infinite goodness) and omniscience (all knowing) typically ascribed to God. It goes as follows

"Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and wiling? Whence then is evil?"

Thomas Aquinas comes up with what i think is a great response for the existence of evil. Basically the argument questions God's infinite goodness in a sense. If God existed, there would be no evil discoverable. But there is evil in the world therefore God does not exist. Augustine says "Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless his omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil." So Aquinas says, that this is part of the infinite goodness of God, that He should allow evil to exist and out of it produce good.

My podcasts for Digital Media Across Asia (SMUCOMM215)

I believe everyone is musical. I always try to encourage people to pick up whatever instrument they fancy and to play for the sake of being in love with music. Music is meant to move your soul.

For my second podcast post i'd like to post up some music i made over the weekend specifically because i wanted to do a podcast as my assignment for Digital Media Across Asia. The first track is a track i made on my own on the 6th of Feb using a music software tool called Logic Pro, which motivated me to buy my Mac. I specifically tried to use Asian instruments for DMA which includes a tibetan singing bowl, an indian percussion instrument called tabla and another instrument called indian shenhai oboe (you'll here a bass guitar in there as well).

Acha is a track i made on the 8th of Feb with my 2 wonderful music buddies in Singapore Isa (playing bass) and Josh (sound engineer who mixed the track). It's far from complete.

Well if you like the music, thats awesome and if you don't well i'm sorry about that but to make it up to you, i'll post a youtube link which i guarantee you'll find pleasing to the ears. I guarantee that Don Ross and Andy Mckee's Ebon Coast won't be a waste of your time. Eitherways my only goal is simply to inspire people to share their music be it their own or incredible pieces that the world should know about.

DMA - http://www.sendspace.com/file/pn9ooz

Acha - http://www.sendspace.com/file/5a8zzt

Ebon coast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExgqnilG4pU




I posted the following article in the wetpaint discussion forum so if you've read it you can skip it but if you haven't and your interested in the title......read on

Podcasting - Want to upload audio files/music to your blog?

Now i have to confess i haven't figured this out adequately but i think i got the gist of it. A podcast is an audio file that can be broadcasted online and is usually known to be in the form of radio shows which are available on itunes. Basically for the make up assignment i was interested in submitting a podcast but not in the form of making comments to a radio show or doing my own. Im not ready for that. I wrote some music on the weekend which i intend to share as my podcast to the class. I spent some time trying to figure out how to upload audio files to my blog and in a sense make a podcast. Eventually i would like to link these audio files to broadcast on itunes but i need more time to figure it out.

Basic Steps to make your own podcast

1) Need a mic or a recording device (digital voice recorder) to record the content you would like to upload to your computer. Your pc should have an inbuilt mic and a recording program.

2) Need to find an online server that can host your audio files. Strangely enough blogspot allows you to upload videos which are up to 100mb in size but not mp3s which are much lesser. My recommendation for a free hosting server is www.sendspace.com. You can upload audio files on this site and send it to people or post the link to your blog.

3) Once you have these 2 tools all you have to do is upload your content to sendspace, then a link will be provided to you. You can then take this link and post it on your blog for everyone to access.

Here are 2 sites that explain how podcasting works more comprehensively. The first one gives general information of how to upload podcasts to your blog and link to itunes, while the second one gives information on how to use garageband to make your own podcast.

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.pyanswer=80259&topic=12535

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kXncJJNsNw&feature=related

The first of the soon to be many audio files

So im taking this course called digital media across asia and now comes the learning of my ability to share my music with the world. My blog is all about the intriguing characters and music my travelling ends up encountering with.

So im gonna first post a few links of some of the music i got to make with a fantastic crew of funny chaps from Bombay in Goa. I have to warn you that this music isn't actually very good. Abhinav who is playing guitar is studying to be a fulltime classical musician. I bought a flute in Goa and a jambe which you'll hear in the first track. Im playing the flute (and quite horrendously) while Anand is doing the vocals and providing the percussion beats with the jambe. I'm just gonna post up 2 pieces that we made on the 31st and on new years.

I would highly recommend that you hear a fantastic super musician who i managed to meet in Bangalore before i went to Singapore play guitar in a whole different way. He is also classically trained so the progression of my exposure to the capabilities of a classical musician has left me in awe.

Goa new years track http://www.sendspace.com/file/kj9gbb

Goa new years eve track http://www.sendspace.com/file/hp1y1m

Incredible Ebby from Bangalore http://www.sendspace.com/file/sp0lop