The Parable of Cinderbella and the Unrighteous Hospital
Cinderbella had received news that pets have mysteriously gone missing at an infamous pro bono animal hospital.
She decided to bring her pet dog to test the hospital.
The dog had a shard of glass in its foot and needed treatment.
At the hospital, Doctor Who 72 took pity on her dog and nursed it to good health.
The other people in the hospital were not so kind. When Cinderbella and Doctor Who 72 were not aware, they stole the dog and cooked it.
Then they snatched Cinderbella’s slippers and threw them out of the door, showering her with a thousand vulgar expletives, while Doctor Who 72 tried to defend her. The men even tried to rape Cinderbella.
Cinderbella revealed her true colours. She said to the men, “I am and angel. In response to your inhospitality, arrogance, and violence, you shall be reduced to ashes. Only Doctor Who 72 would be saved. Come with me, Doctor Who 72.”
She led Doctor Who 72 out of the hospital while all the other people were reduced to ashes.
Multiple Choice Question:
Why did Cinderbella reduce the people in the infamous pro bono animal hospital to ashes?
A: Because of their inhospitality, arrogance, and violence.
B: Because they raped Cinderbella, thereby outraging the modesty of angels.
C: Because they ate an animal that walks on all fours and has paws, forbidden by the Book of Eli.
Romans 14:1-4 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Biodiversity, a simple word with some very broad reaching implications. Biodiversity, when split into it’s component parts, “Diversity” defined as “a range of different things.” and bio meaning “life”, quite simply means “A Diversity of Life”. It has been shown that ecological niches with good biodiversity flourish and are healthy.
“Listen, do you want to know a secret” by Lazy Lightning – Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons – commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Listen,_do_you_want_to_know_a_secret.jpg
Why was Galileo imprisoned by the Catholic Church?
Because he was using a new frame of reference in which the Earth moved round the Sun.
The Church was using the frame of reference in which the Sun moved round the Earth.
How could Galileo have done better?
He could have explained how to translate easily between the two frames of references.
Frame of Reference
When you explain things to Christians, you have to use this frame of reference:
That the Bible is absolute truth.
Christians are very forgiving. They will forgive themselves for selectively not taking certain parts of the Bible as absolute truth.
Now, deeply learning from Galileo, we need to explain how ethical principles can be translated easily into the frame of reference in which the Bible is taken as absolute truth.
Understand the real China from the speech of China President, Mr. Xi Jinping, summarized here.
The Laozi, Confucius, and Mozi teachings still carry a profound impact on Chinese people’s way of life today, underpinning the unique value system in the Chinese outlook of the world, of society and of life itself.
For several thousand years before the industrial revolution, China had been leading the world in economic, technological and cultural development.
However, feudal rulers of the 18th and 19th centuries closed the door of China in boastful ignorance and China was since left behind in the trend of development.
As a result of incessant foreign invasions thereafter, China experienced great social turmoil and its people had to lead a life of extreme destitution.
China is committed to non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and China will not allow others to interfere in its own affairs.
The Chinese people then started exploring long and hard for a path that would suit China’s national conditions.
Deng Xiaoping, we have, acting in line with China’s national conditions and the trend of the times, explored and blazed a trail of development and established socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Our aim is to build a socialist market economy, democracy, an advanced culture, a harmonious society and a sound eco-system, uphold social equity and justice, promote all-round development of the people, pursue peaceful development, complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eventually achieve modernization and ensure prosperity for all.
The uniqueness of China’s cultural tradition, history and circumstances determines that China needs to follow a development path that suits its own reality.
In China, over 74 million people rely on basic living allowances; each year, more than 10 million urban people would join the job market and several hundred million rural people need to be transferred to non-agricultural jobs and settle down in urban areas; more than 85 million people are with disabilities; and more than 200 million people are still living under the poverty line set by the World Bank, and that is roughly the population of France, Germany and the UK combined.
In the 40-day-long season of the last Chinese New Year, China’s airlines, railroads and highways transported 3.6 billion passengers, which means 90 million people were on the move each day.
To observe and understand China properly, one needs to bear in mind both China’s past and present and draw reference from both China’s accomplishments and the Chinese way of thinking.
The 5,000-year-long Chinese civilization, the 170-year struggle by the Chinese people since modern times, the 90-year-plus journey of the Conservationist Party of China, the 60-year-plus development of the People’s Republic and the 30-year-plus reform and opening-up should all be taken into account.
One can hardly understand China well without a proper understanding of China’s history, culture, the Chinese people’s way of thinking and the profound changes taking place in China today.
The Chinese people, over 2,000 year ago, had come to understand this from a simple fact that the tasty orange, grown in southern China, would turn sour once it is grown in the north.
Many problems in this world are difficult, with high complexity. Mathematically speaking, they are NP-hard.
This means that the simplest way to solve them is by exhaustive search. In other words, to try every possible solution one by one, until you get the answer.
For example, Singapore’s “Primary 5” Cheryl Birthday question can be solved easily by an exhaustive search over her 10 given dates.
Albert and Bernard just met Cheryl. “When’s your birthday?” Albert asked Cheryl.
Cheryl thought a second and said, “I’m not going to tell you, but I’ll give you some clues.” She wrote down a list of 10 dates:
May 15, May 16, May 19
June 17, June 18
July 14, July 16
August 14, August 15, August 17
“My birthday is one of these,” she said.
Then Cheryl whispered in Albert’s ear the month — and only the month — of her birthday. To Bernard, she whispered the day, and only the day.
“Can you figure it out now?” she asked Albert.
Albert: I don’t know when your birthday is, but I know Bernard doesn’t know, either.
Bernard: I didn’t know originally, but now I do.
Albert: Well, now I know, too!
When is Cheryl’s birthday?
The trouble with many humans is that the moment they realize a problem is hard, they give up even before trying.
Thomas Edison said he didn’t fail a thousand times. He just found one thousand methods that didn’t work.
So when God gives you a challenge, it is to make you stronger.
Words don’t come easy for me to express my gratitude to our excellent system of government.
My leader had a special affinity to rainbows and I thought it would be most appropriate to add a playlist of soothing a cappella music that starts off with a rainbow.
Life is a pareto optimal curve between being right and being friendly.
Always do the right thing, your good sister in Christ tells you. But the problem of insisting on doing the right thing is that you could actually be wrong. For example, the Pharisees thought they were right when they nailed Jesus to the cross.
Next, be friendly. Maintain friendship. It is easy to see when this could go wrong if you imagine you are friends with Doctor Octopus.
So it is important to choose good friends, kind and courageous allies.
This way, you can do the right thing and maintain friendship at the same time.
First trial, before Annas [nightime hours]; Annas is looking for an accusation, biding time till Sanhedrin is gathered at High Priestly villa
Second [and primary] trial before Sanhedrin, Jesus is condemned, misused
Third trial, immediately at dawn [meanwhile, Peter denies Jesus a third time; Jesus looks upon him]; the condemnation repeated, then Jesus taken to Romans
Fourth trial before Pilate [till “beginning at Galilee”]
Fifth trial before Herod [looks for miracle]
6th trial before Pilate
Jesus is scourged; the city cries, “Crucify Him or we will tell Rome!”
Jesus is finally turned over to be crucified
Jesus mocked (Roman soldiers); crown of thorns
Judas hangs himself
Jesus bears His cross to gate on north of city and is crucified around 9 am
1 This column represents standard First Century Jewish day/night cycles—sundown to sundown. Notice that slaying of the lambs “between the evenings” on Nisan 14 would in this case happen on Friday afternoon (which is when, according to John 18:28, the Jewish authorities intended to keep the feast).
2 This column represents the day/night cycles very possibly in popular usage among the Galilean Jews—sunup to sunup. Notice that slaying of the lambs “between the evenings” on Nisan 14 would in this case happen on Thursday afternoon (which is when Jesus and His disciples kept the feast).
3 This column represents modern day/night cycles—midnight to midnight.
Happiness is the ultimate end and purpose of human existence
Happiness is not pleasure, nor is it virtue. It is the exercise of virtue.
Happiness cannot be achieved until the end of one’s life. Hence it is a goal and not a temporary state.
Happiness is the perfection of human nature. Since man is a rational animal, human happiness depends on the exercise of his reason.
Happiness depends on acquiring a moral character, where one displays the virtues of courage, generosity, justice, friendship, and citizenship in one’s life. These virtues involve striking a balance or “mean” between an excess and a deficiency.
Happiness requires intellectual contemplation, for this is the ultimate realization of our rational capacities.
