Introduction to Christianity

A very funny Dave Allen sketch about his introduction to the church:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpVjBBDMOoA

It is absurd that Christians always proclaim themselves to be morally superior to atheists just because atheists do not subscribe to the superstitious beliefs of Christianity. Christians go around proselytising to all and sundry, claiming that the godless and the non-Christians among us need help to be saved from eternal damnation. To respond to these Christian soldiers, nothing beats this quip from Dan Barker, an evangelical preacher who ultimately became an atheist:

You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?

- Dan Barker (from Losing Faith in Faith)

Cyril Hanouna

The naked couple who strolled down Holland Village last week truly stirred a storm of discussion in the media here. If you were not aware of it, you can read the Straits Times report from:

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20090128-117672.html

There have also been several follow up articles in the newspapers since then about this couple.

Of course, Singapore is an ultra-conservative society (at least on the surface :-) ), so any news involving nudity is guaranteed to become hot media fodder. It is such a shame actually that many people are so prudish about seeing naked bodies. Personally, I think most people are interested - nay - exhilarated! - when they see bare skin. How else can you explain the extremely successful billion-dollar porn entertainment industry? However, because of our stiff upbringing, when we are accosted with such daring displays in public, we will immediately decry about sin, evil, morality etc when in actual fact, the naked couple had done nothing on their part other than to be in their au naturel!

In Europe (and in many other liberal countries), where the populace do not have such severe hang-ups about nudity, the sight of naked bodies in public will not evince such a rigorous reaction from the people. When I spent a few weeks in Germany last year (on a work project), I was impressed by PUBLIC TV showing full frontal nudity without any qualms or perturbations. Although I couldn't understand a word of the German narration or dialogue, I watched a science/health education program about the human body showing everything (no loincloths discreetly covering the naughty bits). There was a game show where participants played in the buff. Movies shown on the TV do not have sex segments censored. Etc. It was too bad I couldn't understand a single word of what I was seeing on the TV :-D . The liberalism was like a breath of fresh air.

My friend forwarded me a YouTube video of a TV program from France featuring a comedian called Cyril Hanouna. After you see this TV segment, you will know why I find amusing the ruckus from conservative Singaporeans who made such a big hoo-hah about the Holland Village couple.

Warning: Adult Content. Action begins at the 3:00 minute mark :-)

Cyril Hanouna: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtjMrodgi6s

Documentary - "The Bible Revolution"

I watched a very informative documentary called "The Bible Revolution" on Google Video this morning (see below for hyperlink), which should be of great interest to my Christian friends. If you are not a Christian, the history of the English bible, which is what this documentary is about, will still be very educational.

I find it fascinating that there is more than 38000 different Christian denominations in the world (grouped under 5 major branches). Why are there Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, Presbysterians etc when at the heart of it, they all worship the same Jesus Christ? Apparently, many of the breakaway factions came about simply because of differences over the bible!

The first OFFICIAL bible was authorised in the year 382 by the Roman Catholic church. At that time, all the existing texts were only written in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. The Roman Catholic church translated these texts into Latin (the language of the Roman Empire), and made the Latin compilation the official Christian bible.

However, with the fall of the Roman Empire in the year 476, the Latin language slowly declined and fell from disuse. By the late 16th century, most people in Europe could not speak Latin. Latin was a "dead" language mastered mainly by intellectuals and the church, and not by the common folks. The common folks could not read the Latin bible on their own, and had to hear the bible stories from the priests of the Catholic church (in the early 1500s, all churches in Europe were Catholic churches).

In England, William Tyndale translated the bible into English in 1523. The Catholic church was against the translation (they insisted that only their Latin version is the one-and-true bible). William Tyndale was arrested in 1535 for heresy and treason simply because of publishing the bible in English. He was executed by the Catholic church by being burnt on the stake in 1536.

In Germany, Martin Luther had also translated the bible into German (also in 1523). Now that the bible can be read by the common folks in Europe, the people realised that many of the Catholic church practices were NEVER taught by Jesus nor even documented in the bible. The practices were pure inventions of the Catholic church. Martin Luther initiated a movement to eliminate the invented Catholic practices from his church movement, which became the birth of Protestantism Christianity.

With the English bible in the hands of the common folks in England, Protestantism was also taking root there against the Catholic practices. Finally, the notorious King Henry VIII (who married SIX TIMES and who is rumoured to have fathered many illegitimate children), decided to sever all connections between the Church of England and the Catholic church. The reason: so that he could divorce his first wife Catherine to marry Anne without seeking the Pope's permission!

Queen Catherine gave birth to Mary, while Queen Anne gave birth to Elizabeth. Mary was Catholic, while Elizabeth was Protestant.

The severance of England from the Catholic church angered the Pope, who initiated a war against England. Within England itself, there was a lot of power play between Catholics and Protestants supporters. When King Edward, who succeeded Henry VIII, died in 1553, the Catholics manage to install Mary as the Queen of England. Queen Mary immediately started repairing ties with the Pope and the Catholic church. During her reign, almost 300 Protestants were burnt at the stake for heresy, resulting in the term "Bloody Mary" being used to refer to her.

Unfortunately, Queen Mary died childless, and Queen Elizabeth I inherited the throne in 1558. By deft political manipulation, Elizabeth I managed to strike a compromise between the Catholic and Protestant forces in the church, resulting in the amalgam known today as Anglican Christianity. This is why Anglicanism contains aspects of both Catholic and Protestant practices.

In 1611, England published the "King James Version" of the English bible. By all intents and purposes, the KJV version of the bible is William Tyndale's bible.

Through his English translation of the bible, William Tyndale left a huge impact on the English language. Many famous English idioms and phrases we use today such as:

• Am I my brother's keeper?
• Stranger in a strange land
• Burning bush
• An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
• Spare the rod and spoil the child
• Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die
• See eye to eye
• Can the leopard change his spots?
• In the lion's den
• Man shall not live by bread alone
• Turn the other cheek
• Cast your pearls before swine
• Wolf in sheep's clothing
• New wine in old bottles
• He that is not with me is against me
• Sign of the times
• I wash my hands of it
• Physician, heal thyself
• Grapes of wrath
• Lost sheep
• Prodigal son
• Cast the first stone
• Doubting Thomas
• Through a glass, darkly
• The root of all evil
• Armageddon
• A thorn in the flesh
• Weeping and gnashing of teeth
• Go the extra mile

all originated from the English bible, and specifically from Tyndale's translation. Just as the English language owes much to William Shakespeare, its debt to William Tyndale is unmeasurable.

If the Catholic church had not violently countered the translation of the bible (people were burnt on the stake by the Catholic church simply for translating the bible!), there probably wouldn't be so many church denominations today. The history of the English bible is truly a dark and macabre one.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6101527704063312894

Science Lectures - "Growing Up In The Universe"

Professor Richard Dawkins is the famous evolutionary biologist and ethologist who wrote the book "The Selfish Gene" and introduced the word "meme" into everyday English. Richard Dawkins is also the current holder of the "Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science" at the University of Oxford.

In 1991, Richard Dawkins gave a series of 5 one-hour lectures on Science which was telecast on BBC television. These lectures were aimed at children and young adults. Recently, all 5 lectures were made available on the internet for free viewing online by Richard Dawkins' foundation (prior to the free release, you would have to buy the DVD to view them).

If you have young children who are interested in science (maybe they want work in the fast growing Biomedical/ Biotechnology industries that Singapore is investing huge amounts of money in currently when they grow up), they might find these science lectures interesting. I watched them last night, and they were so engrossing I had to watch all 5 of them at one sitting. They are exceptionally educational and absorbing.

This is a short segment from one of the lectures explaining how our human eyes have evolved:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUOpaFVgKPw

If your children find this segment to be interesting, they may want to watch the entire 5 lectures. As for myself, I have never had science lessons when I was young presented in such a fascinating manner. Indeed, I found this series to be very illuminating as I had always marvelled at the incredible workings of the human eye. In another lecture, the even more complex brain and its workings are described.

All 5 lectures can be watched from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science website:

http://richarddawkinsfoundation.org/foundation,growingupintheuniverse

The God Who Wasn't There

This is a great documentary which isn't available for sale in Singapore due to our strict censorship laws regarding taboo topics such as religion. Generally, anti-religious books are easier to obtain in Singapore, but movies or documentaries are usually no-nos. It is great that some one has uploaded this documentary on YouTube.

If you do not know what this documentary is about, there is a good write up of it in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Who_Wasn't_There

Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cioXrHanjXc

Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MweSy-61lU

Part 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Ouy9W8RkE

Part 4 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04hzgMjPRtk

Part 5 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJd1kWlLjPs

Part 6 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re2HtQ0n9W4

The God Delusion

I bought Richard Dawkins book "The God Delusion" at MPH Funan Centre on 19 May 2007 (price: S$18.90). This is the new UK paperback edition with a new preface (book details at Amazon.co.uk):

"The God Delusion" is an excellent book that uses science, philosophy, history, logic and reason to explain why the gods promulgated by Christianity, Islam, Judaism are extremely improbable, and debunks the idea that we need to believe in such gods to be good humans to lead meaningful and moral lives.

In fact, when I was young, I had already pondered on the following conundrum:

Christianity says it is the one true religion. Islam says it is the one true religion. But logic dictates that if Christianity is the one true religion, then Islam must be wrong. Or if Islam is the one true religion, then Christians must be worshipping the wrong god.

How can both religions be right? The only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that they could both be wrong!

As I learnt more about science and history, I gradually came to the realisation that it is not god who created humans, but it is humans who had created god.

Being educated in an English speaking environment, I was exposed to a lot of Christian evangelists who were extremely enthusiastic in their trying to proselytise me to their faith. I am very glad that my school education required me to study all the major religions of Singapore: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism. When you study comparative religions, and have a good grounding in science and history, you will be armed with enough defences to protect yourself against the shrill being blasted at you by the Christian evangelicals that "you must believe in Jesus Christ or you will be condemned to burn in Hell for eternity!" Talk about a loving god :-)

Despite my constant debates and arguments with these Christian evangelists, I knew these debates were always lost causes. I cannot possibly sway others who are set in their beliefs to my way of thinking, as they cannot possibly convince me about changing my stance without conclusive evidence that their god is a real entity.

However, I do not go about preaching to others about my atheism. The irritating thing about Christian evangelicals is that they do. And every Saturday, you will see them waylaying passerbys (especially people going to the library) to tell them about the "4 Spiritual Laws".

However, as the Christian evangelists are well funded and are always proactively promoting their religion, so it is inevitable they will gain new converts. Indeed, the dawn of the 21st century has not seen humankind stepping into a new age of science and reason. Indeed, in the sole hyper-power of the world, the United States of America, fundamentalist Christianity has greatly expanded its influence, and have gained significant power in the political arena.

The problem with fundamentalist Christians is that their stance is as rigid and as scary as the Islamic Taleban , as they both base morality on ancient scriptures instead of rationality and reason.

"The God Delusion" is a much needed book to educate the public on why the existence of the Christian god is highly improbable, and that morality should be based on rationality and reason, and not on ancient texts espousing values that have no relevance to modern living. The book is well thought out, well argued, well organised, well written, and well worth reading.

Richard Dawkins actually made a 2-part documentary for UK's Channel 4 station on a related theme prior to the publication of "The God Delusion". You can watch the documentary on Google Video:

Root of All Evil - Part 1 : The God Delusion

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9002284641446868316

Root of All Evil - Part 2 : The Virus of Faith

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7619161192220036050

Downloading YouTube videos and converting Multimedia files

I recently upgraded my Singtel account to the Singtel MIO bundle (broadband + mobile phone + fixed line phone for $68 per month). Making this switch netted me physical savings of $4 per month (compared to the $72 total I paid previously for the services separately). Besides being cheaper, I am also getting:

• faster broadband speed (3000 kbps compared to 1500 kbps previously)
• free SMS, free caller ID, and more mobile minutes for outgoing calls (100 minutes compared to 80 minutes)
• - free outgoing fixed line calls (I used to pay 1.4 cents per minute for outgoing calls on my fixed line)

This is truly one of those "no brainer" deals.

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When I upgraded to the MIO plan, Singtel said it was mandatory that I get a new mobile phone. After evaluating the offerings available, I finally opted for a $0 phone. For a free phone, I found the Samsung Ultra Edition 8.4 to be feature-packed! You can read a review of the phone and its features at this site:

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,39271322p,00.htm

As you can see from the CNET magazine review, this phone can play MP3 music and MP4 video files. As I have never owned such multimedia phones before (yup, I am that behind the times in terms of handphone ownership), I got all caught up trying all kinds of MP3 songs from my personal music collection for my ring tone. In the end, I settled on "Sara" (from the Jefferson Starship album "Knee Deep in the Hoopla"), which is one of my favorite songs from the 1980s.

However, I then found the "Sara" music video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

Not content with having "Sara" as my ring tone, I now wanted to also load the "Sara" music video on my Ultra Edition phone.

If you have tried to download YouTube's videos before, you know that you can't actually save YouTube videos on to your hard disk as easily as you can with regular files.

A little investigation told me that all YouTube videos are actually stored in FLV (Flash Video) format. I also found many techniques and utilities for saving YouTube videos as FLV files on the hard disk. However, the method that I am recommending is also the easiest to remember: Just put the word "Kiss" before "YouTube" to get "KissYouTube".

To download a copy of a YouTube video, simply prefix "kiss" before the word "youtube" in the URL. Using the above URL as an example, to download the "Sara" video, all I needed was to type this URL instead in my web browser:

http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=ZqRTtkEHrA4

On the KissYouTube page that is opened, click the link "Download Now" to begin the download. As per the instructions given, you must remember to add the extension ".FLV" to the file name when you save the file on your hard disk.

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If you want to play FLV files from your PC, I strongly recommend the freeware (and open sourced) media player VLC, which can be downloaded from this site:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

A few years ago, I obtained a video in WMV format from a Microsoft CDROM. However, the WMV file on the CDROM was partially corrupted, and Microsoft's Windows Media Player refused to play the corrupted WMV file - complaining that it was bad and not playable etc. The corrupted WMV file will not play on other players like RealPlayer or Quicktime either. As I wanted to watch the video, I discovered references to the VLC program from a Google search. To my astonishment and delight, VLC played the corrupted WMV file without any problems whatsoever. I was sold on the VLC player ever since.

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However, the Ultra Edition phone cannot play videos in FLV format. To play the "Sara" music video, I need to first convert the FLV file to MP4 format.

I have found a fantastic web site that will convert a file in any media format to any other media format. And yes, the conversion service is free!

http://media-convert.com/

In the Media-Convert site, simply specify the source file from your hard disk and its media type. Then, specify the destination type you wish to convert the file to. Click the "Convert" button, and viola! The conversion is done for you. There is no software to be installed, so you can perform these conversions from a Windows, Mac, or even Linux computer!

I converted the "Sara.FLV" file to "Sara.MP4", and uploaded the MP4 file into my phone. I now have the "Sara" music video playing beautifully on my new phone.

Wickedly, the Media-Convert site is also able to convert the FLV video file to an MP3 music file too. Thus, this is also a good way to extract just the audio portion of a video file in to an MP3 file for use as a ring tone!

Hope you find these tips fun and useful. As a bonus, here is another YouTube music video that you might want to "rip" and "collect":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAjrIAFiJ0

Enjoy! NJ