Monthly Archives: June 2023

A passing thought on the nature of universe

In the satirical novel Flatland by Abbott, we were introduced to sentient beings in a two dimensional world. If a three dimensional, henceforth 3D, being had put his three fingers at that plane, those 2D beings would only see three lines and they would seem like they are moving independently if we wiggled our fingers randomly, but they, if sentient, would also conclude that the lines also move together as if they were a group when we moved our hands smoothly. This is also why nothing can be made secret to a 4D being, because, for example, a 2D sentient being would believe that hiding something behind a closed line, say a square, is secure, while the content is completely exposed to a 3D being. Imagine being able to experience past, present, and future simultaneously, and all of your thoughts exposed as if by a super mind-reading computer. A 4D being (we already are one, in a way) would be just that.

The quantum computer utilizes the entanglement property of quantum mechanics. Once two or more qubits are entangled a change in one would cause a simultaneous change in the other regardless of distance between them. This is a mere property of quantum mechanics, which is directly observable and we are now utilizing for practical purposes. It’s also a mere property of nature, because nature exists at a higher dimension, although our own experience is limited to three dimensional plane and we have yet to discover more quantum entanglements in nature. (It’s everywhere, it’s just that we don’t know which ones to pair together. IMHO, it’s much more closely entangled with multitudes of things in nature.) There was a paper, a couple of years ago, that hinted at this in photosynthesis, but we have a long way to go before we can understand this beyond just with photons. Photons tend to be much more predictable (with a better understanding of quantum mechanics,) and easier to experiment with.

The observable universe is probably a good sign of higher dimensions.

First off, the source of gravitational force is based in 4D or at a higher dimension, and that’s probably why physicists are having such a hard time unifying it with the rest of the forces in the current model. String theories try, and the math seems to point to 11D or even higher, which is another way to say that the source of fundamental forces in nature is much more complex that we can ever hope to imagine. The hubris of Enlightenment ideals is like a 2D being, having recently discovered a truth about nature, boasting about being able determine an arc simply by measuring the distance to each points of the line its seeing in front of it. We only know a thimble worth of ocean full of vast knowledge that is still far beyond us.

Secondly, more discoveries through the latest telescope in our orbit basically reaffirms the view that space is infinitely larger than we had ever imagined. This seems to be congruent with the multidimensional nature of the universe. It’s just another way of saying that infinity at the outer edge of visible universe is exactly what you would expect if the universe is merely a part of a higher dimension. Likewise, this probably means that galaxies we are able to observe are merely a complex unit of higher dimension not-yet-named-thing, if the source of gravity could be enumerated as such.

What does this all point to in my mind? If the biblical account of creation is correct, with no mumbo-jumbo of Deism or Theistic Uniformitarianism, then without paying any homage to the anthropic principle, the universe was created by God for us, so that we can glorify Him and enjoy His presence forever. You are wonderfully and fearfully created by Him. Enjoy the view of the heavens, created specially for us.

Neo-pagans worship their identities

But followers of Jesus worship God.

We’re in the full swing of neo-paganism where people worship their identities. In summary, ancient pagans worshipped wood or stone-made idols, whereas in our days, we worship our identities. Alan Bloom had raised warning lights for the U.S. back in 1980s, when African American studies, and other ethnic studies started to launch in higher education establishments across the U.S. The one directly experienced by Bloom himself was done by brute force at Cornell, in line with the ethos that had to the collapse of German universities by National Socialists several decades earlier. Soon after, likes of Thomas Sowell left Cornell. The same force that threatened academic freedom has begotten many more children since those pioneering decades. Akin to what had happened in Germany in 1930s, the words like “trigger warnings,” “safe spaces,” and “micro-aggressions” are thrown around as if they have any legal legitimacy to shut up any intellectually honest opinions, and if their demands aren’t met, they resort to violence. Until recently, I had no idea how invasive this disease was.

I was shocked to find a couple of my daughters in their late teens strongly identifying themselves as Koreans, almost as a foreign (to me) identity against the mainstream white culture. It isn’t even a true Korean identity, but a misshapen one unique to the US that derogatorily looks down on other Asians who are more assimilated to the US culture as being “white-washed” ?! Anyway, I could not understand why and how they’ve developed such ill-conceived notions about their own identity, and I was lucky enough to help correct for one, but with the pervasive nature of identity politics that have integrated into the US education system, I should have seen this coming earlier. They are taught that it’s all about their identity (however they have defined it themselves) and you can freely rebel against whatever you like in the name of pursuing that identity. You can apply that to being an Asian American, an African American, a lesbian, a trans-sexual, or whatever else you’d like to identify as, and that is the most important thing in your life and nothing else matters. This is what’s being taught to our own children nowadays. A thorough paganization of soul. Add a sprinkle of narcissism already pervasive with this generation on the top of this cake, and it’s hard not to ponder on this sublimity.

내 뒷마당은 안되유~

오랜 정치 파벌 싸움에 이용되어 지역갈등이 더 커진 것 처럼 정치화된 THAAD 때문에 주위에 신경이 쓰이는 사람들이 많고 또 세계적 NIMBY 운동 확장세라 조용할 날이 없을 것 같다.

나는 미국 연방 군사무기 연구소 바로 옆에서 산다. 도시를 남북으로 딱 잘라 남쪽 1/2의 크기가 다 공군기지와 함께한 연구소 땅이다. 동쪽으로 백두산 높이의 산자락이 있다. 동쪽에 있는 산자락 남쪽으로 등산을 하다 보면 가끔씩 무기 연구소 쪽의 황량한 벌판 지대에서 쿵 하는 저음의 소리와 함께 큰 하얀 연기가 땅 위로 올라온 후 검은 연기로 바뀌어 올라오는 것을 본다. 보통 도시에서는 들은 적은 없는 소리인데 많은 건물 때문에 자동 방음이 되는 것 같다. 산위에서는 들려왔던 소리. 등산하다 가끔씩 봐왔던 것은 지하 실험으로 인한 것들이다.

이렇게 대낮에도 아무렇지도 않게 지하 실험하고 있는 연구소이지만 여기 지역 사람들은 그것에 대해 아무런 반항도 없고 인체에 대한 어떤 위험이 있는지 따지는 사람도 없다. 물론 같이 일하는 분들 중에 부모가 과거에 북쪽에 있는 핵무기 연구 중 방사능 노출로 인해 암유발과 함께 돌아가신 분들도 몇 만났지만 여기 같은 동네에 있는 연구소에서 일하면서 어떤 시민 항의가 있던 적은 없었던 것 같다. 물론 군사용 무기라서 특단의 비밀리 진행되는 연구가 대부분이라 그런 것도 있겠지만 산 남쪽에 올라가면 쉽게 발견할 수 있는 지하 실험들… 핵무기와 관련된 연구도 진행된다는 것도 직접 연구하고 있는 친구가 있어서 잘 알고 있는 사실이다.

아무튼, THAAD 가 문제라면 대한민국 국민들이 사용하는 전화기를 먼저 문제삼아 없애야 할 것이다. 왜냐면 전화기에서 나오는 EMF 가 THAAD 100배가 넘기 때문이고 더 강력한 EMF 라서 (지속적이지는 않음) 몸 옆에서 신호가 떨어질 때마다 세포의 유전자를 붕괴한다는 사실은 이미 입증된 사실이다. THAAD 수준의 EMF가 문제라면 왜 TV, 라디오, 그리고 무수하게 많은 더 심각할 수 있는 다른 종류의 EMF를 문제삼고 있지 않을까?? 정치인들의 유치하고 거짓된 선동과 그것을 대응하며 소비되는 신경, 돈, 시간, 인력이 낭비되고 있는게 아쉬울 뿐이다. ㅡ.ㅡ

The Cancer of Self-significance: Faux Spirtuality

One of the tales from Chaucer’s famous work is the tale of a Pardoner, who calls out to yorkels to come to him to purchase indulgences from him so that they could be absolved of sin. The sense of the spiritual superiority is not lost on him, and this fervor only grows to the height of his greed, thus the oft-repeated theme of the tale: radix malorum est cupiditas.

Although the innate need for self-significance seems as natural as hunger, I often find more signs of self-significance than Christ-significance among the leadership of the church. One salient example of this is often seen among Korean churches. To a certain extent, the why can be easily grasped, but it is often overlooked as a part of etiquette, probably to the dismay of the Head of the Church. It is often the wife of the pastor who typically sacrifice her adult years and beyond for the education and then leads into a lifetime of pastoral ministry. Her husband is the visible leadership, and wife is expected to take the assistive role to that ministry. If not in any active form, then a benign neutrality as a housekeeper. However, in the spiritual fervor of post-1970s revival in South Korea, the wife of a pastor lays claim to some spiritual power such as being able to read people’s mind, or see things that others can’t because God has gifted them with such abilities. Sometimes, they claim to have dreams which, for mysterious reason, becomes as authoritative as the Word of God, in a ministry setting. The pastor is often mute about this, however, such claim to spiritual power imbues his ministry with a veil of power that no lay member of the church can dare to challenge. Else they are immediately marked as being of the devil, and gradually casted out of the church. Unbeknownst to the believers, including the perpetuators themselves, the people being driven out are often people that are disliked by the pastor and his wife. This type of witch-hunting continues to this day in many of Korean and Korean American churches as far as I can tell.

The tradition of early morning prayer meeting, speaking in tongues, everyone praying out aloud all at the same time, and so on, are all marks of fervency of the spirit among Korean churches, however, it can also be a sign of faux religiosity that has no bearing on the true health of the church such as discipleship, biblical theology, evangelism, and so on. Rather, it probably masks more problems underneath that aren’t being addressed directly.

Why do so many K/KA churches allow this to continue? The cultural element of respecting authority is still very strong to the point where any challenge to the authority is seen as being of the devil. Divisiveness, although often warned by Paul, is strongly discouraged even at the cost of maintaining status quo that is toxic to the health of the church. Many problems remain unaddressed, unconfronted, and swept under the rug for the sake of the harmony of the church. The incompetence in leadership, and many failures at different levels are simply covered with the continued mediocrity of reluctant acceptance, labeled as being part of maturity, and verges on becoming a learned helplessness covered under the thin veil of positivism.

True, there is no perfect church, but false spirituality should not reign. The Word of God needs to be elucidated, and proclaimed in the walls of the church to weed out any darkness, especially that of the faux spirituality which clearly portends the lack of discipleship, and preaching of the transformative gospel grounded in the biblical theology.

Warning against anchoring on experiential faith

If Jesus solely promoted experiential faith and pushed for the type of anti-intellectualism the liberals have been cramming on for several decades now, Christianity would have disappeared by the Diocletianic persecution of early 4th century. Nothing Jesus taught, nor Paul, vectors to a conviction where spiritual experience becomes as important as the anchor of faith. Yes, all of the disciples, except Paul, had spent a lot of time walking, eating, and living with Jesus. And if experience is truly the anchor of faith, no one should have denied Jesus. Even in the OT, David’s delight was in the law of the Lord, not his subjective joy. Even the joy — an experience — itself is treated as a byproduct, but never as an end. If marriages were merely based only on emotional experiences, all marriages should result in divorces. Volition, a determined and directed effort, is what drives a human life. (Let me take a quick pause here to say that I’m usually more inclined to a holistic approach to human personhoold, and don’t subscribe to a strict Platonic tripartite theory, but since what sparked this seemed to be based on that theory, I have no choice but to stand near that level ground. If I can get around to it, I may write more about the holistic view of human personality, which I think is more biblical.)

Both Jesus and Paul emphasize the importance of faith and actions, rather than experience in the way we commonly understand it today. The prioritization of personal, subjective experience over belief, commitment, and proper behavior, seems to be found in the book of Acts when Paul asks Ephesians if they had received the Holy Spirit. However, in the context, the Holy Spirit isn’t treated like a medium of subjective experience like how it is often described today, but rather as a mere Person of Trinity. The subjectiveness comes at the point of baptism. Therefore, the passage should be understood as primarily an encounter with a Person of the Trinity, and byproduct of that encounter is a subjective experience. The experience is secondary, not primary. A bit of wider context here for the interpretative lense — which is the one I find an issue with — that may have been used. The commonly shared, historical experience of Korean (collective) church, albeit a short history, is one that is deeply grounded in spiritual experiences. But such emphasis in experience is not uncommon in Korean version of Buddhism, animism (aka shamanism), and even in Bible-based heretical groups. The emphasis on the subjective experiential aspect of faith seems to be deeply ingrained in Korean psyche, and in this context, it is not surprising that God would use such temperament to bring revival to the Korean church. Many Koreans who had lived through that era, including myself, were part of that collective experience and they make up a large portion of the Korean church today. We were blessed, or lucky, to have been a part of that spiritual wind. However, an encounter with the Spirit should not only result in a hyped experience, but it should be followed by the transformation of the total person, including the mind. This is exactly what we see after the Pentecost, and also what we saw with our own lives during that part of Korean history. Therefore, over-emphasis solely on the experiential aspect as THE anchor of faith is misleading. If the word experience is actually meant as an encounter, or at least imply an encounter, or the beginning of a relationship with God, such use of the word in that context should be fine. But again, without such explanation, the hearer is liable to hear it in a simpler meaning without a learned context. The experience is to be under the service of knowing God to the fullest. In simpler terms, when one encounters God, whether through the direct workings of the Spirit, or through the study of the Word, or through the sermon from the Word, our emotions (if healthy) should react appropriately as a response. Luther, Augustine, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, and so many effective Christians all had an emotional experience, but that was because they were diligent students of the Word, and came to encounter God Himself in the Word of God. Our churches today are depriving people of that with wrong messages.

This is why the anti-intellectualism is one of the biggest sources of the decay of the Church, because without a proper version of biblical literacy, instead of having people’s lives transformed and grow towards a mature faith, it’s easy to have people gather only to have a dopaminergic experience without any resulting growth. This is exactly what we’re seeing with the churches in Korea. Instead of mature Christians who are effective catalysts in the society, we see Christians cloistered inside the safety of church walls, self-satisfied with their tribal experiences and relationships. Vineyard movement, and countless experience-oriented heretical movements, all have people remain in a trance-like state where they feel like they are experiencing the Spirit of God, and feel like they have done something worthwhile, when their own lifestyle remains unchanged and completely unaffected. It’s a passive form of social hysteria. I’m not suggesting that the worship is unimportant, but there is a need for stern warning to be spoken against a version of Christianity that promotes only experiential aspect over intentional obedience to the Word of God.

Knowing that the speaker was educated at an elite, extremely liberal institution, he was exposed to the higher textual criticism which claims to be the most intellectual form of study you could do when it comes to a biblical scholarship, and he probably takes a pride in that. Unbeknownst to him, he seems to be blind to the fact that there is a form of hermeneutics that takes a humble approach to the Bible, where you literally try to stand under the Scripture to understand, not stand above the Scripture to impose your own or even the world’s horizon on the Word of God. But, again, it’s not his fault that he grew up in such and such location, and went to such and such school, resulting in such and such intellectual horizon which is marked by a form of sadistic self-hatred.

Experience, by its very nature, is a part of past. Churches do not need to induce some type of subjective emotional experiences to be revived. In this post-modern world, we need biblically literate churches that know the difference between God’s will and Satan’s schemes, and be able to defend their faith, and carry not only action but their words to the public squares. When there’s a talk of eugenics, homosexual (2SLBGTQIABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ+) activism, malignant form of social justice, artificial intelligence, CRISPR gene editing, human cloning, Christians are mute, because churches have been working overtime to make the Bible irrelevant to the world outside of the church walls. BIBLE IS MEANT TO BE INTEGRATIVE TO OUR LIVES RIGHT NOW, not compartmentalized for some type of religious experience. Post-modernism brings fragmentation, and look where the society is now. True Christian faith brings coherence, based on the Word of God. As soon as you make the Bible irrelevant to the history of the universe, to the history of Earth, to the history of humanity, and to the history of nations, and to the history of individual, you no longer have a Christianity. It starts from the largest scope that the Bible touches on from the very beginning, and how could you make it relevant when the teacher of the Bible himself doesn’t have the faith to believe the word as it is presented. Coherence doesn’t come cheap. When did Jesus ever say that the world will embrace you for your faith? Don’t try to fit in so hard. Some try so hard to a point where the Word of God is mangled to be powerless, safe so that it requires practically no faith — it’s enough if you can come to church with it. The world is probably right to ridicule it, not because the Word of God is not credible, but people who teach it have mangled to a point where it is no longer the Word of God and they don’t believe it themselves. As soon as you compromise on one thing, you introduce noise that disrupts the whole framework, and it’s bifurcated from there. This is why we have too many apathetic, and impotent Christians who don’t even understand the basics of their own faith, and that’s sadly reflected in their lives. Leaders should not be quick to appease, and quick to pacify, rather face the lies inside (including one’s private ones) and outside manly. During a war, we don’t need more gardeners; we need more warriors who can also tend to gardens. I’m so weary of pastors still clinging to their personal experience back in Korea. Good for them, but let’s grow up for the Church. Let’s please understand the world as it is now, know the word of God inside and out, and think hard to look towards the future.

We had enough status quo. There’s no understanding. There is no knowledge of the Word of God. And instead of encouraging people to think on their feet (once grounded in the Word of God), the last thing we should be doing is to tell people not to use their minds that God has given them to use to the maximum. We are to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, with all of our minds, and with all of our strengths. Don’t ever leave any part of that out, and say only one thing is needed. Most of partial truths are worse than lies, and this happens to be right at the vicinity.