Blog Archives

Notification

8/31/2015

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome

Photo courtesy of Dave Lundy

Dear Readers,

Due to an urgent overseas interpreting assignment, the next post (Part 19) will be delayed for 1 week, and only be posted on Monday, September 7, 2015. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

Part 18

8/24/2015

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 18: Our Spatial and Temporal Insignificance in the Universe

According to American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), our existence can be described as purely accidental. We are here "because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook." If statistically our existence sounds next to impossible, well, it is. But this knowledge should only liberate and exhilarate us.

And humbles us.

"Statistically," American physician and etymologist Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) once argued, "the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contended dazzlement of surprise." Indeed our very existence, here and now, seems to be the super-jackpot of probable survivability. That said, the other side of the coin is our eschatological destiny. Whatever starts must end. Whatever lives must die. No party lasts forever—that's the yin and yang law of the universe. As much as we would like to think that we are special and exceptional, the extinction of Homo sapiens is no exception. Even the sun will eventually burn out. Since its formation, it has used up about half of its hydrogen fuel in the last 4.6 billion years; it still has enough hydrogen for another 5 billion years. Likewise the Milky Way will eventually end too. It will be gobbled up by neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in—coincidentally—about 5 billion years too. Seems like we have another conspiracy theory to deal with here.

According to American cosmologist and astrophysicist Carl Sagan (1934-1996), most of the species that have ever existed are now extinct. "Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." Indeed the first of the genus Homo appeared on Earth about four million years ago, and already half a dozen species of the genus are extinct, such as Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and Homo floresiensis. Of course we have been around only a few hundred thousand years, but the extinction of Homo sapiens (including that of Homo ignoramus) is only a matter of when, not if.

Other species do not fare better. At a conference on the future of living species sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution in September 1986 in Washington DC, American biologist and researcher Edward Osborne Wilson (b. 1929) of the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University indicated that we are currently losing ten thousand species a year, and this rate of loss is increasing.

Fast forward 30 years later: According to an article in the International Business Times of August 13, 2015 titled "Humans will not be spared in sixth mass extinction" by Hannah Osborne, "(a)round 200 million years ago there was a mass extinction event thought to have been triggered by massive volcanic eruptions and climate change. It killed off up to 80% of the species known to have been living on Earth at the time and eventually gave rise to the dinosaurs." In fact, many scientists currently believe that we are entering a sixth mass extinction. Stanford University scientist Paul Ehrlich recently published a study in Science Advances which concludes this sixth mass extinction event is here "without any significant doubt." He concluded that species are disappearing around 100 times faster than normal rates.

To put our spatial and temporal insignificance in the universe into context from another perspective, let's ponder on a recent news clip. In July 2015, it was announced that Russian billionaire Yuri Milner is going to launch "Breakthrough Listen," a new $100 million initiative looking for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. This project was endorsed by famous British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, despite his earlier concerns and fear of earthlings being conquered and colonized as expressed during a 2010 episode of the miniseries Into the Universe.

“If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced,” Hawking bluntly told reporters at the Breakthrough Listen press-conference. "A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria."

[To be continued.]

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

Part 17

8/17/2015

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 17: The Sahara of All Existence and the Anthropocentric Chutzpah

Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all—that has been my religion.
-John Burroughs

The only reason why we think that an omniscient and omnipotent God—who knows everything, including our intentions—still has to micro-manage each and everyone of us speaks volumes about our self-aggrandizing thought process. Humans being humans, we are prone to fall into the trap of anthropocentrism. We are really good in chest-thumping, whether or not we realize it. From the Greek words--ánthrōpos (human being) and kéntron (center)—anthropocentrism is the belief that we, Homo sapiens, are the most significant or central species on the planet or in the universe, much more valuable than any other species or living creatures—terrestrial or otherwise.

Now let's look at the facts.

In this Milky Way galaxy, what we refer to as 'the sun' is actually just one ordinary star among a hundred thousand million stars. The diameter of the Milky Way galaxy of 100,000 light years certainly does exceed ordinary human comprehension. As stupefying as it is, we now know that the galaxy itself is but one among a billion other galaxies. It has often been said that the number of estimated stars in all the galaxies in the universe vastly exceeds the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. Yet, we have not even factored in the possibility of 'cosmic inflation' which considers the existence of a multiverse (meta-universe) consisting of parallel universes!

Nobody puts this hypothesis more eloquently than American particle physicist Victor John Stenger (1935-2014) in Anthropic Design: Does the Cosmos Show Evidence of Purpose? (1999): "The hundred billion galaxies of our visible universe, each with a hundred billion stars, is but a grain of sand on the Sahara that exists beyond our horizon, grown out of that single, original bubble of false vacuum. An endless number of such bubbles can very well exist, each itself nothing but a grain of sand on the Sahara of all existence. On such a Sahara, nothing is too improbable to have happened by chance."

"His eye is on the sparrow" aside, are we kidding ourselves to believe in the concept of a caring God who has nothing else to do? A God who micro-manages everyone of us, 24/7/365, including keeping a current accounting system to record appropriate rewards and punishments including how many virgins certain people deserve in paradise as rewards for certain acts committed on earth?

That's why the belief that the entire magnificent universe (or multiverse, for that matter) is just a temporary scaffolding to facilitate our existence is indeed preposterous. As prominent American skeptic and secular humanist Paul Kurtz (1925-2012) once emphasized: "It is the height of anthropocentric chutzpah to assert that the purpose of the fine-tuning of the universe is for the emergence of the human species." So why are we here and what are we doing?

[To be continued.]

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

Part 16

8/10/2015

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 16: On Supernatural Intervention and the Bell-Shaped Curve of Normal Distribution

Since in Isaiah 45:6-7 God had admitted He Himself "forms the light, and creates darkness, makes peace, and creates evil" (Part 15: The Nadir of Barbarity), it seems that we, humans, are off the hook. Praise the Lord! But wouldn't that be a grave self-insult to humanity? While animals kill merely to survive, we humans, respectable Homo sapiens, kill each other for religious and sinister reasons? If that is not egregious enough, then we reconstruct all kind of justifications and excuses to blame God for it? The Golden Rule, Karma and Ethics of Personal Responsibility aside, are we that low and irresponsible? Go figure.

Indeed philosophers have argued for centuries about the source of evil. Are humans inherently evil or good? According to English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), human beings are just innately bad and no one can do much about it. In the absence of what Hobbes referred to as a Social Contract, humans live in a state of nature where everyone's life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." Opposing this gloomy Hobbesian view is that of Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Contrary to Hobbes, Rousseau believed that "morality was not a societal construct, but rather ‘natural’ in the sense of ‘innate’, an outgrowth from man's instinctive disinclination to witness suffering, from which arise the emotions of compassion or empathy."

Naturally this Hobbes versus Rousseau dialectic has caused ripple effects transcending political philosophy into different disciplines. Most notably are the Nature versus Nurture debate in Psychology, and the Theory X versus Theory Y concept in modern management. In psychology, the Nature versus Nurture debate concerns the extent to which particular aspects of human characteristics are a product from Nature (genetically inherited) or Nurture (socio-culturally learned or acquired).

In the annals of modern management, MIT management professor Douglas Murray McGregor (1906-1964) introduced the concept of Theory X and Theory Y in his landmark book, The Human Side of Enterprise (1960). According to McGregor, type X individuals are inherently lazy and unhappy with their jobs. They need an authoritarian management style to ensure fulfillment of their objectives. They also need close supervision with comprehensive systems of control and a hierarchical structure to control them at every level. On the other hand, type Y individuals can be ambitious, self-motivated and exercise self-control. They enjoy their mental and physical work duties and treat work as natural as play. Given the proper conditions, type Y employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility, exercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing their objectives.

With this background, let's return to our fundamental question: are humans basically Hobbesian evil or Rousseauan good? Are they a product from Nature with genetically inherited characteristics or from Nurture with socio-culturally learned or acquired ones? Are they lazy type X individuals or self-motivated type Y ones?

As far as the source of evil is concerned, I actually agree with British science writer Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917-2008). A co-author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, in his illuminating essay titled Credo (1991), Clark proposed the importance to apply probability and statistics in theology. But, wait, what have these two dry academic disciplines got anything to do with the perpetual Whence Cometh Evil question? Perhaps much more than what conventional wisdom allows. There is no supernatural intervention in human affairs, Clark argued. The problem of evil does not exist, he said; because "it is an inevitable consequence of the bell-shaped curve of normal distribution."

Like bad apples and defective products, there will always be evil people (or lazy type X employees) in a normal distribution. They can be minimized, but not eliminated altogether. That's how Mother Nature works. Bad apples may be minimized by applying the latest agricultural biotechnology, for example. Defective products may be minimized by applying best manufacturing processes and practices. Indeed dealing with evil is more complicated, as humans are much more complex than apples or manufactured products. The point is that the very same rational and scientific approach—to apply agricultural biotechnology and best manufacturing processes and practices—may be adopted to minimize the number of actors in religious wars and persecutions, public stoning, decapitations, suicide bombings, hate crime, abortion-clinic and theater massacres, school shootings, police brutality, and so on. Statistically speaking, as Clark had argued, aren't they all consequences of the bell-shaped curve of normal distribution?

Indeed to accept those evil acts as a statistical reality does not mean that we should tolerate them passively in resignation. Quite the contrary. If we can accept that there is actually no supernatural intervention in human affairs—God certainly does not have the time to micro-manage bad apples, defective products, lazy employees, and suicide bombers—then we have to apply scientific instead of religious approaches. For why an omniscient and omnipotent God—who knows everything, including our intentions—still has to micro-manage each and everyone of us based on individual prayers of 7.349 billion people (as of July 1, 2015) living in 24 time zones?

Just imagine the noise pollution!

[To be continued.]

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

Part 15

8/3/2015

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 15: The Nadir of Barbarity

According to Krishnamurti, as stated in Part 14 (The Quest to Find a Greater and Nobler Truth), our strong propensity to use labels mindlessly—"Anglican", Sunni", "Hindu", "Catholic," "Communist", "Idolater", "Infidel"—may be the source of violence and evil. Believers over-identify themselves with a particular label, then rabidly defend their belief against anything that sounds incompatible with it … of course while calculatingly expecting some kinds of heavenly rewards or frequent-believer points … in a tit-for-tat religious loyalty program. We tend to judge others based on our similarities or differences with them, then reward or punish them accordingly—in extreme fashions.

Somehow we have always rewarded blind followers mindlessly, while punished innovative pioneers harshly. Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Muhammad was chased away from Mecca to Medina. Martin Luther was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. Astronomer Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Inquisition. Both George Washington and Mahatma Gandhi were British empire's public enemies Number One. Martin Luther King Jr. was a villain during the Civil Rights Movement. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years by the South African apartheid regime. As pointed out by Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello quoted in Part 12 (What is God's Religion?), "religion as practiced today deals in punishments and rewards; thus breeds fear and greed—the two things most destructive of spirituality."

Coincidentally, Anglican-priest-turned-to-Eastern-philosopher Alan Watts (1915-1973) also had contemplated on the tyranny of words. He was a major proponent of contemplative meditation to temporarily cease the act of naming, labeling, and classifying. Words, according to Watts, can express no more than a tiny fragment of human knowledge, for what we can say and think is always immeasurably less than what we truly experience. "Fanatical believers in the Bible, the Koran and the Torah have fought one another for centuries without realizing that they belong to the same pestiferous club, that they have more in common than they have against one another," Watts asserted; "(a) committed believer in the Koran trots out the same arguments for his point of view as a Southern Baptist … and neither can listen to reason." Thus the over-reliance on words, under-reliance on reasoning, and a lack of critical thinking.

Too often "It's in the Koran!" or "It's in the Bible!" (always with exclamation marks) has been used as final mantras to justify any behavior. We tend to swallow whatever is literally stated in holy books without due diligence. Without context. Without perspective. Without insight. Without verification. Yet do we really know what "it" is actually all about? In Wisdom of the Idiots (1991), Sufi author Idries Shah illustrated this herd instinct or groupthink in the following Sufi parable about What is in the Koran:

A certain Bektashi dervish was respected for his piety and appearance of virtue.
Whenever anyone asked him how he had become so holy, he always answered, "I know
what is in the Koran." One day he had just given this reply to an enquirer in a
coffeehouse, when an imbecile asked, "Well, what is in the Koran?" "In the Koran," said
the dervish, "there are two pressed flowers and a letter from my friend Abdullah."

Two pressed flowers, a letter from Abdullah, perhaps a bookmarker. While we are trapped in debilitating groupthink and social proof, we are clinging to words—whether they are in the Koran, Bible, or somewhere else,—perhaps getting even more and more addicted to them. Say, if one scribbled the letters "g," "o," "l," and "d" next to each other on a piece of paper, will it turn the chemical properties of that paper into those of gold? If one sketched a dove on a piece of paper, will it fly by itself? If one drew a train station on a piece of paper, will trains go there? People in their right minds would emphatically answer 'hell no' to these silly questions. Yet how many times have the physical objects of holy books been confused for their contents by the very same people who explicitly condemn idolatry? The last time I checked, idolatry—the worship of an idol or physical object as a representation of a god—is still strongly forbidden in all Abrahamic religions.

In March 2015, for example, Farkhunda, a 27-year Afghani woman was beaten to death by a mob in Kabul, after being falsely accused of burning a Koran. She was then run over by a car and burned before being thrown into a river. Even if she did—once again, she was falsely accused—did the punishment fit the crime? But that's the nadir of barbarity when words turned into labels. Labels turned into mantras and mythologies. Mythologies turned into narratives. Narratives turned into holy books. Because they are 'holy', the principle of infallibility is summarily imposed by the powers that be. Then, in the course of time, rabid fanaticism, suicidal cults, violent sectarian conflicts and bloody religious wars become the unintended consequences—if not the norms altogether. As Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) eloquently illustrated the phenomenon: "Theology is a branch of fantastic literature." American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Thomas Stephen Szasz (1920-2012) completed the picture: "Among animals, it's eat or be eaten. Among humans, it's define or be defined."

Not only have we been mindlessly clinging to words without context and perspective, it seems that we have been quite selective in choosing what words we would like to believe. Still remember the perpetual Whence Cometh Evil question? As we know, Epicurus (341-270 BCE) had been searching for an answer ever since his famous riddle more than 2,200 years ago: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Where do we go from here? It seems that the answer had been conveniently forgotten and buried, under the mountains of other words, in one of the holy books. Those who read the Bible properly—and thoroughly—know too well about God's own admission stated in Isaiah 45:6-7 (King James Version): "That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (emphasis added).

[To be continued.]

Johannes Tan, Indonesian Translator & Conference Interpreter

Notification

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome

Part 18

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 18: Our Spatial and Temporal Insignificance in the Universe

Part 17

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 17: The Sahara of All Existence and the Anthropocentric Chutzpah

Part 16

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 16: On Supernatural Intervention and the Bell-Shaped Curve of Normal Distribution

Part 15

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 15: The Nadir of Barbarity

Continuously exploring literal, semantic, idiomatic, contextual, metaphorical, symptomatic, conceptual and metaphysical meanings of everything worth thinking about.

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Notification

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome

Part 18

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima SyndromePart 18: Our Spatial and Temporal Insignificance in the Universe

Part 17

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima SyndromePart 17: The Sahara of All Existence and the Anthropocentric Chutzpah

Part 16

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima SyndromePart 16: On Supernatural Intervention and the Bell-Shaped Curve of Normal Distribution

Part 15

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima SyndromePart 15: The Nadir of Barbarity

Continuously exploring literal, semantic, idiomatic, contextual, metaphorical, symptomatic, conceptual and metaphysical meanings of everything worth thinking about.

Archives

Categories

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 18: Our Spatial and Temporal Insignificance in the Universe

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 17: The Sahara of All Existence and the Anthropocentric Chutzpah

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 16: On Supernatural Intervention and the Bell-Shaped Curve of Normal Distribution

Between Stockholm Syndrome and Lima Syndrome
Part 15: The Nadir of Barbarity