星期四, 6月 23, 2016

李劼 - 中國文化冷風景,以及中國當代思想界的真實圖景

https://thestandnews.com/politics/林榮基戴的帽子-愛讀的書-以及其他/
問:林榮基最喜歡的一本書?
答:李劼的《中國文化冷風景》,我睇咗三次,嘩,都好少書會咁睇法,值得你(記者)睇。…嗰本書真係一絕,嗰次過年喺大嶼山等巴士,企足三個鐘喺度睇。…實在太好睇喇,打開我視野,呢啲書好難得,幾十年出唔到一本。佢本書(《中國文化冷風景》)就等於《萬曆十五年》(黃仁宇著),我提議你睇。
《中國文化冷風景》,李劼著(圖片來源:網上圖片)
在周之前的中國,專制不是傳統,大一統也不是周之前的國家體制。
從《殷周制度論》稍稍向前跨一步,可以看到,中國曾是個聯邦制民主國家。

《柳如是別傳》- 有關明末歷史,當一部由男人主宰的歷史,突然被放進女性的眼光裡,其虛偽、殘暴、毫無人性,其獨立之人格、自由之思想之嚴重缺如,一覧無餘。
google drive pdf file: 中國文化冷風景

星期三, 6月 01, 2016

Can God create a stone which is too heavy for Him to lift?

Section 1 - A logical Challenge
This is an old enough challenge to the omnipotence of God. At first glance I don’t think it is such a serious problem, if we just concede that God can be limited by His own ability, and then it is ok.

Of course, a sneaky way would be to claim that “He can, but He chooses not to”. Because doing so would violate His principles.

Section 2 – Free Will
There is a closely related question, “Can God create creatures which can command free will, and can choose not to obey Him?” The answer of course is yes, God created Mankind, which committed sin and lost Eternal Life, out of their own accord.
This was Eden lost, in contrast to Eden regained with Jesus dying on the cross.

Section 3 – Redemption, a Free Will special case
Natural enough to pose the third question, “Was Jesus out of his own free will, to follow the plan of God, namely to be crucified, so that Man’s sin can be atoned and paradise can be regained?”
Of course, we like to say the answer is yes, so we may cheer at Christ’ triumph over death. But if there was free will it meant there was a chance it didn’t happen, and Man’s sin was not atoned. And how can God be so sure that it indeed would happen?
One can come to rescue and say that indeed it was Jesus free will at play, but God is omniscient, He knows all causes and can figure out all outcomes, and can predict exactly what happens, like the precogs in the Minority Report.
So God is a hundred percent sure that Jesus would be up to his mission.

Section 4 – Salvation through mercy or good deeds?
But was this accomplished mission already the golden ticket to resurrection?
As someone can raise a question: If Jesus was so sure that He could rise from death -Did God raise him from death, or did he rise up from death by his own? – then dying on the cross seemed to be tricky. It seemed to be a good trade, even though the process of crucifixion was real painful.
Is it like an explicit contract, that if everybody fulfills his own terms, that he will be saved?
Is salvation out of mercy from God, or is it out of good deeds?

If it’s out of good deeds, it seems we can be in control, and also we can blame nothing else if we fail.
The parable of the prodigal son implies it’s out of mercy. Paul’s epistle implies otherwise:
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Section 5 - Unnerving case of Ananias and Sapphira
Was it as heavy a sin to lie about temple money/covetousness/hypocrisy? Or was it a punishment to their half-heartedness, that they were having a backup plan and only invested part of their proceeds in this “startup”? Once again, it shows that “good deeds” alone are not enough, that you heart must be pure before you are considered to be righteous in God’s eyes. So one may further infer that not only Jesus must follow God’s plan that he was resurrected, he must also love God wholeheartedly, without thinking of his own advantage.

//On the outside, Ananias and Sapphira look just like another church member named Barnabas (introduced in Acts 4). Barnabas had just sold his property and brought the money to the apostles, and to the casual observer, Ananias and Sapphira were doing the same thing.
But deep in their heart lingered a love of money and a desire for people’s praise. So they conspired together to present a portion of their money while passing it off as the entire amount. This is worlds apart from the attitude of Barnabas, but looks very similar.//
(see http://www.jdgreear.com/my_weblog/2013/11/5-things-god-teaches-us-in-the-tragic-deaths-of-ananias-sapphira.html)

Section 6 - Others
1) God makes us this way! He knows our weaknesses, and that we are prone to fail. Why not makes us stronger? Is this His problem or our problem?
2) God makes Jesus that way!
3) What if someone so bad luck that throughout his entire life he has never heard about the Good News? Is it fair to send such a guy to hell?