The King and I

Now that we're on to the fifth day of the new year, the holiday cheer has almost dissipated. There might still be some tinsel hanging around the house, scraps of Christmas ham to dispose of and a ton of holiday pictures to sort but in general, we've all gone back to the daily grind.

And although I've been back to work for a couple of days, I still find myself slipping into a holiday mood once in a while. When this happens, I fire up the browser and start clicking away, looking for fun reads I can find in random alleyways of the Intarwebz. I almost always just end up spending hours on end numbing my brain and chuckling at lolcats on sites like I Can Has Cheezburger?.

..and I find funnehs liek this. ~_~

Today though, I stumbled on something that has piqued my interest. Perhaps it's because it's a topic that I've had many discussions about in the past. I find that my belief becomes stronger with each discussion I have. In fact, the more debates I participate in, the more research I do, and the more experiences I encounter, I'm more convinced that there is no such thing they call "god".

Believers of a deity, are you ready to charge at me with fire and the condoms that you so detest? Before you do so, let me finish my story.

What prompted me to write today is this guy named Bruce who recently started a project he calls The King and I. While others do a yearly project chronicling one personal picture a day, his project 365 is to read a section of the bible everyday. It's a common project for most but the good thing about this one is that the blog also encourages people to actually understand the content they read and facilitate a healthy discussion among readers, both believers and non-believers are welcome to join in.

*sighs*

In an attempt to understand faith a little bit more, I've decided to follow in his footsteps. Although I'm a few days late, I've downloaded the Logos Bible on the iPod and will start from there.

Devotees that I encounter (who also swear by the bible) explain everything from grand gestures to the minutest details in their life to be caused by the supreme being they believe in. That's just silly. See, I'm not a science buff, nor do the intricacies of technology particularly interest me but what I do know and believe in is that everything has an explanation (and no, it's not God).

An earthquake happens in Chile! Nope, it isn't because the Lord Almighty is angry and wants to punish his people for whatever sin it is that they committed. It happened because the rocks under the earth moved. Science explains things for you. You slipped and broke your hip! Nah, God doesn't want you to rethink your faith, it's because you're clumsy.

A few nutsos believers of the Bible say that judgment day is on May 21, 2011 and the end of the world will be on October 21, 2011 (amazing how they have exact dates, eh?). It's a little difficult to take them seriously becuase they're also saying that if they're still here after the said dates, it doesn't mean their belief is wrong, it just means that they were not "saved". I mean, come on.

It's things like this that make me skeptical of religion and faith to the point of being almost an agnostic. Despite the absurdity of some beliefs, I try to keep an open mind and take in as much information as I can. And this is why starting today until the end of the year (or the world, whichever comes first), I'll start reading the King James Bible one section at a time.

You can-
o download the iPod/iPhone version of the Logos Bible here
o read more about the 2011 end of the world here
o join discussions and prove your faith at The King and I here