Redefining Religion

This post was borne out of a conversation with Feb, a colleague. She had said that she believed in God but she didn't believe in religion. 

The stand is interesting because it's somehow predicated on a common but limited view of what religion is, a view that Thomas Moore had debunked in his essay "Religion". In place of this view, he opted for a more transcendent definition of religion, a definition worthy of the immense power that religion had wielded over humanity in the course of our history.

In the essay, he says: 

Many people today assume that the word religion refers to an institution - an organization weighed down by outmoded authoritarianism and irrelevant traditions. With this definition, they can argue against religion quite easily. But their idea of religion is a straw man, a caricature, or a bad personal experience generalized into an indictment of religion as a whole...

Let me suggest a definition of religion I think might satisfy our desire for personal spiritual experience and yet appropriately go beyond it. Religion is an attitude of reverence and a method of connecting to the mysteries that we find in our world and in ourselves (emphasis supplied)...

I've chosen the words in my definition carefully. The word "reverence" (quotes supplied) refers to awe and honor. Its root refers to watchfulness. Religion is a way of regarding the world and everything in it. Basically, to be religious is to be capable of awe and respect, two qualities that usually disappear when secularism begins to dominate...

I refer to religion also as a method. This is an ancient idea found in many traditions: that religion shows us how to be reverent. What worries me most about a spiritual movement that separates itself from religious traditions is that its methods will be personal and ephemeral. We have much to learn from traditions about sacrifice, ritual, prayer, atonement, healing, and many other basic elements in the spiritual life...

In my definition, I use the word "connecting"  (quotes supplied) because one meaning of the Latin re-ligare (from which the word religion is derived) is "to connect". Re-ligion is like a ligature. Religion allows us to be in touch with the great mysteries of our lives: illness, birth, death, love, failure, creativity, meaning. The fully secular person is disconnected in this way and therefore might feel lost and aimless...

Do Not Buy HP

Do not buy HP products. If you can buy a printer from another company, do it.

Last January, our 2-year old printer/scanner/fax machine in the office broke down. We sent over a technician to examine it and he concluded that the scanner was indeed broken. Some piece of motor disintegrated inside the machine. Unfortunately, the technician also told us that it can no longer be repaired. The broken part was irreplaceable because HP had ceased manufacturing that part.

Undeterred, I had the machine sent to an HP service affiliate. I paid the requisite Php 300.00 diagnostic/inspection fee and crossed my fingers. After several days, someone from the repair shop called and reiterated what the technician told us before: there were no spare parts available anywhere in the world to replace the broken motor.

So now we have a printer with a useless scanner.

Moral of the story: do not buy HP.

Voyeur In The House

Well, that's it for a good night's sleep.

I'm writing this at two-thirty in the morning. Apparently, someone had sneaked in and out of the boarding house. I was awakened by the insistent knocking on the door and what greeted me were my fellow boarders asking me if I heard anything.

Michelle, a housemate, had filled me up on the details. Someone had climbed up the corridor to take a peek inside her room and also tried testing out the doors of the other rooms to see if these were open.

First thought when I heard this was that I was definitely the suspect here. Not only were their eyes boring at me, some were probably thinking why I could not have possibly heard anything (my electric fan is quite loud, you know).

You see, I'm the only guy here who's single. The other guy in the adjacent room is married and is obviously fuming that something like this could happen (Perhaps, he's silently accusing me too).

Simply put, there are several implications to this incident.

One: a peeping Tom had sneaked into the boarding house
Two: a peeping Tom had sneaked into the boarding house and tried to see if he could steal something.
Third: a peeping Tom is in the building and goes by the name of Paolo Ray E. Bataller

Sometimes, it's hard being the only guy.

Okay. Time to sleep.

Encore

Gave flowers during Valentine's Day to the single ladies in our department: Ma'am Ye, Ma'am RN, Noelle, and Feb.

That's probably the last time I'm going to give bouquets to them ( also gave flowers pala last Valentine's hence the post's title).

Happy Valentine's Day ladies.

LEO

LEO: a browser-based application that aims to simplify and expedite cross-departmental processes by integrating into one database customer data that are otherwise scattered across separate systems
Yup, that's the definition. And this thing, LEO, is what I intend to accomplish by year-end in the office.

To be honest, I've got really mixed feelings right now.

I just wrapped up my pitch to my fellow colleagues about pursuing this project, of bringing LEO from a mere figment of the imagination to a workable reality. The response was guarded enthusiasm, not outright condemnation as I feared.

But going back to the feelings:

"Yes, this is it. We're finally doing it. This is something that I've wanted to do since two years ago and I can finally make work a bit easier for the rest."

"Oh no, this is it. It's out in the open. Everybody knows. If I fail, then the world will get to see it. "

And the probability of failure is quite high (to be frank). ALFES, another application in the office, was built with a multi-million peso budget, an army of professional programmers and business consultants, and several years of development and testing. We're supposed to do roughly the same thing with no budget to speak of, a ragtag team of marketing assistants with no programming background to boast about,  and until year-end to finish it.

It's heroic. It's stupid. It's going to be fun.

Happy Valentine's Day

Antichrist

I just heard Weng's version of the Antichrist. During a conversation in the office pantry, she defined it as the belief that JC isn't Lord.

For me, that definition borders on disturbing. That's because the definition is so broad, it covers just about anyone who isn't a Christian. Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists are part of the Antichrist, not to mention those who are part of other denominations and/or religions which do not incorporate JC in their belief systems.

I guess the correct definition is that the Antichrist is anything which is the opposite of what JC stood for. In short, it is anything that is inherently evil.

I'm more comfortable with this definition because it disqualifies those who may not be Christians but nevertheless possess Christian values and incorporate these in their everyday lives.