Water is More than Water

 

On the opinion page of the Catholic Times, a journalist emeritus gives the readers a meditation on water.  

When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he looks for is water: lukewarm or hot drinking water. When drinking coffee, he prefers hot coffee over iced coffee. Unlike  the past, as we age, our tastes and constitutions change. But what if there is not enough or no water to drink right now? Water constitutes 70% of the human body and is it not essential for maintaining life? Just to imagine this is disconcerting and terrifying.
 
He remembers World Water Day on the 22nd of last month. It was established by the United Nations in 1992 to prevent the increasingly serious shortage of water and water pollution and to remind us of the importance of water. One of the biggest crises facing humanity is water, and more than two-thirds of diseases are caused or transmitted through water.
 
Before and after 'World Water Day', the 9th 'World Water Forum' was held for one week in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. This forum, with the theme of "Water Security for Peace and Development," is also part of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Pope Francis' message from the forum came as a big echo. "The world is thirsty for peace. Water security today is threatened by a variety of factors, including pollution, conflict, climate change, and overuse of natural resources. Nevertheless, water is a valuable asset for peace. Therefore, water must not be subject to mere commercial gain or the laws of the market." He also emphasized that the right to drinking water and sanitation is directly related to the right to life.
 
98% of all water on Earth is seawater and the remaining 2% is fresh water. Of freshwater, 99% of freshwater is groundwater. However, there are frequent water fights between countries over groundwater that crosses national borders into the ground. He was surprised by some of the claims made on this forum. More than 2 billion people around the world are excluded from safe water.

The world's population is 7.5 billion, which is one in four. It's not an exaggeration to see TV commercials and videos in Africa and Southeast Asia where muddy water is used as drinking water. His daughter and son-in-law who visited the Maldives, the dream destination of Koreans, talked about the water situation there. "If you walk a bit from the accommodation, you can see the sea, but there is not enough water. Even the water from the showers and faucets in the new four-star hotel has a salty taste."

We also lost valuable forests turned to ashes due to a series of large-scale wildfires last month. Although it is due to the severe spring drought and strong winds, water is essential for preventing forest fires.

He often enjoys cycling along the Han River. When you see the vast Han River running through the middle of Seoul, you feel grateful. Imagine if Seoul, the capital city, existed without the Han River. This is because the Han River serves as a water source for more than 9.5 million Seoul citizens.

Are we conscious of the value of water when we use it both in the home or office? He hopes that the faucet or shower is used at the right amount when necessary. 'Leaked or spilled water' is lost.

Although Korea is not a "water-scarce country" as defined by the United Nations, it should be kept in mind that the water situation is not sufficient.

(上善若水), an acronym meaning the highest form of goodness is like water:  humble, relaxed, flexible, and benefits all things. He hopes we can resemble the properties of water and flow smoothly and communicate with each other. Let's not just look at water as water, but as an oasis in the desert. Let's save, preserve, and share the water, which is life-giving. We believe that our mindset and actions will protect the "common house" of our Earth and contribute to the common good of mankind.

Digital Addiction and the Future

In the Kyeongyang magazine a professor of Media Studies give us his thoughts on digital dependence and the future.

We have had the first and second vaccines, the booster but no end in sight to the pandemic. Masks have become part of our bodies, meetings are called on screens, and Zoom classes are common. We go to the internet for connections to the world.

Coronavirus has forced a change in our way of living. At the same time, we are concerned about global warming, increase in plastic trash, manipulation of genes, and privacy issues but they are now for the most part on the back burner. One of the greater problems is the decrease in personal contact and the growing dependence on digital (algorithmic) media. 

The old media, or legacy media, that predominated before the Information Age: print, films, radio, and television is in decline. Newspapers, radio, TV are moved along with information supplied by the deliverers (journalists) and the audience who use the information. People spoke out being for or against the content and called for improvement, countered that  confirmation bias of the users was the problem. Conflicts between the two were everywhere.

On the other hand, digital media such as Facebook is strong on advertising, political propaganda, and personal life experiences. When we go to YouTube, we lose the sense of time, and watch scintillating videos, news about celebrities, sports, gossip and search for information, shopping... 

Google, YouTube, and similar digital media make the old media and ourselves feel helpless. Journalists dream up content that algorithms prefer; we consume content that algorithms give us that knows more about ourselves than we do.

 

Algorithms can hire journalists to sway consumers' tastes. Algorithms inevitably fuel our desires and help to expand them. People get used to living in their own echo chambers rather than communicating with others.

 

Using KakaoTalk (a Korean program similar to Skype) we often see persons sitting facing each other sending messages to others. Some of the big problems with the smartphone are the lack of conversation with family members and friends, less sleep, exercise, etc., and a decrease in our attention span.

Smartphones and social media are made to have you spend time with the platforms that they have designed and they continue to evolve. Many are trying to limit the use of these programs. Not an easy thing to do. However, there are many on the other side of the screen that are trying to help those watching the screen but the producers continue to rage a battle with them.

He mentions several professors who see the problems starkly, one considers Google a present-day "God" and another sees humans replaced by robots. 

The protagonist of the Japanese-British writer Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun is a robot. He won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. Klara is a robot that is bought as a friend for a child and she is the heroine of the novel all seen through her eyes.

Shortly, robots called AF (Artificial Friends) will be sold as friends for children in the United States. If one-day "consciousness" occurs in robots like Klara and continues to evolve what then? The author talks about the possibility of a "conscious AI" replacing a specific human being. Are humans really special beings?

Even if the development of big data and algorithms are able to predict people's behavior and robots are difficult to distinguish from humans, should humans be considered special beings? He concludes the article that once freed from addiction to the digital world, necessary teachings will come from religion.

 

Dignity Comes With Freedom

A diocesan priest in his column in the Catholic Times gives the readers his thoughts on freedom and human dignity.

He recalls the  movie Brave Heart (1995), the main character was tortured to death. If you say "Mercy," he is told, he will be killed right away without pain. However, with all his might he shouts "freedom". Freedom was more important than life and  extreme pain. For freedom alone is the core of the dignity that makes us human.

The Church catechism: Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being (#1738). However, some people don't know the importance of freedom. "Why has God given man freedom to sin?"
 

In the film 'Misery' (1990), the heroine kidnaps her favorite novelists desiring him to portray the characters in one of his novels in the way she wants. He cannot love someone who takes away his freedom. In this sense, we can understand why in the Garden of Eden, we hear the story of the tree of knowledge, the serpent and the  possibility of temptation and sin. God has given humanity the freedom to hate him, and disobey him.
 

In the movie "When a Man Loves a Woman" (1993), The husband of an alcoholic wife seemed to deny the problem and had more trouble with the wife after she became sober. The husband found it difficult to accept the new person and her freedom in sobriety. She has become a fuller and more competent person and the husband was not able to deal with that. People are not property. For this reason, it can be seen that God cannot hold humans from going to hell. Ignored freedom is ignored personality.

There are cases like this: where a mother  loved her eldest son so much. The mother worked long hours for her son, bought him the best clothes, and sold her fields for his tuition at the best of schools. The son did not let his mother down and studied hard. He entered a good university, got a good job, married a good family woman. But he was the oldest, so he  had to live with his mother. The mother had been hard on her daughter-in-law, and she fled to her parents' house three times. The mother even listened to her son and daughter-in-law's words at night putting her ear to the wall of their room.

Her daughter-in-law could not stand it any longer and  took her own life. Now, did all the love of the son belong to the mother? The son moved to Seoul and never saw his mother again. Did the mother realize her fault at this time? "I've lived only for you all my life. Can you do this to me?"

 

While this mother said she loved her children, she did not actually treat her children as independent human beings. She said that she loved her children, but they were actually her possession to be used for her own happiness. We must never infringe on the freedom of others, even when the person is an adult child. Even God does not infringe on our human freedom. Human beings have dignity because they are free. Freedom must be guaranteed because of dignity.

 



 

 

Peace And The Light of Christ

The Catholic News Weekly in a column by the priest secretary of the Bishops' National Reconciliation Committee reminds us of the dangers of the arms race.
 
In January, Archbishop John Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, issued a pastoral letter calling for an end to the nuclear arms race. The letter, titled Living in the Light of Christ's Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament, challenges the recognition of "realistic international politics" that nuclear weapons act as deterrents against potential nuclear attacks.
 
 "We can no longer deny or ignore the extremely dangerous predicament that lies before the human family," said Archbishop Wester. We are in an arms race for a new nuclear weapon that is far more dangerous than before," he said, urging his parishes and the world to join a "new resolution for peace" to eliminate all nuclear weapons on Earth. In fact, two out of three U.S. nuclear weapons research facilities are located within the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque in the parish is also known to have the largest nuclear weapons depot in the United States.
 
The pastoral letter also mentions the reality that existing nuclear-weapon states do not keep their promises on reduction and the problems of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
 
Furthermore, they point to the fact that the George W. Bush administration unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as a triggering factor in the arms race between the major powers. It is a courageous point to point out that the major powers and the United States are responsible for the current crisis in a situation where the US-China conflict, which is perceived as a threat to Americans, and the Ukraine war are concerned.
 
The possibility of using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, which shows no sign of resolution, is now being mentioned. Amid differing opinions on the causes and solutions of war, the reality that we believe that only stronger military force or stronger sanctions can be used to preserve "peace" and resolve conflicts weighs heavily on our hearts.
 
Remembering Archbishop Wester's appeal that "the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and all of us are called to live in the light of Christ's peace and shine that light on all sides of the world," let's pray more earnestly for the Light of Christ to overcome the darkness of the world.
 
The Catholic Church has been strong in its support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which the Vatican has signed and ratified. During a visit to Japan, Pope Francis declared: "We must never grow weary of working to support the principal international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, including the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons."

Is Someone Giving Us A Difficult Time?

In Bible and Life magazine, a religious priest asks: Are there people around us who make life difficult? and goes on to give us his response. 

 

We meet those we find easy to accept and those that make life difficult. Living in a community, we often hear, if only that person was not around, life would be pleasant. As time passes, we realize that many of our problems are due to our immaturity.

 

He mentions his entrance to the monastery and life as a novice. In his class, were eight people in their early 20s to middle 30s. All with different backgrounds, personalities, education... Each goes about their life of eating, working, studying, praying, and learning to be a monk, but not always with joy. Laughing and crying, fighting and little by little, getting to know oneself and others. 

 

One of the novices he found difficult to relate with since he was always ready to point out the writer's faults. The writer considered himself timid, an introvert, and found dealing with him stressful. Especially when they found each other at the same table for meals. Every time he heard the words, "Let your anger disappear with the setting of the sun," he hated himself for his inability to understand his fellow novice.

 

One day, during spiritual reading, he was struck with the phrase: "Is there someone who makes life difficult for you? He is God's gift to you. " At first, he was angry, and the face of his fellow classmate appeared and the thought: "that man is to be considered a gift of God?" was too much to accept. However, with the passage of time the phrase "gift of God" kept moving around in his thoughts and made sense. Deep in our hearts, we all want to be thought well of and loved and his follow religious was no help in this natural quest.

 

His preoccupation with himself in wanting to be loved and accepted was so strong the remarks of his classmate were difficult to face, but when he did face them, he found peace and his fellow classmate was no longer a problem, rather helped to understand himself and others. His horizon of understanding was greatly extended. His fellow classmate was truly a gift from God.

 

To see ourselves and others as Jesus does, we need to relate with Jesus who loves us in order to accept ourselves with our imperfections. We need to experience God's love and mercy; understand the meaning of pain and grow in healing; our understanding of God has to change. Not to be overlooked is to remember that God accepts us as we are, a message that comes to us most clearly in the parable of the prodigal son.

 

Life is a gift from God. The journey of life has joy, but also problems, scars, pain. Jesus did not rid us of all the problems of life when he came to earth. He did come to rid us of sin, but the problems of life, the crosses remain, he carried them and asked us to do the same and why should that be the case?

 

The cross enables us to be born again and the problems and crosses are the means. Many of them are because of our attachment to possessions, ideas, and we become slaves to greed and desires. All belongs to God. Jesus came to the earth naked and left naked why do we become so attached to things, my thoughts, and not able to forget ourselves. When we realize our nothingness outside of God, we become free both internally and externally, all can be considered a gift, and we can express thanks. Is there someone who makes life difficult for us than we try to discover what we can learn about ourselves and others?

 

 

Atheism and "Probablity Coincidence"

 

A Jesuit science professor's  column in the Catholic Times this week is headed: Scientific atheism relies on the extremely low probability of chance.

He has in detail explained the fundamental differences between science and faith in a past article. When there is a conflict between the two camps in this present era, faith is in a more disadvantageous position, and in the 21st century the weakest era in history.
 
We are faced with the following question. Shouldn't science and faith coexist without attacking each other's domains? Many Catholics ask this very question, wanting reconciliation between science and faith. It may be helpful to briefly review the theories that explain the relationship between science and religion. He describes the relationship between science and religion into five categories: atheism, pantheism/universalism, deism/naturalism, evolutionary theism, and creation theism.
 
Now let's take a closer look at scientific atheism. Scientific atheism, simply put, is a theory that asserts that the world came into existence without the existence of a god. The core content of this scientific atheism is the assertion that life was 'accidentally' created by a certain trigger on the planet Earth, which had certain conditions in this huge universe, and that life was differentiated into higher creatures by evolution.
 
The two central scientific theories to atheistically explain the anthropic principle, are the multiverse theory, and the theory of macroevolution that explains the entire biological evolution from unicellular to human. There is no need for any other concept than this theory to explain present reality. This model is supported by numerous atheist scientists, including Richard Dawkins (1941) and Stephen Hawking (1942–2018).
 
The atheist bus campaign is an advertising campaign aimed at posting messages about atheism on city buses in the UK from 2008 to 2009. Launched on October 21, 2008, under the auspices of the British Humanists Association and Richard Dawkins. The atheist bus campaign, which began in Britain, then spread to the United States and Canada, as well as to many Western European countries, including Germany, Italy, and Spain. This case, which is not well known in Korea, is a representative case that shows how powerful scientific atheism is.
 
A brief summary of the arguments of evolutionary scientists, including Dawkins, and Stephen Hawking can be summarized as follows. "At one point, life appeared on Earth 'probably by chance. After that, the descendants of the creature went through a long evolutionary process, and now humans and other creatures on Earth have been formed."

Stephen Hawking in the 1970s, when he was in critical health, gained widespread attention in science through thermodynamics and so-called Hawking radiation, and became a world-famous figure with a popular science book titled A Brief History of Time published in 1988. Then, in his 2010 book The Grand Design, Big Bang is famous for its claim that the universe was born naturally through this process as a result of only the laws of physics, and that the concept of creation is not necessary at all.

"At one point the 'probably accidentally' universe was born by Big Bang. After that, as the universe expands, it goes through the evolution of the universe, where stars, planets, and galaxies form. After that, the proper conditions (temperature, pressure, water, air, etc.) for life to survive "probably accidentally" are formed on Earth, eventually resulting in life and gradually evolving."

As we have seen above, we can see that scientific universalist arguments (either evolutionist or cosmologist) are commonly based on "probability coincidence" as the first starting point for life in the universe and on Earth. The term "probability coincidence" commonly appears here means, as a scientific concept, "a phenomenon occurs with an extremely low probability of approaching zero without any inevitable cause or reason." In other words, the birth of the universe and the birth of life on Earth have no choice but to rely on "very low probability." Scientific atheism, in short, is a theory based on the chance with very low probability instead of the necessity of God.

Neither Conservative or Progressive

 

In recent years we hear people say they are spiritual but not religious, what does that mean? Possibly many have been turned off by what they see among those who are religious but want to continue with the positive and discard what they think is negative which for many is institutional religion.

However, those who have a Christian belief do not believe in fairy tales or make up their belief system but understand it to be based on historical fact and truth. This of course can be denied but it is not of the type of belief that those who prefer to make a spirituality from their inner feelings— Christians are beckoned by truth to the Jesus of history. They believe that truth will set them free (John 8:32).

 

The Catholic Times Light of the World columnist gives the readers some thoughts to consider in understanding Spirituality in the Catholic sense. 

 

Spirituality is a word we hear often but one we don't understand well. Spirituality literally means a spiritual reality not visible to the eye, and spiritual life is interpreted as a life of faith that seeks God, beyond the sensible. Spirituality is the path and attitude of a believer in life, and it is also an inner gift that is formed in us as a result of the will and effort to believe and love God. Also, just as there are different ways of life, there are also different spiritualities.

 

But what is the essence of spirituality? It's the gospel. The good news and way of life God has revealed through Jesus Christ. Spirituality must bloom in each person's daily life and society. The social doctrines are also proclaimed based on the Gospel and spirituality. Consequently, human activity has a deeper meaning when united with spirituality and God. 

 

 Have you heard of Saint Benedict's famous saying, "Pray and work" (ora et labora)? Why were these two emphasized together? 

 

This is because the spiritual element of prayer invigorates human activity and completes its deep meaning. Human work, directed to charity as its final goal, becomes an occasion for contemplation, it becomes devout prayer, vigilantly rising towards and in anxious hope of the day that will not end. “In this superior vision, work, a punishment and at the same time a reward of human activity, involves another relationship, the essentially religious one, which has been happily expressed in the Benedictine formula: ora et labora! The religious fact confers on human work an enlivening and redeeming spirituality. Such a connection between work and religion reflects the mysterious but real alliance, which intervenes between human action and the providential action of God (#266 A Brief Social Doctrine).

 

Pope St. John Paul II prepared a framework for a work ethic containing spirituality against the commodification of human beings and labor (Encyclical: Through Work). Pope Francis also wrote the Encyclical (Laudato Si) in which he urged overcoming the serious ecological environment crisis by restoring the creative order, and for this purpose, conservation of natural ecosystems and a spiritual and ecological conversion. The Catholic Church always puts the gospel at the center of life, not the secular standards of progressive or conservative, and strives to bring forth the fruit of the gospel in the world. 

 

Spring and a new school year have begun and a new leader has been elected. All of us are desperately in need of future-oriented integration and cooperation beyond conflict and confrontation. For the sake of true coexistence and peace, the path of life that we should all remember is forgiveness and reconciliation, and that is the gospel and the practice of spirituality. We must imitate the forgiveness and reconciliation shown by Jesus Christ. Our small efforts become precious grains of wheat that change our lives and the world. 

 

The lay faithful is called to cultivate an authentic lay spirituality by which they are reborn as new men and women, both sanctified and sanctifiers, immersed in the mystery of God and inserted in society. Such a spirituality will build up the world according to Jesus' Spirit. It will make people capable of looking beyond history, without separating themselves from it, of cultivating a passionate love for God without looking away from their bothers and sisters, whom they are able to see as the Lord sees them, and love as the Lord loves them. This spirituality precludes both an intimist spiritualism and social activism, expressing itself instead of in life-giving synthesis that bestows unity, meaning, and hope on an existence that for so many different reasons is contradictory and fragmented. Prompted by such a spirituality, the lay faithful are able to contribute “to the sanctification of the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular duties. Thus, especially by the witness of their own life ... they must manifest Christ to others”( #545 A Brief Social Doctrine).