An Uncommon Find

Rummaging through some stored boxes which came from the previous residence, I chanced upon this rather uncommon find, which at first glance looked nothing more than a pendant made of silver.

Upon closer scrutiny, we find that it is the remains of what used to be a Liberty Walking Half-Dollar (minted circa 1916-1947).

To read more.

Old Olympic Games Postcards

Because the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing, China, are gearing up just around the corner, it is about time to start thinking things about the games.

The games have had a long history, stretching from ancient to modern times, the last one held less than two years ago in 2006. Starting in 1992, the games were divided into the Summer and the Winter Olympics, though still held every four years but scheduled in such a way that every two years, we have a version of the games. Thus, the last Summer Olympics was held in Athens in 2004 and the last Winter Olympics in 2006 in Turin.

In the 80’s to commemorate the games the International Olympic Committee based in Lausanne, Switzerland, begun printing postcards which showed miniaturized versions of the official posters of the different games. Now the IOC was formally established in 1894 and had is first Summer Olympics in 1896.

To read more.

Article 3: Whether God Exists

Every time such a profound and difficult, though not entirely novel, question is asked, three people easily pop into my mind as the current default authorities who will argue for the negative.

First, I bring the name of Richard Dawkins, British and venerable chairperson at the University of Oxford. Then comes Sam Harris, a forty-something American, who had some kind of an epiphany after an experience with ecstasy, whether it was the real ecstasy mystics aspire for, it was anyway an altered state induced by the drug MDMA popularly known by the same name. And lastly but not least, I think about Christopher Hitchens, a British-American writer/journalist who prefers to refer to himself as antitheist and antireligious. All three are the most visible proponents and believers of atheism, which in common parlance means the non-existence of any god. I am a bit familiar only with Mr. Hitchens because he maintains a frequent and unavoidable presence in American politics and select social circles writing regularly for the magazine, Vanity Fair. And I find core portions of his politics very reasonable and palatable, for my taste. But he still is an avowed atheist, and will not miss any public forum he is invited to advance his belief, or non-belief.

Now, let it be said that atheists as a group are still quite an insignificant minority, with most people still fervently believing that there is God, or a god of various stripes and manifestations. Most if not all religions are predicated on the existence of a Supreme Being that their devotees profess loyalty and fealty to.

But for the majority of us, how many times have we been asked personally how we come to a belief in God? Of course, many of us hide between the catch-all shield of faith to explain away all our esoteric beliefs and dogmas. But believe it or not, belief in the existence of a god does travel beyond, way beyond, just believing because somebody in authority said so. Belief held in faith has or should have some bases of proof, whether scientific or rational and logical.

The three renowned atheists above have their own well-thought and highly-intelligent rationalizations and justifications why to them a god does not exist. And most of us would be awed with their extraordinary intelligence and perspectives as to render many of us unable to completely grasp and discern their erudite narratives. Their gifts of intelligence and insights can at times blind many of us with our simple minds and so-so levels of discernment of things beyond matter and physical reality.

Thus, for many of us, Catholic especially, we seek our understanding of and discernment to the answer to this eternally critical question from a humble source, who lived many centuries ago, in the 1200s, but whose equally-enlightening brilliance and simple grace continue to peal strong, resolute, and still inadequately challenged over the tumultuous ages.

We seek our answers and reliance from a portly Italian Dominican monk who went by the name of Thomas Aquinas, and now suitably honored as the most eminent Father of the Church. From a gratefully enduring Church sustained by his whole body of Thomist philosophy and theology.

Though having lived only for some 50 years, Aquinas was by most standards a very prolific thinker and writer, capping his life-long work with his best known Summa Theologica.

Counted among his seminal work then was his proof of the existence of God, succinctly laid out in his the Five Ways (quinquae viae).

Though hindered by great personal inadequacies, I shall nevertheless try to lay out as simplistically as to be easily understandable and in the least amount of words possible, the 5 proofs presented by Aquinas for the existence of God.

First, his argument of motion. Aquinas, and one is paraphrasing here, observed that some things were in motion and others were not (now we know even better, because everything in nature is in constant motion, from the tiny atom to the entire cosmos). Thus, things have the potentiality for motion and the actuality of motion. Now, to attain the actuality of motion, somebody has to effect that motion, from potentiality to actuality. That something has to first be an actuality before it can effect actuality. If that something is still in potentiality, somebody has to cause it to move. But God is the First Mover because nobody caused him to move.

Second, the nature of efficient cause. Each effect has a cause. Nothing is possible without a cause, an efficient cause. For our very own existence, we cannot attribute it to ourselves since that would imply that we had existed a priori, before we were created to be responsible (as the efficient cause)for our existence. Thus, everything in this world was created by an efficient cause that has not of itself been caused by another efficient cause, or we could go on until infinity assigning efficient causes, until we accept an Uncaused Cause.

Third, possibility and necessity. We find that in nature things are either possible or not. Those that are possible exist for a time, corrupt, and die. Quoting from the translated archaic words of the thinker, “Therefore, not all things are merely possible, but there must exist something already existing. But every necessary thing either has its necessity caused by another, or not. Now it is impossible to go on to infinity in necessary things which have their necessity caused by another, as has been already proved in regard to efficient causes.”

Fourth, from the gradation or degrees found in things. Among things and beings we speak about whether they are better, nobler, hotter, heavier, etc. And these gradations are predicated on their resemblance or divergence to something that is the maximum, highest, best, etc. So there must be some highest ideal, standard, great truth, goodness, and every other perfection which must pre-exist everything else.

And finally, the governance and order of the world. This stupendous order must not have come fortuitously, but must have been consciously designed. Especially with regard to things that lack intelligence, something with knowledge and intelligence must have and continue to direct them to their proper ends.

Thus, we spoke in the beginning that even faith in the existence of a god must have some bases in either science or reason and logic, because as Aquinas pondered the existence of God is not self-evident, but can be creditably demonstrated a posteriori. Demonstrated not completely as God knows himself, but to certain demonstrable extent through the “effects” which can be known by us.

The Examination Of Conscience

One enduring lesson taught us by Jesuit mentors in school comes under the heading, the examination of conscience. A lesson judged so vital, we had to practice and refine it daily, summarize it weekly, and recall it annually. As daily practice, it came as serious ritual before going to sleep. Apart from night prayers, one sets aside time to introspectively look into how one lived that day, examining what one did and thought and making judgment on whether one’s inner voice had been bothered by things that transpired. And this examination always came with the firm resolve to acknowledge personal responsibility and commit to personal changes in one’s behavior and thought.

As a prelude to the proper reception of the Sacrament of Confession or Penance which was scheduled weekly, one is again asked to review the entire week’s behavior. Then a formal telling to a confessor priest, ending with a promise not to have the same recur, coupled with a firmer resolve for amendment in one’s life

Then annually under a formal gathering called a retreat, which was either open or closed, one again took careful stock of the longer period, assessing one’s progress or retrogression. Open, when done as a group. And closed, when one removed oneself from daily routine, sequestered and isolated oneself, and conducted one-on-one sessions with a spiritual director.

Did this strict regimen make for happier or sadder lives? Personally, I couldn’t say either.

But it did make for a humbler look at life, a more tolerant take on grinding realities, maybe a self-satisfying contentment at how one is living life, or maybe even, a more nonchalant, or better still, a more accepting or disinterested resignation to things outside the scope of one’s effective influence. The last one especially is quite important because without it, life can be most frustrating and hopeless, when one looks at the myriad of things wrong with the world around us and one somehow has no influence or power whatsoever in changing them. Things like widespread corruption in government, consummate evils like terrorism and wars, in your face greedy or self-righteous people, etc. Thus, instead of sowing discontent and disdain by exposing and dwelling on extraneous evils, one finds enough personal demons to do personal combat with, enough to last a lifetime.


But what appears above as a quite mundane exercise has actually a larger and better context, in the realm of spirituality.

This concept of taking personal responsibility under a rigid and persistent self-examination with the resultant and consequent resolve for personal amendment is the fertile soil under which personal spirituality can grow, as propounded by the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola.

And as popularly practiced you find these self-same principles undergirding many successful programs of self-help, including but not limited to those engaged in ridding people of various addictions. Accepting personal responsibility and moving on.

And as one looks around the world of today, it is easy for one to sense that there is great need for this practice.

Hopefully, to reduce the projective hatred of people toward others expressed as acts of terrorism and uncalled for violence, or to curb the heavy and incessant demands by both the governed and the politicians on government to resolve problems of peoples’ poverty, absence of health insurance, lawlessness, etc.

Let’s start with those.

USA: Land Of Immigrants, truly

As of November 2007, culled from the best data available and most reliable extrapolation possible, there are now 40.5 million immigrants in the US which has a current total population of 301 million. These figures take cognizance of possible undercounts, survey misses, and other special categories like those living in group quarters.

That number includes both legal and illegal immigrants. And immigrants are those who are foreign-born and not citizens of the US at birth.

50% of illegal immigrants are Mexicans and from Central America. While those from South America registered one-third.

Again based on the numbers, illegal immigration contributed 50% of the total current increases in the immigrant population. But as a percentage of total immigrants, their number of 12.4 (adjusted) million constitutes 32.6 %

It should be noted that prior to the 1970s, illegal immigration was quite minimal. And in the intervening years up to the present, at least 4.1 million illegal aliens had their status legalized and received green cards from a couple of amnesty programs in the past.

10.3 million of these immigrants arrived from 2000 to the present, registering the highest number of immigrants in any 7-year period throughout history.

Being the most populous state in the Union, California registered the highest increases in immigrants, giving it almost 10 million immigrants residing within its borders. The state has a total extrapolated population of 36 million. Thus, California alone contributed 27% to the total immigrant population.

As a share of total population, immigrants contribute 12.6%, overhauled only by the years from 1900 to 1920 when total US population was not that much compared to today.

One undeniable fact stands out in all these phenomenal numbers. New immigration is the biggest single factor responsible for all this. And if this trend continues unabated, in 2060 the country will be adding 3.3 million residents to the total population from both immigrants and natives. Right now, the immigrants add about 1 million people each year.

Some pertinent data relating to the old homeland, the Philippines. In a top field of 25 countries of birth of immigrants, the Philippines garnered 4th place with 1.6 million, overtaken by much more populous countries such as Mexico, China, and India. It also showed among the highest for those who elected US citizenship, 60.3%.

On the poverty and near-poverty table, the Philippines placed last in the top field of 25 countries, registering only 4.2%. Doing even better compared to first-world country immigrants from UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, etc.

On educational attainment, Ages 25 to 64, the Philippines again placed better for all the top-25 countries, except for Germany, UK, Canada, and Japan.


All the data above were extracted from a report of the Center For Immigration Studies, which in turn was based largely on the most recent Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Census Bureau.


Credit
Some critical areas of serious concern which cry for our attention.

A good majority of the new immigrants are not only unskilled but have very limited education. This translates in reality to lower incomes and thus more likely for them to avail of government assistance programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and even IRS credits such as in earned income and additional children. And a surprise revelation that even minus valid SS numbers, IRS has ruled that immigrants can still claim the additional children tax credit.

And given the new numbers, it may simply be not right to claim outright that these new immigrants do the jobs that natives do not want. From among a similar group of natives, those with limited skills and education, there are potentially enough of them unemployed and unutilized to take care of all the jobs that these new immigrants are doing at the present time. Maybe it simply requires for them to be incentivized and/or given the proper opportunity and information. Over the years, the numbers of employed coming from this group have been declining.

Talks about giving amnesty and a path to citizenship for the 12 million illegals already here may be a compassionate move to make, but at least our eyes should be opened to the onerous repercussions this is going to have on the economy and the government assistance programs. Given that most of these immigrants are unskilled and with limited education, and thus most likely to tax even more the government programs. Poverty rates will still be high, with many new citizens paying no federal taxes while availing of more government services.

The report from CIS concludes with a very ominous statement:

Setting aside the lower socio-economic status of immigrants, no nation has ever attempted to incorporate nearly 38 million (adjusted: 40m) newcomers into its society.

Indeed.