Posts

About immigration

 With the current debate about immigration brewing in America, Japan, and around the world, I couldn't help but think about it. This is a bit of a digression from the religious path I was planning to discuss. (It's hard to go from Christianity to Islam.) What exactly is an immigrant? Aren't we immigrants? Where did we come from? From God. That aside, analysis of mitochondrial DNA suggests that modern humans originated from a single African woman. Mitochondria are inherited only maternal-line, and can be traced back to a single woman. She was called Eve, and she apparently lived in East Africa. In other words, Homo sapiens' roots are in East Africa. From there, humanity spread throughout the world. In other words, everyone except Africans is an immigrant. After all, even those who shout anti-immigration have immigrant roots. So, what's the difference? "We came here earlier." That's it. In other words, they arrived relatively early. Whether someone is an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts on the Resurrection of Christ

 I was thinking about the resurrection of Christ in bed yesterday. What does it mean? Or rather, what does it mean for us? I'll leave the proper interpretation to the church and such, but this is my personal, subjective interpretation: when Christ was crucified, the crowds mocked him, saying things like, "Ask your God to help you" And when Christ died, he cried out to God several times (I think it was three times) "Has God forsaken me?" You'll find out exactly what happened if you open the Bible, but I can't open the scriptures right now because God has sealed them for me. I'm sure that's not the case for you, so I recommend you look them up for yourself, but this scene is quite heavy. I've repeatedly proclaimed my belief in Buddha and God here, but what if I were harmed by someone who doesn't believe in religion or who is hostile to religion, and I couldn't resist and my life was in danger? What would I do if they mocked me and said,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Are love and mercy the same (i.e., are God and Buddha the same)?

 Are love and mercy the same? Last time, I thought that love is the desire to love someone so deeply that you feel their happiness as your own and their sadness as your own, and that it aims to unite you with others. But what about mercy? Japanese "慈(Ji)" in "mercy(慈悲)" refers to the desire and action of caring for others and wanting to bring them joy, while the "悲(Hi)" refers to the desire and action of wanting to relieve their sadness. In other words, the other person's joy is your joy, and the other person's sadness is your sadness. That's right. It aims to unite you with others. The love preached in Christianity and the mercy preached in Buddhism have the same goal. To unite us. I've always thought that words like God, Buddha, love, and mercy(compassion) are so troublesome. I wrote about this in an earlier post, but we are really going to keep denying each other, saying this is different or that is different, until we die. And we intend...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love is the driving force behind new creation

 Since last time, I've been thinking about the fact that the Japanese words "ai" (love) and "koi" (romantic love) are both expressed using the same word, "LOVE." What exactly is love?  To love means to love someone so much that you can't help it. If that person is of the opposite sex, it's simply love. But it can also be the same sex, a friend, parent, sibling, son, daughter, or any other human or non-human entity, even a thing or even God. At that moment, the other person's joy feels like your own joy, their sadness feels like your own sadness, your happiness becomes my happiness, and your unhappiness becomes my unhappiness. You and I are one. You are a part of me, and I am a part of you. You and I are inseparable. Bound as one by the bond of fate, forever one. The desire to be inseparable and one with oneself. The most obvious example of this is love, so perhaps in English, both love and romance are simply referred to as LOVE. In love, th...
Post a Comment
Read more

I'm completely captivated by Love (captivated by God)

 I've been serious about this in the last two posts, saying that I shouldn't be distracted by (romantic) love, but there's more to the story. I can't talk about love without writing this. The love I'm talking about here is the love preached in Christianity, But that's completely different from romantic love! You're right. I thought so too. I first wrote this blog in my native Japanese, and then translated it into English using AI (Google Translate). When I read the English translations of my previous posts, I found that both the Japanese words "恋" (koi, meaning romantic love) and "愛 (ai, meaning love)" are translated as "LOVE." Isn't there an English equivalent to the Japanese word "恋(romantic love)"? Are "恋(romantic love)" and "愛(love)" the same? Even in an English-Japanese dictionary, "love" has both meanings: love and romantic love. Even in Japanese, when you say "愛(love),...
Post a Comment
Read more

Religion is the optimal solution for human survival

Last time, I said, "Evil must not be used for a good cause," but what about in times of crisis when survival is threatened? "When it comes to survival, all is permitted." In an extreme, life-or-death situation, morality, law, and concepts of right and wrong are all invalid. When a city is surrounded by war and food runs out, people turn to cannibalism, with children being the first to be eaten. You might think such a horrific act cannot happen, but it seems to have been common in Chinese history. Even in the 20th century, Toyoko Yamazaki's novel "Children of the Earth" depicts the phenomenon of cannibalism among residents of a Kuomintang city surrounded by Chinese Communist forces during the Chinese Civil War and falling into starvation. The protagonist, as a young boy, was targeted as "food" and, just as he was about to be eaten, the siege was partially lifted, narrowly escaping . Apparently, when people are starving, they begin to see other...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do not use evil for the cause of good ~ Why God Forbids Terrorism

 Instead of being obsessed with love forever, I'd like to talk about something a little more serious. And that is: "Evil must not be used for a good cause." People often say, "A little evil is permissible as a means to a good cause," but that's not true. If we accept that, we would also be accepting violence, deception, and terrorism. "I want to realize the good cause, but even I'm not strong enough. So let's cheat a little." Do you really think God would say something like that? That would mean God is powerless. He's not omniscient or omnipotent at all. In other words, he is not God. If there was a God who said that, he would be a fake. In the end, people who accept the use of evil for a good cause don't trust God. They don't believe God is omniscient or omnipotent. In other words, they don't believe in God. They lack faith. They don't believe in God, they believe in their own strength. So, what do we do when we're ...
Post a Comment
Read more