The Christian and The Martial Arts

Yuanyang, China (trekearth.com) 

February 25, 2012 

I started at Karate-Kung Fu at a paid club at age of seventeen but after two years realized that Kata and much of what was being taught was not much practical good to me in the context of self-defence, a street fight, or against weapons. I was never interested at all in any of the spiritual aspects of the martial arts, so any hyper-fundamentalist at this point can take a chill pill. As well the club I joined divorced this from its practices. 

So, having been provided some basic knowledge, I quit classes after two years and spent years with martial arts bag work and sparred with a few friends over the years to develop my skills. I did significantly improve. I also read on the martial arts and bought videos. I studied off of the internet. I realized that to avoid weapons defence training as an aspect of self-defence was unwise and so I trained with mock knives as part of sparring. In fact a friend was stabbed with a stick in the hand on one occasion... A minor wound. He told me this training may have saved him in a knife incident at work years later. There was evidence that I was improving over the years. 

In Greater Manchester (1999-2001) in the beginning of my PhD studies I was burgled twice and I got myself out of a couple of potential fights by standing up to hoodlums, which are quite common in Northern England, sad to state. The first time I was burgled I was back home in BC, Canada for Christmas and all my electronic equipment was stolen. The second time, I wisely stored everything with a friend, accept for a couple things I forgot. At the location I was burgled the second time and where I lived where I was attacked, which I shall describe shortly, a neighbour was actually murdered. Apparently a person or person tied this man to a chair, beat him to death, took nothing and left the door of his flat wide open for all to see. 

The rumour was that this man had been having affairs with underage girls which would be easy to believe from all the teen mothers that could be viewed in the area, but the grocers that knew the man stated he was clean and that the murder was for another reason, perhaps random reason. Anyway, Uncle Chuck and I were in Downtown Manchester, Decemeber 2000 and were attacked by three men that I later realized were part of a pack of approximately thirty men, some were drunk. I ended up fighting three and was winning the fights on points but due to my conservative approach, because I did not want to get stabbed by turning my back on one of them (assuming they could have knives or screwdrivers), did not go in harder to knock one of them out or at that time have the knowledge I do now concerning choking them out, or was as used to throwing someone to the ground as I would be now, and therefore in frustration to save face one of them called me a an 'f' er' and threw a bottle at me from a distance (as I had clocked him with a severe round house kick and punches and he had left) and it hit me in the nose breaking it and two of my front teeth. 

This actually made my sleep apnea go from two stage (born with) to three stage. Thankfully this is quite a bit better with treatment and will never be that bad again. The lessons. The Karate/Kung Fu class only served me with basics. The bag work only served me with the basics. The best and more advanced martial arts work I have done is to take the basic physics of punching, kicking, choking, holds, and basic take downs, and to apply them to street fighting offence and defence, including weapons. This was done in the context of sparring as well. I would also strongly suggest that persons arm themselves within the rules of the law. I won the fights in Manchester on points, but I should have fought more offensively and attempted to take the three guys out and perhaps I would not have been bottled. But, even then I still could have faced thirty more men. 

Sometimes the use of a weapon or weapons, within the rules of the law is the best answer for a reasonable chance of survival. I realize I have a fair amount of female readers and Blogger has mainly female members, and I would advise females to learn self-defence, and martial arts and to also arm themselves within the limits of the law. I am not sure if Art Martial has anything to do with this post.

My photo 1: These are the metal clubs I use at home to practice with and I also use these during sparring sessions. I also use a metal baseball bat, wood club and purchased legally a Swiss Army Knife that is used with the blade retracted for sparring purposes. 

My photo 2: Uncle Chuck

My photo 3: Zombie with a six pack...

  

The Problem of Evil...Computer Viruses

Moscow (trekearth.com)

January 27, 2012

A. Rootkit Zero Access Viruses

According to Dedicated 2-viruses at

2 Viruses

'ZeroAccess rootkit, also known as Max++, is a nasty piece of malware which is designed to start its persistent campaign just after infiltration. The infiltration of this malware is quite simple and done through security holes together with infected downloads, often Adobe Reader or Java fake updates. It can be said that additional purpose of ZeroAccess rootkit is to set up a stealthy, undetectable and un-removable platform which should help to download malware into the target PC. As you can see, it’s a rootkit which is advanced and sophisticated.'

According to CleanPCGuide.com at

CleanPCGuide

'ZeroAccess rootkit is a malicious trojan horse or bot that may represent security risk for the compromised system and/or its network environment. ZeroAccess rootkit injects rootkit components into Windows processes to avoid detection. It as been also noticed to be used for stealing online banking accounts, disabling some of Windows components, such as User Account Control or others and delivering fake Antivirus applications that should swindle the money from trustful PC users for removal services of malware programs detected by fake antivirus. ZeroAccess rootkit poses a dangerous threat to any computer or system and should be terminated immediately.'

How my computer contracted Rootkit Zero Access Viruses


'Golly, no we got hit by a virus on YouTube, I never heard of that before'.

Former natural body-builder and competitor from East Maple Ridge.

My good friend and frequent blog (s) commenter Bobby Buff/Walter Thomas Franklin very kindly decided he would once again look to YouTube for some theological material in which to comment on my blogs. A couple of weeks earlier he had visited me here in the loft and was on YouTube 'fail' videos which somehow contracted to my computer a fake XP virus alert, similar to what my second citation mentions. I ran Combofix at that time and it appeared to find and delete all traces of Rootkit Zero Access.

However, a couple of weeks later a second time my friend was hit with the viruses, and even though Comboxfix and Kaspersky were both able to find the viruses and delete them, XP would only start in the last known mode that worked and this seemingly guaranteed that the viruses would continue to exist. I also ran SuperAntispyware and Malware Bytes Anti-Malware which deleted some of the viruses 'apparently'. Every other product I tried online either would not load or could not find the viruses sufficiently.

To be blunt, there were some software fails here! I had as the virus name states zero internet access thanks to the series of viruses, and no real ability to fix the problem. With my Mom in the hospital I went to the downstairs part of the condo and used her computer and looked for whatever help I could online.

So, after speaking with professionals and enlightened amateurs my only reasonable option was to reformat XP. I figured a new operating system would be a larger headache with my era of computer unless I just go and buy a new laptop and pass this desktop on to my disabled Mother, which I will likely eventually do. Of course there was 50 hours of work involved and that is not including reloading all my iTunes which still is not completely done, but now I have wisely backed up my key progressive rock, jazz-fusion, art rock and classical discs for 'next time' if evil strikes.


Krym Alupa, Ukraine (trekearth.com)


Lake of Solonets, Oster, Ukraine (trekearth.com)

B. Babylon Toolbar

According to eHow at

eHow

'Babylon is a translation software program that offers one-click translation and dictionary access.'

'Babylon comes with a toolbar that integrates itself with the toolbars in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Toolbar. Users report that, even after they have uninstalled the Babylon program, this toolbar remains and slows the operation of the computer.'

From Spybot

Spybot

'Babylon Toolbar is a useless toolbar that gets installed by other software, for instance FoxTab Videoconverter. Legal age for installation is 18 while this fact is only mentioned in the terms. Babylon Toolbar installs itself to the system, the Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome. The Babylon.Toolbar is almost identical to Toolbar.Facemood. Some affiliates like MediGet also install Babylon and the Babylon Toolbar without proper userconsent using a count down timer to start install.'

What I found is that Babylon somehow through my web searches with Google got into both the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, defaces them and then basically without one's permission creates not only a Babylon Toolbar but virtually a Babylon browser. Chucky was on Google Chrome for only a few minutes and Babylon hijacked that browser as well. It does not attack Safari at this point. It took Cardinal Chucklins and I around 45 minutes to get rid of Babylon from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome on my computer. I am disappointed to see Microsoft involved with Babylon and as Uncle Chuckles stated that night, Google needs to upgrade their security.

February 20, 2012

From the Mail Online

C. Westboro Baptist Church pretends to picket Whitney Houston funeral by using Photoshopped picture of protest

WBC

Quote:

'The notorious Westboro Baptist Church promised to picket Whitney Houston's funeral, claiming that the star died because she disobeyed God.

On Saturday, the day of the ceremony, church leader Margie Phelps claimed that the protest was 'rocking the house' as she tweeted a picture which appeared to show signs saying 'God hates fags' outside the funeral in New Jersey.

But it now appears that the famously anti-gay church may not have been at the funeral at all - instead, they used Photoshop to make it seem as it they were there.'

'Ms Phelps took to Twitter claiming that the church planned to protest at Ms Houston's funeral at New Hope Baptist Church, saying: 'So many piling up to blather about her today. Not ONE of them warned her of hell.'

From the bit I watched of the funeral, as I am not much of a celebrity viewer, Ms. Houston appeared to have been a Christian believer and so according to Scripture (John 1, John 3, Ephesians 1-3, Romans 8, Romans 10) would not be heading to hell, but heaven/paradise (Luke 23: 43, 2 Corinthians 12: 4, Philippians 1) despite struggles with sin and lack of good works, potentially in Christ (1 Corinthians 3: 10-15, Hebrews 6: 4-8, James 2, 2 Peter 3: 8-13). She apparently at least had a public confession of Christ which reminds one of Romans 10: 13.

To Photoshop the protest and then claim it happened is of course dishonest. This is a breaking of the Ten Commandments, the ninth in Exodus 20: 16 where it states not to give/bear false witness. From the New Testament...

Colossians 3:9-10 (New American Standard Bible)

9 [a]Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old [b]self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being [c]renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—

To protest funerals in the first place is unloving from a Biblical perspective (Matthew 22, Mark 12, John 15) and from what I gather based on very presumptive dangerous theology on the potential everlasting states of the deceased.

Page views and world views

Sydney (Google Images)

December 28, 2011

Best of the Christmas Season and Happy New Year.

A. Page views

I do reason that Blogger keeps more accurate blog traffic statistics than does Statcounter or Site Meter, and my Blogger numbers are higher. I think Blogger will better keep track of traffic arriving on its on sites than will the other two programs. I also know empirically from past commenter experience that Statscounter and Site Meter have both failed to track the experience of certain commenters. Therefore, I take it that my higher traffic and page views numbers on Blogger in comparison to Statcounter and Site Meter are generally accurate, but the Blogger statistics program application is rather new and not as detailed.

However, and not surprisingly, according to Statscounter my statistics for 2011 show that my satire and theology page views are down around 12, 000 from 2010 and my Dr. RNM page views around 10, 000 from 2010, so overall about 22, 000 from 2010. Is this because I have gone from two-three posts per blog per month to only one per month? Perhaps, but I doubt it. I think it has to do somewhat with the use in the Western World of Facebook and Twitter and other which are quite simply easier social media to read and use than Blogger and other blogs. Many Bloggers/bloggers, including Christian ones in the West may spend more time concentrating on social media such as Facebook and Twitter and less on Blogger or another type of Blog.

This is also quite understandable considering how much time blogging takes for the lousy pay.

Both my blogs have had a rise post-summer in page view numbers to 2010 levels which are better than 2009 and 2008. There appears to be a Blogger Blog growth in South America, Latin Europe, and Eastern Europe and my interaction with that (as sadly finding Western evangelicals on Blogger and other to blog with has often and usually been difficult) is positive. Hopefully I can find a job posting related to my degrees, or if not right away, at least have the use of my Doctorate to promote my work as I work in another field and still send out CVs. I still will have an overall increased amount of blog articles extant on the web. I should have a gradual increasing number of reciprocal Blogger followers, Facebook blog followers, and reciprocal links.

I therefore still reason my blogs will slowly increase in readership size over the years.

God willing.

The idea of writing more posts is a reasonable one to generate more traffic but I am not good at maintaining the quality of my blogs with more posts. I cannot at times arrive easily with the ideas and I will not force them. As well, I like the comment interaction and as stated previously do not like zero comment posts personally.

Vancouver (Google Images)

B. World views

MPhil 2003

God to Blame?

In McGrath’s second chapter entitled Blaming God he mentions some prominent modern twentieth century philosophies and discusses some of the results of these world-views. He noted that atheistic communism and western liberalism had failed to deal with the harsh realities of life that had taken place in the twentieth century, particularly during World War II. Communism and liberalism removed God from the equation, however, to McGrath, it caused more evil to take place. He stated: "Belief in God is a vital restraining factor. It curbs human evil by stressing God’s condemnation of those who inflict suffering on others." McGrath (1992: 11). McGrath believed that neither communism nor western liberalism had eliminated suffering, and thus their disbelief in God was not on strong intellectual footing.

To him, the great suffering which occurred in the twentieth century indicated there was something wrong with human nature, and that many people who attempted to blame God for those woes should, instead, have looked at world philosophies such as communism and western liberalism which ignored God. McGrath stated these philosophies that overlooked God, at the same time, overlooked his love. He noted: "Occasions of history are stained by the tears of our God who was working to bring about the day when ‘there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.’ (Revelation 21:4)." McGrath (1992: 14).

I am in agreement with McGrath that the sinfulness of human nature was overlooked by communist states such as the Soviet Union. In fact, the utopia of socialism actually led to the Soviet Union committing acts of violence in great numbers against their own citizens and those of other nations.

Communism is faulty in that it depends on the state forcing equality among people. This, however, does not end the evil of poverty, for example, but simply takes away initiative from people to advance themselves economically, and gives economic and political power to a select few government and military officials. At the same time, tyranny takes place as these select few must strongly enforce the equality that they see as necessary in order for the communist state to advance.

Christianity, on the other hand, favours shared equality. By this I mean people willingly sharing some, and sometimes all, of what they possess. But the idea is not that a state or ruling counsel should dictate this, but that it should be done willingly in love. With this world view, people have the freedom to willingly help others.

Now with western liberalism, I think it can be argued that, unlike Communism, it does have some major social benefits because it still allows for individualistic human thought which can lead to creativity. When this is taken too far, however, it can be seen that without God, human creativity can only solve few problems because human beings are fallen and imperfect and will still commit evil acts. A person who does not believe in the God and follow Him, can make social progress, but this will be limited because social ethics can make him/her moral but cannot make him/her spiritual as in believing in and following Jesus Christ. A spiritual person seeking God’s guidance should, at least, be theoretically more open to loving and caring for others, to show other people the love God has shown each of them. God’s love being shown within someone should take them beyond morality to a personal concern about the spiritual state of others.

To play devil’s advocate, a critic could claim that Christianity has not solved suffering any better than Communism or especially western liberalism; however, I think McGrath is correct. A belief in God in society and better yet a spiritual relationship with Christ leads to the tempering of evil in a nation and the world. Christianity’s ultimate answer to evil comes through revelation, but at least that has historical evidence of Scripture behind it. Christians are disobedient to God, just as nonbelievers are, and this is probably part of the reason Christianity has not made more social progress. But I still agree with McGrath that Christ’s atoning work and resurrection is the only ultimate answer that remedies evil. This work has, of course, not been completely culminated, but I think the Scriptural evidence supports the idea that Christ will return to restore his creation.

Western liberalism shares some of Christianity’s positive views on sharing and even love, but it depends too much on the goodness of humanity. The twentieth century demonstrates that social evolution in humankind is good, but always limited. This is part of the reason why the advanced, modern, western world still produced a nation like Nazi Germany.

These people were cultured and socialized, but still spiritually blind.

C. The Non-Conformist of the Year Award 2011

For previous reviews please see last year's post.

2010

2011-Chucky!

Saint Chucklins are you fattergasted by this award? You deserve it by your dedication to let us state the mythical Chuckastinian Monastic Order which supports strongly libertarian political causes, honouring of thy Mother, assisting friends for free, driving around family members, booping a computer for fast cash, counting the church's cash, being a choir boy, playing the target for martial arts weapons sparring, posting 'freaky Friday' night photos of you, taken by me, for your Facebook profile, being a Mennomonk and honouring thy Mother.

Bobby Buff-10x winner
Chucky-3x winner
Documentary Man-2x winner
Jeff Jenkins-2x winner
Zombie-2x winner
Cousin Buff-1x winner
Manson-1x winner
PMH-1x winner
thekingpin68-1x winner




Something for Christian philosophers to consider as well...


Well, at least I have four earned degrees...

McGRATH, A. (1992) Bridge-Building, Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press.
McGRATH, A. (1992) Suffering, London, Hodder and Stoughton Limited.

Thoughts on Joy, Suffering and Christmas

Emerald Bay, California (trekearth.com)

November 28, 2011

A. The Joy of ?

Our church brought in a guest speaker that discussed somewhat the subject of 'joy'. Philosophically and theologically this is an interesting subject for me. I thought the speaker was good and helpful and so I am not picking an argument, but in my mind with my MPhil/PhD background in freewill and determinism I do philosophize on human 'joy'. From a Christian perspective should 'joy' primarily be understood as the responsibility of human attitude and free will (what I would deduce would often be an evangelical and secular response) as opposed to 'joy' being primarily the responsibility of God to give to persons?

Browning reasons Biblical 'joy' is more than an emotion, as it combines a sense of human happiness with a state of blessedness. In the Old Testament it is marked by festivals (Deut. 12) and by settlements of grievances brought to the Temple (Psalms 43). In the New Testament he explains that 'joy' is prominent in Luke/Acts due to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which can also be seen in Galatians 5. Browning (1997: 210).

Creath Davis explains 'joy' is a delight in life that goes deeper than pain or pleasure and from a Biblical perspective would not be limited or tied to external circumstances. Davis (1999: 588). 'Joy' is given from God as a gift and can be experienced during very difficult and extreme circumstances. Davis (1999: 588). In both Testaments 'joy' is presented as sign of one being a believer and a sign in the believing community, it is a quality of life and not simply an emotional reaction or feeling. Davis (1999: 588). This 'joy' comes from God (Psalms 16, Romans 15), and is an aspect of faith and one's life with God. Davis (1999: 588). 'Joy' is also connected to weakness and suffering when it has redemptive purpose and is bringing persons to depend on God (Matthew 5 and 2 Corinthians 12). Davis (1999: 588).

Further, Davis mentions that psychologically one cannot experience 'joy' while being preoccupied with self-security, pleasure, or self-interest. Davis (1999: 588). There is a freedom that comes when God alone is the 'only adequate center for human existence, and God alone can enable persons to experience life with joyous spontaneity and to relate to others with love.' Davis (1999: 588)

From Strong. Two of the main examples of 'Joy', one from the Hebrew Bible and one from the New Testament.





BROWNING, W.R.F. (1997) Oxford Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

DAVIS, CREATH. (1996) ‘Joy’, in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.

STRONG, J. (1890)(1986) Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Burlington, Welch Publishing Company.

In my conclusion I lean to the idea that 'joy' is primarily a gift from God to believers and less so something than can be developed by human means, although I would not in any way discount prayer, study, and fellowship with other believers in the process of developing personal 'joy'. The Lord does work through his people and in other ways, persons in general. From my theodicy, problem of evil and suffering research, and personal living perspective, a practical difficulty with 'joy' is when God wills suffering for what ever good (Romans 8: 28-30) is intended in one's life and these sufferings directly effect one's security, health, happiness, self-interest, pleasure, etc. Here is where I state that although the sufferer should thank God for blessings obtained (salvation in Christ, material and spiritual blessings, lack of curses, etc.), ultimately, although the person should actively be praying, and working to improve one's life, it is primarily the sovereign God's responsibility to provide the 'joy' not primarily the person's change of attitude or actions with the use of free will.

This does mean that a person may at times for a time, which is not set, be depressed or miserable, (the Biblical example of Job comes to mind perhaps) as he or she waits obediently for the Holy Spirit of God to provide 'joy' or 'joy' in greater measure.


Cernay, France (trekearth.com)

B. D. A. Carson Harsh Reality

Taken from MPhil, University of Wales, Bangor 2003 (now Bangor University)

MPhil

2. Harsh Reality

Carson began Chapter 1, First Steps, by noting stories of people who had suffered.

He stated:

The truth of the matter is that all we have to do is live long enough, and we will suffer. Our loved ones will die; we ourselves will be afflicted with some disease or other. Carson (1990: 16).

This is a cold yet a realistic statement. Suffering touches virtually every human being. If a person believes in God, yet he/she suffers, how should this individual deal with this intellectual tension? I think suffering, in one way, should be seen as a sign of human weakness, we have a fallen nature which resulted from sin. We all pay the price, and it does not always correspond to how good or evil we appear compared to our fellow human compatriots. God makes use of human suffering despite, as Scripture repeatedly says, loving us. This suffering, from a human perspective, can help people find God by reminding them of the temporary nature of human life.

As human beings, at best, no matter how much one is dedicated to God in Christ or how much one loves others, no matter how successful a person is in life, and no matter how many goods deeds are accomplished, each person perishes in a single solitary death. This is likely in old age and, as Carson stated, people may witness their loved ones dying and may suffer with disease themselves.

If God is not to be ignored concerning suffering and death as uncaring, powerless, or nonexistent, then when one thinks of God, one should also ponder on human death which exists within God’s creation. This seemingly is more productive than sweeping death under the rug philosophically, and seeking to live the best possible life, ignoring the Grim Reaper until he won’t leave! This harsh reality should be considered by anyone serious about knowing God. I think this can be a motivator to seek God and avoid sin which can be pleasurable, but in the end is destructive.

In Hebrews 9:27 it is stated: " And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgement ." New American Standard Bible (1984).

Christian life on earth should be seen as temporal, but sin can be largely avoided by viewing daily life as within God’s directive, realizing judgement follows death.

Yes, all sin, but knowing that death is certain (hopefully later, than sooner) means that God’s ever present judgement awaits us. I admit that I sin but, by God’s grace, it is tempered by the harsh reality of eventual death and a certainty that an infinite, omnipotent and loving God awaits to speak to me in person for the first time. My suffering now is a reminder that this leads ultimately to death. . . sobering but effective.

CARSON, D.A. (1981) Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, Atlanta, John Knox Press.

CARSON, D.A. (1990) How Long, O Lord?, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

C. Merry Christmas

I like Christmas. When I was a child seems to me at around December 1 society and the media starting celebrating Christmas. Now with commercialism and other factors I suppose it is November 1 to after US Thanksgiving when 'Holiday Season' arrives all the way up to the first week of January. So I guess I should conform...I am ready.





D. Video