by Dr A. Mesut Erzurumluoğlu | Principal Bioinformatician at Bicycle Therapeutics (formerly at Boehringer Ingelheim, and Univs. of Cambridge, Leicester & Bristol) – blogging since 2006. All views mine unless stated otherwise
Peace is the only way forward – for both sides! (source URL: www.israellycool.com)
A few hate-driven Palestinians (or whoever they are) fire rockets to Israel aiming to kill their citizens. Israel has the right to find and punish them (and only them!). However, what Israel does is go out and kill civilians (including many children and women) in return by using weapons of mass destruction. Now tell me what the difference is between Israel (a state) and those few brainless radicals. I really can’t see the difference in the way they act. Surely a state has to act differently than a bunch of terrorists! We must be against anyone, any group and any state who kills civilians! It doesn’t matter who they are or what they claim to represent! Terrorism (and killing civilians) has no religion or ideology!
Graffiti in Bristol, UK – Palestinian people deserve freedom, peace and independence just like Israel
Belfast International Peace Murals
Both sides must take a long hard look at themselves. As long as these atrocities carry on (on both sides) and we keep turning a blind eye, there’ll never be peace in the Middle East; and therefore the World. For peace to ever become sustainable, inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue is a must! People must learn and agree to disagree! I do not want to see one more life ending prematurely due to terrorism (by radical groups or by states) – on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side; or any other side! One life is one too many!
Hate can blind us all, thus we can’t see the good sides of others. The media/NGOs need to put more emphasis on dialogue and universal ethics
Our eyes have become blurred with distractions. We lost touch with the realities of this life. Note: Scroll down for the English version of this post
Hayatın anlamını araştıran/sorgulayanların çoğu zaman, dinleri ve Allah’ı tamamen yalanlayanlardan olmasını anlamıyorum; gerçekten anlamıyorum!
Soylemeliyim ki hiçbir zaman bulamayacaksınız; egonuzu (nefsinizi) yenip/dizginleyip, Hakk’ın (c.c.) önünde eğilmediginiz surece! Biraz sert bir cevap gibi gelebilir ama gerçek bu. Samimiyetle O(c.c.)’nu bulmak istersek, ben Allah’ın bize ‘doğru yol’u gosterecegine inanıyorum. Buna siz de inanın!
Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Orwell’i okumak/anlamak için harcadıgımız zamanın onda birini Allah’ı (şimdilik varlıgına inanın ya da inanmayın) tanımaya/anlamaya harcasak da ondan sonra kararımızı versek.
Bir köpek dahi sahibini tanıyorsa, insan kendisini yaratandan geleni hayli hayli tanır. Kendi tecrübemden konuşuyorum. Kuran’a bakın; ve size (herkesinki farklı) tesir edecek öyle ayetler karşınıza çıkacak ki “işte bu kitap beni Yaratan’dan gelmiş!” dedirtecek!
Ek: İşe nasıl bir mucize ve ne kadar önemli birisi oldugunu tefekkür ederek başlayabilirsin. Ben de (beni etkileyen) bir örnekle yardımcı olmaya çalışayım: Mesela senin gibi bir insan dünya tarihinde olmadı; olmayacak! Eşsiz bir insansın! Allah seni (evet sadece seni!) yaratmak için annenle babanı tanıştırdı ve kalplerini birbirlerine ısıttı. Annenin 300 küsür yumurtasının arasında, babanın da milyarlarca spermi arasında seni yaratacak kombinasyonu seçti. Aynı şey, anne-baban ve dede-ninelerin için de gecerli… Onların anne-babası için de… Onlardan önceki nesiller içinde… Bu halkada bir tane eksik veya degişim olsaydı, sen olmayacaktın!
Ek 2: Arzu ederseniz ‘Evrim teorisi‘ (ingilizce) ve ‘hayat gayem‘le ilgili yazdıgım eski yazılarıma da göz gezdirebilirsiniz…
People who’ve asked me “what is the meaning of life?” had one thing in common: Outright denial of all religions and (any idea of a) God
This is what I can’t understand; I really can’t!
Most of the time, any answer I gave would be thrown back at me with distaste. Sorry but – as a friend whose willing to help you – I’ll tell you what I believe and try backing them up with as much evidence (which convinces me) as possible, but it is up to you to be convinced or not. I don’t have the power to tune anybody’s heart or mind…
For me: Without religion, there’s no* meaning to life! Otherwise life just becomes: “You live because you were born; you had no choice!”
“Life was just an accident and your sperm happens to be the (un)lucky one out of the zillions that your father produced – also the same applies to your father; and his father… You just have to put up with it.”
Having no sense of meaning in life is why many people who have no belief in God and the afterlife commit suicide or waste their life (e.g. drugs, night life, gambling, games); and the one’s who don’t, live in constant fear of death – especially when they get older…
There can only be one “true” religion in the world – others will have no, some or a lot of truth in it but can’t be the “true religion”; and everybody has to make it their primary aim to find it! We spend hours reading Orwell, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky’s works (rightly so! they can teach us a lot) but rarely do we look at the books which have (trying to word it as an objective person) “supposedly” been sent to us by God himself. Why aren’t we curious about them? How many of them have we read?
The true religion has to answer all reasonable philosophical questions which come to mind, whilst not contradicting scientific and historical facts… Also this doesn’t mean that we must “like” the answers that are given. Truth almost always hurts.
I believe I’ve found it and it has stood the test of time, however what convinces me may not convince you/others. Therefore everyone’s on their own conquest to find the truth and the true religion – the thing that will give our lives a meaning.
Please see my post God of Science for a few arguments on the existence of God (and the wrong belief that current scientific knowledge in genetics is incompatible with God). Happy to discuss any points…
*Read Albert Camus and other ‘existentialist’ philosophers (e.g. Sartre, Nietzsche) if you don’t believe me – they were atheists and believed that life had no meaning, so try(!) enjoying it while lasts…
There are as many ways to Paradise as there are human souls – Rumi
PS: There is a school of thought which believes that we’re made up of life, soul and body. Thus as long as we’re alive, the soul is tied to the body (via life). This can explain why we become unconscious (and ‘blackout’) when we faint. However when we die, we will not be unconscious as the ‘tie’ that is life (as we understand it) does not exist anymore. Thus the soul is free to travel (and get rid of the shackles/limitations of the body) and meet the Creator. Please read around the idea if interested. Happy to discuss…
PPS: I respect everyone’s beliefs – and lack of it. It is their own life choice at the end of the day! However it would selfish of me not to share/propagate something that I believe is to be true (i.e. belief in the existence of an omniscient and omnipotent God).
An ordinary blog by an ordinary bloke 