“You will not die,” said the serpent to our mother, “God knows that when you eat of the fruit of the tree, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Him, knowing good and evil”. But when she ate, her eyes were opened, and it’s borne in upon her that she was naked. So she hid herself for she was ashamed.

GAO XINGJIAN, the 1997 Nobel Prize winner in literature, says in his playwright Nocturnal Wanderer: “walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens”. In other words, the author is urging us to fly like a butterfly where the air is our only barrier. He is fostering freedom. Oh freedom— being able to do or not to do things in accordance with our own will. Being able to live in a land where we act as we see fit. That is most people’s concept of freedom nowadays. Is this true freedom? Should not our choice lead us to better condition? Should we not be better off after we freely make a choice? I would like to think of freedom as having the power to make one better off right away in the long run. At least that’s how I conceive choice. I doubt I make foes through my conception.

Freedom produces good results only when it acts within the boundaries set for it. True freedom, from my conception, is not the absence of restraint. True freedom is achievable only when we move within the limits set for us. For example, people are free to use their cars on the roads only if they obey the Highway Code; if not, soon a hospital’s room would be the drivers’ bedroom. If a baker refuses to follow the laws of bakery, he would never succeed a making the delicious cake he saw in the book. If a student refuses to follow his/her professors’ direction, he/she goes without a diploma, and so without a decent job in today’s society.

True freedom occurs under application of the rules, not under breaking. Adam and eve were given the freedom to do whatever they wanted but one. Their failure to obey it results in our having to toil under frustration for our daily bread. A person’s mistakes to follow his boss’s rules cost him/her his job.

So there may be restrictions and even burdens, but their fruits do not lead us to a hospital bed, without a job, a delicious chocolate cake, or a diploma.

In conclusion, what is true about true freedom is always true about the inner life. We are not free disobeying the law and plan that God has in store for us. Disobeying the law of God only degenerates and makes us less human. We are fully human when living in communion with God. We are made us in a certain way; we are free only when acting the way God wants us to act; any other way results in harming ourselves. Freedom is the ability to always choose the good/right even when it seems to hurt prima facie.

Have you ever asked yourself what the point of life is? Wouldn’t that be wonderful if we know why man was created? What would occur if we find the answer to this question? Would that make a difference? Would that drastically change our lifestyle?

Though many  answers have been provided to this question, we still wonder why we are here. Is it because we feel the answers don’t speak to us personally? Is it because by nature man is never satiated, and so he is always looking?

Many great thinkers who have dedicated their life to philosophy may have something to say about this question, but it all depends on how commensurable their answers are that open the way for denial.

If Plato got cornered to answer that question, he would say, after begging the question, that the point of life or the reason why man is created is to philosophize. One philosophizes by seeking wisdom (the truth and the good), and doing and holding on to the right thing regardless of the course. He went so far as to say that an unexamined life is not worth living. Also, know that the most known philosophers of the Socratic era is in line, though there may be some small differences, with Plato’s view of life. Aristotle, the stoics, or any rationalists for that matter would see eye to eye with him.  

The Epicureans, for example, would say that the point of life is to abstain oneself from pain and so to seek pleasure for that is the aim or end of all of us. Therefore, we should dedicate our whole life seeking what we were created for— a life of pleasure, which is absence of pain. The stoics would say that we cannot find ourselves in anything other than in self-control.

A rather more modern answer to this question is furnished by the enlightenment philosophers. For them, the point of life, the reason why man is created is to build an ordered, structured society where humanity lives in harmony with each other. All must have the freedom to exercise their inalienable rights originated from God. Man must do the best he can to keep his rights intact.

The Christian’s answer is nothing that we have heard before. The meaning of life is to find contentment—making the best out of God’s gift to us. That means living in pure love, and pure truth. Trust God. That signifies making God the center of our thoughts, actions, and lives. They are found in denying oneself to live for God. That answer seems to transcend Plato’s; one needs not examine his life philosophically in order to put God as the flambeau of his life. If it is in pain that God can be glorified, the Christian would gladly embrace it for in doing so he is living in perfect communion with God. Communion with God is everything; life is insignificant without God in it. Even if we have all, without God we have nothing. In fact, an un-Godly life is not worth living. While working to form a more just society is very important, doing so does not guarantee heaven.

Heaven is the very essence of the Christian’s answer. The meaning of life is to live for heaven, our true home and the zenith of our pilgrimage; that is what man is created for. Our life here on earth is a passing shadow, a journey, a bridge toward our true purpose in life.  If we fail that, we fail life. Who would want to overlook endless happiness? Well, now you know why you are here; what are you going to do about it? Delay it? That would be ok if you knew how long the journey would last. Reject it? I hope you understand what you are rejecting as well as you understand what I am urging you to embrace. Do nothing? Well, doing nothing means doing something. Wait! You are trapped! You have a choice to make my friend!

Have you ever asked yourself what the point of life is? Would not that be wonderful if we know why man was created? What would occur if we find the answer to this question? Could that make a difference? Would that drastically change our lifestyle?

Though many have answers have been provided to this question, we still wonder why we are here. Is it because we feel the answers don’t speak to us personally? Is it because by nature man is never satiated, and so he is always looking?

Many great thinkers who have dedicated their life to philosophy may have something to say about this question, but it all depends on how commensurable their answers are that open the way for denial.

If Plato got cornered to answer that question, he would say, after begging the question, that the point of life or the reason why man is created is to philosophize. One philosophizes by seeking wisdom (the truth and the good), and doing and holding on to the right thing regardless of the course. He went so far as to say that an unexamined life is not worth living. Also, know that the most known philosophers of the Socratic era is in line, though there may be some small differences, with Plato’s view of life. Aristotle, the stoics, or any rationalists for that matter would see eye to eye with him.  

The Epicureans, for example, would say that the point of life is to abstain oneself from pain and so to seek pleasure for that is the aim or end of all of us. Therefore, we should dedicate our whole life seeking what we were created for— a life of pleasure, which is absence of pain. The stoics would say that we cannot find ourselves in anything other than in self-control.

A rather more modern answer to this question is furnished by the enlightenment philosophers. For them, the point of life, the reason why man is created is to build an ordered, structured society where humanity lives in harmony with each other. All must have the freedom to exercise their inalienable rights originated from God. Man must do the best he can to keep his rights intact.

The Christian’s answer is nothing that we have heard before. The meaning of life is to find contentment—making the best out of God’s gift to us. That means living in pure love, and pure truth. Trust God. That signifies making God the center of our thoughts, actions, and lives. They are found in denying oneself to live for God. That answer seems to transcend Plato’s; one needs not examine his life philosophically in order to put God as the flambeau of his life. If it is in pain that God can be glorified, the Christian would gladly embrace it for in doing so he is living in perfect communion with God. Communion with God is everything; life is insignificant without God in it. Even if we have all, without God we have nothing. In fact, an un-Godly life is not worth living. While working to form a more just society is very important, doing so does not guarantee heaven.

Heaven is the very essence of the Christian’s answer. The meaning of life is to live for heaven, our true home and the zenith of our pilgrimage; that is what man is created for. Our life here on earth is a passing shadow, a journey, a bridge toward our true purpose in life.  If we fail that, we fail life. Who would want to overlook endless happiness? Well, now you know why you are here; what are you going to do about it? Delay it? That would be ok if you knew how long the journey would last. Reject it? I hope you understand what you are rejecting as well as you understand what I am urging you to embrace. Do nothing? Well, doing nothing means doing something. Wait! You are trapped! You have a choice to make my friend!

I have probably never met you; I don’t know what you look like; I don’t know your past; I have no idea about what you are going through; I can only speculate about your dreams. But I know two very important things about you—the first is that God is madly in love with you, and the second is that you have a longing in your heart; it is like a thirst that no amount of water can quench; it is like a fatigue that no rest can ever end. You have attempted many different things already to try to end that longing; some of them give you temporary satisfaction, but you always go back to the same original state of longing. Would you like to know what that longing is and how to satiate it? Very few find out about how to quench that thirst; yet very few actually decide to follow through with the solution.

These two following prescriptions should give you a different perspective on the direction that you need to take with your life. First, you need to seriously ask what you need to do in life. I mean you need to find your calling. I know this is no easy task; however, if you seriously surrender yourself to God in prayer and ask Him for direction, He will absolutely lead you to your mission. Secondly, you must freely embrace that mission. Remember that freedom is not just the power to act or not to act in accordance with your will; it is more importantly the power to choose the good versus the bad. Finding the calling is only a step in the right direction, but only when you embrace that mission in freedom do you start walking the walk. So it may not be easy at the beginning, but if it is God’s will, it will make you happy. How do you know it is God’s will? It is not contrary to the natural law, and your conscience is not telling you the contrary.

In conclusion, finding one’s mission in life is worth looking for because it brings an inexpressible ecstasy that nothing can replace. Until you find it, don’t stop searching for it. Until you find it, keep being a link in the chain, a bond of connection between people, and never cease being good to others even when they try to harm you.

It is a very well known paradox the more we look for happiness in the inner world, the more we endanger our inner peace. The rich looks for happiness in their money; the philologist searches for it in his book, and the businessperson in the success of his business. That kind of happiness can be shuddered for it depends on other people. As Marcus Aurelius says, “we can only control our own reaction”.

The man who wants nothing other than forming his personal self is free; he sees that whatever happens to him as acceptable and coming from the other source from which he comes; whatever is withheld from him is surrendered without a pang. Nothing in the universe is too early or too late for him. That man possessed himself wholly for nothing depends on external things. Only one thing is his joy and comfort: to move from one good act to another with his mind centered on the goal—God. The next step in this man’s life is always to fulfill the Holy Will of God for he knows that gives self-perfection and inner peace. He knows that is not easy at prima facie, but he also knows that perseverance always pays off.

With God as the ruler and master of all that he does, that man is living life to its fullest magnitude for he understands his role in the universe. Ironically enough, happiness is that man’s best friend.

When Ransom was regaining conscious, he found himself in a dark, hot room with a severe headache. On one side of the room it was very dark, and on the other side was bright light with star, moon-like objects, and he had a bruised left eye. That atypical ambiance drew him up to a sitting position. He was recovering pretty quickly. When he tried to stand up, the sharp contact with the skylight flung him down on the floor. He felt an unnatural lightness of body and heart. Another curious observation was that the room was walled and floored with metal, and was in continuous vibration.

As he continues to regain his senses, he realized that he was not in a house, but an airship. So why was there a moon? Walking toward Nadderby, there was no moon—why would there a moon now? So he becomes frightened to the point where his hair moved on his scalp. At that moment, he heard the sound of an opening door, which calmed his fear a bit. When he turned his head, it was Weston, who informs him, as his request, it is the earth instead of the moon that he saw.

Devine and Ransom went to a room for the drink. While opening a bottle of whisky, Devine questions Ransom and finds out that he is in a walking-tour and no one knows where he presently is. He admits he likes, unlike in the army, the freedom of walking alone under no one’s order. By the time he finished opening the bottle, he says that it is empty and so offers Ransom water instead. In his thirst, Ransom drinks the glass of water in no time. Once he had drunk the “water”, the room already seems all blurry and quirky to him. Devine’s words no longer makes sense to him. Everything in the room averted— the lights, the chairs, the floor etc. It quickly dawns on him that he had been drugged. He saw the queerest people he had ever seen enter the room, which was totally dark by now. Weston, Devine, and they have him climb a wall. Up on top of the wall, he was unable to get down, so he remains there.

While up there, he heard Devine saying to Weston, “I was getting tired of this. He’ll do quite as well as the boy. This busy-body will not be missed for months.” Before Ransom could react to their plot, Weston’s hands were already grabbing his shoulders. Then the last thing he remembers was a heavy blow in his head, which causes him to faint.

A pedestrian, Ransom, dressed as a philologist, stopped to spare himself from taking a bath in the rain. He resumes his walk right after the last drop of the rain. It was not long before starting out that he realized that he had to walk longer than expected; he first stops at a motel called Nadderby. The lady of the hotel refused to rent him a space for the night. Hoping to walk five more miles before reaching another place, he finds a mother worrying about his son Harry who should be home by now from work. She informs him that the place he expected to rest in is not available, but suggests that he go to a nearby location called the Rise (a farm house) to spend the night. Rise is the location where Harry is working.

Arriving there, the Rise looks like an unoccupied place surrounded by fence, however through exploration, he saw smoke coming out of the building, which spurs his curiosity to look further, he forced himself into the porch which was not blatantly accessible, and when knocked on the door, no one responds. After a long while, he heard wrestling noise. He finds a way to get inside, which surprises two men who were forcing Harry into doing something he refused to do. One of the men, Devine, was a former student of his. The other man, Weston, still holds Harry on his neck while Devine tries to unsuccessfully introduce Weston to Ransom. But after a while, Devine convinces Weston to loosen up and let go of Harry. They both offer Ransom a drink, which he was in great need of. Ransom promises to take Harry Home after the drink and some rest.

Can this story be seen as a life’s journey where no one knows where they are really going? Ransom had plans to go to Nadderby to only find out that it is not available. His next plan was to walk further, but before he knows he was rescuing the woman’s son while looking for a resting place. Can the short road that Ransom traverses so far be seen as the road that all of us should be ready to go through? Feel free to interpret it differently!

The telos of This blog is not to portray how intelligent I am; it is not to  demonstrate how much I understand the few books I am going to read; it is not to inflict my viewpoint on my dear readers; the purpose of this blog is primarily to write  a summary of the books I read and open them for discusions. So, if anyone loves arguing, if anyone has an opinion, a different understanding of an issue, or a different way oef attacking life other than everyone else, he/she is in the right place. In this blog no opinion is objective, or unbreakable. I love arguing, sometimes even just for the sake of arguing, if anyone shares that passion, he/she is welcomed here. My wish is that anyone cares about m reviews and actually does comment on them. Thanks friends!!!

My first line of debate is an epistomological question so as to give you a sense of what we will be doing here—- on what ground can we claim to know anything for sure– is it on reason alone, faith alone, experience alone, all three together? or to make more open— how do we know what we claim to know?