Reality Leaves A Lot to the Imagination

The post title is a quote widely attributed to John Lennon, and I think there is a lot of truth to it. Don't talk about how Physics and Math govern the world, we are talking about reality. Reality is what we think we know or what we choose to believe.

There have been many times when I'd be driving and signaling to change lane when the guy on that lane but behind me speeds up and seemingly occupies the space I am aiming at. Some people might jump to the conclusion that that guy is being an aweonao, but it could just as easily be that he is speeding up to allow me to cut in behind him.

At this point, I can either choose to believe that he is an aweonao, which might lead me to believe that most people are aweonaos which might lead to a life of bitter lemons, or I can choose to believe that he is a nice guy who I would probably forget about in no time (we only remember the bad guys, right?). It turns out that I'm still undecided and therefore I can't forget about that guy and the many others like him.

However, I do think that during traffic jams most people become aweonaos by not giving way, especially to allow cars stuck behind the accident vehicles to cut in. Really, if everyone just opens up some space from the car in front and let one or two cars in it might ease the jam a little. Then again, there could be some non-aweonao reason why people choose to bumper-tease the car in front during jams, but I can't think of any and so my stance is pretty firm on this one. But I digress.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt starts at home, really. I think this goes without saying, but, the majority of us probably go through life with absolute trust that our relatives, and at the very least our immediate family members love and care for us unconditionally. Well, I dunno if the majority feels that way, I can only speak for myself. Most people probably love their parents very much and they won't hesitate to tell you so, but I don't know if they can believe that even if they murder someone, their parents will either not believe that they did it or they'll believe that you had a very good reason for doing so. In fact, I'm open to the idea that not even my parents will give me that benefit of the doubt, but I just feel that they will, and that gives me a lot of comfort in life, especially given my strong interest in being involved in organized crime, for example becoming a Jehovah's Witness!

Well now, that's something isn't it, a religion that's outlawed in first and second world countries. The Jehovah's Witnesses is an idea that was recently introduced to my mind. While on holiday in Denmark, Kooty and I met an Icelandic gentleman who shared with us a little info about Jehovah's Witnesses. Remember the times a few years back in Singapore where young people would keep coming up to you trying to get you to join their church (now they're selling insurance, same tactics, different boss). Well this guy was nothing like that. All he wanted to do was to make us be aware that we may or may not be going to hell if we don't believe in God. But it was a very interesting conversation and I ended up interviewing him instead.

So he started off by praising the peaceful park where the Old Town of Aarhus was at, and I made a comment that parks like that are the souls of cities. We made a little bit of small talk before he expertly guided the conversation to biblical proportions. His grand message was simple: signs are showing that the world is ending and we are going to hell unless we believe in God. Of course my first instinct was to think "what a load of gilipolleces".

And so after going through some of the literature giving statistics on volcano eruptions, disease, and stuff like that, he was prepared to let us go on our merry way. But I was not done with him.

Me: Do you really believe that all these events are proof that the world is ending?

Him: I believe in some of the bible, but not all of it. I think it is possible that these events could be a coincidence or it could be better technology leading to more of such incidents being reported in the media.

Me: Why are you spending so much of your time, away from home, in a park, waiting for strangers to come so you can give them your message? What are you trying to achieve?

Him: I just want people to be aware of the possibility that the world is ending and that they could be saved.

Me: Did any church or organization send you out here?

Him: Yes, in fact our organization used to be banned in Russia, some of my friends have been to jail.

Me: OH! You are a Jehovah's Witness! You guys are banned in Singapore too! So what about all the other religions? How can you decide which one to believe?

Him: Most other religions teach similar things which are good for society, like love, respect, and peace. We are no different. However, we believe that all other religions are created by the devil.

Me: Well... maybe such intolerance is why your religion is so hated and banned in some places.

Him: If you think about it, almost all other religions make the same claim. It just takes a bit of... guts to say it. We are also forbidden from serving in the military.

Me: Ah, I actually think that's one of the main reasons why you're banned in Singapore.

Him: All we have done is try to spread messages of peace. We believe war is evil, and for trying to show people such, governments, controlled by the devil, put us behind bars. Well, what can ya do?

Me: I don't know about the devil part, but being jailed for associating war with evil and hence not wanting anything to do with it does seem a tad harsh...

The interview above has been greatly cut down because it took place almost two months ago and I can't remember a lot of the things he said. What I did notice is that this guy is a pretty sensible thinking fellow. He didn't draw a fish skeleton to convince us of his ideas, unlike some other groups of people! Don't be fooled by all the devil talk, he was merely telling us about the religion he belongs to and, according to him, they really do think the devil is behind a lot of the world's stuff. And since he is part of the religion, he must state it as fact. But if you recall, he let slip that he does not believe everything in the bible. He is open to the possibility that the world may not be ending, furthermore he also did let slip several possibilities that he is open to that debunk the religion.

So it all comes back down to why was he spending so much time there, telling us and undoubtedly many others about things that he does not really believe. I can safely assume that I will never know the answer, but I walked away from him thinking that he is really there to show people how to open their minds to the same extent that he can believe in something that he doesn't really believe in.



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Interesting Points of Interest - What is this post really about?