Tuesday, 10th November 2009 - 07:59CET
Weather puts on a show
The weather put on a show last night, with thunder and heavy rain in many parts of Malta. This picture was taken by Frederick Muscat in Mgarr Malta at around 8.50 p.m.
Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.
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The problem with the rationale 'what have you got to lose' is, unfortunately, flawed. That one has nothing to lose is not exactly water-tight. By opting to believe in an afterlife, hell, heaven, and so on, one's outlook on life is somehow cushioned. One's reality is distorted. This somehow diminishes one's life experience. Not believing in 'good behaviour begets reward' mindset throws one back on one's resources, no props in other words. BOTH of course are a leap in the dark. So the tough decision remains. Which leap in the dark does one opt for? It is up to the individual to decide. Some people opt for non-belief. How I arrive at my non-belief is my burden, my responsibility. It is a long and arduous trek. Many are uneasy with this so they hang in there. As they say, there is a price to pay for everything.
All this proves that setting up an untruth that affects people's lives is well nigh impossible to undo.
hanks for a wonderful photograph Frederick.
Fear is the biggest factor of manipulation of mankind. I know I'm living this life and I always try to search for the truth. If there was one history book that supports the Bible I might get some doubts, but there isn't. And still, this doesn't make me a bad person at all, and people who know me sometimes call me idiot for my kindness and sincerity.
P.S. Don't take this as an offense or anything honestly. I accept that different people have a different character and different views.
It was just an ironic expression to say that I agree with you when you said that God's existence is a too complex subject to explain in a 200 word limit. I've got plenty of books and ebooks some over 500 pages that explain how the church founders manipulated ancient literature to create the empire they have today. Anyway I suggest www.truthbeknown.com by the famous D M Murdock (a.k.a. Acharya S) to those who want to really get some knowledge about this subject
Excuse my French but could you kindly explain your English? "I just made you my god" doesn't make much sense to me. But from your previous comment to someone else I can see you agree with me that the argument should be on the picture not on God....
I just made you my god :)
Jien jiddispjacini ghal min ma jafx jaqra jew jimmagina. Ghax jien ma tkazajt imkien b'li qed tghid int. Dan li ghedt jien:
"Hu pjacir ammira lil Alla u lili hallini niehu pjacir nammira n-natura, u hekk inkunu kuntenti t-tnejn. U jekk tahseb li jien intini f'ghajni min jemmen f'Alla sejjer zball habib ghax it-tfajla temmen u gejja minn familja konservattiva hafna, u QATT ma kelli problemi fuq dawn l-affarijiet ghax ma nippruvawx nikkonvincu jew nindahlu lil xulxin."
Leave your troubled issues of whether God exists or not for serious debates (not 200 word limit comments on The Times of Malta).. Do you honestly think that you will find the answer in a 200 word statement? Well I only would need just a few words to justify God's existence but for people as frustrated and troubled as you (trying to find justification why God should NOT exist and not why God SHOULD exist) it gets complicated. Don't forget that if God were to exist (please note that I do believe in God myself) and I'm putting myself into your shoes, do you really think you have the wits to figure out God's mysterious ways? Do you really think that you can reason things out like God? Every time mankind tried to play God, we know the outcomes... and I won't go into further details.
ONCE AGAIN. Take your religious/faith/inner struggles to places of competence and let live... It’s just a photo one should enjoy and appreciate.
Chill out.. we'll all die some day. Then we see what happens. In the mean time make sure you live a good life, not a life of hypocrites.
Thanks for the picture Frederick. Keep chasing them man. It doesn't matter if you get electricity pylons in the frame. It's all part of the landscape. Sweat over the big things not the small one. And make sure you have enough warm clothing while you're waiting. Thanks.
To all those who complain, why do we have to bring god into this, whether for or against, I can only say. In life it is at least useful to hear other people's point of view, they might come up with a better answer. I admit this feels like taking a risk. Because thinking outside the box, stepping outside the comfort zone does feel uncomfortable. That is only natural. But one gets over the initial unease. As we say, the best way out of a problem is THROUGH it, not round it.
continued
"You have to think outside the box...lightning passes through the hanging wires and we have electricity. Moreover we have to have a sign indicating to us that it is a danger zone...electrocution risk!!!. congrats for this nice pic."
hehe ... mine was just constructive criticism being an amateur photographer myself ... believe me you wouldn't want lightning hitting power cables unless you love the smell of burned appliances and tv sets!
@bartolo
thanks for the link but incidentally I already knew what an axiom is and if you care read the contents by you provided you'll see that;
"In traditional logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject to necessary decision."
if a=b then b=a, there's no need to prove it, you just accept it as fact because it always holds true!
Niehu pjacir inhalli lil kulhadd fil-liberta tieghu, basta jhallu lili. Minn sempliciment ritratt kien hawn xi hadd ried jaqla dan l-argument stupidu tas-soltu. Kieku int ghedt hekk mill-ewwel ma kont nirrispondik kif irrispondejtek.
Imma int ghedt: "Because he is the Almighty! And because the majority of the Maltese, in spite of our humanity, still believe that we depend completely on HIM." Jigifieri ghax il-maggoranza (li mhix maggoranza daqs kemm tahseb) tal-Maltin jahsbu hekk huwa vangelu u 100% tajjeb. Jigifieri ghax il-maggoranza tal-Germanizi kienu jahsbu li l-Lhud kellhom jinqerdu kien tajjeb?
Hu pjacir ammira lil Alla u lili hallini niehu pjacir nammira n-natura, u hekk inkunu kuntenti t-tnejn. U jekk tahseb li jien intini f'ghajni min jemmen f'Alla sejjer zball habib ghax it-tfajla temmen u gejja minn familja konservattiva hafna, u QATT ma kelli problemi fuq dawn l-affarijiet ghax ma nippruvawx nikkonvincu jew nindahlu lil xulxin.
Frederick, thanks again for sharing a wonderful photograph with us. It's almost frightening in its majesty. Isn't nature wonderful. It made me, and thee, and them over there. It messed me up at times but the rest of you are lovely.
catastrophies are sometimes caused because of massive human intervention...also because the area's location...many factors may cause catastrophies....Although EVERYTHING comes from God ..that which has been tempered with...is the result we get...
shame on you talking like that about God! Peace
It is true that at the very foundation of our maths there are axoims that we must base all are work on and they can't be proven, but we don't believe in them with blind faith.
We believe in them because the maths we do using them work in our world, we believe in them because when we design a plane using that maths it actually flies, and rockets launch etc.... If our machines weren't working then we would have to change the axioms all over again
This is all a result of sin. Before sin, the world was perfect and all was in place. When man sinned, the earth was cursed and this led to an unstable nature, not to mention diseases and other pains we go through. This is the consequence! This was not God's intention but men fell to sin. Nature became unstable & not God, so God is not responsible. When something is from God there is always a valid reason & is for our good.
Thus the good news is that even though we sin and keep sinning, Jesus Christ came to the world to save us - if we accept His Salvation!
Pity subject had to divert completely... imma kif jghidu, l-kliem bhac-cirasa :)
Brilliant joke as per Mr. Bean, but why would we atheists not be allowed in if we almost never broke anyone of the ten commandments? It's not like we go to Sunday mass and then start gossiping on everyone and everything? What if when you die you just see blackness infront of you and you say "Oh! Duh!! should have made better use of my time than staring at a statue and believing a 2,000 year old fairy tale based on previous religions / sects."
No Nigel it is not God's fault it is as per Attard's answer, from the enemy down below. Geez if only Mr. Dawkins could see this thread he would probably need to change his pants after rolling over a couple of times on the floor with laughter.
Btw just cause there is no proof it exists it doesn't mean that it exists! Give me one simple concrete proof of a maker's existence (and please no faith this and faith that) and we'll talk as adults then.
Any other people agree with me on this subject or am I alone on this?
Is not this wonderful God of yours also responsible for catastrophic typhoons, hurricanes, flooding around the globe; the ongoing droughts in sub-Saharan Africa, etc., or is that someone else's God is to blame?
It might be the religious ignorance around us that has put many afar from God - the creator. God is in no religion, God is not an opinion, God is not a Sunday event - God IS the actual creator, the marvelous designer behind all this. God exists! Some might disagree, but that doesn't prove this false! Pity some think that God's followers are closed-minded. In reality they have opened their eyes & realised the beauty life holds.Our hectic lives and 'high intelligence' is making humanity so superior that one has forgotten his originance and the real scope behind this life!
With regards to the questions you posed, if one truly believes in God then he won't go round firing shots, be unfaithful or stab people....... yes it's from the enemy down below!
Well done for this beautiful shot Frederick!! Amazing!
Enjoy this beautiful Picture.
Weldone to the photographer
Could you please just appreciate a photo and leave your ethical and spiritual dilemmas out of the picture for once... God, evil, always the same stories.. Always complaining too.. It’s a photo portraying lightning next to the most imposing building in a village (the village church which also happens to be the House of God). Oh! and by the way, sorry to let you down, but more often than not, this happens all over the world be it a mosque or a church or a temple. Only large cities have high rising massive buildings (and by the way those are all modern buildings). So in this picture you can compare the force of nature with something our forefathers were able to build.
Now, the photo looks great. I would have however avoided those horizontal power cables running across the picture. I would also have avoided over exposing the grass at the bottom. But hey, over all it’s still a good shot. It takes plenty of skill, practice and patience to capture lightning. Keep it up you're on the right track. Prosit
@ A.Buttigieg; I fully agree with you.
ToNic.
However, a supernatural being can act in a way completely explicable through science. In other words, that science can explain nature most of the time, is no proof against the existence of a supernatural being.
@ Jason Fenech
"May I suggest you read - or perhaps talk if you're ever so lucky - to people like Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins. I am positive you will get an answer to any question regarding physics, biology or mathematics though I suggest you first abandon your misconception that science somehow relies on faith."
I was referring to scientific extrapolation which is the basic assumption employed in every quantitative scientific hypothesis. This, notwithstanding the fact, that it is unjustified logically to claim it. However, there is no workaround to avoid it.
Math also has axioms, that cannot be reduced into simpler formulations disallowing strict analytical proof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom
Of course we'll take the issue against someone who has to mention that it is God work and what not. If you haven't yet grasped the idea we are not in the dark ages anymore, we have free speech and frankly it sickens me that every time something is shown the subject of God has to be mentioned. Know what for me that is the work of the flying spaghetti monster, try and counter act that for a change. Yes I believe in a plate of spaghetti with meatballs for eyes who watches everyone and created everyone.
@ Tiziana Attard
It's people like you with your closed mind on the subject that really bugs me, just why is it that every breath I take comes from God? Is it every stab I take, every bullet I fire, every time I am unfaithful comes from God? Or is that from the one down below us?
So conclusion- for all things we don't understand why they happen - we say it's GOD! or it's a miracle... So many miracles happen in Malta then :-)
and by d way it's a great picture. Well done Frederick! forget the cropping, it's natural as is...
@Joe Xuereb
You have to think outside the box...lightning passes through the hanging wires and we have electricity. Moreover we have to have a sign indicating to us that it is a danger zone...electrocution risk!!!. congrats for this nice pic.
The photo also affirms God as the greatest artist! He provides new skies continuously.
To all the atheists in this blog, when you die and face judgement, someone might snicker and tell you "you must be feeling a right bunch of nitwits!!"
Apologies to Rowan Atkinson in his excellent sketch "Welcome to Hell". It's found freely on the internet.
God. Mm! I can just about understand the creation of the human race and its freedom to exercise will. But why would a god set up a very necessary procreating system that, our religion at least, comes down on like a thunderbolt? I am not a scientist, nor a meteorologist but, in conjunction with the beauty of lightning and thunder (storm-chasers they are called in USA I believe, photographers who delight in taking pictures of these wondrous natural phenomena, one has to marvel at the beauty of mountains and the earth movements that created them. And the millions that have died in the process. So, I can just accept, maybe the creation of Man. But the unnecessary destructive nature of the planet - what is that about?
Elsewhere, a comment on miracles. The Church is wise to be cautious about jubilation at miraculous events. Experience and time have shown that these are, subsequently, scientifically explainable. Finally, there is faith, there is science and, there is plausibility.
X'ghandu x'jaqsam??? Allura kulhad isir musulman ax il-musulmani qedin f'maggoranza fid-dinja?
Please note that everything around you including the breathe you take comes from God, even if you don't like the idea!
Prosit Fredrick!!
As religion has reared it's ugly head once more : there is plenty that separates an appreciation of the universe and it's complexities, from the man made dogmatic set of institutions that has hijacked that appreciation, surrounded it with plagiarized tales and called it their own !.
@ T Gauci: 'religious fanatics' -naaaaa!
Beautiful picture, well done and congratulations
@Bartolo
May I suggest you read - or perhaps talk if you're ever so lucky - to people like Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins. I am positive you will get an answer to any question regarding physics, biology or mathematics though I suggest you first abandon your misconception that science somehow relies on faith.
If you will -> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/18/is-science-faith-based/
@Erich Ghan
At the end of the day, you put forward a perfectly legit question to which no answer was given. I'm sure that if life or limb was lost to lightning we'd see no mention of God hence why I'm always left dumbstruck by religious double standards.
Interestingly enough the gentlemen above mentioned, besides being some of best minds around, happen to be either atheist or agnostic.
Food for thought anyone?
I was going to ask you some questions but seems other people thought of them as well, asked them even before me, and yet we're waiting for your answer.
Anyway I don't want to ruin this chat furthermore, well done to the photographer as it was for a beautiful photo that I was looking for
What a relief that the cooler weather kicked in. The only way to forget the horrid summer of 2009, it was hell on earth. I struggled with it and I think it was the worst ever!
Frederick you make a professional photographer. It is awesome!
Technically, there is enough electrical energy from lightning bolts across the U.S. such that only about 30% of that energy would need to be harnessed to power the entire U.S. continually (assuming there was a way to store excess energy). So, whoever determines an efficient way to utilize lightning will be extremely rich and famous. Presumably, though, it would take an enormous amount of experimentation and effort to achieve anything practical.
If even 10% efficiency could be achieved, the world would be changed radically.
I am quite pleased that my observation was taken with a pinch of salt. Usually in this country people tend to gang up & drown you in incoherent words and quotes from this and that and don't usually let you have your say.
To say the plain truth I'm not a scientist myself but there is a deep appreciation of science from my side and above all respect to all opinions. I do get your argument though that nothing should be self-evident as is usually attributable (if I'm not mistaken) to and axiom.
From my own point of view is this: if you look back a couple of centuries most of the discoveries we have made would be met with a gaping mouth if you were to tell this to a Medieval person. Thus my reason is that we should never assume that a being or whatever s responsible for this, cause as history has proven alot of times over and over, in the end there is always a scientific explanation.
Above all apologies if you felt I was mocking you in any way that is just my character to be a tad sarcastic.
2nd. The God existance/non existance is really getting interesting. Maybe we should open a blog on this. Brought up as a catholic like most of you, I have my doubts like most of you! What I am sure of is none of us are certain either way. At least that is the situation todayWe tend to be certain that the other is wrong though as usual!
The interesting thing this time round is that the believer (Bartolo) is talking science and the atheist (Gatt) is talking based on faith in science. Science people wake up, science needs help in this argument today as the axiom of Maths (Which I hardly know what it is) seems to be rocking the science ground.
You do not thank me for the good laugh?! How rude of you... naughty boy!
Joking apart, what I intended to say, is that science, although based on evidence, requires some axioms for its foundations and these, like religion, are based solely on faith. One such central axiom is that math formulae can model nature. My question is: why should nature follow numerical behaviour?
Quote: "It's a very simple answer: the one and only god is the answer to this!"
It is immature to consider God like an all powerful wizard. Observation proves that this is not the case, and that how everthing came into existence is not an easy question. I give you hundred percent credit to laugh at me if I say that God acted like a magician. Simple observation shows that nature is capable of modifying itself and of evolving. However, both Judaism and Christianity do not claim that their purpose is to explain how it all happened. Both of these religions focus on a personal relationship with God and that is what is important.
At the end, even math is based on axioms.
It's a very simple answer: the one and only god is the answer to this!
No seriously before I crack a rib laughing at you all if you want all those answers go enroll yourself in a quantum physics course.
I mean geez mate you sounded like one of those fellas back in the dark ages when they would go on the heretics and ask them to explain to them why it rains and why the sun does not burn the horizon....Are you one of those people that would tie me to a pole and set me on fire if I declare myself openly atheist?!
Could you please, explain what is Dark Matter and why dynamics fails to account for the rotation of galaxies? And, by the way, what causes matter to have mass?
Also, please, can you explain what is energy, and go deeper than simply saying, that it is the ability to do work? Can you also explain why matter behaves differently at the atomic level, and why behaviour can only be accounted to statistically?
Finally, one last question for someone who understands better than most of us: how does a single cell is capable of growing into a whole complex organism? I want a step by step explanation as to what happens at every cell division, and how different genes are switched on and off. Moreover, could you please explain to my humble mind, how non-protein encoding genes work and what is their purpose?
I associate all this to nature and that is what makes God so magnificent, exactly because nature is capable of creation and evolution. In other words, one needs more capability to create an autonomous creation. By rejecting God, you are saying that a cart is more complex than a computer!
If that is Mosta Dome, I'm Brad Pitt. That's Mgarr Parish Church, much smaller and oval in shape. :)
Read the caption first. That is not the Mosta dome but the church at Mgarr. Great photo and nice surroundings. If it had been Mosta there would be those 4 storey buildings all around trying to reach for the sky and obscure the sight od the dome.
God's own fireworks noise lasts for a split of a second, while traditional Maltese village festa fireworks produce 125db noise level for 25 minutes (the duration of a kaxxa nfernali).
At that sound level Maltese traditional village festas are a TORTURE!!!!!!!!
The lightnings are a frightening spectale and nobody would like to be in their way.
Lightning start on the ground and rise to the clouds so it seems, not the oposite.
God forbid that a plane is in their midst, though like cars it could act as a Faraday cage
A nice terrifying instant photo but not beautiful except the sight of the curch
it;s very simple - when u see such a beautful scene, such symmetry and lovely contrasting colours, which are very clearly visible in the pic, you realise that you are not alone out there.....there is a superior 'force' allowing you to witness all this,....and that is God for the majority of us...for others it may be another god they may beleive in:)
Weldone Frederick, awesome !!
Keep it up
God's own fireworks ! Complete with loud noises !
Spectacular and awesome.
Any complaints anybody ?