Prayer
Two years ago, I had the opportunity to learn about the major religions in Ho Chi Minh city such as Theravada & Mahayana Buddhism, Christianity, Protestantism, Caodaism, Islam, Hinduism. And it overwhelmed me by why so many people pray and have faith in God. This a video that I made for the article.
Augustine confessions - use reasoning to understand religion
While studying Augustine confessions at the Fulbright university, I was fascinated with how he looked at religion through logic and reasoning.
I want to be like him because I often don't believe in things I cannot understand. It limits my ability to open up to study abstract things, especially religion. I want to change!
In the future, I will try to practice and analyze my religious practices. And I will use argumentation and reasoning to self-study religion.
In picture: Augustine was crying over the inner conflict between conversion and abandoning the chain of sexual desire.
Today Analysis | Prayer " Thank God for giving me this life."
Action:
I pray every morning, in my bed, when I wake up:
"Thank you, God, for giving me this life." Feeling:
Sometimes I cried when I do it because it helped me realize how fortunate I am to have the chance to live. It makes the bleakest of days look even more miraculous.
A few days ago, I went for an early morning jog when my body and mind were tired and weak because of learning stress and anxiety. When I was walking up a bridge in the park, the bright sun shines on my body. Suddenly, I cried like a river because I had a sudden cognitive shift; I looked beyond my inner temporary negative emotion and saw the miracle of my existence. I am thrilled to see how beautiful the surroundings are, how bright sunlight shines and warms my skin, blue skies, clouds, how the branches and leaves move in the wind, birds are singing, and how people interact, run, smile, and play together. I cry over my carelessness for ignoring such a precious thing.
Analysis:
I think a Prayer "Thank you, God, for giving me this life." can be analyzed in many ways:
It makes me feel gratitude. Because people tend to work hard to achieve something at first, but they don't appreciate it anymore when they have that. It can be a Hedonic adaptation - a theory about a person will have a baseline happiness level. So when I hold something I want in my hand, I feel satisfied at first, and over time, that feeling will fade, and I will return to the original psychological state. Last week I wrote about this theory in the following article: Source.
You also can look at the gratitude about life that we have in a different way - how humans perceive time.
Quite clearly, the time you have is the most valuable asset. But at the same time, our experience exists only for a single moment - the present moment. If the Lord whispers to me, "My son, you will have 30 years left to live!". How can I use the perception of what's happening now to know what the 30-year period feels like?
Well, Data visualization can help you to have a glimpse into the possibilities of the future. The graph below uses data from the Social Security Administration to simulate your possible lifetimes: Years You Have Left to Live, Probably, and How you will die?
In terms of data, an Asian man, 27 years old like me has:
- 5% death rate in year 20-29 from now --> that means I will have about 95% chance to live in the next 30 year (Fig1)_Source
- The causes of death: by external causes being predominant in the next 5-15 years, from year 15 to 30 the cause of death is due to the circulatory system and cancer. (Fig2)- Source
Conclude:
I think this prayer helps me to respect life, and the theory of psychology and data analysis helps me have more diverse perspectives on my existence. It helps me on the one hand learn to appreciate the simple things I have, on the other hand, to prepare me from the present so that I can live longer, such as careful driving (avoiding death from external factors), eating healthy drinking, and exercise (to relieve circulatory disease and cancer)
Thank God for showing me this lesson!
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