The Indefintion Of Justice

so this is another paper to screen translation (hopefully with improvement on the original thoughts)

last year my English teacher was undoubtedly the best teacher i have ever had, she had such an enthusiasm for teaching us which in turn made us enthusiastic to learn (little tip for ya dad).
the play that we studied on that year was the famous "12 Angry Men"
which talks of a jury that thinks the defendant is guilty, except that is for one juror who thinks that he has reasonable doubt to believe otherwise. Eventually (after two 3 hours sessions over two days) this one juror convinced everyone to sway in their thoughts because concordingly everything didn't fit the picture, our teacher got us to write on what we think justice, at first i thought "oh crap im going to be here until lunch time" but i found it an interesting task which i would recommend to all when you have some spare time and a lot of thought about how society sucks in your mind. here is what i wrote

What is Justice?
over generations and century's of debate out society has redefined justice over and over, so what is it that makes it so adaptable to us, that let's us decide how we punish suspects of crime? justice certainly is an interesting word, the oxford dictionary defines it as;
"the exercise of authority & the maintenance of righteousness" out of this we have to ask ourselves two questions, the first and foremost being, who has authority over who and how do we monitor this to ensure that the authority itself is just? and secondly;
are we entitled to tell someone that they are right and wrong and concordingly how do we define right from wrong?

to deal with the first question i would almost be certain to say that to have authority over someone we must not only have superiority morally but also in power, through strength, mental status or even money (sadly). one of the many curious aspects to us humans is that we are very secluded (some more than others) and in general we like to keep to ourselves who we know the we really are. humans are literally wired to show compassion, from being concerned about a stranger who has fainted on the street to calling an ambulance for a car crash victim or even going to lengths of travelling worldwide to see each other. the interesting aspect on top of this is that we like to keep to ourselves (once again some of us more than others) the good deed's we do to one another and in turn we have many many secrets, even if we say we have nothing to hide. the fact is we have everything to hide. i think we can safely say that to judge one person's authority over another person then we must be able to balance and compare each of their; good deeds, bad deeds, economical status, physical condition and mental stability. anyone with half a brain could tell you that that is simply not possible to balance and compare every aspect that i just listed hence the reason can never rightfully determine whether one person has authority over another.

to deal with the second issue, i think we can safely say that there are many different views on right and wrong throughout our religion's, races, countries and governmental systems. for example if you are a female reading this and you are wearing a tee-shirt and/or showing more than 1 inch of skin from your wrist upwards then in Sudan (unsure on the particular country) you would be considered a prostitute and would the authorities would then commence to stone you to death. do you see this is right? they obviously do otherwise there would have been a law change over the year's. in other countries they hold cults and beliefs that monthly there has to be a burning sacrifice to their god's of which the victim is chosen at random within their tribe. do you see that as fair? then there is the undeniable truth that what is right is not always true and what is true is not always right (the vice versa is necessary when you think about it in context). the simple fact is that it is human nature to lie to get out of trouble (which often leads to more trouble). in a court of law there are no lie detector's, no therapist or psychologist's (unless by coincidence) just you, an oath (which could mean nothing to you or that you do not believe in), a judge and 12 juror's of whom you have never met before in your life (once again, unless by coincidence) and who will most likely believe anything you say unless the evidence provided defies it. when it comes down to it the court is a battle of intellect and word's which is why being a lawyer is one of the hardest and most demanding job's out there, (effectively 4 year course i think, followed by many years or pre-trials etc.)
therefore to tell someone that they are wrong or right in not only wrong and unjust but morally wrong because of the simple fact that only they (and the victim if he/she survived) can recall with their memory what happened (will do a small post on the inaccuracy of memory later.)

we cannot access someones mind (firstly we would need to get past the phenomenon of "what is the mind?") and record what they have experienced, it is simply impossible in this day and age, so to conclude i do not see this definition to be one that fits the puzzle so to speak. we will never find a definition that everyone can agree with because every ones view on the topic is unique (the thing i love the most about it.) i think my personal definition for it would be;
"a legal correction by the authorities for something we (society) perceive to be wrong, the maintenance of consequence in order to maintain order within our society"

thanks you, would love to hear your view on it.

Wholesome Realisation

OK so around the time after i got back from America there was this new guy working at hell.
at first we sort of just let each other be and didn't know each other very well, after time we talked and acquainted ourselves. about.. 4 months ago i started to see some bad trait's in this guy such as;
-standing and doing nothing while trying to order other's around when he is perfectly capable of doing the task himself.
-generally working at a slow pace and allowing us to fall behind
-trying to steal my cut bench! (now that's almost blasphemy! as i have been working there three times longer than him)
i did eventually lay a complaint to my boss who had a word with him and ever since he has been tolerable.

now please note that this guy was displaying almost no trait's of a christian, now to my absolute shock i was looking through his CD wallet last night and found that almost half of the music was christian. now i think this raises the point of god working in mysterious way's and that it is best to not judge people by their actions. now i know a lot of people do say judge people purely on their actions however i came to the conclusion last night (after work while thinking in bed) that being christian for some people is like having one kidney, you would never know unless they told you, on the topic of not judging people by their actions i think it's fair to say that we don't live one day without thinking twice about what are doing or saying therefore it's understandable that their are many things that are not said or done hitherto i don't think it's fair to judge people by their bad action's but to look at the few thing's that they ARE doing right and extend off from there to see the reasoning or motives for that good action and think about how it conflict's with their bad action's.

now i must also mention that i did borrow a few of his Cd's to put on my computer and one of them was a CD by "the lads" (Joe and dad you will know who they are) now the last time i heard their music was at parachute 02 (possibly 03, was a long time ago) and i loved it. now i started to listen to the music again last night before i headed to bed and one particular song made my whole body tingle with a sense of excitement and warmth (i actually started dancing). now i must also make you aware that my oh so generous brother Sam gave me a few books to read and send back to him, i just finished "surprised by joy" by C.S Lewis that evening on the bus to work. at the end of the book it confronts us with an interesting analogy to the feeling of joy.

it's like walking down a path in the forest, the first directional sign you see, a member of the group will run up to and point and be just oh so excited with it. After these signs occur more frequently you tend to not realise them as much, but they still guide you on your way.

for me that is what this music was, it reminded me of a time when i was just an innocent child and had no reason or doubt in my mind about god, hearing the lad's at parachute was brilliant and i even got them to sign my hat (sadly i lost it a while ago). i suppose if you cant relate to this an accurate comparison would be if you had a teddy bear while growing, now ask your self what satisfaction and sense of excitement did you get with that bear? and also ask yourself at what age did it seem childish and unfulfilling, yet you still look back on it and think "yeah i wish life was still that simple" (LOL)

as mentioned in my previous post's i am now living a complete different style of life compared to how i was a mere 4-7 month's ago. my main goal is to treat every day as almost a new life, wake up fresh and excited (sometimes easier said than done) and just completely forget about yesterday's experiences (unless of course it was a brilliant day) my analogy for this idea is;
when we look at the night sky are we drawn to see the star's of the darkness, so it shall be for life's experiences; look to the bright and fulfilling experiences rather than the bleak and dark ones. (a lot of analogies today huh?)

the last thing i think is worth a mention is the factor of pretty much all of the above, when i made the analogy of the forest path well i can definitely relate that to god's love for us, there may be points in your life when you have no doubt that god is there, this would be the time when many signs are appearing on the path (the path representing god's love) however as there was for me there may also be point's when believing in god could seem the most absurd and ridiculous idea out there, this would be a lack of signs, but you are indeed still on that path, you may have taken a wrong turn but the path is there. for any non-believer's out there the equivalent would be point's in which you thought the possibility of god possible (many sign's) and times (possibly now) when you think "nah it's completely absurd and impossible" (no sign's) but as i said the path IS there whether you want to accept it or not. "surprised by joy" also introduced to me probably the most important analogy i have yet come across which is;

think of it like this, if hamlet wanted to meet Shakespeare he would not be able to as Shakespeare is non-existent in his play world, so the creation is unable to see the creator, however if the creator intends for it the creation shall experience in a non-physical and spiritual way.

i think for now i shall leave it at that as i have a 800 word essay to write :/

toodles

Sunny Sunday

well apart from my still lost voice i think this previous Sunday was a great Sunday for me.
started my day with a decent sleep in and then left for the train into town at around 2, walked around for a bit then found my way into my mates subway (he owns 2/3 of the store) stayed there for a while and had a feed.
just after 4 i headed towards the duxton at a very relaxed pace.
the sun was out, the grass was green, the air was crisp (tehehe) and i had my camera!
church that night was particularly good, there was a certain vibe in the duxton ballroom that night, and i could feel the holy spirit all around me.
john preached that night about victories in life and about one small but significant contradiction in the bible that doesn't make much sense without plenty of study.
the most vivid quote from him that stuck in my head was.
"the greatest victories are not the victories ahead of us but the victories behind us"
(i think the use of the word victory may be a bit inaccurate for the context but the general idea is still well portrayed)
one part of his talk that also stuck with me was when he started talking about when the bible says (must go get my bible from the house to quote this but it's something along the lines of)
"for man cannot live righteously until the accuser is cast down from heaven"
john raised an interesting point that the bible pretty accurately Say's that the light in heaven is so great that a darkness (the accuser) such as Satan would never be able to access it.
he then pointed out that it is not Satan who has access to heaven but it is all of us, when we pray we almost leave this world. we put our hearts out to him and thus a part of us has access to his kingdom.
as Christians the commitment we make to God (regardless of the degree of our faith) is a commitment that allows us access to the lord and therefore a certain, yet limited, access to heaven therefore whenever we sin we are not only hindering our relationship with the lord but in a sense the devil is working tempting us and shares that access with us.
it was a daunting though for the rest of the night to think that any time i mat have thought lustful thoughts,cursed against others,been judgemental,stolen,been unforgiving,taken the lords name in vain and so on so forth.
that in doing so i was restricting the power and authority that god has over my life.
it all connects together after a while that whatever "evil" acts you commit can directly hinder and suppress god's light within you, i kept thinking to myself "so every time i sin I'm literally hurting god?"
but after a while (quite a long while this was) i realised that once again it goes a whole lot deeper than that, effectively yes i am suppressing god in every sin that i commit.
but more literally the thing to remember is that every man has that chance of redemption (a chance that endless amounts of temptations from Satan cannot provide) in a sense god is just like us (all though being perfect) he still is loving,caring,forgiving and righteous. in my analogy i think of him as a human but without the mind (the mind being the tempting side of the conscience)
the famous song that sing
"what if god was one of us?" (great song may i add)
suggests just that, it reminds to be cautious of the things i do and say for the stranger that you mock, could that be god?
that person that you shoot down behind their back, could that be god?
the innocent man getting robbed or abused and you choose to turn the other cheek, could that be god?
this whole topic could go a whole lot deeper and believe me i would like to but i don't think i have gone that far into as of yet (maybe later!)[
i suppose the thing that i am trying to say and i suppose that pastor john was trying to reach to us was that we are made in god's image and in psalms 139 it says
"for you are fearfully and wonderfully made"
god has crafted and moulded us from before the day we were even conceived, he knows of the great things he has planned for us but ultimately it comes down to us.
there is a certain repsonsiblity that adults carry, which in a sense is the equivalent to the responsiblity that we as christians hold.
we resemble (or so we should) the good in our world, we should resemble hope,love,salvation,righteousness and holyness.
with that responsiblity we must remember that everything we do has consequences (whether good or bad) and that we must put thought and consideration into everything we say,everything we do but most importnatly everything we think. for it also says in the bible that we should not let anything that is unwholesome escape our mouth's but only the thing's that are used to build up one another and build up a new generation for god.

Slice Of Heaven

i recently watched a short video in my physics class which spoke of Farraday, the scientist who discovered the battery and electromagnetism. this video mentioned briefly that he was a sandemanium which is a sect of Christianity that takes every word in the bible literally (an aspect which many of today's self proclaimed Christians lack) and he as a scientist dedicated his life to the understanding of metaphysics and the world in general for he did not go into science for the money but for his beliefs (which i quite like about his character) he effectively believed that everything that exists in the world was and is being created by god.
on top of that note my brother Sam sent me over a few books to read (thanks for that!) the first i read was the short but very intense "the great divorce" by C.S Lewis. i finished that in just over an hour (at 140 pages long) the particular part that stuck in my mind is when a ghost was having a conversation with what Lewis described as "solid people" and the ghost was the mother of a boy who was making his way up the mountain (the metaphorical stature for the journey to heaven in this case)
the mother said to the solid person (these solid people are the ones who made it up the mountain and were sent down to encourage more ghost's to make the journey) "but he's my son, this isn't fair i want him to come back with me" the person replied with "but he is god's son, you may have bore him yourself into the world, but the world is no longer of any significance to us here. It is god who crafted him and shaped the person is." (something along those lines) this made me think very vividly about exactly how God See's our lives (in a contextual sense.)
another part of the book that stuck in my head was when someone said
"you get attached to the world because the images you paint down there are glimpses of heaven, you long for the full picture. if you were to paint a picture of our scenery it would have no effect for we know we are here already"
i feel it's good to reflect on book's this way because it gives you a better understanding of the intentions of the author (one good thing i have grasped from our education system :P)

reflections:
i think in a sense the artists of this world are trying to fill a hole inside themselves, they are catching glimpses of heaven in our planet but are unable to identify them as that (tell me how many christian painters can you name?) people without God in their life are constantly trying to fill that hole with something whether it be money,cars,loved ones (or supposedly loved ones) or just flash accessories.
i would know as i went through this phase on a smaller scale. i would go shopping with the money i have learnt and buy almost anything that tickled my fancy, at the end of the day i could find small satisfaction in the things i bought but when i got into bed that night i felt no different, i didn't feel a sense of accomplishment and in some cases it made it worse because i could identify what i was doing. i now face a a case where i still have these things (slowly selling them off) and they haunt me in some sense.
i think what people tend to forget is that old saying
"money can't buy happiness"
this phrase always tickles my thoughts and more and more i am thinking that maybe it is a christian that said that? i think alcohol,drugs,money,cars and all the petty pointless accessories to our life are all just a way to blur a vision of heaven.
in a more metaphorical sense i would say that drunkenness not only blurs our vision of the world (literally) but also grips the integrity we have of ourselves, it takes a hold of our self esteem and drags us down to the ground (literally too)
to conclude this part of the reflection, i think we all need time to ourselves.
Someone once said to me
"thinking is biological, just like sugar in a diabetics diet, too much and too little is damaging to us" i think this is a perfect reflection on what I'm trying to say, i know personally too much time alone will leave you very down and unenthusiastic about life in general, but on that note i think it's important for us to find out the healthy does of thinking for us individually and take time to ourselves to do just that, think.
sit down once every day or even every week and just think.
also on that note Sam once told me
"thinking is good, never stop questioning everything"

now to the reflections on the video:
i think that Farraday has an aspect to him that a lot of us are lacking as Christian's, we need to take into consideration what our modern day scientist's are telling us as they are often command of someone with a lot of money and I'm sure we all know that with great wealth comes great deception. Farraday took science as a career because he firmly believed that god created and shaped every aspect of the world, from our free will and beliefs of chemistry right down to the blades of grass under our feet, i believe this to be a very admirable quality of Farraday.
i take a good deal in this belief to as the bible tells us that God did create this world and in taking that in i think it's important that we remember the aspect of the world. that word world includes everything and everyone on our planet, it goes from the depths of the earth to the clouds, it includes every inch of our physical and even mental world.
i really don't have much else to say (in other words i have slightly lost my train of thought, i like to say in a hysterical sense that "my train of thought got hit by the mount Ruapehu lahar!")

to conclude this post i think that we need to have healthy doses of thinking at least every week.
not only to get a grip on our own reality but on the reality that God wants us to be in.
essentially we should not be living the life we please for, but the life that god desires for us.

thanks again for reading