You might be a deist without knowing it
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy
A large portion of the population of established religions today are nominal members, which means that they are only members by name. Most of them still attend worship/church services but some never go to church at all. Most of these nominal members believe in the essential doctrines of their religion specially those that seem to be right in their judgment. But, when the teachings of their religion go against their common sense and rational thinking, they reject them.
In my observation, many Catholics in the Philippines (I can only speak of my fatherland), especially those who are highly educated, are of this type. They choose which doctrines to believe and which doctrines to reject; a reason why they are referred to by Catholic authorities as “cafeteria-style” Catholics. I presume that nominal members of other religious groups do the same. And also those nominal members of many religions around the world do the same.
Tags: deism
What is deism?
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Philosophy
The pure and simple belief in God — the Uncaused Cause and Designer of all things — without the added baggage of unreasonable and unsubstantial claims of special revelations (i.e. ancient sacred books) is what defines deism. A deist
Tags: deism
Top 10 lessons I learned from my graduate thesis
Posted by Joemar | Filed under Studies, science
After two and a half years of graduate study for my MS degree in microbiology, I can say that I learned a lot of things, not only on academics but also about life in general. I know the deepest struggles of graduate students, especially those who are currently doing their thesis. In addition to logistic and theoretical burdens, internal negative forces like depressions, frustrations and even (maybe) hatred have to be faced and defeated in order to emerge victorious. For those who are about to do their thesis and even for those who are doing it now, I’d like to share the top 10 lessons that I learned from doing my thesis, which I hope can help you to be better equipped.