Faith-Knowledge-Experience
The Number 13
January 13, 2022
Why does number 13 evoke feelings of uncertainty, fear, dread, and uneasiness to many?
It has become so powerful in our life that in 1983, the late great poet John Hollander published an odd volume of verse called Powers of Thirteen. Every poem in the collection was 13 lines long, with 13 syllables in each line. What's more, the collection consisted of 169 poems — that's 13 squared, of course.
Number 13 used to be a holy and mystical number. In the Old Testament, Numbers 13 explains that the Lord had brought the children of Israel through the wilderness to a place near the land that He had promised to give them if they were faithful to Him.
For the Jews, the number 13 has been a symbol of strength and… (sometimes) even good luck, a belief that is carried on by the Israelites through the millennia. When Israel was established in 1948 the first provisional government had 13 members– because its founders said they needed all the luck they could get.
In numerology, number 13 is considered as a sacred and karmic number. It is associated with the divine and is said to bring good luck and prosperity to those who embrace it. In fact, many people believe that the number 13 brings about change, which can often lead to a positive outlook.
But in the Old Testament, number 13 has lost its charism and allure as a lucky and sacred number. It began to represent Satan, evil, wickedness, devils, and everything vile that is connected to them.
At the Last Supper, Judas Iscariot was the 13th guest - we all know how that went. Since then, it has become associated with Friday, thus Friday the 13th, since it was narrated that it was on a Friday that the Lord Jesus died on the cross.
Stories and myths abound connected with the stigma of number 13.
In Norse mythology, Loki crashed a banquet of a dozen gods - as the 13th partygoer, he caused a celestial uproar when he killed one of these divine guests with a poison arrow.
Into the Middle Ages, the stigma against Friday the 13th grew stronger. On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Phillip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar and his senior knights and other members. They were tortured to compel them to admit to "wrongdoings."
Later in the 18th century, this belief about Friday the 13th was again reinforced. The British ship HMS Friday was launched on a Friday, the 13th , the captain was a man named Jim Friday. The ship was never seen nor heard from again.
The power of 13 has in reality gained its stronghold in many facets of our life.
Ever wonder that so many buildings do not have a 13th floor? The floor doesn't exist. It all comes down to that high falutin word “triskaidekaphobia”, or the fear of the unknown and the uncertain.
Many hospitals have no room 13. Superstitious chiefs even worry that patients given bed number 13 might be upset by the superstition. Some hospital managers even acknowledge that number 13 is an unlucky omen.
Travelers are not spared of this. Some airline terminals omit Gate 13 or seat number 13. Airline passengers even go to the extent of first knowing which countries and airlines have Gate number 13 and seat number 13. Meticulous passengers refuse to travel on the 13th of Friday. Remember the Apollo 13 accident whose mission was aborted after two days in space?
So powerful is the influence of number 13 that on May 28, 1999, the movie “The 13th Floor” was released in the USA. Also available in Netflix and YouTube, the movie is a sci-fi thriller that explores the ominous possibility of computer-simulated universes, where people only believe they are real.
Fact or fiction? True or superstition?
How about you? What’s your take?
Faith
Paul J. Dejillas
Faith is usually and oftentimes referenced to blind obedience and rigid allegiance to some dogmatic beliefs. It is believing in something that is mysterious and unknown. I believe because I do not know.
But this is a great disservice to our intellect that has the capacity to search even the unknown, including those that lie beyond our horizon of time, space, and matter.
We need to challenge our faith and beliefs. We need to question them. They have to be abandoned if they only keep on imprisoning us to their narrow confines. They only serve those who stubbornly perpetuate them for their own nefarious advantage.
There can be no room for fanatics and apostates. History tells us that they can only lead us to our doom and slavery. Faith only obstructs our innate freedom, as seekers of truth, to soar up and go even beyond those paths that are not even traveled.
It is this transcendental stance that could offer us deep spiritual insight of the mystical and the divine. Ignoring the vastness beyond only limits our understanding of earthly life and existence.
We cannot rely on faith to trust and commit our entire earthly existence. It is our own life that is at stake.
Knowledge and Faith: I Know, Therefore, I Don’t Believe
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D.
I know I have two feet performing synchronous functions. I just let my feet function as they were originally designed. I no longer believe I have two feet since I know I have them; I know what they are and why.
Yet, there are so many things “out there” in the world outside me that I do not see and experience. I don’t know what they are because I have not yet explored what’s “out there.”
I have first to go and discover, to know and experience what they are, how they function, and why they exist. More importantly, I must be able to relate them meaningfully to my personal life, especially with respect to my nature, role, and future.
I cannot say I believe in them because I still don’t know what to believe and why. Well, I can insist and say I believe. But what shall I believe?
Without knowledge and experience, I might only be imagining what I want to believe. For example, in the future, I can be as genius as Albert Einstein, as holy as Jesus, Krishna, and Buddha, as handsome as Tom Cruise, or as compassionate as Neo in the movie Matrix, all rolled into one.
If I base my faith on this unfounded meanderings and ramblings of mine, then, in all likelihood, I outrightly become a victim of my own folly and fantasy. I might as well be living in the fanciful world of Alice’s Wonderland, in Hollywood, inside Schrodinger’s imaginary box, or imagine myself as one of the casts in the movie Matrix. Or, I might be as well live happily in a swamp as an ogre.
To insist on faith as a basis for shaping my life is a great disservice to my intellect that has the capacity to search even the unknown, including those that lie beyond our horizon of time, space, and matter.
I cannot afford to put my trust and commitment on faith as a base for my earthly existence. It is just too weak and shaky to rely on.
I cannot either totally agree with the belief systems of scientists, theologians, and philosophers, because between and among themselves, they are at odds and in conflict with each other.
Scientists cannot agree among themselves on many things—Big Bang, Inflation, Multiverse, our appearance, etc. So is religion in matters relating to God, heaven, hell, and purgatory, and salvation.
I need to transcend beyond what they believe, even to the point of confronting them for spreading and perpetuating lies, erroneous teachings, inaccurate catechetical doctrines, and unfounded beliefs. I know I can be offensive and, in fact, I have already offended many.
But I have no intentions of converting them. Neither do I want to be converted by their beliefs.
Yes, for those I know, I no longer believe, and for those I don’t know, I’ll continue exploring the “world out there.”
Knowledge and Experience
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D.
Knowledge can be gained through experience. Inversely, experience can also trigger knowledge.
In the first case, we experience something first before we learned something. For example, we do exercise regularly and in the process learned that it is good for our health. Experience begets knowledge.
In the second case, we learned something first, then, we put it into practice. For example, we learned that healthy foods are important for our well-being so we eat healthy and nutritional foods. Knowledge ignited experience.
Knowledge and experience are two sides of the same coin. They need to go hand-in-hand. And it is you that is the ultimate beneficiary of their consequences.
Knowledge needs to exist in real life. For of what use is knowledge if it is not put into practice? Of what use is knowledge of a certain set of facts if it is not committed into practice?
Similarly, what is experienced in real life must likewise be learned, otherwise we just keep on repeating things without gaining some knowledge from that experience. For what use is repeating the same things over and over again without knowing what we are doing?
Knowledge is not only acquisition of information. It is also experiencing what is known and practicing it in daily life, otherwise it remains as a concept or theory without any meaning and relevance at all in our life.
Inversely, it is the same with experience. Some knowledge must be derived from what we are doing, otherwise we simply become glorified automatons and mindless robots.
It is in this unitive and cohesive relationship that insights and wisdom blossom to cover new heights and dimensions for growth and progress. How we can always be conscious of this oneness in the relationship between knowledge and experience is a challenge we always face daily.
The Baffling Truth about Truth
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - June 20, 2022
Is truth important in our life at all? If it is, then, it becomes necessary to know what truth really is.
But this begs so many questions: what is truth? Are there standards or indicators to guide us in discerning truth from untruth?
Do we only accept those we personally believe as true? Or do we accept only those truths told to us by others?
Who is in the possession of truths? For example, take the following beliefs:
1. Monotheism = belief in only one God.
2. Polytheism = belief in many Gods.
3. Atheism = belief in no God
4. Free Thinker = doesn’t care at all
These questions remain unresolved to this day. Not even science or religion owns the truth. Scientists are not even certain about the origin of the Cosmos and the appearance of humanity. There are so many theories and speculations.
Religion is likewise divided, with each claiming to possess the truth, while others are not.
I don’t want to be embroiled in their conflicts. That’s too complicated a life for me to live. I would rather live life without being concerned of what truth is.
Truth is not needed in life. I can live without it. Why give so much concern of knowing what it is. It has not served humanity at all. It is destructive to life.
I find it more productive deleting truth in my dictionary and never to mention it anymore whenever I talk to people.
I am only concerned of communing with others in peace, not to argue and debate. If they insist on discussing about truth, then, I’d better excuse myself rather than waste my time arguing with them.
Just expressing my story on the baffling truth about truth.
Judge Not and Ye Shall Not Be Judged (Luke 6:37)
Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - March 16, 2022
Each of us can have differing interpretations of the world outside, suggesting that there could be as many worlds as there are people living on this Planet Earth.
Our understanding of the world outside is subjective and phenomenological. We know our world only insofar as we personally experience it. Like the proverbial seven blind men, the world inside us only reflects what we touch, feel, see, hear, or smell.
We cannot claim with certainty that our understanding of the external world is accurate. This would be suggesting that we know the external world in its vastness. But we don’t. This can be too much of a claim.
To do so would only make us absolutists, doctrinaires, totalitarian, and authoritarian. It’s a categorical declaration that we alone possess the truth and others are false.
Others have their own perceptions too based on their own personal idiosyncrasies. Their views are not wrong. They’re just incomplete and inaccurate.
We cannot impose our views on others. Everything is just a matter of perspective, dependent on where we are in space, time, and the events we experience during those moments.
Each of our own personal “I accounts“ then are just pieces and parts of the entire picture of reality, the elephant of the 7 blind men or the perceived lion of Albert Einstein.
We filter the world outside based on our own personal standards and biases. But it is not wrong; it is just incomplete.
I do not intend to impose to others the “Thou Shall Nots” given to Moses. The 10 commandments alone are already a heavy load to carry on my shoulders.
These are just some thoughts that came to my mind while reflecting on the events that are happening, now that the national elections is nearing.