Han, Sim, Hawking and their search for God.

If you read the papers today, Insight section, you will see two towering public personalities sharing their experiences about life. 

One of them is Han Fook Kwang, Editor-at-Large, and the other is Sim Wong Hoo, the founder of Creative Technology. 

Fook Kwang just went on a 49,000 km trip around the world on a ship to 21 countries - including but not limited to Dublin, Iceland, New York, Havana, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, Hawaii and so on. 

The other, Sim, just launched his Super X-Fi.

He croons that “Super X-Fi allows headphone users to experience sound in expansive, three-dimensional detail, like in real life.” So, no more sound being forced and “claustrophobic” - he said.

But I write today not so much about their journey or invention. It is about their view on life, that is, their horizon-perspective about life and God. 

Sim was born a Christian, but if you ask him now, as Sumiko did, he said “his religion is “my own””. Although he did not elaborate on that, Sim gave a hint of it when he maintains that “money is not important”.

Sumiko asked, “because you have it.” 

“No,” he replied. “It’s not important.”

When delved deeper as to whether he lived a Crazy Rich Asian lifestyle, like driving a Ferrari, Sim said: “I think it’s a sin to drive something like that.” 

He currently drives a Toyota Camry. 

And when asked, “what he wants to be remembered for, he shoots back: “Nothing.”

Then, Sim in general said this that seems to hint to what he meant when he said “his religion now is “my own”. He said: “I’ve kind of transcended above all these earthly things.”

At 63, Sim spoke like an Asian oracle in a faux pas matrix-structured world. He said, “I’m at peace”, and added, “to have happiness, you must have sorrow. When you want to keep peace, then you don’t have a lot of happiness, you also don’t have a lot of sorrow.” 

Well, it is really for anyone reading that to decipher what he means, for you would recall that to Sim, his religion is his own.

From that cliffhanger of a perspective, I move on to read about Fook Kwang’s reflection about life and God. 

His is a search for beauty as he posed this question: “Where does it come from, this idea of the beautiful? It can’t be from the mind alone. The heart? Our soul?” 

Then, he answered it to some extent: “It does not matter what you call it. Only understand it is what makes us human.”

And what makes us human guided Fook Kwang to see the full extent of his own ignorance in a vastly extraordinary world beyond his own epistemic backyard. 

He said: “My travels made me realised how ignorant I was about the world, despite the digital connection of modern life linking us to everything and everywhere. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that the more we rely on our usual sources of information, the narrower our view of the outside world.”

Fook Kwang confronted the endless sea the way a hermit would confront restless space. They somehow (in my view) force you to abandon your own insignificant obsessions of self, that is, your cravings to be special, known and superior, and force you to unravel your innermost vulnerability, fragility and brokenness. 

He wrote: “Out at sea, you become acutely aware how fragile the ship is amid the uncertain elements. One minute it is all calm, and suddenly, the weather changes, the waves climb, and the ship rolls and pitches.” 

Then, Fook Kwang asked: “Question: Why is the sea so relatively calm and hospitable, enabling people over the millennia to travel great distances, to trade, to explore and sometimes to raid and plunder?”

Here is what his reflection led him to write: “The answer has to do with the unique set of circumstances that made this planet what it is: Every conceivably coincidence coming together almost perfectly, to create the conditions necessary for life to flourish, and all the countless things we take for granted, including sea travel.”

“Did all this occur out of a grand design from an omnipotent creator (I believe so), or was it the result of a random cosmological accident? You can’t run away from this question out at sea when the world confronts you so nakedly.” 

Lesson? Mm...there you have it, two gurus in their own rights confronting life and God and the mind-boggling mysteries in between.

One (Han) took a Moby-Dickesque trip to confront the Captain Ahab of his existential search for meaning beyond this world, and the other (Sim) created a sound system so real it transcends everything earthly in this world - and that (in my view) about represents his view of religion and God, that is, he is at peace in the right balance between happiness and sorrow, and in realising his own insignificance, he said that there is nothing he wants to be remembered for. 

In other words, God is an endless marvel to one, beyond comprehension because “every conceivable coincidences coming together almost perfectly” cannot but suggests to a “grand design from an omnipotent creator (more so than a “random cosmological accident”). 

And for Wong Hoo, the reply that my religion now is “my own” hints to a maturity and curiosity to never settle for what others tell you to think - that is, own your thoughts, make it personally embraceable for you.

And for him, it is definitely about things money cannot buy, like a peace of mind, happiness deepened and authenticated by sorrow, and a mind still at work, tinkering and inventing at 63, living alone, unmarried, and without being tethered to (or undermined by) the material creed of this world. 

So, when it comes to God, the ultimate uncaused cause, Fook Kwang and Wong Hoo have taught me to think for myself, to confront my ignorance, and to be willing and open to contrarian positions because the human experiences beyond our own confined experience are more diverse and enriching than we think. 

We all see God differently. Even an atheist I believe - when confronted by the endless sea, the open sky and the mysteries of this world beyond the futile mortal chase - cannot resist the existential itch to question, “Is there really nothing more than this?”

The late Professor Stephen Hawking was once asked: “How does God’s existence fit into your understanding of the beginning and the end of the universe? And if God was to exist and you had the chance to meet him, what would you ask him?”

He said: “The question is, “Is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can’t understand, or was it determined by a law of science?” I believe the second. If you like, you can call the laws of science “God”, but it wouldn’t be a personal God that you would meet and put questions to. Although, if there were such a God, I would like to ask however did he think of anything as complicated as M-theory in eleven dimensions.”

And...FYI, Professor Hawking died concluding there is no God. 

He said: “Do I have faith? We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is that there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realisation: there is probably no heaven and afterlife either.”

In the end, he is right - "each of us exercises the freedom to believe what we want." Because borrowed belief has no power, and won't last.

For Wong Hoo, it is largely a DIY-ish-religion, piecing it altogether, and finding a sustainable peace that maintains the balance of all things.

For Professor Hawking, his life’s search ends with an atheistic conclusion. For no one created the universe. It just came about by a science-driven spontaneity we have yet to uncover. 

However, there is, to me, always the reminder from Professor Hawking that his views are not ours. As a scientist, a fact-finder for life, it is still a personal existential search towards a conclusion that our conscience can live with when we heave our last breath. 

And for Fook Kwang, it is about...erm...a turtle crossing the road. Here is how he wrote about it. 

“We were on a public bus in Honolulu when the driver stopped by the road, jumped out of his seat into the pavement, then hopped back in, yelling cheerfully: Everyone out of the bus and take a look, there is a turtle trying to cross the road! 

Startled, we did as we were told. The sight of a giant reptile in a busy street crawling nonchalantly by was something to behold.”

Fook Kwang however said: “But I was more amazed by the bus driver and his spirited attitude to work. He had as much time as the crawling turtle. It was a beautiful sight.”

This is where I end with Fook Kwang’s observation: -

“When you see how differently people behave elsewhere, you appreciate the diversity of humankind and acknowledge more readily how limited your own experience is, no matter how wealthy a society you live in.”

That is my point in this post. For until and unless we confront our own ignorance, by whatever means possible and conceivable, we ought never to say that our belief tells us everything we need to know and there is nothing out there that we need to know. And after we have confronted our ignorance, I trust we would be even more clueless than before. 

Even our search for God can end up with different answers; that is, from the simplest explanation to the most complex, from there is probably no God to, and if there is, ”I would like to ask however did he think of anything as complicated as M-theory in eleven dimensions.”

Ultimately, the point is, never think for a moment that at where you are now, you have all the answers you need; and I am speaking to theists and atheists alike. 

In this long, most time hardscrabble, journey, many things can surprise us, and surprise us most serendipitously. 

All I ask is to keep searching, don’t take anything for granted, and like the turtle crossing the road, even in the most unexpected crossroad of life, there is still wonders to behold. 

In our busyness, let's hope we don't short-change ourselves by thinking that nothing surprises us anymore. For this world does not lack wonders, but a sense of wonders.