Foong Speaks Her Mind

I’ve seen the highly acclaimed and bestseller non-fiction book The God Delusion and never did get around to buying it or reading it but the first thing that crossed my mind was, what the heck was wrong with the author?

Was he so disillusioned by religion that he considered it as a delusion?

I’m sure plenty of religious people are dead against this book and the arguments within it. Reviews are aplenty about this book and just reading these is enough for me to know that the book argues about the existence of God and that God almost certainly does not exist.

Far from being miffed, annoyed, furious or jumping up in an all-consuming hatred at the author, I feel sad for him.

It is sad that a man could become so ‘learned’ that he considered religion as mass delusion.

It is sad that a man could be so bitter and disillusioned by the evil doings of men done in the name of God that he decided that religion must be a delusion.

Of course, he backed his theories with science and the evolution theory.

But I think he forgot one main thing. It is all fine and very well that things could evolve into what it is now but can science fully explain it all?

Can science truly explain how two cells could multiply and form into a human being? Can science even explain the mere existence of life? So, if it is all due to evolution, can a rock evolve into a living, breathing being? And even if it can, where did the rock come from? Can a rock evolve from nothing?

Can thin air evolve into something? And if yes, where did thin air come from?

It all boils down to the ultimate question, where did all things come from.

Nobody has the answers. The most brilliant of scientists could not answer this.

But religion did.

And yes, I do agree with Dawkins that sometimes, many terrorists are into terrorism ‘in the name of God’. But these are not because of God per se. More like it is because of humans and politics.

Religion is such a wide and yet sensitive topic. Your believes may not be mine and vice versa. It has sparked wars and a lot of spilled blood. And yet, did God want this?

I seriously doubt it.

It is really sad that scientists and atheists like Dawkins have become so disillusioned with God that they decided that God does not exist.

Perhaps they were not looking in the right direction.

Perhaps they were plain blind.

Perhaps they thought they are smart and so they are above this God ‘delusion’

Well, I guess, they are entitled to their believes as all of us are entitled to our own religious believes. It is such a waste that they will never know the serenity and joy of having a strong faith could bring you.

I am not a religious fanatic but I do believe in God. It is this believe that sometimes bring me comfort, bring me joy, bring me the bit of sunshine on dark days and bring me peace of mind I could not find elsewhere.

I just can’t imagine a life without God to fall back on for comfort, for an understanding shoulder to lean on (metaphorically speaking lar!) and just for being there.

We don’t need to see Him to know he is there much like we do not need to see the wind to know it is there. We can feel His presence everywhere if we look closely and I am pretty sure, people like Dawkins have been touched by God but they don’t know it.

So, is there a God delusion? Sure. There is when the delusion is that there is no God.

Note: This is not a book review in any way, just my opinions of this thought-provoking book.

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This is not a paid review.

I recently read three of Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap books, Magyk, Flyte and Physik, and thoroughly enjoyed it so I thought I might as well do a review starting with the first book, Magyk.

The book starts with Silas Heap finding a newborn baby girl in the snow and took her home despite being quite poor and having six other sons. On the same night, his wife Sarah delivered their seventh son, Septimus, but the midwife pronounced the baby as stillborn and hurriedly whisked him away.

So, they named the baby girl Jenna and brought her up as their own.

Fast forward ten years and the Extraordinary Wizard, Marcia, told them that Jenna is actually the surviving princess of their queen who was assassinated. Marcia came and took Jenna to protect her from possible assassins. Marcia also happen to save a young army boy from freezing to death, called Boy 412.

And so the adventure begins of how Marcia , Jenna and the Heaps, along with the reluctant nervous Boy 412, escaped to the marsh with the enemy in hot pursuit. The enemy is DomDaniel, the necromancer and former extraordinary wizard who is out to reclaim his title.

I do not want to spoil it for you so I will just say that what follows is a battle between good and bad, which is normal in any fantasy book. A dragon boat was found, a dragon ring was found, the seventh son of the seventh son was found and the book ended with a cliffhanger as to how Marcia’s new apprentice fared and what’s next.

This book is charming in the sense that it is full of magyk about magykal families in a fantasy world set in a timeless period where castles and wizardry and magic is the norm of the day. Although it may sound Harry Potter-ish, it isn’t all that similar except for the wizard and magic part. But I would say it is a definite spin-off from the famous Harry Potter series.

What is amazing about it is that this place merely called The Castle which consists of the palace and the wizard tower and that it is ruled by Queens and not kings. Sure the queens have husbands but often, the husbands were not mentioned. So, the throne is often ascended by the princesses and if the Queen do not have any daughters, it will go to the next female relative in line.

The tone of the writer is also quite light and often humorous which will have you grinning at certain chapters. However there are sad poignant moments too and as is needed in any good fantasy book, the page-turning thrill is also there. It is slow in the beginning but the pace picks up real fast and nearing the end, you will find that you could hardly put it down!

The only thing I find a little off-putting about the book is the bold words for spells and magical things such as Magyk or Caused.

In conclusion, if you are into some light fun reading of the fantasy genre, it is worth picking up this book.

Rating: 7/10

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The Last Unicorn - a review

I watched this movie (cartoon) when I was very small and I remember that I even have a video tape of this show. I had a copy of the ebook too but somehow it got lost when I formatted my PC!

What I love most about this show is the touching moments and the scores. This particular haunting theme song for the show has remained in my memories.

The story is about the last unicorn, Amalthea, who starts a journey to search for others like her. In her journey she was captured by a witch but was later rescued by a young magician who then travels with her.

Then along come Prince Lir, and as the enemy, the Red Bull, detects Amalthea and threatens to capture her too, the magician turned her into human. The group then continue with their quest to search for the other unicorns who were under captive of the Red Bull.

As with all romances, Prince Lir and Amalthea fell in love. However, the ending is not the conventional ending as it is both a happy and sad ending.

They found the other unicorns and released them but Amalthea was transformed back into a unicorn. The love between her and Prince Lir was not meant to be after all.

The movie is based on The Last Unicorn book by Peter S. Beagle. It was adapted into an animated film in 1982.

Rating: 9/10 (call me a romantic but I still love it as ever before!)

Now, it is very difficult to get copies of this movie except through Ebay or Amazon. It is the same with the book.

Sigh, they just don’t make much movies / write books like these anymore.

You can get The Last Unicorn products here:

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