|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 22 2012 21:45 ExceeD_DreaM wrote:This is indeed correct! As moms and dads always say, health comes first! Without being healthy, what is the purpose and point of doing anything? Work hard, stay healthy, and enjoy the ripening fruit. In my opinion, there is no greater pain than to suffer without seeing the result of your hard work.
I don't disagree at all. ^^
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 22 2012 23:12 targ wrote:
I really do love all your blog posts. Btw I'm curious, what did you do for your undergraduate degree? Theology is an interesting choice for grad school to say the least.
Well my dad who graduated from law school ended being a minister, so that was part of it; but, I started as a chemistry specialist, then switched to English Lit, then switched to Political Theory and had all my electives as science courses lol. I probably took the hardest route to an arts degree.
|
Thank you for your answers, this is probably the only place where I can directly ask someone whos life experience and time opportunity cost is this high.
Youre exactly right, I was asking to possibly find answers for my own purpose. We all walk our own roads but sometimes a little tap on the shoulder is all thats needed. And I appreciate that.
Best of luck to you finding that purpose and aura again, youre a good human being.
|
In a previous post you said you were good at predicting what will happen in systems, etc. I want to ask you a little about s. korea and religion.
I get the impression it is quite Christian? How long has it been so? It surprises me that such a far eastern country seems to be quite Christian. And mainly, how do you think this will progress in the long run? Are more people becoming atheist with more exposure to the rest of the world (I guess in particular western Europe which is very atheist now, at school in my year of 200 boys there were 2 muslims, one catholic and 197 atheists, so religion is always quite interesting/perplexing for me).
|
South Korea is still predominantly non-religious. Christianity as a whole is the largest religion in South Korea at the moment though, and the history of Christianity actually does stretch back quite a bit, surprisingly enough. There's a lot of reasons why Christianity survived and then grew with such great vigor though. Christianity offered a very concrete way of circumventing the rigid and oppressive social hierarchy that was established during the Chosun era, and various Christian organizations put a great deal of effort in keeping the Korean language alive while also offering refuge during the Japanese occupation, and this continued on into the Korean War. Christianity had a great social presence and in some ways was the catalyst to many of the social reforms and rethinking that characterizes a great deal of modern South Korea.
But in modern times I think a great deal of South Korean Christianity has gone down the gutter and I think Protestantism in South Korea is extremely broken. Within the context of South Korea, the Catholics are much more genuine. But as a whole I think South Korea will retain the nonreligious plurality and I certainly do not think Christianity will become a majority.
edit: also, I think the Koreans are unique among the Far East nations in that Christianity (Catholicism) was being practiced within the nation (Chosun) before any missionaries from the West arrived to the nation. When the first Christian missionaries, Catholics, arrived to Chosun, they arrived to a nation that already had a Catholic community. Preliminary Catholic thought that arrived through China was already discussed by the Yangban intellectuals and the nation was already somewhat aware of Christian thought.
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 23 2012 01:11 Deadeight wrote:
In a previous post you said you were good at predicting what will happen in systems, etc. I want to ask you a little about s. korea and religion.
I get the impression it is quite Christian? How long has it been so? It surprises me that such a far eastern country seems to be quite Christian. And mainly, how do you think this will progress in the long run? Are more people becoming atheist with more exposure to the rest of the world (I guess in particular western Europe which is very atheist now, at school in my year of 200 boys there were 2 muslims, one catholic and 197 atheists, so religion is always quite interesting/perplexing for me).
Actually, the presence of Christians is quite visible, as there are thousands of churches and some mega churches and you'll see tones of crosses all around the city in neon lights, but I think at one point 30% of the population considered themselves to be Christian or Catholic. So 1/3 is a ton, but that has since decreased to the low 20%.
Our current president is a practicing Christian and he was criticized very early in his term for giving favoritism to Christian projects over that of Buddhist issues.
Relative to China or Japan, which due to communism or or extermination, Korea has been considered quite the miracle, but we are a long way to being considered Christendom because it has such a short time in our history. My son, would be the fifth generation of protestant in Korea, which would be the longest line. Catholics should be at seventh generation at the very longest. But the impact of Christianity in Korea is not really social justice focused, but rather, personal salvation focused. Thus, this has played into Korea's natural shamanistic cultural character and so there is a lot of personal prayer, and tithing for the reward of something personal, whether it be material or rewards. This has created a lot of huge issues in that churches became corrupted by the influx of money and some ministers played into that. Also there is a huge Pentecostal movement which as died down somewhat, but still rakes the most money and active participation.
But I'd say, things are going in a good way, where due to the wealth of the country, people are going to church for more reasons than just praying for rewards, but on the other hand, we are following the same trends as more modern societies where by the mature church is shrinking in size. But for us, that probably is still at least 20 years away to see something really noticeable like the decline in the west.
To give some perspective to your question though. When you have wealth, you get into this consumer mode, so, it becomes, you are what you buy or associate with. The fundamental issue of life and death and the well being of your people doesn't not become a main subject of discussion. After all, all around you are people living happy, without any faith in their lives. But go to a 3rd world country and ask how many people don't believe in God, I'm sure none. Now the fault with this line of thinking is that do we pray because we are desperate or do we pray because we know life is about life and death and suffering, that there is nothing creating the illusion that everything is totally cool. But for the most part, all wealthy cultures will move away from any sense of religious when the basis for faith was simply to survive. But if the faith is based on a need to share love in the world, then that itself is entirely different.
So you'll find also, in third world countries the message is Heaven or Hell, but in 1st world countries the message is 'sharing love'. A fine difference, but a great leap in approach. ^^
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 23 2012 01:49 koreasilver wrote:
South Korea is still predominantly non-religious. Christianity as a whole is the largest religion in South Korea at the moment though, and the history of Christianity actually does stretch back quite a bit, surprisingly enough. There's a lot of reasons why Christianity survived and then grew with such great vigor though. Christianity offered a very concrete way of circumventing the rigid and oppressive social hierarchy that was established during the Chosun era, and various Christian organizations put a great deal of effort in keeping the Korean language alive while also offering refuge during the Japanese occupation, and this continued on into the Korean War. Christianity had a great social presence and in some ways was the catalyst to many of the social reforms and rethinking that characterizes a great deal of modern South Korea.
But in modern times I think a great deal of South Korean Christianity has gone down the gutter and I think Protestantism in South Korea is extremely broken. Within the context of South Korea, the Catholics are much more genuine. But as a whole I think South Korea will retain the nonreligious plurality and I certainly do not think Christianity will become a majority.
edit: also, I think the Koreans are unique among the Far East nations in that Christianity (Catholicism) was being practiced within the nation (Chosun) before any missionaries from the West arrived to the nation. When the first Christian missionaries, Catholics, arrived to Chosun, they arrived to a nation that already had a Catholic community. Preliminary Catholic thought that arrived through China was already discussed by the Yangban intellectuals and the nation was already somewhat aware of Christian thought.
Well I think I took a much more recent relative/approach to the question, because I think if you really want to talk about the modern era of Christian post 1980, you'd need to look to the factors as to the explosion of the Christian population during that period. ^^
|
Definitely one of the best blogs I've read on here. Thanks for sharing that, I'm going to go read some of your past ones now.
|
Hey MightyAtom-hyung, I have another question to ask you if you have time for it.
When I first graduated, I was thinking of going into management consulting, although in the end I went into IT consulting, from time to time I still think of going back and pursuing my original dream.
But then recently I read a lot of articles and discussions on management consulting, and they say that a large portion of it is just BS-ing the clients, or presenting some grand ideas that don't really help the client to do better in business, or just making fancy powerpoint presentations... you get the drift. And if it's really like that then I'm not very keen on doing it.
However I was seeing some of your old blog titles about your experiences in PWC (the content is deleted so I can't see what the experiences were). I feel that a guy like you wouldn't be content with just passing out spin BS to clients, so I'd like to ask you do you feel the management consulting industry is genuinely useful to clients? If so, how?
|
MightyAtom bossing againn. Any chance of a republishing of your older blogs? :D
|
I have been raised from birth in a catholic school. I am now 16 years old, much like you did I slack a lot during school, I'm going to finish my grade 11 year with only 86% average which is unlikely to get me in to any schools.
Unlike you, I am drifting away from being christian. I can't bring myself to believe there is a god anymore. I am much more interested in non-religious taoism and even budhism. Can't say why but the few bits I have watched on youtube and read online appeal to me.
I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I just sincerely hope that I will find something that seizes my imagination the way your business work does.
Recently I've taken to walking around the city by myself, giving money to bums and just noticing the things around me and being very fascinated by the things going on around me. I have way more fun than if I was with any friends, maybe inspiration will find me.
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 23 2012 07:54 Vronti wrote:
Definitely one of the best blogs I've read on here. Thanks for sharing that, I'm going to go read some of your past ones now.
^^
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 25 2012 14:16 targ wrote:
Hey MightyAtom-hyung, I have another question to ask you if you have time for it.
When I first graduated, I was thinking of going into management consulting, although in the end I went into IT consulting, from time to time I still think of going back and pursuing my original dream.
But then recently I read a lot of articles and discussions on management consulting, and they say that a large portion of it is just BS-ing the clients, or presenting some grand ideas that don't really help the client to do better in business, or just making fancy powerpoint presentations... you get the drift. And if it's really like that then I'm not very keen on doing it.
However I was seeing some of your old blog titles about your experiences in PWC (the content is deleted so I can't see what the experiences were). I feel that a guy like you wouldn't be content with just passing out spin BS to clients, so I'd like to ask you do you feel the management consulting industry is genuinely useful to clients? If so, how?
Management consulting is only good if the company is in a growth period and for that moment they need more strategic HR, normally a company will require very little strategic input, operations is like 98% of what makes a company turn a profit, but that 2% is of course critical in either highly competitive markets or in growth sectors.
90% of management consultants are hacks, but that being said, it isn't like they aren't creating some value for that firm because, they are drawing on a lot of work from past clients in similar situation and the fact is, if you're hired as a management consultant, then you can work like mofo and you're ultra sharp/quick thinking, so its not totally a wash.
But no one forces you to be a hack and a lot of times what is strategically difficult for normal companies, is pretty easy/run of the mill for top tier management firms because that is what they've been doing for the last 30 years or so.
If you don't want to be a hack, then its great, also, after doing it for a couple of years, if you do a good job, most of the time your clients will end of scouting you for an executive position. I don't see a down side to you, like most jobs that are 'professional' in nature, you can hide behind your title or do your job as you see fit. ^^
edit: but you will have to do a helluva lot of powerpoint presentations, but no worries,there are like 20 templates to choose from lol.
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 25 2012 15:13 heha wrote:
MightyAtom bossing againn. Any chance of a republishing of your older blogs? :D
There is a chance the next month ^^
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
On March 25 2012 17:18 Thaniri wrote:
I have been raised from birth in a catholic school. I am now 16 years old, much like you did I slack a lot during school, I'm going to finish my grade 11 year with only 86% average which is unlikely to get me in to any schools.
Unlike you, I am drifting away from being christian. I can't bring myself to believe there is a god anymore. I am much more interested in non-religious taoism and even budhism. Can't say why but the few bits I have watched on youtube and read online appeal to me.
I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. I just sincerely hope that I will find something that seizes my imagination the way your business work does.
Recently I've taken to walking around the city by myself, giving money to bums and just noticing the things around me and being very fascinated by the things going on around me. I have way more fun than if I was with any friends, maybe inspiration will find me.
Faith is not belief, it is seeing the world as God's sees it, and that takes time to doubt, to move away, to move close and to sometimes give up and re-see things. We're granted life to live and and as we do, we gain more understanding and when we have more experiences and new situations, our ways of thinking are tested, developed and changed.
The world and people is always much much bigger than what you see, even right in front of you, and I think you're on the right track. Life isn't just school, marks and stability - not to say that it doesn't play a part, but it isn't everything and later in life, it isn't much at all, but people are always going to be at different parts of their lives. I would say, explore, do, and then come back to what you think is being Christian, after learning more, you may find that there is still a lot to learn in Christianity as well instead of just want you've been directed to learn in the church or school, after all, Jesus was a shit disturber of the nth degree. ^^
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
