Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2)

Interviewer: Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Numbering: Issue 26.A, Idea: Outliers & Outsiders (21)

Place of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Title: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.com

Individual Publication Date: March 1, 2021

Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2021

Name of Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Frequency: Three Times Per Year

Words: 1,424

ISSN 2369-6885

Abstract

This is an interview with a youth member of the high-IQ community in South Korea, Dong Geon Lee, who is a Member of CIVIQ Society. He discusses: the right life; the right life being lived as the right life; other people aware of living the right life; religion; rejecting the religion of youth; an atheist; atheism; hostile and jealous; respect; the reaction of parents and the school system; mathematics, physics, and physical theories; Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß; the right moral behaviour; a morally right behaviour; the qualities or characteristics of morally right speech; not harming others in one’s speech; someone born in a house without religion; religion as illogical; parts of religion are good; the believers of the religion; general agnosticism bordering on atheism; the explanation of reality; the forms of “minor bullying”; this deification a form of protection; a relationship between the geometric laws about shapes as ellipses and the expansion of the universe as dark energy; and any limitations to Carl Friedrich Gauß as a mathematician.

Keywords: agnosticism, atheism, Carl Friedrich Gauß, CIVIQ Society, Dong Geon Lee, ethics, morality, physical theories.

Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2)

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Why were you told to live “the right life rather than just being nice”? How has this impacted life view and personal journeys?

Dong Geon Lee[1],[2]*: My mother said that she could be beaten to live a good life, and that she would not be ashamed of herself if she lived properly. And it actually happened.

Jacobsen: What is the right life being lived as the right life?

Lee: It is to behave morally and not to harm.

Jacobsen: How are other people aware of living the right life to you?

Lee: Basically, it will be revealed in my actions, but you will find out other things while talking to me.

Jacobsen: As someone from a religious family, what kind of religion? What form of religion? What were the practices of the religion?

Lee: I was born in a house with no religion. There is only religious freedom. (There must be some mistake.)

Jacobsen: Why did you reject the religion of youth?

Lee: It’s illogical, and the religion itself may be good, but the believers of the religion have not seen anything good.

Jacobsen: Why become an atheist rather than another religion or an agnostic?

Lee: It is an atheism that is close to agnosticism. And if there was God, he would have done nothing but creation.

Jacobsen: What makes atheism most appealing and true to you?

Lee: It is because it does not explain everything with the intention of God, but it holds and explains a logical, big system, and does not wish for faith.

Jacobsen: How were they hostile and jealous of you? What were the behaviours of them to you?

Lee: Perhaps the reason is because of my intellectual ability. Also, they inflicted minor bullying on me.

Jacobsen: What were the manifestations of their respect for you?

Lee: They deified me (did not like it), but they protected me from those who rejected me.

Jacobsen: What was the reaction of parents and the school system to writing at age one and reading books at 4 years old?

Lee: They were surprised and proud of me.

Jacobsen: What kinds of mathematics, physics, and physical theories have you been developing over time?

Lee: It’s hard to say, but in geometry, we’ve discovered many laws about shapes that are different from ellipses.  Physics has also created expressions that describe the expansion of the universe as dark energy.

Jacobsen: Why Johann Carl Friedrich Gauß for than others?

Lee: He did everything he could in math.

Jacobsen: What is the right moral behaviour in this context in addition to not harming?

Lee: First of all, you don’t make unconditional concessions to others. And from the mind to the altruistic mind, it is to practice it. No one should be harmed in the process.

Jacobsen: How does one enact a morally right behaviour, even in speech?

Lee: Words have the power to move people. That moving power is used to bring moral thought to others. In other words, it has an indirect influence.

Jacobsen: What are the qualities or characteristics of morally right speech?

Lee: Expressions that do not hurt others, expressions that make others feel good, but should not be different from the facts, expressions that are not exaggerated, unreduced, expressions that do not contain dual meaning, etc.

Jacobsen: How does one not harm others in one’s speech (another form of behaviour)?

Lee: There is no special technique. It’s to rethink what I have to say in my head and check the expression.

Jacobsen: As someone born in a house without religion, how does this compare to the wider nation in terms of religious identification or not?

Lee: I don’t understand.

Jacobsen: Why is religion illogical? Is this more based on argument or evidence for the premises, e.g., scientific evidence informing argument, or both?

Lee: Science uses the method of exploration to explore. And if there is a problem in the process, make corrections repeatedly. Religion, however, is limited to the worldview created by someone, and if there is a problem, it is hidden or consistent with the will of God.

Jacobsen: What parts of religion are good?

Lee: It teaches people to live in profit.

Jacobsen: Why have “the believers of the religion… not seen anything good”?

Lee: Religious people created the concept of hell (Jesus did not mention hell), used to wage war because of religion, and now in my country, also Covid 19 is widespread because of religion.

Jacobsen: I will relate one similar sentiment to yours, “It is an atheism that is close to agnosticism. And if there was God, he would have done nothing but creation.” The relation is with an exposition by Dr. Heinrich Siemens of the Giga Society and the Mega Society. The part of our conversation went as follows:

Jacobsen: Why live life “without God”? What defines God in this sense of “without” or “a-,” in reference to “-theism” as in “a-theism” for you – in a pragmatic sense of life without God rather than a formal implied ontological stance of the concept “God”?

Siemens: Some people need someone to take their hand and show them how to align their lives with respect to a higher being. I don’t.

Jacobsen: What constituted the trajectory of the “careful consideration”?

Siemens: When I still attended church, I often felt obliged to give witness to my faith, for example at school. However, I noticed more and more how insincere this was, when scientific explanations contradicted those of the believers. I believed one, gave witness to the other, and did not feel good about it. So, I stopped witnessing the other. Let us suppose that our universe, space and time, arose from an initial singularity. Did God exist before because he is eternal? The idea that anything, even God, existed before the origin of time seems contradictory to me. If God came into existence later, when the laws of nature already applied, he must have had a cause, as nothing comes from nothing (Parmenides). But this contradicts the concept of God as taught by Christianity. So, God himself must be the prima causa, an unmoved mover (Aristotle). Okay, if someone is happy with this, he should call the initial singularity God. But this is a wheel that does not move anything.

Jacobsen: What were the ‘final nails’ – proverbial, so-called – to this careful consideration? Why “maybe because of Ockham’s razor”? How big was the beard to begin with for you?

Siemens: The final nail was even literally a beard. The Baptizers have different ideas about what the lower half of a man’s face should look like. The Amish, for example, let the beard grow (because God lets it grow), but they shave the moustache. Well, actually God lets it grow too, but for some obscure reason that is something completely different. I grew up in a congregation where men had to shave. The theological argument was derived from the fact that it is written: “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Little children do not wear beards, quod erat demonstrandum. When I stopped shaving, I got in big trouble with the church leadership. So, I grabbed Ockham’s Razor. However, instead of shaving my beard, I shaved my faith.

Does this more precisely reflect the general agnosticism bordering on atheism for you?

Lee: Aye!

Jacobsen: Why is the “logical, big system” without the “wish for faith” important in the explanation of reality to you?

Lee: When some begin to believe too much in their wish to believe it, like the framing effect, causes many to believe it, and the reality is distorted and becomes like the novel 1984.

Jacobsen: What were the forms of “minor bullying” inflicted on you?

Lee: I told myself important facts or spread bad rumors about me to other children.

Jacobsen: How was this deification a form of protection against those who rejected you?

Lee: They thought I was the smartest person in the world. So when other people are attacking me, I think it’s an insult to the children who deify me. And they attack them.

Jacobsen: Is there a relationship between the geometric laws about shapes as ellipses and the expansion of the universe as dark energy?

Lee: There is no relation between the two. I just studied each topic separately because it was fun.

Jacobsen: Were there any limitations to Carl Friedrich Gauß as a mathematician?

Lee: There are no limitations other than failing to solve Fermat’s last theorem.

Appendix I: Footnotes

[1] Member, CIVIQ Society.

[2] Individual Publication Date: March 1, 2021: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2021: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.

*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.

Appendix II: Citation Style Listing

American Medical Association (AMA): Jacobsen S. Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2) [Online]. March 2021; 26(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2.

American Psychological Association (APA, 6^th Edition, 2010): Jacobsen, S.D. (2021, March 1). Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2). Retrieved from http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2.

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 26.A, March. 2021. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2>.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (16^th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2021. Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 26.A. http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2.

Chicago/Turabian, Humanities (16^th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott “Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 26.A (March 2021). http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2.

Harvard: Jacobsen, S. 2021, ‘Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 26.A. Available from: <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2>.

Harvard, Australian: Jacobsen, S. 2021, ‘Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 26.A., http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 7^th Edition, 2009): Scott D. Jacobsen. “Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 26.A (2021): March. 2021. Web. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2>.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S. Conversation with Dong Geon Lee on The Right Life, Religion, Science, and Agnosticism Bordering on Atheism: Member, CIVIQ Society (2)[Internet]. (2021, March 26(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/lee-2.

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