Why I became SDA.

Welcome to my new blog. Let me introduce myself by telling you a bit of my history. I recently earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UCLA. I have a bachelor's in Chemistry from Fresno State University.

I became a Seventh-Day Adventist after converting to Christianity in college. Before that, I was a Chan (a.k.a. Zen) Buddhist for about a decade. I became a Chan Buddhist (a religion I now respect, but disagree with) after spending a number of years studying Hung Gar Kung Fu under Sifu Mel Sakata, who was (if I understand correctly, a student of Bucksam Kong. (I owe Sifu a great deal and hope some day I can regain contact and thank him profusely.)

Hung Gar is a great martial art that does wonders for developing confidence, character, self-defense skills and is an art that can be studied for a life-time. If any of you have seen the Once Upon a Time In China movies (of Jet Lee fame), the movies are about physician and Sifu Wong Fei Hung. (For some basic info about Hung Gar, see http://www.kungfucinema.com/articles/2001-04-08-01.htm and http://www.wle.com/thePen/iskf.html).

However, while in college at Fresno State University (studying Chemistry) I became convinced that there was some sort of God after learning about hemoglobin in my biochemistry class. I guess it was the teleological argument that hit me. But hemoglobin seemed to well designed that I just figured it could not have been the result of natural selection.

That started me down the path to believing there was a God. However, I was not sure what kind of God there was. I had already left the Eastern religions because I no longer accepted a dualistic view of the universe where good and evil was just a matter of perception. (The thought that Hitler and his victims might have the same ultimate fate disturbs me morally.) So I was left with the so-called western religions.

I began studying the reasons for believing whether Islam or Christianity were true. Notice that I was not just studying the particular doctrines of Islam and Christianity and then picking the one I felt I liked the most, or made me feel the best, but I was trying to pick the one that was true.

(Part II later.)