70,000 BC there are drawings that indicate some knowledge of elementary mathematics and of time measurement based on the stars. Paleontologists have discovered ochre rocks adorned with scratched geometric patterns.

20,000 BC - The Ishango bone, found in northeastern Congo, is the earliest known demonstration of sequences of prime numbers and of Ancient Egyptian multiplication.

3,000 BC - The Indus Valley Civilization of North India and Pakistan developed a system of measures that used the decimal system, and an advanced brick technology which utilized ratios.

2,500 BC - The Sumerians wrote multiplication tables on clay tablets and dealt with division problems. The traces of the Babylonian numerals also date back to this period.

1,650 BC - The Rhind papyrus, a major Egyptian mathematical text, is an instruction manual in arithmetic and geometry. It gives area formulas, multiplication methods, working with unit fractions, composite and prime numbers, arithmetic, geometric and harmonic means.

550 BC - Pythagoras of Samos is credited with the first proof of the Pythagorean theorem, though the statement of the theorem has a long history. He expressed the theorem algebraically rather than geometrically.

400 BC - Jaina mathematicians from ancient India began studying mathematics for the sole purpose of mathematics. They developed transfinite numbers, logarithms, fundamental laws of indices, cubic equations, quartic equations, set theory, sequences and progressions, permutations and combinations, etc.

370 BC - Eudoxus developed the method of exhaustion, a precursor of modern integration. The Pythagoreans proved the existence of irrational numbers.

300 BC - Euclid wrote Elements, the most important mathematics book ever written. It is the first example of the format still used in mathematics today: definition, axiom, theorem, proof.

230 BC - Archimedes of Syracuse used the method of exhaustion to calculate the area under the arc of a parabola with the summation of an infinite series, and gave remarkably accurate approximations of Pi.

400 - The Surya Siddhanta, classical Indian mathematician, introduced the trigonometric functions of sine, cosine, and inverse sine, and laid down rules to determine the true motions of the luminaries, which conforms to their actual positions in the sky.

650 - Brahmagupta lucidly explained the use of zero as both a placeholder and decimal digit, and explained the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.

825 - Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kwarizmi wrote several books on the Hindu-Arabic numerals and on methods for solving equations. The word algorithm is derived from the Latinization of his name.

1000 - Al-Karaji, a Persian mathematician, gives the first known proof by mathematical induction. He proved the binomial theorem, Pascal’s triangle, and the sum of integral cubes.

1170 - Bhaskara, another Indian mathematician first conceived differential calculus, the concept of the derivative, differential coefficient and differentiation. He also stated Rolle’s theorem and investigated the derivative of the sine function.

1202 - Fibonacci produced the first significant mathematics in Europe since the time of Eratosthenes, a gap of more than a thousand years. His book introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe, and discussed many other mathematical problems.

1654 - Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat set the groundwork for the investigations of probability theory and the corresponding rules of combinatorics in their discussions over a game of gambling.

1665 - Isaac Newton brought together the concepts now known as calculus. Independently, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz developed calculus and much of the calculus notation still in use today.

1736 - Leonhard Euler, the most influential mathematician of the 18th century, solved the Koenigsberg bridge problem. He founded the study of graph theory named the square root of -1 with the symbol i, made contributions to the study of topology, etc.

1799 - Karl Friedrich Gauss proves that every polynomial equation has a solution among the complex numbers. Gauss did revolutionary work on functions of complex variables, in geometry, and on the convergence of series.

1807 - Joseph Fourier announced his discoveries about the trigonometric decomposition of functions, but the demonstration was not altogether satisfactory. The final solution of the problem was given in 1829 by Jacques Charles François Sturm.

1822 - Augustin Louis Cauchy proved the Cauchy integral theorem for integration around the boundary of a rectangle. He started the project of formulating and proving the theorems of infinitesimal calculus in a rigorous manner and was thus a pioneer of analysis.

1829 - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky publishes his work on hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry, where uniqueness of parallels no longer holds.

1832 - Evariste Galois presents a general condition for the solvability of algebraic equations. Galois and Niels Henrik Abel proved that there is no general algebraic method for solving polynomial equations of degree greater than four.

1843 - William Rowan Hamilton in Ireland discovers the calculus of quaternions and deduces that they are non-commutative.

1847 - George Boole devised Boolean algebra, in which the only numbers were 0 and 1 and in which, famously, 1 + 1 = 1. Boolean algebra is the starting point of mathematical logic and has important applications in computer science.

1854 - Bernhard Riemann introduces Riemannian geometry, which unifies and vastly generalizes the three types of geometry, and he defined the concept of a manifold, which generalize the ideas of curves and surfaces.

1899 - David Hilbert presents a set of self-consistent geometric axioms in Foundations of Geometry. In 1900, he set out a list of 23 unsolved problems in mathematics. These problems formed a central focus for much of 20th century mathematics.

1928 - John von Neumann, a Hungarian American mathematician who made major contributions to a vast range of fields, begins devising the principles of game theory and proves the minimax theorem.

1931 - Kurt Goedel shows that mathematical systems are not fully self-contained. One of the most significant logicians of all time, Goedel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century.

1950 - Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann present cellular automata dynamical systems. Stanislaw Marcin Ulam was a Polish mathematician who participated in the Manhattan Project and proposed the Teller-Ulam design of thermonuclear weapons.

1961 - Daniel Shanks and John Wrench compute pi to 100,000 decimal places using an inverse-tangent identity and an IBM-7090 computer. Shanks is best known for his book Solved and Unsolved Problems in Number Theory.

1983 - Gerd Faltings shows that there are only finitely many whole number solutions for each exponent of Fermat’s Last Theorem.

1987 - Yasumasa Kanada, Jonathan Borwein, Peter Borwein, and David Bailey, use iterative modular equation approximations to elliptic integrals and a NEC SX-2 supercomputer to compute pi to 134 million decimal places.

1995 - Sir Andrew John Wiles, working in secrecy, proves Fermat’s Last Theorem. This surprisingly lengthy proof has stood up to the scrutiny of the world’s experts.

Have you read this before.. ?

Discover the 90/10 Principle. It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations). What is this principle?

10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us. We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic. We have no control over this10%. The other 90% is different.

You determine the other 90%.

How? By your reaction. You cannot control a red light., but you can control your reaction. Don’t let people fool you; YOU can control how you react.

Let’s use an example. You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just what happened. What happens when the next will be determined by how you react.

You curse. You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over.

She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work.

You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit. After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home, When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.

Why? Because of how you reacted in the morning. Why did you have a bad day?

A) Did the coffee cause it?

B) Did your daughter cause it?

C) Did the policeman cause it?

D) Did you cause it?

The answer is ” D”. You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day. Here is what could have and should have happened. Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say, “It’s ok honey, you just need, to be more careful next time”. Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.

Notice the difference?

Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different.

Why?

Because of how you REACTED.

You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction.

Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle.

If someone says something negative about you, don’t be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don’t have to let the negative comment affect you! React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc.

How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall off) Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them?

WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive? Remember the 90/10 principle, and do not worry about it.

You are told you lost your job. Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job.

The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take out your frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on. Use your time to study, get to know the other passenger.

Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse. Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it.

The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle. The result? Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache.

We all must understand and apply the 90/10 principle.

It CAN change your life . . .

1. Don’t worry about knowing people just make yourself worth knowing.

2. Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.

3. If you can buy a person’s friendship, it is not worth it.

4. True friends have hearts that beat as one.

5. If you cannot think of any nice things to say about your friends, then you have the wrong friends.

6. Make friends before you need them.

7. If you were another person, would you like to be a friend of yours?

8. A good friend is one who neither looks down on you nor keeps up with you.

9. Be friendly with the folks you know.. if it weren’t for them you would be a total stranger.

10. A friend is never known till he is needed.

11. Friendship is a responsibility…not an opportunity.

12. Friendship is the cement that holds the world together.

13. Friends are those who speak to you after others don’t.

14. The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail and not his tongue.

15. Pick your friends, but not to pieces.

16. A friend is one who puts his finger on a fault without rubbing it in.

17. The way to have friends is to be willing to lose some arguments.

18. If a friend makes a mistake, don’t rub it in….rub it out.

19. Deal with other’s faults as gently as if they were your own.

20. People are judged by the company they keep and the company they keep away from.

21. A friend is a person who can step on your toes without messing your shine.

22. The best mirror is an old friend.

23. The best possession one may have is a true friend.

24. Make friendship a habit and you will always have friends.

25. You will never have a friend if you must have one without faults.

26. Doing nothing for your friends results in having no friends to do for.

27. Anyone can give advice, but a real friend will lend a helping hand.

28. You can make more friends by being interested in them than trying to have them be interested in you.

29. A real friend is a person who, when you’ve made a fool of yourself, lets you forget it.

30. A friend is a person who listens attentively while you say nothing.

31. You can buy friendship with friendship, but never with dollars.

32. True friends are like diamonds, precious but rare; false friends are like autumn leaves, found everywhere.

33. A friend is someone who thinks you’re a good egg even though you’re slightly cracked.

If you were just one step away from reaching your goal, would you take that step? How do you know, right now, that you’re not?

What a shame it would be to stop making the effort, when just a little bit more would make it all worthwhile. What a shame it would be to have taken all those steps, only to miss the very last one. The next step you take may very well be the one that makes all the others count. You owe it to yourself, and the efforts you’ve made, to keep going. No, the next step may not get you there. Yet what about the one after that? If you keep moving ahead, a little at a time, you will indeed arrive. When you take that final, triumphant step, you’ll be so very thankful you persevered.

At some point success is just one step away. Keep going and you’ll be there. Must do: In each task that must be done, there is opportunity. See the task not as a burden, but as an encouragement to be fully alive and effective. The real burden would be the inability to do anything. No task is a burden, but is instead the chance to express your own aliveness. Does the work seem dreary, unimaginative, tedious or boring? That’s mainly because your attitude makes it so. See what happens when you start by being thankful for the opportunity to do it. Your genuine gratitude will help you to see the positive value. When the things you must do become things you want to do, it can transform your life. Each moment takes on more meaning; each effort brings greater and greater reward. Rather than fighting and forcing yourself to do what must be done, let go of your resistance and allow yourself to accomplish. Let what you must, become what you want, and watch yourself begin to soar!

If you could start your life all over what would be different? What would you change now if you were able to wave a magic wand and start from scratch?

Just imagine you have no ties, no burdens, no limits, no memories, and no past. What would your life look like? If the answer that comes to your mind is different than what you are doing, what is that? Is it because of someone else’s opinion? A parent - or may be your friend?

The ultimate test of your life is to close your eyes and think of yourself as you are and the way you want to be. If given a chance would you like to change the report card of your last year’s final exam? If yes, then, why not work hard this year and get good marks. Kids, life is not about regrets and if you do have some them I am sure you can get rid of them easily by doing what is right at this very moment.

At the end, what counts is how much effort you have put in your assignments. Never regret the past, in fact learn from it because each day is blank page and you can scribble anything on it. So, why not begin this day with a smile and write down things that you must do today.

All your wishes that start from “I wish I had been bolder…..I wish I had given more……I wish I had tried harder to see more, do more and feel more will become part of your life and there will be no regrets.

Make an attempt today to start with a brand new page of your life. Create your life story how you want it. Here is the good news. Your life is your life. No once can take that away from you. You are not a slave. You are free to try, do, and be whomever you wish. So, wish for being a better person and start this task today.

It might not be easy, but it sure might be worth it.

Abraham Lincoln was very concerned with character, but he was also aware of the importance of having a good reputation. He explained the difference this way: “Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

Put another way, your reputation is what people think of you. Your character is what you actually are.

In a world preoccupied with image, it’s easy to worry too much about our reputation and too little about our character.

Building a reputation is largely a public-relations project; building character requires us to focus on our values and actions. Noble rhetoric and good intentions aren’t enough.

What we’re looking for is moral strength based on ethical principles. Character is revealed by actions, not words, especially when there’s a gap between what we want to do and what we should do and when doing the right thing costs more than we want to pay.

Our character is revealed by how we deal with pressures and temptations. But it’s also disclosed by everyday actions, including what we say and do when we think no one is looking and we won’t get caught.

The way we treat people we think can’t help or hurt us (like housekeepers, waiters, and secretaries), tells more about our character than how we treat people we think are important.

People who are honest, kind, and fair only when there’s something to gain shouldn’t be confused with people of real character who demonstrate these qualities habitually, under all circumstances.

Character is not a fancy coat we put on for show.

Mahatma Gandhi is arguably, one of the most influential persons of the 20th century. Albert Einstein, very aptly put it, when he said: “Generations will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” He was not just a political leader, but a social reformer and a spiritual teacher, too.

Incidents from the Mahatma’s life and his well-documented experiments with truth serve as a great way of inculcating values in our children. He stressed that one should always live one’s philosophies, beliefs and faith, and he was a prime example of that.

Honesty is the best policy

In primary school, once during a school inspection, Gandhiji had spelt the word, ‘kettle’ wrong. When his teacher urged him to copy from others and correct the spelling, he refused as he was convinced that it was not the right thing to do. Honesty and truthfulness were qualities he came to embody throughout his lifetime.

In the modern world, we strive to make our children excel in academics, sports and the ways of life, but we must also pay great attention to these character-building attributes, which may seem a little old-fashioned.

Clothes do not a man make

When Gandhiji set out to England to study law, he had a brush with the sophisticated lifestyle of the British. In his pursuit of being an ‘English gentleman’ he tried dressing up like one. He busted money on fashionable clothes and even a chimney-pot hat in a desperate attempt to belong. He took lessons in dancing and elocution, but these infatuations lasted for a while before common sense dawned. Gandhiji realized that character, and not clothes, made a man.

Much later, his thoughts about dressing took him further in quite the opposite direction and he started dressing in loincloth to empathise with the poorest of the poor. In that, he used the symbolism of dressing as a conscious tool to shape public opinion.

It would be far-fetched to expect that we emulate him, but it would be worthwhile to interpret his experiences and experiments in clothing, in spirit. Teenagers today spend unnecessary time and money on the latest fashion and fads to the detriment of other things. They should be discouraged from such wasteful expenditure and preoccupation.

Ahimsa and Satyagraha

Gandhiji built his life’s mission on the two pillars of non-violence and truth. He said: “I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.” His interpretation of non-violence was not limited to abstaining from physical violence; he maintained that faith without action and suffering injustice were forms of violence.

In a society that is getting more strife-torn and ghettoized, we cannot underscore enough these age-old qualities and must seek to inculcate the same in our children.

Work for the larger good

Gandhiji propounded the teachings of the Bhagvad Gita, emphasizing, “work without the expectation of fruits of the labour done”. Through the symbols of charkha, the spinning wheel and khadi, the hand-spun fabric, he stressed the message of physical labour. The spinning symbolized harnessing of every idle minute for common productive work. Gandhiji always maintained that one should look beyond one’s personal aspirations and needs and work for the common good of society at large.

We must ensure that in the pursuit of name, fame and money, our children do not lose sight of the larger purpose in life. We must teach them to be socially responsible individuals who give back to the society what they gain.

Religious co-existence

Gandhiji was a votary of multi-religious identity. He said: “Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion - human religion- but any number of faiths.” He maintained: “The essence of all religions is one, only their approaches are different.”

Though he drew inspiration from the Bhagvad Gita and was a true Hindu by action, he always remained open to influences from all religions and culture. He said: “I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

Again, in an age where hate politics and ‘us and them’ sentiments ride high, Gandhiji’s teachings which he practiced diligently stand in good stead for the young generation.

As relevant as ever

Gandhiji’s teachings are as relevant today as ever. Every growing child should be acquainted with his life and times, his struggles to shape himself and his politics that so changed the way the world looks at things. For, as he maintained, his life is indeed his message.

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.

* Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.

* Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

* Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled.

* Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.

* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.

* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

* It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.

* You cannot unsay a cruel word.

* Every path has a few puddles.

* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

* The best sermons are lived, not preached.

* Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen, anyway.

* Don’t judge folks by their relatives.

* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

* Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none.

* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.

* Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

* The biggest troublemaker you’ll ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin’.’

* Always drink upstream from the herd.

* Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

* Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.

* If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.

* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly

Below is a listing of each of the commonly accepted disk drive space values. It is important to realize that not all manufacturers and developers use these values. For example, a manufacturer may consider a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 and not 1,073,741,824 bytes, we’ve listed the commonly accepted values in their binary base 2 values.

Note: All values expressed below are whole numbers. This means that a GB may show that it can only contain one 650MB CD but in reality 1GB could hold 1.5753… of a 650MB CD. Since we’ve created this document to illustrate how much each value can contain in whole, no decimal values are shown. In other words you can only fit one complete 650MB CD on a 1GB drive since two 650MB complete discs would exceed 1GB.

Bit

A Bit is a value of either a 0 or 1.

Nibble

A Nibble is 4 bits.

Byte

A Byte is 8 bits.

Kilobyte (KB)

A Kilobyte is 1,024 bytes.

Megabyte (MB)

A Megabyte is 1,048,576 bytes or 1,024 Kilobytes

* 873 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 4 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)

Gigabyte (GB)

A Gigabyte is 1,073,741,824 (230) bytes. 1,024 Megabytes, or 1,048,576 Kilobytes.

* 894,784 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 4,473 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
* 341 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
* 256 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
* 1 650MB CD

Terabyte (TB)

A Terabyte is 1,099,511,627,776 (240) bytes, 1,024 Gigabytes, or 1,048,576 Megabytes.

* 916,259,689 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 4,581,298 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
* 349,525 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
* 262,144 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
* 1,613 650MB CD’s
* 233 4.38GB DVD’s
* 40 25GB Blu-ray discs

Petabyte (PB)

A Petabyte is 1,125,899,906,842,624 (250) bytes, 1,024 Terabytes, or 1,048,576 Gigabytes.

* 938,249,922,368 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 4,691,249,611 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
* 357,913,941 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
* 268,435,456 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
* 1,651,910 650MB CD’s
* 239,400 4.38GB DVD’s
* 41,943 25GB Blu-ray discs

Exabyte (EB)

A Exabyte is 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 (260) bytes, 1,024 Petabytes, or 1,048,576 Terabytes.

* 960,767,920,505,705 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 4,803,839,602,528 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
* 366,503,875,925 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
* 274,877,906,944 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
* 1,691,556,350 650MB CD’s
* 245,146,535 4.38GB DVD’s
* 42,949,672 25GB Blu-ray discs

Zettabyte (ZB)

A Zettabyte is 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 (270) bytes, 1,024 Exabytes, or 1,048,576 Petabytes.

* 983,826,350,597,842,752 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 4,919,131,752,989,213 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
* 375,299,968,947,541 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
* 281,474,976,710,656 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
* 1,732,153,702,834 650MB CD’s
* 251,030,052,003 4.38GB DVD’s
* 43,980,465,111 25GB Blu-ray discs

Yottabyte (YB)

A Yottabyte is 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 (280) bytes, 1,024 Zettabytes, or 1,048,576 Exabytes.

* 1,007,438,183,012,190,978,921 pages of plaintext (1,200 characters)
* 5,037,190,915,060,954,894 books (200 pages or 240,000 characters)
* 384,307,168,202,282,325 digital pictures (with 3MB average file size)
* 288,230,376,151,711,744 MP3 audio files (with 4MB average file size)
* 1,773,725,391,702,841 650MB CD’s
* 257,054,773,251,740 4.38GB DVD’s
* 45,035,996,273,704 25GB Blu-ray discs

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said,”I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer. “Well, you just have to go out in the street to realise that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but did not respond because he did not want to start an argument.

The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber,”You know what? Barbers do not exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you.”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers DO exist!” answered the barber. “What happens is people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens is people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”