Read, Read, and Read

I have been told that faith can move mountain. I have yet, however, to see a mountain moved by an inch with the power of faith; especially in this only Christian country in Asia. What I see more clearly is faith supporting the mountain of poverty and misery, filth and squalor, not to mention the mountain of moral and spiritual bankruptcy of our sick society. In fact, today in this already 21st century - it is sick faith that makes us the Sick Man of Asia. Indeed, we do not speak of faith that a square has 4 sides, or that a triangle has 3 sides or that an octagon has 8. We only speak of faith when we do not know, and we only want to sanctify our ignorance in exchange for supernatural tolerance. For my part, I pity the man of faith. He is like a drunkard clinging to a lamppost for support, not illumination. Why should we need more faith since faith has only to do with the unknown? Why not, instead, face the known with intelligence and explore possibilities on how we can yet expand and improve our understanding of what is already known? Look at medical science expanding and improving ways to cure diseases and to make us live longer and healthier. Where has faith taken us as a Christian country in Asia? Today, we Filipinos are involved with nothing but the scramble for money: to satisfy not only our stupid greed; but mostly to amplify in public our silly creed. At any rate, what can we expect of a poor and backward nation where men and women with college education are habitually on their knees praying to a silly God to save their silly souls in the next silly life? And to think that most of these men and women are hoping to migrate to the next country overseas where its citizens are already enjoying a higher standard of living and indeed thinking. What we need in this country is not MORE faith, but more reason for the sake of spiritual growth. It means abandoning outworn beliefs and the welcoming of new and fresh ideas. We need to develop a deeper vision, to be willing to forsake our obsolete and shallow vision. The road to spiritual growth lies in distrusting what we already believe by deliberately challenging the validity of what we have been traditionally taught to hold dear and holy. We must learn to question everything. It is the basis of spiritual growth and intellectual maturity. We must therefore develop the habit of reading avidly and judiciously. I say therefore: read, read, and read. To begin to discover not only the beauty of rationality, but also the harmony of veracity. As we develop the habit of reading, especially books on the scientific way of thinking, we will never, ever again, be the foolish victims of mediocrity, or worse still – be the promoters of a sick society. However the case may be, those of us who refuse to read are no better off than those who can’t read at all. Poch Suzara