From a Critic

A Critic Writes:

I'm not that big with religion but I do believe in its purpose. I think we are better off with it, considering that our country is impoverished, religion is the hope of the poor. Otherwise without it, anarchy will probably take over. If the poor people have no hope, then they are desperate, if they are desperate, we all know what desperate men can do. Without religion, there will be nothing to stop them. Religion is a higher government that overshadows all governments, without it, there will be no organization. There must be a higher law over the state because when our government fails, it's always religion that helps in rebuilding it. So though what you write may be true, I think it is selfish because you are ruining the hopes of most of the people not only in our country but also in our world. We all need something to believe in, otherwise we're nothing. And it just so happens, and this has been proven for thousands of years, that religion is what people believe in and what hhas sustained them. Annonymous My Response: I agree, we all need something to believe in, otherwise we are nothing. Indeed, we all need religion. What we do not need, however, is superstition. When a Jesus, the Son of God, teaches you the following, and you believe it, then you are not being religious in any sense of the word, you are only being childish and superstitious: “And another of His disciple said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury the dead." “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword,” “For I am come to set a Man at variance against his father, and daughter against her mother.” Matt. 10:34-35 “And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Matt. 19:29 “There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s. But he shall receive a hundredfold now in time… with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30 “Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.” Mark 13:12 “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five to one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, and the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother…” Luke 12:51-53. If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, and yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26 “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not that all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33. “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them for me.” Luke 19:27. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal; . . . If any man serve me, him will my father honor.” John 12:25-26. In the meantime, in the Philippines, we have stupid religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another. For my part, I believe my family, my country, and the whole of mankind are all bigger and greater than I can ever hope to be. I love them all first and foremost and last as nothing else matters to me except perhaps the earth - our home planet - another thing bigger and greater than I am. Poch Suzara