I love and respect Scientists

In the conflict between the theology against science, I am on the side of the scientists. Never will I ever be on the side of the theologians. Especially the kind I had as my teachers in De La Salle University. They always threatened me with “believe this, because if you don’t, God will punish you.” I was therefore always punished in class because far more than I wanted to believe, I wanted to know and understand. In class, I always asked questions. I always wanted to formulate for myself better kinds of questions. Indeed, for me, hard intelligent thinking is more fascinating than just easy stupid believing.
With Jose Rizal, however, outside academic wall, it was, for him, a deadly experience. Theologians threatened him with: “Retract the truthful things you wrote about us in your NOLI and FILI books or we will have you executed in public by a firing squad.” Rizal virtually replied: “go fly a kite!” The theologians with authority and power over the civil government had Rizal put to death. In order to intimidate not only the brave thinkers in the minority, but also throughout the land – to frighten to death the cowardly and faithful believers in the majority.
And to think that today college educated men and women in this country would rather believe the theologians than be on the side of a mature and a courageous scientist like a Jose Rizal. He was, indeed, the first Filipino scientist who tried to generate the revolution of the mind to get the Filipino growing with self-respect as a people and to get the Philippines developing with dignity as a nation.
I ask: is it any wonder that in this 21st century we are known as the Sick Man of Asia? We live in a poor and backward country. Indeed, what have we Filipinos got to show for ourselves except, as a people, we can only be proud of the failures of our social and political and religious values under the great success of Christianity in the Philippines? Poch Suzara