Diminishing Faith

Nick fatool writes in the Manila Standard Today: “Faith is something that is sadly diminishing among us.” Sir, a man of faith is like a drunkard who clings to a lamppost for support, not illumination. Moreover, faith is never wanting to know what is true. Do you speak of faith that 2 plus 2 equals 4? Or that the earth is round? No, you only speak of faith when you do not know and hope to remain ignorant by letting others in authority do the thinking for you. This is wrong and childish . Faith in our childish religion has kept us spiritually stagnant as a people and morally malignant as a nation. In this 21st century, isn’t time for Filipinos to ask: where is our national health as a people and where is our national wealth as a nation under the power of Christian faith during these past 500 years in the Philippines? Sir, Christianity thrives not on love, but on guilt? Guilt, not love, is the fundamental emotion that Christianity seeks to induce – and this is symptomatic of a viciousness in Christianity that few Filipinos care to acknowledge. For all of its alleged concern for the “poor in spirit,” Christianity has only done its best to perpetuate spiritual poverty and intellectual stagnancy in the Philippines. Indeed, to be moral, according to Jesus, we must shackle the beauty of reason. We must force ourselves to believe that which we cannot understand. In the name of morality, we must always suppress doubts. We must never subject religious beliefs to critical examination. Less criticism leads to more faith – and faith – Jesus declares is the hallmark of virtue. Indeed, “unless you turn and become like little children, you will never the enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 18:3. Children, after all will believe anything; even the promises of the mediocre politicians running for government office. In the final analysis, Christianity must first destroy reason before it can introduce faith, so it must destroy joys of the heart and happiness of the mind before it can introduce salvation. Thus, we are neither growing as a people nor developing as a nation. We are not even reasonable in the race to achieve higher civilization; only faithful in the rat-race for eternal salvation. I say: to hell with faith in that biblical corruption called faith in the Original Sin. After all, none of us ever originated anything in this world to begin with. Poch Suzara