Scientific

If you want to be scientific in your way of thinking: you must first learn to value observation, and your conclusion from that observation must be tentative as the conclusions itself must still be under further investigation by way of experimentation. Science is about lively analysis. The scientific way of thinking has nothing to do with deadly paralysis. Indeed, science is always tentative. It is never definite or dogmatic. Science is always ready and willing to admit its own errors as it is a self-correcting enterprise. Poch Suzara

What Truth

July 22, 2005

Manila Standard Today

Dear Editor:

The truth hurts. Is it any wonder political lies have been pleasant, and religious lies have been even more pleasant?

I ask: why is it that politics in cahoots with religion have nothing to do with the truth?

In the Philippines, however, in order to find the truth behind government lies and deception and corruption – a “Truth Commission” must first be established with the inspired proposal from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

In the meantime, if there were only one plain truth so glaringly obvious in our sick society, it is that as products of our schools, colleges, and universities we do not love our flowers and plants and trees. We do not love our creeks and rivers and lakes. We do not love our mountains and forests and islands. As a matter of fact, we do not love our country. We do not even love fellow-Filipinos. We only love God up there by hating one another down here.

For my part, as a Filipino born in the Philippines, I love the truth that I was expelled out of high school in De La Salle University. Indeed, I vehemently refused to continue to believe my silly teachers who were far more in love with what’s useless and divine up there than what is useful and human down here.

Sincerely,
Poch Suzara

Kudos for Walt Whitman

I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their conditions. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. Walt Whitman For my part, if I may add, I envy the animals. They have no need to go to school to learn how to pray to God to give us this day our daily bread, and to lead us not into temptation; and also how to pray several times daily to St. John Baptist De La Salle, pray for us and live Jesus in our hearts, forever. Not to mention to learn also how to pray to Mary, Mother of God, to pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen! Poch Suzara

The Fear of Thought

More than the fear of the mysteries and the unknown; in fact, more than the fear of God in hell or the devil in heaven, we fear THOUGHT the most. Especially those thoughts that can, and should generate more power - into our thinking capacity. My dear reader, if you wish to discover why we live in a society that’s well-established in thoughtless ways and means, consider these fearless thoughts from: - Bertrand Russell:

“It will be said that the love of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of so aristocratic a good. I do not believe this. The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. Among children it is very common and grows naturally out of the period of make-believe and fancy. It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education. Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. It sees man, a feeble speck, surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence; yet it bears itself proudly, as unmoved as if it were the lord of the universe. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world and the chief glory of man.

But if thought is to become the possession of the many, not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that holds men back – fear lest their cherished beliefs should proved delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, fear lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect than they have supposed themselves to be. “Should the working man think freely about property? Then what will become of us, the rich? Should young men and women think freely about sex? Then what will become of morality? Should soldiers think freely about war? Then what will become of military discipline? Away with thought! Back into the shades of prejudice, lest property, morals, and war should be endangered? Better men should be stupid, slothful, and oppressive than that their thoughts should be free. For if their thoughts were free they might not think as we do. And at all cost this disaster must be averted.” So the opponents of thought argue in the unconscious depths of their souls. And so they act in their churches, their schools, and their universities.”

Principles of Social Reconstruction by Bertrand Russell

The Voice of the People

Manila Standard Today

Dear Editor:

Columnist Bishop Theodoro Bacani, Jr. has not ceased claiming that the voice of the people is the voice of God. In fact he has recently wrote that: “God does not speak only through the bishops. Often He speaks through His people.” (July 12,2005)

I ask the good bishop: What about the voice of Adam and Eve as the against the voice of the serpent as that was the voice of the devil in the bible? Where was God’s voice then to protect his children – Adam and Eve - our first parents? Were they not expelled out of paradise? Perhaps, Adam and Eve were both guilty of sin. But our politicians in the government as elected by the voice of God are not only guilty of sin against God, but also guilty of crimes against the State.

For my part, I say, let us stop all this vocal nonsense. Our voice as a people need not be the voice of deviltry as inspired by the voice of divine insanity.

In the meantime, I ask: What have you bishops got to do with matters of the State since you are only suppose to be in charge with matters of the Church? Indeed, if the voice of the people is the voice of God, what need have we of bishops to speak for the people to begin with?

I dare say that you bishops should be among the first to resign to remedy the political and the religious mess that’s keeping this only Christian country in Asia perpetually poor and eternally backward.
Sincerely,
Poch Suzara
poch.suzara@lycos.com
July 13, 2005

Noah’s Flood

Only Noah together with members of his family survived the flood - the drowning of the human race by God as He regretted that He had man on this earth. And to think that Noah was never baptized a Catholic. Poch Suzara

Born Ignorant

We are all born ignorant, not thoughtless. We are made thoughtless by education. For my part, I was expelled out of high school for being such a nuisance always asking my teachers too many thoughtful questions. For example, I asked my teacher in religion to give us the devil’s side of his story since we only heard God’s side. Poch Suzara

Philippine Catholic Bishops

President Gloria M. Arroyo said that God often talks to her. In an interview published in TIME magazine, she openly admitted that it was the Lord who made her president of the Philippines. The Catholic bishops envied her as they admitted she is a very lucky lady since God never talks to them though they too talk to God everyday. Poch Suzara

I love America and the Philippines

I love America – a nation govern by criminals. I love the Philippines – a nation govern by criminals too. There is no escape. After all, life in general is the competition to love the criminals or be the victim of criminals. Poch Suzara

Only in the Philippines

We praise our dead saints to high heavens, but insult those saints we elect into high office to run our government even if all the presidents of the Philippines have always publicly declared that “the Lord put me here.” Indeed, in this country, the voice of the people is the voice of God. And yet Filipino college professors believe I am being thoughtless as I insist that our system of government has always been a theocracy, not a democracy. Poch Suzara

What Then

What if God turned out to be an atheist who never believed in the existence of your God, what then? Or, what if the God you have always loved, worshipped, and adored turned out to be a Goddess, what then? After you are dead, what if in heaven you believe you are in hell; or, what if in hell you believe you are in heaven? What then? Or, what if you were moronic enough not to be able to tell the difference? What then? Poch Suzara

King James Bible

The King James bible is a misnomer. It should be called The Queen James Bible. King James loved men more than he cared for women. Poch Suzara

From a Reader

Florita P. Andolong writes in the Manila Standard Today: “When God is brought into any public discussion, we, the readers, should be very careful. God, his power, and the extent of His wisdom are beyond the understanding of any human being – priests and pastors included. This is what my own faith tells me.” (6/28/2005). Indeed, God’s wisdom is beyond human understanding. And as long as we have faith in what we do not understand, it’s popularly known as “divine wisdom.” Poch Suzara

My Road Less Traveled

Mine is the road less traveled; but I am not lost. Most people have yet to reach their final destination on the road most traveled. In the meantime, to travel anywhere is utterly useless if one cannot change one's self; if one only continues to remain selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane. Poch Suzara

America

America is not only about freedom and democracy. It is also about the insanity behind plutocracy – making money. On top of the money-making schemes are, first, the defense industry – killing people is big business; next is the pharmaceutical industry – selling even needless drugs is big business; next is the food industry – selling food that makes Americans addictive to eating more food is big business; next, is the religion industry – selling Jesus Christ is big business. Golly, even the American government, since decades ago, has been stolen away from the American people by giant corporations. All for the sake of making nothing but money. Indeed, it is glaringly obvious, if not alarmingly translucent: America is about the military - industrial - university complex. Even American university professors are earning big salaries for catering to the needs of the military or any other industry that’s closely allied with the preparation for war to liberate countries not yet enjoying the beauty of American freedom and democracy. Poch Suzara

God's War

God and his angels have been at war against Satan and his devils since time immemorial. There seems to be no end in sight for God to finally defeat Satan and stop his evil works that’s keeping our world poor, backward, and destructive. And to think that U.S. President George W Bush prays daily to God to help the American angels win the war against the Muslim devils in Iraq fighting for their country as inspired by Allah. Poch Suzara

Fact and Opinion

Everyone is entitled to know the facts. Nobody has a right to expound his own opinion unless he has explored every facet of the question at issue and is therefore entitled to an opinion. Otherwise, like the great American thinker - Clint Eastwood - said: "Opinons are like assholes. Everybody has got one." Poch Suzara

The Birth of Corruption

Corruption begins in the mind and heart. When our children in school are taught to love not this world, neither the things that are in the world, because if they love the world, the love of God is not with them – it is easy to see the results making for our sick society. And to think all of our so-called sacred values and beliefs have their origin during the age of ancient superstition, the mother of stupidity and the father of timidity. Poch Suzara

Philippine Problems

The Philippines will never embark on a road towards progress and development if she continues to be under the same rule composed of religious morons in cahoots with the same corrupt politicians supporting the same old rotten businessmen. Only men of science and technology can change the rotten system to re-direct the Filipino towards maturity and responsibility as a people and scientific and technological development as a nation. Poch Suzara

Catholicism

It is a clear historical fact – the Catholic Church has successfully kept the Filipino poor and childish as a people and the Philippines immature and uncultivated as a nation. After we Filipinos are all dead and meet with God, I believe we should ask God to forgive us all for having been born in the only Catholic country in Asia. Poch Suzara

Sin

Sin is a ridiculous concept. The created cannot sin against the creator that obviously has more power than the created. To say that we can sin against the creator is to imply that we are just as powerful too. As a matter of fact, we are indeed more powerful: it is we who created our creator. It is we who created our God in our own stupid image and silly likeness. Poch Suzara

Silly Prayers

To teach a child to pray is to teach him how to look to fantasy solution to real problems. But then again, if God were all-knowing, why should he be fatigued with daily prayers? The encouragement of prayer promotes greed, selfishness, stupidity, and insanity. People pray for that for which they have not labored. Prayer also undermines the power of the mind. Prayer causes a weakening of self-reliance and a corresponding deterioration of character. In fact, daily prayers are among the most effective causes that have made us famous as the poor and the Sick Man of Asia. Poch Suzara

Slave Mentality

Filipinos as true Christians are indoctrinated to be slaves, and we know, and do not mind it. The fear of hell has destroyed our spirit of intellectual liberty to no longer work and work hard for social sanity, to no longer question or even entertain any kind of inquiry. Poch Suzara

Poor and Backward

How poor are we as a people and backward as a nation? In this 21st century, we continue to have faith in organized superstition, otherwise more popularly known as Christianity. We have yet to embrace science, logic, mathematics, and reason and our own sense of humanity as the only basis for our system of education. In the meantime, after 500 years of Christianity, even the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines continue to promise that they will carry on the fight for truth and justice in the Philippines as if Christian truth and Christian justice have not yet been established in this only Christian country in Asia Poch Suzara

The Basic Problem of Religion

Whether religion is organized or disorganized makes little or no difference. The problem with religion is the encouragement of stupidity and the inspiration to be amenable not to reality but to fantasy. Such evils are inherent as the basic lessons of religion; not in the organization or lack thereof. Poch Suzara

WHO ARE THE ATHEISTS?

Atheists are not objects to hate, but people just like you to love. The right question to ask is not what, but who are the atheists?
Atheists accept that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth – for all mankind together to enjoy.
Atheists accept that we can get no help through prayer but that we must find within ourselves the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to understand the world rationally, and to enjoy it peacefully.
Atheists accept that only in knowledge of one’s self can we live the life of understanding and fulfillment. Therefore, we seek to know fellow-human beings rather than to know a god.
Atheists know that a hospital should be built instead of a church.
Atheists know that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said.
Atheists strive for involvement in life and not escape into death. We want diseases conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. We want mankind to understand and love humankind. We want an ethical way of life. We accept that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in the hereafter. Atheists accept that we are - in a great sense – our brothers’ keepers in that we are first, keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now.

WHY AM I AN ATHEIST

Just like priests, bishops, cardinals, popes, and indeed theologians are all born as atheist, I too was born an atheist. Yes, my dear reader, you are born as an atheist too. If you are unable to see this piece of truth, please do not blame me; blame instead your blind faith. No baby has a religion. No baby has faith in God. No baby comes out of mother’s womb a Catholic, or a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu. We are all born free and then indoctrinated. In my case, my parents and grandparents were reminded of eternal punishment in hell if they did not have me, as a child, baptized a Catholic. I ask: where was then my own free will to have chosen the kind of religion I should have wished to embrace for myself? At age 18, after having been expelled out of high-school for asking far too many questions, I began to extricate myself up and gradually out of Christian values and beliefs by entertaining the case against God - atheism. The question, “Who made me? cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question, Who made God? If, however, evidences were discovered that as a matter of fact a Goddess made God, I will immediately drop my atheism down the tube.

We all live as parasites on a speck of dust in an infinity of worlds. One million planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun. But 500 of our suns can be swallowed up in one small gulp by a bigger star called “Betelgeuse.” If it were true that a God created man in his own image and likeness, then God must surely be a microscopic perfection lost in self-admiration. In the meantime, if God created everything, including space and time, where was God located before he created space, and when was it before he created time?

As a devout atheist, I believe that the conquest of fear is the beginning of wisdom, as in the search for the truth, and as in the works needed for the good life, - especially the one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. No doubt, in the end, death will conquer us all; but if we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies. Poch Suzara

Respect the Camel

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “ I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matt. 19:23-24. This may be so, but in this day and age, it is far easier for a filthy-rich Catholic to enter the gates of Vatican bank - the richest and most powerful bank in the world today. For my part, I have more respect for the camel stuck inside a needle than I do have respect for the rich Catholics already stuck in heaven with Christ Jesus. - Poch Suzara Google# Facebook# Twitter#

Free Trip

Life on earth may be expensive, but it includes a free trip around the sun once a year. Poch Suzara

Free Will

My parents and grandparents were threatened with hell-fire if they neglected to have me, as a child, baptized in a Catholic church. Obviously, my parents and grandparents had not the free will to ignore the sacrament of baptism? But more to the point: where in hell was my own free will to choose which religion I should have wished to embrace for myself? Free will is a dirty joke.

In La Salle grade school, I was also threatened with eternal damnation forever in hell if I refused to believe that God gifted me with a free will. Of course, whether I wanted to believe or not to believe in free will, I had to believe it whether I liked it or not. I had NO OTHER CHOICE but to believe in free will! Poch Suzara

Self-respect

I am not who you say I am. I am who I say I am. That is the call for self-respect and dignity. Poch Suzara

Failures and Losers

There are a great many failures and losers comprising our sick society. The most popular, however, are those who are always making grand excuses for and in behalf of God who is always sleeping on the job. In the meantime, only those who are strong can afford to doubt. Nothing is so thrilling nevertheless exhausting. Poch Suzara

It’s sad

It’s sad to see grown-up Christians holding on to their most cherished beliefs that are based on fear and ignorance; especially the mask of fear as faith in God and the mask of ignorance as knowledge of God. It is sadder, however, to see grown-up Christians addressed their prayers to God that are similar in form and content to letters children write to Santa Claus. Poch Suzara

Bravo for Women

It may yet be woman’s greatest achievement: to brag that not one of them contributed a chapter, a paragraph, a verse, a sentence, or even a single word written in the holy bible as inspired authors of God. Congratulations! I love you all. Poch Suzara

Faith

Faith has consequences, and stupid faith, naturally, has stupid consequences. Poch Suzara

Atheism and Death

I too will die one day; but I am grateful for having discovered the case against God called “atheism.” Indeed, owing and thanks to atheism, I no longer fear facing my own precious thought about the end of my own precious life one day. Poch Suzara

What’s to Become of Morality

What’s to become of morality if we do not believe in God? What a silly question often asked by those who embrace blind faith. Look at the Christians and Muslims and the Jews in world history: because of their sense of morality via faith in God, they have not ceased hating and killing each other in God’s name. Look at the Anglican Protestants and the Irish Roman Catholics hating and killing each other for God’s glory in Northern Ireland. The religious carnage based upon morality has been going for centuries. Poch Suzara

More Respect

I have respect for General Douglas McArthur. He was a truthful man. During the Second World War, he promised to return with a bigger army to assist fellow soldiers fighting the Japanese in the Philippines. He simply said: - “I shall return” - he did so in two years time. When Jesus, the Son of God, the miracle worker, the Savior of Filipinos, promised that he will return, he has yet to deliver that promise he made some two thousand years ago. But then again, I have more respect for Jose Rizal. When he died for his country, he stayed dead. When Jesus died on the cross to destroy the devil, he did not stay dead. He resurrected on the 3rd day presumably to try to find some other ways and means to destroy the stupid devil for good. Poch Suzara

Ripley and Jesus

I have more respect for Ripley than for Jesus. To the best of my knowledge, Ripley has never, not even once, threatened me with eternal punishment if I did not believe in any of his BELIEVE IT OR NOT proposals. Poch Suzara

What If, as an Atheist, I am Wrong?

What if, as an atheist, I will turn out to be completely wrong? That there is, after all, a God? Well, I am not worried because what if it also turns out that God too never had faith nor trust nor confidence in any of man’s great religions! Really, if God exists, I find it incredible to believe that such a God is a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew or a Hindu or a Buddhist or, for that matter, according to the silly Catholic theologians - God is almighty, eternal, truthful, immutable, infinite, just, incomprehensible, loving, most wise, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, patient, perfect, provident, supreme, and all good and kind but "incomprehensible." Hijos de tootie-frootie y patooties - how can any one have the gall to believe, love, respect, worship, and adore such a incomprehensible supernatural monster? What a waste of precious life, energy, time, and space - the little of it that we have on this earth as a gift from nature! Poch Suzara

Alms-giving

The Church is pleased with our giving to charity whether it comes from prosperity or even from poverty. But the Church is even more pleased with any kind of giving, especially if it comes from blind faith as inspired by religious insanity. Next only to the US government, the Catholic Church is the richest religious organization in the world today. Poch Suzara

Science

If science comes from God, how come there is not one scientist who was canonized a saint? How come the theologians are frightened of the scientific way of thinking? And how come religion has always been upset, if not always embarrassed with the findings of science correcting the errors cherished by religion? Indeed, if religion comes from God, how come there is not one word mentioned in the bible in praise of human intelligence or the power of science? Poch Suzara

Where is Jesus

It is only after death that Filipinos look forward to meeting Jesus in heaven. As Jesus, however, promised to return some two thousand years ago, I am about the one and only exceptional Filipino who is looking forward to meeting Jesus in person right here and now. Indeed, I hope and pray that Jesus will return soon. In this way, he can begin to straighten out the mess caused by Christian values and beliefs keeping the Filipino poor as a people and the Philippines backward as a nation. As the only Christian country in Asia, what has been the result for the Philippines? Hate and fear and ignorance and poverty pretty much characterize the Filipino way of life. It is, indeed, not only damnable daily, but God-damnable yearly! Poch Suzara

The Poor for the Rich

Jesus said: “If thou be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give it to the poor.” The Church got to be one of the richest organizations in the world as both the rich and the poor sold everything cheap to the Church. And to add insult to injury, valuable assets were confiscated by the Church in God’s name. Look at the prime properties and big corporations own by the Church in the Philippines. As part of religious contributions, the tax free Catholic Church is even able to remit millions of dollars each and every year direct to the Vatican. Poch Suzara

FILIPINO IDENTITY

It turned out that we Filipinos do indeed have a national identity: We are notoriously identified throughout the world as the Sick Man of Asia. In the modern world, instead of seriously considering the power of science and technology to elevate our standard of living and thinking, like lost children, we would rather maintain our Christian way of life to elevate our standard of kneeling and praying. Thus, with deep faith we Filipinos are still waiting that one of these days, by some miracle from heaven – God will finally provide for the Philippines. Poch Suzara

PRAYER

As a devout Catholic years ago, I found myself often times praying with these words: “Oh God, please forgive me. I did not mean to question sacred knowledge today.” After years of this kind of sacred nothing, I decided to throw my prayers out the window and began to question everything. It turned out that the questioning of everything is not only the basis for discovering and maintaining mental health, but it is also the very foundation of spiritual wealth. Poch Suzara

With God

Yes, with God, everything is possible. He could even impregnate a Jewish Virgin Mary with a child in Bethlehem. Unfortunately, God seems to find it impossible to impregnate the millions of virgins with dignity in the Philippines so that they could enjoy social sanity enough not to be too reckless contributing to the insane population explosion that pleases more than anyone else - the Catholic Bishops – the symbol of religious mediocrity, if not social insanity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Who Knows

How can any one know anything about God when theology is ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system? When it is the attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible? Theology is the subject of nothing as it is the study of the unknowable by means of the not worth knowing. Indeed, theology is not what we know about the supernatural; but what we do not know about the natural. Thus, even among the theologians, it is but natural to be incomprehensible specially to other theologians. Poch Suzara

PLAYING GAMES

In my La Salle grade school and La Salle high school years, we were taught to believe that it pleased God to see boys freely playing basketball, football, and handball,or playing around in the Track and Field arena. But never, must we ever, play around with free ideas under the freedom of thought. Such intellectual activities might endanger our silly souls to eternal perdition in hell. Moreover, we were taught to just stick to the old answers; never mind asking new questions! Today, I see my former classmates and schoolmates easily get excited over the play of ball games on TV or in the sport arena; but are easily frightened by, or feel threatened with, new and fresh ideas taken from the free market of ideas. Poch Suzara

FOR THE SAKE OF NOTHING

"In fact, no one lives for himself, nor dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Either in life or in death, we belong to the Lord.” Romans 14:7-8.
Such are examples of holy bible verses that have made the Filipino enjoy the success of religious insanity in the Philippines – the only Christian country in Asia. Poch Suzara

The Greatest Bible Character

There is only one bible character worthy of respect and admiration: Pontius Pilate, the Roman Viceroy. He alone asked the most profound question that to date, no one has yet found the answer: WHAT IS TRUTH? Not even Jesus, the Son of the creator of the universe knew the answer. But Jesus could have at least admitted that the truth is the common denominator of all our delusion, just as much as cocksure certainty is the error by which all thoughtless men do not recognize as an illusion. Poch Suzara

Fear, Ignorance, and Hate

Fear and hate and ignorance prevailed in the land where Jesus was born. Two thousand years hence, the same fear and hate and ignorance still prevail in the land where Jesus was born and raised. As a matter of fact, Israel today is a Jewish State surrounded by hostile Muslim countries. Indeed, the Muslims do not believe in the Christian God as they have their own God called “Allah.” Thus, in the Middle East, the region where Jesus had supposedly lived and performed miracles before He died, there is only the never-ending religious internecine warfare; but hardly any development in social welfare. Poch Suzara

MIRACLES FROM JESUS

Jesus and His disciples possessed the miracle to convert the Philippines into being the only Christian country in Asia. Yet neither Jesus nor His disciples had neither same miracle to convert the land of his birth into a Christian country? Indeed, Israel is a Jewish State. It has never been a Christian country. Meantime, search for Jesus in any of the Jewish literature of ancient times, no word is mentioned about the existence of Jesus as the Son of God. Poch Suzara

CHILDREN OF GOD

If we were all the children of God, then Jesus was not the son, but grandson of God as Mary, His mother, was the daughter of God. Jesus had the power to perform miracles. He made the blind see, the deft hear, the lame walk, multiplied loaves of bread to feed the multitude. He could walk on water, change water into wine; cure leprosy; raise the dead back to life. Curiously enough, not a single one of those grateful individuals appeared in court to testify that Jesus was a miracle-worker, and not a trouble-maker. Even his own apostles abandoned Jesus. They all disappeared out of sight. Nevertheless, crucified on the cross, Jesus cried out: “My God! My God! why has thou forsaken me?” Jesus could have been more honest with himself had he instead cried out: “My God, My God, as your only grandson on this earth, this crucifixion business is a little bit absurd? How can I die to save the world today if I will be able to resurrect myself back to life tomorrow?” Indeed, Jesus was a failure. His mission to destroy the devil did not materialize. The devil is still alive and quite a success living in the Philippines daily inspiring its government to solve problems of the nation with the power of prayer. Indeed, the devil must be so proud of his own devilish accomplishments; especially since God makes himself not omni-present but only always omni-absent! Poch Suzara

Parental Love and Affection

Jesus admonished: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sister, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26. Now the bible also says that Jesus was the Son of Joseph ( see John 1:45 & 6:42 ) but the same bible is silent as to how exactly his own brothers and sisters and his own mom and dad felt about such incredible conditions before they could qualify to be His disciples. Poch Suzara

The Mistake of Jesus

On the cross, Jesus even cried out: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?” If Jesus had instead asked Man to forgive God for he knows not what he is doing, Jesus would have won the hearts and minds of the whole of mankind as his follower, and he need not have been a failure and a loser in the business of saving souls as was His divine mission. Poch Suzara

University Library

In the library of Philippine Catholic universities, one can read books written by Hitler who was raised and educated as a Catholic. The books, however, written by Bertrand Russell are not available. Russell was not a Catholic; in fact, he was an atheist-philosopher-logician-mathematician. Filipino Catholic students are not allowed to read books written by non-catholic thinkers or philosophers; only books written by thoughtless saints, if not by mindless sinners, or by brainless criminals.

In the meantime, my dear reader, would you believe that even the books written by, and other writings of Jose Rizal are banned in Catholic schools, colleges, and universities in the Philippines!Poch Suzara

Not the Same God

It is not true that God Almighty is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. During ancient times, as recorded in the bible, God had the power to save his chosen people – the Jews – from the Egyptian sword. However, during World War II, God showed neither power nor interests to save the Jews from Hitler’s gas chamber. And to think that this is the same Hitler who wrote in his MEIN KAMPF: “I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of God, because in defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting to defend the work of the Lord. “ Poch Suzara

JESUS AS GOD AND GOD AS JESUS

In John, Jesus speaks frequently of his extraordinary Status
in life and speaks of himself in the most exalted language:
“I am the light of the world.” 8:12
“I am the bread of life.” 6:35
“I am the resurrection and the life.” 11:25
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” 14:6
“I and my father are one.” 10:30
“Whoever has seen me has seen the father.”14:6
“No one comes to God except through me.” 14:6
And yet, crucified on the cross, in more exalted language, Jesus cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Imagine a God willing and able to forsake Himself? And all for the sake of accomplishing nothing! Poch Suzara

Credulous Theologians

The Theologians are a credulous lot, and must believe in something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, they are happy and proud to believe in anything especially if such beliefs were sacred and therefore based on nothing. Poch Suzara

George W Bush

As a candidate for the US presidency in 2000, Bush was once asked: “Who has been the most important influence in your life?” Without a second thought, he replied: “Jesus Christ.” This is the same Jesus Christ who, in the bible, admonished: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26. Under the leadership of such religious morons, is it any wonder that America has grown to be a nation of hate? Indeed, Americans hate other Americans for Christ’s sake. As an American citizen myself, I ask: When will we Americans grow up and show to the rest of the world that we have, just like most of the Europeans have duly ceased to embrace the evil called: Christianity? Poch Suzara

George W Bush

As a candidate for the US presidency in 2000, Bush was once asked: “Who has been the most important influence in your life?” Without a second thought, he replied: “Jesus Christ.” This is the same Jesus Christ who, in the bible, admonished: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26. Under the leadership of such religious morons, is it any wonder that America has grown to be a nation of hate? Indeed, Americans hate other Americans for Christ’s sake. As an American citizen myself, I ask: When will we Americans grow up and show to the rest of the world that we have, just like most of the Europeans have duly ceased to embrace the evil called: Christianity? Poch Suzara

Born-again Politicians

With Reagan’s victory in the 1980 presidential race, organized Christianity inherited more power and glory in America. Reagan, in violation of the separation between State and Church openly and constantly sought the advice of such famous Born-again evangelists as Jerry Farwell and Jimmy Swaggart – both generous supporters of the Republican party. Born-again Christians were elated; Born-again atheists were degraded.
Unfortunately, however, there is no such creature as a Born-again Christian. When we were born, fresh out of the uterus, we are atheist. No child has any religion. All babies are born atheists: free from theism, free from religion. No baby is born a catholic, a muslim, a jew, or a baptist or a hindu. We are all born free and then indoctrinated. For my part, I was raised and educated as a Catholic; but I know that in the truest sense of the word: Today and proudly, I am a Born-again atheist. Poch Suzara

Power of the Church

Church power has been damaged irreparably with questions from all sides and is in fact already crumbling miserably. Attendance is declining, except in those churches, like in the Philippines, who traffic in closed minds and broken hearts.
n the meantime, science has gifted us with diversity of beliefs, values, and standards so that we have been forced to wonder what is true or lasting or real. Tragedy, however, comes when people cannot embrace the changing reality and therefore unable to live creatively or intellectually. They would rather be inspired by religious timidity, if not by ecclesiastical mediocrity, not to mention biblical stupidity perpetually. Poch Suzara

Let’s Reason Together

“Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18. Verses down, the Lord also admits: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways are my ways, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8. Gee, I am glad I have my own thoughts and my own ways. It's another word for self-respect and dignity. Poch Suzara

Wars in Heaven

How can heaven be a happy and a peaceful place when wars have been declared in the kingdom of God too? In Rev. 12:7 - 9: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragons; and the dragons fought against his angels. . . And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast with him.” For my part, I ask: what was the devil and his dragons doing in heaven to begin with? Who created those celestial monsters, and for Christ’s sake, for what divine purpose? Poch Suzara

Biblical Unicorns

The Holy Bible as written by inspired authors of God actually declares that unicorns, yes unicorns, exist? Here are the biblical passages:

"Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?" Job 39:9-10.

"Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns." Psalm 22:21.

Unicorns are likewise presented as truly existent in Numbers 23:22; Numbers 24:8; Psalm 29:6; Psalm 92:10; Deuteronomy 33:17; and Isaiah 34:7. Poch Suzara

The Bible

The bible is the greatest source of inspiration especially for those who do not read it. They depend on bible scholars, if not on atheists to interpret bible messages for them. This, in order to maintain faith in the sacred mysteries and in church doctrines. It is indeed sad. The atheists have to point out the silly words, verses, and chapters written in plain English in the bible to wake up the bible believers to read for themselves the holy book. It is, after all, the basis of incredible beliefs in sacred lies and other ecclesiastical deceptions. In the meantime, the clichés of antiquity such as “but the bible says so,” or “but the church teaches,” can no longer be applied to settle questions and disputes. Only arguments based upon logic can we put ourselves on the path towards arriving at the truth of which has yet to be revealed in the bible. Poch Suzara

The Planet Earth

There is nothing tragic or even comic about the human conditions. We are like a speck of dust in the infinity of worlds. We are all but organisms inter-relating with one another in the environment on this grain of sand called “earth.” Against the backdrop of the galaxy, the earth looks like an atom. One million
( 1,000,000 ) planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun. In fact, our earth is one insignificant planet circling around one star in a galaxy that contains about 400,000,000 stars and planets, and is itself one of the hundreds of billion of galaxies called the Cosmos. One day our sun will eventually grow cold, and life on this planet will come to an end, but the cosmos will continue, utterly indifferent to our fate. “Mankind,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “is like a group of shipwrecked sailors on a raft in a vast sea at night. There is darkness all around. One by one they fall off the raft into the waters and disappear. When the last man has fallen off, the sea will roll on and holes made in the water by their bodies will be covered over. Thus, after a brief life, man drops out of the scheme of things, and the universe moves on uncaring and unknowing. In the eternity of the universe, one individual with his values and principles amount to nothing. Nature cares not for man.” It follows therefore that we must love one another as there is no else to care for us. It is up to us to assume responsibility for our own lives and for our own destiny by establishing local and global sanity as the redeeming feature in what should constitute humanity. Poch Suzara

Superstition

Superstition is the product of fear and ignorance. By nature the majority we are all still superstitious. Look how we believe that God will provide, and if that were not yet forthcoming, the Son of God Jesus will nevertheless make His Second Coming soon to straighten out the religious mess that is keeping, for example, the Filipino poor as a people and the Philippines backward as a nation. And to think that Jesus was not born in a Christian country like the Philippines. He was born in a Jewish town in Israel – a Jewish State. Poch Suzara

The Great Religions

If the human race lives in a welter of organized hatreds and threats of mutual extermination, do not blame human nature; blame instead the great religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For centuries, the faithful believers of each of these great religions have not ceased making a mockery of human nature as they all hate and kill each other down here for love of God up there. If, however, there is anything I find great joy in contemplating – it is that in this century organized religion is finally meeting its own mortality, a victim of its own immaturity, stagnancy, and traditional stupidity. Poch Suzara

Cemetery Mentality

Most theologians have the cemetery mentality – no thought, no question, no change, no challenge, no improvement, no progress, no knowledge, and no hope for a better future. The only new thing remarkable about the theologians of today is that they are beginning to look cadaverous - a living proof, I must say, that there is life after death. Poch Suzara

Bankruptcy Behind Religiosity

When science is unable to give the answer, religion steps in and fills the gap of our ignorance with sacred nonsense, holy fantasies, and pretentious lies. In the meantime, science as a self-correcting enterprise is the best antidote we have against the poison of organized superstition otherwise more popularly known as organized religion. Poch Suzara

Evil Show

When slavery died, another evil, called segregation emerged and took its place. When communism died, another evil, called terrorism emerged and took its place. The hidden evil, however, has been and still is the terrible fact that for centuries the corrupt businessmen in cahoots with the corrupt politicians have made not only huge profits but also enjoyed power and glory maintaining and supporting, if not replacing the death of old evils with the birth of new evils. Poch Suzara

Confucius

"Man,” said Confucius, “differs from an animal only by a little. Most men throw that little away.” If I may add, one day, hopefully, our emotion will catch up with our reason, our wisdom with our knowledge, and our purpose with our destiny. Then at last we shall all have behaved like decent human beings capable of creative thought that should transform into creative action. Poch Suzara

Love of Money

A great many people believe they are poor because they have no money. On the contrary, the worse kind of poverty is the poverty of the mind. Among those who are truly rich are those who are rich in thought. Here's what Bertrand Russell wrote: “Love of money has been denounced by moralists since the world began. I do not wish to add another to the moral denunciations, of which the efficacy in the past has not been encouraging. I wish show how the worship of money is both an effect and a cause of diminishing vitality, and how our institutions might be changed so as to make the worship of money grow less and general vitality grow more. It is not the desire for money as a means to definite ends that is in question. A struggling artist may desire money in order to have leisure for his art, but this desire is finite, and can be satisfied by a very modest sum. It is the worship of money that I wish to consider: the belief that values may be measured in terms of money, and that money is the ultimate test of success in life. This belief is held in fact, if not in words, by multitudes of men and women, and yet it is not in harmony with human nature, since it ignores vital needs and the instinctive tendency towards some specific kind of growth. It makes men treat as unimportant those of their desires which run counter to the acquisition of money, and yet such desires are, as a rule, more important to well-being than any increase of income. It leads men to mutilate their own natures from a mistaken theory of what constitutes success, and to give admiration to enterprise which add nothing to human welfare. It promotes a dead uniformity of character and purpose, a diminution in the joy of life, and a stress and strain which leaves whole communities weary, discouraged, and disillusioned.” Principles of Social reconstruction by Bertrand Russell

A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

June 16,2005 MANILA STANDARD TODAY Dear Editor: If the truth were at the foundation of our social values, we would admire the truth-seekers and truth-tellers of our society. Unfortunately, however, our society is structured on lies, deceit, and falsehood. Indeed, we just carry on with the same traditional delusions that keep even our officials in government busy with virtually nothing but to be in the business of power struggle in order to maintain the circus that makes us all famous as the Sick Man of Asia. Ten million Filipinos now live and work today in some 180 foreign countries. They are enjoying decent standard of living and the higher standard of thinking. Such developing countries enjoy two very simple but most powerful sentiments benefiting them tremendously: Love of country and love of fellow-citizens. In such countries, our Asian neighbors, such sentiments are quite basic within their system of education. We Filipinos, on the other hand, have yet to learn how to love of our country, to love fellow citizens, to love law and order, indeed, we have yet to love growth as a people and maturity as a nation via the love of science and technology. To think that the corrupt men and corrupt women in our corrupt government are the products of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the Philippines: La Salle, Ateneo, UP, Assumption, San Beda, UST, Mariam, Letran, Santa Scholastica, and not to mention (AIM) the Asian Institute of Management. But then again, what can we expect of schools, colleges, and universities where education of values and indoctrination of religious beliefs tantamount to exactly the same thing? Indeed, what is biblical is practical and what is practical is biblical in this God-forsaken country. Look at China. She has been irreligious since the 11th century. Look at her today growing to become a world power not because of faith and trust in divine providence but simply because of hard daily work and discipline while taking full advantage of human intelligence behind science and technology. Look at the Philippines in this already 21st century. Since the 16th century, we have been the only Christian country in Asia. But due to our illusions and delusions, we continue to wallow in our social and political and religious confusion. For the Philippines, it means poverty, not national prosperity. It means stagnancy, not national maturity. All for the sake of our faith in divinity and trust in the holy mystery. Sincerely, Poch Suzara

Letter to TIME MAGAZINE

TIME Dear Editor, President Gloria Arroyo repeated the same words past presidents of the Philippines have faithfully declared again and again. Have “faith and trust in divine providence” during hard times. Indeed, democracy without education means hypocrisy without limitation; it means the degradation of high office into cheap prayers in order to serve the rulers and deceive the ruled. Meanwhile, growth as a people and development as a nation have yet to take roots. Unfortunately, our government officials are just waiting for divine providence to provide. Indeed, we Filipinos have been taught to believe that God will solve our problems for as long as we never lose faith. History, however, fails to prove that the creation of human decency throughout the land has ever been a priority with divinity. Corruption is the privilege of our elected officials and prayer rallies are organized if there were any proposal to alter the patriotic tradition. Our democratic failure is due to the popularity of ignorance. A Filipino has a better chance at winning high government position if he or she has achieved a reputation in mediocrity. Is there hope for the Philippines? Yes, there is. As soon as we begin to become the intelligent masters rather than the stupid victims of religion. Golly, even the daily prayers addressed to God in this country are as similar in form and content to letters children write to Santa Claus. But if God would rather fulfill the needs of the devil rather than save the Philippines away from the same old evil – why should the leaders of this Republic continue to have faith and trust in divine providence? Where is our science and technology to remedy the religious mess that is keeping us Filipino poor as a people and the Philippines backward as a nation? Yours sincerely, POCH SUZARA June 15, 2005

Rizal, the first Flipino Humanist

Before he died at the age of 98, mathematician-logician-philosopher-humanist Bertrand Russell said, “If we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies.”
As a great admirer of Jose Rizal, I believe he died sober; but those in power who had him executed at the age of 30, and those who concocted his retraction story, were the ones drunk with lies.
I defy anyone who believes Jose Rizal, the first great humanist the Philippines has ever produced, died a coward engrossed in childish fairy tales.
And why do I say Rizal was a great humanist? What else do you call a man who was committed to the application of reason and science and to solving human problems of the here and the now?
What else do you call a man who deplored efforts to denigrate human intelligence, who did not seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and who did not look outside nature for salvation? A man who wanted to leave this world one day a better place than he found it.
What else do you call a man who valued scientific discoveries that have contributed to the betterment of human existence? Who was concerned with securing justice and fairness by eliminating discrimination and intolerance in society?
What else do you call a man who attempted to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, ethnicity and who worked for the spread of common human decency?
What else do you call a man who believed that developing his creative talents to the fullest constituted the greatest happiness in life here and now?
What else do you call a man who believed in the cultivation of moral excellence, respected the rights of others, believe in human integrity, and was open to critical and rational way of thinking?
What else do you call man who was concerned with the moral education of children? Who wanted to nourish them with the passion for reason, love, and compassion?
What else do you call a man who rejected the theologies of despair, the ideologies of violence, and the sacraments of mediocrity?
And finally, what do you call a man who believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in place of dogma, truth instead of sacred lies, joy rather than guilt and sin, tolerance in place of fear, love instead of hate, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith?
Jose Rizal, indeed, believed in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that anyone is capable of as a human being, He was the greatest of Filipino humanists. And he died intellectually sober, not drunk with religious lies.
To Jose Rizal, wherever you are, I have the greatest love you as a fellow human being, and I have the highest respect for you as a priceless rarity among Filipinos.
Poch Suzara

Rizal's Unfinished Revolution in our country

Rizal called for the revolution of the mind to throw off the exploitation of man by man under the inspiration of superstition.This was a century ago. But due to our fear of the Lord and our love for that pie in the sky, Rizal’s call for that revolution of the human intellect ended up to what is recognized today in the history of the Filipino people as “the unfinished revolution.” Rizal wrote: “ I am not writing for this generation, but for those yet to come. If this one could read what I have written, it would burn my books, my whole life’s work. But the generation that deciphers these characters will be a learned generation; it will understand me and say: Not everyone slept during the night of our forefathers! These strange characters – the sense of mystery they will create – will save my work from the ignorance of men, just as strange rites and the sense of the unknown have preserved many truths at the hands of priests. ” Poch Suzara

Lies About Rizal

Rizal never said or wrote: “It was my pride that ruined me.” Those words were written by his official prize-winning biographer Leon Maria Guerrero who believed, as a Catholic, the Rizal retraction story concocted by the sciolistic friars. Moreover, Rizal never “got rid of his political appetite, moral perplexities, and intellectual pride.” On the contrary, Rizal chose to die proudly. After the friars stripped him of his dignity, it was no longer possible for him to go on living as a thinking man should. Poch Suzara

Rizal and the Spanish Friars

If the Spanish friars had only introduced the concept of humanism instead of establishing in the Philippines organized barbarism and other forms of supernaturalism, Filipino priests like Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora need not have been garroted to death for wanting reforms within the Catholic Church in their time. Moreover, great thinkers like Jose Rizal need not have been executed by firing squad for writing to promote common human decency for the Filipino enjoying throughout the land pride and dignity. Poch Suzara

Rizal A Great Thinker

Rizal was a great thinker. He saw clearly in his day what we vaguely see around us today: religion and diseases flourishing hand in hand under ignorance, filth, hate, and poverty. What irked the friars against Rizal was his refusal to continue to believe in Christian values and beliefs; for, he learned to be on the side of humanity. For my part, if there’s life after death, it’s great thinkers like Rizal that I should wish to be with. Otherwise, if I will just find myself in the company of the likes of Opus Dei gang – the kind of people who had Rizal put to death, please Lord, I would rather be in hell. Poch Suzara

Rizal's Enemies

Rizal’s enemies were the theologians who gave themselves fancy titles: soothsayers, seers, charmers, prophets, enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, astrologers – all more popularly known as the Spanish friars. In brief, Rizal’s enemies were fear, ignorance, and superstition as embodied in the Catholic Church that felt threatened by Rizal’s writings. Rizal indeed aimed first at redeeming the Filipino mind damaged by indoctrination, as well as redeeming the Filipino heart impoverished by revelation. Rizal was a heretic in the eyes of the theologians – the power behind the Spanish authority. It is said by millions of Filipinos today that it does not matter whether Rizal retracted or not. This is so ridiculous; for, if Rizal had retracted why was he still executed and not exonerated to benefit from the sacrament of forgiveness? Poch Suzara

A Century After Rizal's Death

After a hundred years, how influential has Jose Rizal been on the Filipino as a people? Millions today would readily give credence by listening to the words of a Mike Velarde of El Shaddai preaching pastoral nonsense derived from bible – a book written not by Filipinos but by foreigners. Only a handful of scholars would care to read and understand the real Rizal and carry out his principles and ideals for the achievement of pride, dignity, intellectual and scientific honesty for the Philippines as a nation. And to think, the Jews, the Chosen People of God, never considered the bible as a holy book at any time in their history. Poch Suzara

Rizal The Humanist

Rizal struggled not against Spain, but against superstition. He fought not in the battlefield, but in the minds and hearts of men and women. Rizal was Asia’s first scientific-humanist thinker put to death a century ago by a theocracy behind musketry. The same theocracy today that is keeping the Filipino youth via education to fear new and fresh ideas in the free market of ideas, and to hate, at the same time, the freethinkers. “Blotting out their brains,” Rizal wrote, “in faith, prayers, masses, novenas, superimposed these onto native superstition.” Poch Suzara

Rizal's Threat to the Friars

Due to his highly developed intellect in the scientific way of thinking, Rizal got to be a threat to the friars. That is why the friars worked hard to get rid of him. If Rizal, however, had retracted, the friars would have been the first to spare his life and used Rizal’s intellect to perpetuate more power for the Church in the Philippines. But Rizal was nevertheless executed which paved the way clear for more of the same commercial in cahoots with the theological activities throughout the land. The result for the Philippines? She got to be one of the most religiously faith-based and therefore the most backward country in Asia today. Poch Suzara

Rizal's Education

Jose Rizal pointed out that evolution in education, ( not reliance on foreign investments ), is the best hope of the nation to enjoy the highest standard of living and thinking. The system of education for the Filipino must be based on science and technology, and not on prayers and theology. Indeed, according to Rizal, a free nation can rise no higher than the standard of beliefs and values set in its schools, colleges, and universities. In there hope for the Philippines? Yes, there is! But first its system of education must be radically revamped. No more stupid prayers to support stupid theology. Only the intelligent scientific way of thinking to generate more science and technology. Poch Suzara

Rizal Versus Jesus

Rizal was more involved not only with the cultivation of the freedom of the mind but also with the development of the human intellect. The exact opposite of what Jesus Christ stood for – infantile emotions, sentimental illusions and delusions. Consider Jesus: he never uttered a word against slavery or even tyrannical oppression. Jesus appealed not to the intellectual power of man, only to man’s childish hopes and dreams. And to think that most Filipinos have more love and respect for Jesus who was born in a foreign country some 2000 years ago, than they care to study and learn from a great Filipino thinker born in the Philippines some 150 year ago. Poch Suzara

Rizal's College Years

Rizal was a product of Ateneo and Santo Thomas; yet both Catholic universities continue to assassinate the character of this great humanist only because he learned on his own initiatives, outside academic walls, how to think more deeply and how to embrace intellectual honestly. Indeed, to this day, all Catholic universities still teach that during Rizal’s last day on this earth, just hours before he was executed for his principles, noble values, and rational beliefs, he retracted and went back to the Catholic Church. What brazen lies! It is no less than a tall story. Otherwise, after his death, he would have been given a Catholic burial and his dead body not just put inside a sack and thrown in the Paco Cemetery in the corner where heretics are stashed away or just buried. Poch Suzara

The Shame in Rizal's Life

The shame in Rizal’s life is not the retraction of his deeds, writings and conduct. Such retraction was only a frailocratic figment of the imagination. The real shame comes from the Filipino historians and other Catholic writers who believed not in Rizal’s power of intellect, but believed instead his enemies – the friars – who invented sacred lies about this great thinker. Via the control of the system of education in the Philippines, these friars have and still are blocking, expediently and consistently, Rizal’s qualified and legitimate entry into the world stage as one of mankind’s greatest thinkers. But then again how can the world know of Rizal since even the Filipinos themselves know so little of his scientific intellect? Poch Suzara

Rizal's Biographer

Rizal’s biographer – Leon M. Guerrero, clearly notes that Rizal returned to the Church of his youth in extremes of self-abasement, frenziedly in childlike fashion, spending the remaining hours of earning indulgences from purgatory by confessing four times, and obsequiously attending to Fr. Balaguer and Villaclara’s wishes. In brief, according to this biographer, Rizal died as a timid coward. According to this official government commissioned biographer, our national hero in the end turned out to be a turncoat.
Four years before his death, however, Rizal in 1882 wrote a letter to Gregorio Aglipay: “In all parts of the world where an honest man tries to achieve reform he is crucified on Golgotha. Christ had nowhere to lay his head, when Pilate governed. It is probable that I will be executed – then they will try to bring along my moral death by covering my memory with slander.” Poch Suzara

Rizal's Revolution of the Mind

Unlike the rest of our national heroes, Rizal was the first and only Filipino revolutionary of the mind. He was the first Filipino who thought human dignity and intellectual integrity should be at the foundation of Filipino culture. And so, due to the successful retraction lies, Filipinos today believe of Rizal not as a great freethinker, not as the revolutionary of the mind, but only as a faithful servant of the priesthood industry. Poch Suzara

Rizal's Retraction

If Rizal had retracted from his attacks against the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church, and if, according to his Catholic biographer Leon M. Guerrero, Rizal had gone to confession four times, heard mass in his death-cell, and received holy communion before he was executed, then Rizal should be branded a traitor to all freedom fighters. He deserves not to be respected or admired as a hero. He should, instead, be worship as a saint. But then again, if Rizal had retracted, why then should the church feel dedicated as its friars feel consecrated to get Rizal’s true character expunged out of the Filipino psyche? The truth of the matter was that the Church did everything possible to counteract Rizal’s honest-to-goodness scientific temper of mind. Indeed, in his Noli and Fili, Rizal exposed the Philippine damaged culture caused by organized superstition otherwise known as Christianity. Thus, the story of his retraction was nothing more than a theological concoction to sanitize, if not to lower the volume of Rizal’s intellectual messages. Poch Suzara

Our Asian Neighbors

The secret why other Asian countries are ahead of the Philippines is no secret at all. Our Asian neighbors have not only adopted, but have also substantiated to the fullest extent possible what Jose Rizal, the nation’s chief hero, was precisely saying to fellow-Filipinos more than a hundred years ago: “Wake up! Embrace science! Utilize the scientific way of thinking! Start to emulate the freethinkers! Knowledge is the heritage of mankind, but only the courageous inherit it! We can only serve our country by telling the naked truth. However bitter it may be!” Poch Suzara

JESUS CHRIST part 2

MORE ON JESUS CHRIST ( part two )

Jesus admitted that: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Yet, at crucial moments, Jesus did not know where he was or even what he was talking about. Here are a few examples:

I and my father are one. - John 10:30

I go unto the Father: for my Father
is greater than I. John 14:28

Jesus said: “Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Now what is so noble about turning the other cheek, if one knows that each time he does so, he is piling up greater heavenly rewards, while the one who strikes is earning his rewards in hell?

And Jesus said unto the crucified thief: “Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43. Note: This promise could not have been delivered, unless Christ went to heaven that day, which is contrary to the Christian doctrine that when he was dead he spent the succeeding three days and night in the heart of the earth or (according to the Apostle’s Creed ) in hell.

If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. John 11:26. Of course how can a dead man see himself already dead? Meanwhile, immortality must be the condition of a dead man who refuses to believe that he is already dead.

Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. John 12:47.The Jews then and the vegetarians now have yet to figure out what exactly Jesus meant by this taste for cannibalism.

Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matt. 4:17. There be some standing here, which shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Matt. 16:28. Jesus was confident that the day of judgment was coming in the first century. However, in this 21st century – in the whole of Asia, only the Filipinos are waiting for the Second Coming of Christ. The rest of Asia are already enjoying not only a higher standard of living, but also a much higher standard of thinking. They can even afford to hire Filipino workers to do household work for them.

Jesus said: “ I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” St. John 8:22. But in the bible Lucifer too was the bringer of light. He is identified with rebel Archangel who brought enlightenment to man. But combining together the light from Jesus and the light from Satan, why is there is so much spiritual darkness, for example, in the Philippines – the only Christian country in Asia?

There were more than six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, prisoners of war, freedom fighters throughout Europe who were utterly slaughtered not only by poison gas inside crematoriums, or starved to death, shot to death, but eliminated mainly by stupid religion. In his MEIN KAMPF, Adolf Hitler wrote: “I believe I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jews, I am fighting for the works of the Lord.”

Now I am told by my devout Christian friends that Christianity is the religion of love of God and love of neighbor? Well, I ask: What ever happened to that Christianity in the Philippines where we Filipinos love only God up there but we do so by hating one another down here? Poch Suzara

Jesus Christ part 1

JESUS CHRIST ( part one )
Every scholar who has critically investigated Gospel story of the life of Jesus Christ admits now that, whether the narrative contains factual history or not, a mass of myth has surrounded it. Here, however, we are concerned with the record as it stands.

It is probable that Jesus at first expected that God would intervene on his behalf and that he could be acclaimed as the Messiah. When he saw more and more clearly that a revolt against the Roman power was hopeless he declared that the Kingdom of God is not of this world. At this stage of his mission he prepared for his martyrdom. But till the last act of the drama he was persuaded that he was under God’s care and protection, and shortly before the end he announced that his second advent was near at hand.

He spoke “with authority,” a claim which no other teacher could make in the same sense, he raised the dead, he was Lord of the Sabbath, and through him alone could man live forever. Despite all this “authority,” at his death, which was the culmination of his mission to save mankind, he “began to be sorrowful and very heavy,” prayed that his cup of bitterness “might pass from him,” and at the very last exclaimed, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Was this a matter of a God forsaking himself?

Many “liberal” Protestants today deny that the strong language used by Jesus about the future life was meant to be taken literally. Let them settle that themselves. What matters is the tragic fact that for almost two thousand years his language convinced Christians that an eternal hell is a real place, and that its penalties are incurred as the result of “Unbelief.” No other “spiritual” authority has done so much to drench our world in blood, enough to keep even the US Navy afloat.

Most of the sayings of Jesus regarding violence or non-resistance were intended to apply chiefly to personal, not to global relationship. He said virtually nothing of international conflicts. What he did say showed placid acceptance of the war syndrome:


“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that
ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Matt. 2:6-

“But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be
not terrified: for these things must first come to pass;
but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them,
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom.” Luke 21: 9-10

These verses have a more direct bearing on war as we now know it than any of his other sayings. They show his belief in the inevitability of war. Apparently, despite his power to perform miracles, he did not feel himself competent to counteract militarism. He offered no program for arbitration of international or border disputes, no ideas to substitute death and destruction between nations, no policy for world peace or path towards global sanity. Mankind continues to live in a welter of organized hatreds and threats of mutual extermination.

Many a good man is a failure from a worldly point of view, but failure is not what one would wish to emulate. Jesus sought to save the world. Surely no one looking at the world today can say that he succeeded. His plan of salvation was a failure; it did not work out as Jesus intended. An ideal teacher is needed now almost as much as two thousand years ago. If the world is gradually improving, as seems probable, it is in spite of the miracles of the past, not because of them.

Indeed, Jesus failed to provide the conditions so much needed by man to enable him to shape his course through the good life inspired by love and guided by knowledge. No one knows how to live correctly, how best to meet each situation, what action is suited to the occasion. Jesus did not tell us what to do. His sayings are interpreted in many different ways. He failed to predict the needs of the future of mankind.

Moreover, Jesus did not explain the healthy relations between husband and wife, nor between employer and employee, nor how to educate children, nor how to preserve health, nor how to earn a living, nor how to prevent internecine hatred, poverty, and suffering. Jesus gave little practical information, and his spiritual advice was not clearly enough expressed to enable man to apply it to modern conditions. Jesus neglected to instruct how to live under common human decency. His knowledge of the world was less than the average mediocre politician of today in the government of Christian countries like the Philippines.

Hypatia

Here’s Hypatia – one of the greatest woman who ever lived - as described by Carl Sagan in his book Cosmos:
“The last scientist who worked in the Library (Alexandria) was a mathematician, astronomer, physicist and head of the Neoplatonic school of philosophy – an extraordinary range if accomplishments for any individual in any age. Her name was Hypatia. She was born in Alexandria in 370. At a time when women had few options and were treated as property, Hypatia moved freely and unselfconsciously through traditional male domains. By all accounts she was a great beauty. She had many suitors but rejected all offers of marriage. The Alexandria of Hypatia’s time – by then long under Roman rule – was a city under grave strain. Slavery had sapped classical civilization of its vitality. The growing Christian church was consolidating its power and attempting to eradicate pagan influence and culture. Hypatia stood at the epicenter of these mighty social forces. Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria, despised her because of her close friendship with the Roman governor, and because she was a symbol of learning and science, which were largely identified by the early Church with paganism. In great personal danger, she continued to teach and publish, until, in the year 415, on her way to work she was set upon by a fanatical mob of Cyril’s parishioners. They dragged her from her chariot, tore off her clothes, and, armed with abalone shells, flayed her flesh from her bones. Her remains were burned, her works obliterated, her name forgotten. Cyril was made a saint.” Poch Suzara

Giordano Bruno ( 1548 – 1600 )

A Roman Catholic scholar, an astronomer, and philosopher – for suggesting that there exists an infinity of worlds and that many are inhabited – and for reading forbidden books, Bruno was charged with heresy, and even unjustly accused of murder. An ordained priest – he abandoned the Dominican Order in 1578 - challenged papal authority. Bruno was hunted down from land to land, until he turned on his pursuers with fearful invectives - for this he was entrapped at Venice - imprisoned for 6 years in the dungeon of the Inquisition at Rome - then burned alive, his ashes scattered to the winds. For always talking and talking about his ideas and beliefs, Bruno was gagged to prevent him from speaking while being burned alive at the stake. Those personally responsible for Bruno’s death were Pope Clement VIII and his personal theologian Cardinal Robert Bellarmine who was canonized a saint.
Here’s the way biographer Michael White described Bruno’s death in his book: - THE POPE AND THE HERETIC:
On the morning of his execution Giordano Bruno was visited by members of the Brotherhood of Pity of St. John the Beheaded, a group who ministered to any heretic they could in an effort to do what the Inquisition had failed to do: lead the meekly back to the one true faith. From the records of the Brotherhood we learn that, “At the second hour of the night, information came that justice would be done on an impenitent friar in the morning. Hence, at the sixth hour of the night, the Comforters and the chaplain assembled at St. Ursula and went on to the prison in the Tower of Nona, entered the chapel, and offered up the winter prayers. To them was consigned the man, Giordano Bruno, son of Gioan Bruno, an apostate friar of Nola in the kingdom, an impenitent. He was exhorted by our brothers in all love, and two Fathers of the Order of St. Dominic, two of the Order of Jesus, two of the new church and one of St. Jerome were called in. These with all loving zeal and much learning, showed him his error, yet he stood firm throughout and to the end in his accursed obstinacy, setting his brain and mind to a thousand errors and vain-gloryings.
What must Bruno have thought during those final hours? Did he despair, finally? Did he reach the conclusion that he has been wrong all along? Or did he feel vindicated, confident that his thoughts would survive the flames? Did he perhaps wonder if, far away on the alien worlds he imagined, other creatures burned their dreamers too?
At 5.30 a.m. on 19 February, a Thursday and a feast day in Rome, Bruno was led in chains from San. Ursula. He was dressed in a white, ankle-length robe illuminated with the cross of St. Andrew and dotted with painted devils holding their long, barbed tails against a backdrop of crudely daubed crimson flames. The route was crowded with the virtuous and the curious. Much has been made of this burning. A primitive form of newsletter, avvisi e ricordi, had even been printed to inform people of the occasion: “An entertaining judicial burning was expected,” it declared. According to this tabloid of the day, “Bruno has declared he will die a willing martyr and that his soul will rise with the smoke to paradise.” Copies of the newsletter had been passed throughout the excited crowd and trampled upon along the wet road. As the parade moved on Bruno became animated and excited. He reacted to the mocking crowds, responding to their yells with quotes from his books and the sayings of the ancients. His comforters, the Brotherhood of St. John, tried to quiet the exchange, to protect Bruno from yet further pain and indignity, but he ignored them. And so, after a few minutes the procession was halted by the Servants of Justice. A gaoler was brought forward and another two held Bruno’s head rigid. A long metal spike was thrust through Bruno’s left cheek pinning his tongue and emerging through the right cheek. Then another spike was rammed vertically through his lips. Together, the spikes formed a cross. Great sprays of blood erupted onto his gown and splashed the faces of the Brotherhood close by. Bruno spoke no more.
A few minutes later the procession arrived at the site of the execution, campo di fiori, the Field of Flowers where, in one corner, opposite the theatre of Pompeii, the stake had been prepared. The guards led Bruno to the thick wooden post, shoved him up against it and wrapped a thick rope around him, across his shoulders, his chest, his waist and his legs. The faggots ( about which Bruno has once joked ) were piled up to the condemned man’s chin and the torch placed between his feet. The flames caught quickly in the light morning breeze. It has been claimed that many victims of the stake were saved a slow death by arranging a payment to the executioner who would surreptitiously snap their necks as they were tied to the post. We know this did not happened to Bruno for as the fire began to grip, the Brothers of the Pity of St. John the Beheaded tried one last time to save the man’s soul. Risking the flames, one of them leaned into the fire with a crucifix, but Bruno merely turned his head away. Seconds later, the fire caught his robe and seared his body, and above the hissing and crackling of the flames could be heard the man’s muffled agony. After the fire had subsided, what remained of Bruno’s body was smashed to powder with hammers and the ashes were cast to the wind so that no one could save anything of the heretic as a relic. As far as the Inquisition was concerned, they had obliterated Bruno, destroyed his body, banished his memory, his ideas, his writings, his very thought, and he had been consigned to Hell.
The Pope saw nothing that Bruno wrote in prison and the two men never met in private as Bruno had hoped. As Giordano burned that festive Thursday, 19 February 1600, the crowd cheered and waved their banners, children ran as close to the flames as they dared and frightened mothers pulled them back. And when the spectacle was over and the world cleansed of another heretic, Bruno’s ashes settled on ledges and in nearby fields. There the rain carried into the soil molecules that has once composed parts of his body. Over time, the molecules were broken open, their atoms absorbed by plants. The plants were eaten by animals and some found their way to the tables of Rome and beyond. Other elements of Bruno fell into water and were recycled to splash upon the faces of bathers and into drinking goblets. And so, perhaps, on an atomic level at least, the Pope himself was conjoined with the heretic after all.” As Bruno would have it: the universe is infinite, and as one. We are all each other. Everything is everything else.” Poch Suzara