It is the Same Thing

The pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of knowledge amount to the same thing. What is essential for the good, happy, and creative life is not deadly paralysis, but lively analysis. Bertrand Russell wrote it more gracefully: “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Poch Suzara

Jesus Died On the Cross

It has been two thousand years since Jesus died on the cross to destroy the devil. Yet today millions of Christians still believe that their greatest enemy is not those lively little creatures found under a microscope, but the silly devil and his deadly influence found in their daily horoscope. Obviously, dying on the cross was a barbaric way to remedy social problems. It has not work in the past. Never will in the future. Poch Suzara

Jesus Baptized

Jesus, the Son of God, was born without sin. And yet John, the Baptist, the religious moron that he was, baptized Jesus to cleanse his presumably blackened soul due to the mess called original sin. Poch Suzara

Childhood Friends

My friends since childhood days have turned out to be not friends at all. They have never met Jesus personally. And yet in our old age my friends are peeved at me because they expect me to be more of a friend to Jesus than be a real friend to them. Well, I don’t know Jesus. I never met Jesus. Jesus and I never grew up together laughing, playing, studying, misbehaving, traveling, and chasing after girls together? In fact, Jesus was never here or there or everywhere with me at any time or place during my trials and tribulations! Why should I be a friend to some one who is not only a Jewish ancient mystery, but who was also never a living flesh and blood personality to me? Poch Suzara

Atheism

Do you believe in God? It is a meaningless question. What is more meaningful to ask, however, is whether God (if he exist) believes in you. After all, God has the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For my part, as I have nothing why should God give a hoot whether I believe in him or not?
Since the time of Jesus, more than ONE HUNDRED BILLION people have already lived and died on this earth. That God is so worried about the salvation of souls has got to be a sick joke concocted by the corrupt priesthood industry. Really, if God cares for souls, why create them to be in danger on this earth? Why not create souls happy in heaven? Or, better yet, why bother to create silly little souls to begin with? Poch Suzara

Lord Acton

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by the minorities.” Lord Acton
In the Philippines, however, despite the more than one million security guards from licensed private security agencies guarding our banks, government buildings, piers and airports, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, restaurants, plush villages, condominium buildings, shopping malls, and indeed guarding even our churches and cathedrals, nobody but nobody enjoys security in our sick society.
One thing, however, stands out very clear. We have no need of security guards to guard our public libraries since there aren’t any existing that is worth visiting anywhere in the Philippines. Never mind guarding the existence of Science Museums throughout our country. No such creatures exist in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Ignorant Religion

Imagine the harm that has come from ignorant religion. On the other hand, think of how much help has come from human intelligence, kindness, courage, and perseverance. Indeed, freedom of religion is important, but what is even far more important is freedom from religion.
We could never achieve the full potential as a human being if we remain not only religiously ignorant, but also remain ignorant religiously. Poch Suzara

Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal

Open Letter to the Knights of Rizal As the Knights of Rizal, you people should have already settled the issue of the Rizal retraction scandal. The shameful damaging controversy has been going on for more than 111 years now. Rizal was condemned to death as an infidel. He was framed with the crime of rebellion to kill him for brilliantly attacking the Catholic establishment as even the 2005 published Opus Dei book admits. Down Through the years, you Knights of Rizal, historians, biographers, and even a famous lady columnist wrote that it does not matter whether Rizal retracted or not because it is a non-issue. I ask: are you people really that frightened of the truth? And to think that some of you are lawyers by profession. You were trained in the art of cross-examination precisely to ferret out the truth. When has the truth ever been a non-issue in human tragedy? We Filipinos have yet to acknowledge that our hero, Rizal, died truthful to his principles and humanitarian ideals. Indeed, he met his death intellectually sober and not drunk with religious lies. Clearly, the Catholic church in authority found it necessary to put Rizal to death. After all, it is easier to destroy the reputation of a dead man than it is to destroy his truthful writings, especially if he remains alive doing more truthful writings. Rizal advocated the rational way of life and he therefore got to be the notorious enemy of Catholicism. Rizal wanted us to grow up and to stop living in fear and in guilt. Moreover, to stop wasting our time falling on our knees praying daily to a Supreme Being out there to give us this day our daily bread and to lead us not into temptation down here. The Catholic could never allow Rizal’s teachings to revolutionize the Filipino way of thinking: it is always better to think than it is to believe. Unfortunately, faith condemns people not to think. And sadly, with faith, millions believe that Rizal died as a penitent Catholic totally rejecting Rizal‘s message: “Be careful, choose well, for this world is full of deceits and deceivers.” And to think that after he was executed Rizal was not even granted a Catholic burial. It only proves that the Rizal retraction story was pure gimcrackery. It was concocted by the priesthood industry to protect the Catholic church with its vested interest in human misery. In this 21st century, we poor Filipinos are still searching for our identity and prosperity and social sanity which Rizal struggled and gave his precious life for. Oh, you Knights of Rizal, wake up! Rizal is still a vague hero to millions of Filipinos! Only the few know Rizal as a brilliant thinker who was executed for being too brilliant a thinker who catered not to the authority of the church, but served instead his people and the future welfare of his own country! Indeed, thanks to the courage of great thinkers in the stature of a Rizal, the Catholic church today is tearing itself apart externally as it is collapsing internally. I accuse you Knights of Rizal of both errancy and complicity in the second assassination of Rizal’s character and reputation. It is worthless to ignore those who maliciously invented Rizal’s retraction document hours before he was executed. It is more crucial to defend Rizal’s loyalty to veracity, profound sense of common human decency, and unquestionable level of scientific honesty. If we, the Filipino people, continue to suffer under the failure of our social values and religious beliefs, it is simply due to the historical success of Catholicism in the Philippines. Indeed, as products of our Catholic schools, colleges, and universities we have yet to be taught how to emulate our great hero - the rare and brave thinking Filipino that he was - who struggled against those made wealth, power, and glory selling nothing but the gospel of sacred lies and biblical falsehoods in this country since the 16th century. Gentlemen, our chief hero was put to death for being humanistic, scientific, and a heretic. Indeed, the same Rizal, the sane and rational man that he was, with dignity and self-respect - refused to fall on his knees in blind obedience to anything fantastic be it ecclesiastic, apostolic, pontific, or even theologic. Yours in Rizal, Poch Suzara

The Truth Hurts

The Truth hurts. The most stupid thing, however, is when one prefers getting hurt like a coward than facing the truth with courage. Poch Suzara

Senate Minority Leader

Aquilino Pimentel Jr. cautioned the executive branch of government against pressuring the Court of Appeals on the US Marine rapist custody issue.
Pimentel said the Philippine government was “well within its right” to voice its position on the case in view of the cancellation of the Balikatan 2007. But he said the issue “should be taken within the ambit of the case,” now pending before the court.
To allow the executive branch to bamboozle the court, that is something else,” the Senator told the Daily Inquirer.
Pimentel also advised the appellate court not to yield to “external pressure” and “to decide on the case on its legal merits.” “Only in that way will the issue be laid to rest,” he said, adding:
“Like extrajudicial killings, extrajudicial pressure is divisive.” Pimental also said the Philippine government had no reason to complain if the US government cancelled the war games and, eventually, stopped giving aid to the country.
“If the United States, the only superpower in the world, believes that the Balikatan exercises are not that vital for its security and ours, who are we to complain?” he said.
For my part, I admire Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. He is a rare Filipino politician in the Philippine government. He has not only the intellect but also the courage to assert self-respect and dignity for his people where a US Marine rapist and his spiritual adviser – Fr. James Reuter have only made a mockery of the status of the women citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.
In the meantime, we have yet to hear from the Visiting Forces Agreement Commanders on the US military proceedings to discharge dishonorably that criminal who raped Nicole in her own land. And to think that the job of the US Marines is to protect and defend those who are unable to defend and protect themselves. Poch Suzara

The Iraqi War

The Iraqi war has done much damage to the capability of the US military. The US government has been spending $9 billion a month and have spent over $300 billion total on this war thus far. The potential antagonists of the USA, including Iran, North Korea, Russia and China, “want and need America in Iraq” because the war is “depleting American financial and human resources.” Imagine $300 Billion dollars. Imagine what that money can do to rebuild communities that have been falling apart in American cities since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.
Imagine $300 Billion dollars wasted on war and not for peace and global stability. That kind of money can tremendously help America catch up with other advanced European nations, not to mention Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, and Canada ahead in: adult literacy, health care quality, student reading ability, student mathematics ability, student science ability, women’s rights, infant mortality rate, life expectancy, qualify of life survey, overall currency strength, human development index. In brief, ahead in social and political and economic sanity.
For my part, as an American citizen, I no longer feel free or even proud singing: God Bless America! Poch Suzara

If Atheism were a Religion

If atheism were a religion, then it is the oldest of all religions. Consider the angels who rebelled against God in heaven eons ago even before the days of Adam and Eve on earth. Those angels did not follow God. They did not believe in God. They were atheists, weren’t they? If God, however, was really all that great, all that fair and wonderful, and all that lovable – why would any of his angels in heaven and men on earth disobey or rebel against him? It makes no supernatural sense at all! Poch Suzara

Poor Philippines

We are such a poor country. We neither have a history nor a culture or values to live by. We do not even have national heroes to emulate. Our national heroes have turned out to be not heroes but faithful believers. Before they died or were executed, according to our priests and nuns, they retracted while embracing the teachings of the Catholic Church. One such great Filipino was Jose Rizal. He is now more of a saint of God than he is a hero of the Filipino people. Thus, in this only Christian country in Asia, we continue to experience poverty of the worse kind – the poverty of the mind and heart. We have no great leaders, and no great heroes. We have more bishops down here and more saints up there to love, worship, and adore. In fact, we Filipinos love only Mary, the Virgin Mother of God more than we love our own mother because our mothers have lost their virginity to our fathers. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

According to Science

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies all were made in the interior of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.
God did not create the universe. To begin with, the creation of the universe is beyond the scope of human understanding. We created God to justify our ignorance and fear. We even made such jusification appear like it is something unquestionably sacred, if not biblically holy. Poch Suzara

Bishop Oscar Cruz

The famous Nicole Rape case got her US Marine rapist sentenced to 40 years in jail. (PDI December 8,2006). Bishop Oscar Cruz stated: “Women, most especially, should be taught that womanhood is precious and noble, so it is not right for them to be flaunting it around . . . they should not make themselves appear cheap and practically inviting to be violated by men.” Wow! One can imagine during her days just how sexually attractive must have been the Virgin Mary flaunting her carnal desires all over the place. God almighty existing here, existing there, and existing everywhere, could not control himself. He was seduced and aroused. He got Mary deflowered and impregnated her with a baby. We do, however, have to give God some credit. He wasn’t really all that sexually reckless. He was responsible enough to practiced family planning and birth control. He had begotten only one Son, didn’t He? Poch Suzara

You are an Atheist too

You say I am an atheist because I do not believe in the existence of your God. Well, you are an atheist too because you do not believe in the existence of my God. Now, who gave you the right to define for me which God I should believe in? In the meantime, if your God were always omni-absent as a nothing, never omni-present as a something, what does it really matter whether I believe or do not believe in the existence of such a supernatural nothing? Poch Suzara

Fr. James Reuter and Our Women

Fr. James Reuter, the spiritual adviser of the American Marines in the Philippines, keeps insisting that Nicole’s US Marine rapist had been innocent all along. It was a matter of consensual sex. Our women, he says, are always flaunting carnal desires each time men are around, especially wearing military uniform.
May I suggest to Fr. Reuter that he attend to more serious troubles of the Catholic Church? More than 75 per cent of all Catholic priests worldwide are gays. These spiritually starved men of the Lord are not only sexually active, they also victimize young boys and girls who have no knowledge of what consensual sex means. Fr. James Reuter, isn’t time for you to enrich the spiritual life of the US marines visiting the Philippines? Golly, if they are here to train the Filipino to kill fellow-Filipinos more efficiently with weapons MADE IN AMERICA, they are here to insult our women! Poch Suzara

How the Gods Bless America

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. In the sick and destructive American society, however, even the gods envy the sick politicians in charge of the US government. They are very efficient at being mad at each other. Even the gods envy the way these filthy-rich morons otherwise more known as Republicans or Democrats have been destroying America - a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. Poch Suzara

Ignorance

We wonder at the ignorance of our grandparents and great-grandparents of things so plain and simple. Well, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will wonder too at our own ignorance of things so plain and simple. This, in brief, is the evolution of knowledge via the results of the never-ending search of the truth.
To think that in this generation, we, the religiously dumbstruck, do not wonder also what those ignorant and superstitious primitives recorded in the silly bible more than 2,000 years or 80 generations ago. Golly, a great many believers do not even bother to read the bible. We atheists do read the bible and have already submitted reports to the theists about incredible bible contents. Poch Suzara

Tree of Genesis

There is written in Genesis about the existence of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Notice the billions of trees existing everywhere on this earth. Except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. No one knows where that fantastic Tree is located today. Oh well, according to the same bible, God himself was once a Burning Bush. That Burning Bush, however, has not totally vanished. It evolved and got to be elected president of the United States of America. Poch Suzara

Silly Theologians

The theologians are getting sillier. They are now declaring that atheists too can go to heaven. Excuse me! We atheists don’t care to go to heaven. We do not care to go anywhere after we are dead. We atheists are quite familiar with the silly concept of immortality: it is the condition of a dead man who refuses to believe that he is already dead! Golly, with theologians around, isn’t enough to be fools in this life? Must we also be fools in the next life? And to think there isn’t even any! Poch Suzara

Worthless La Salle Education

In this 21st century, I am not surprised to receive childish, if not infantile email messages from grown-up men and women. Especially from those who have had the benefit of college education in the Philippines or even in the United States. Each time, however, I receive meaningless messages from such college educated individuals, I can’t help but be proud of the fact that some 65 years ago, I managed, somehow, to get myself expelled out of La Salle high school. As a high-school expelled student, I think then as I still do think today that a college education in this country or in the USA represent something like that of a Cathedral: it is a monument to human stupidity. Look at the stupid mess of our world getting messier with each passing year. Look at the world leaders who are all proud of their college education. To think as faithful believers in God and His son Jesus these are the leaders of our rotten and corrupt and insane world. Poch Suzara Twitter# facebook# Google#

Weekdays and Sundays

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – I am an agnostic. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – I am an atheist. Now what about Sundays? Well, on Sundays, I am a heretic in the morning; an infidel in the afternoon; and, an unbeliever of the faith in the evening. During the 365 days or twelve months of the year, however, I am a devout humanist. I am always on the side of the human race. I have made it into a habit to struggle daily against the evils of divine disgrace. Poch Suzara

Painful

It is, indeed, painful for me to see the lives of many individuals largely determined not by what is in between their ears, but by what is in between their legs. Devoid of intellect, they fail to see the values of developing the human mind with knowledge and cultivating the human heart with wisdom. Most of these individuals, many of whom are college-educated friends and relatives, would rather enjoy first sexual orgasm. They belittle knowledge, as if it were a sin or a crime to experience intellectual protoplasm. They do not want to know. They only want to believe. In the meantime, there is far more beauty in thinking before believing than there is value in believing without thinking. Poch Suzara

Domestics

“More than 70,000 Filipinos live and work in oil-rich Kuwait, many of them domestics.” Manila Standard Today, Dec. 25, 2006.
Kuwait is not a Christian country. The Kuwaitis are Muslims. They do not believe in the holy bible. They have their own holy Quran – the Word of Allah. And to think the teachers and professors of our schools, colleges, and universities are so proud of each other. Most of the domestic helpers in Kuwait are college-educated men and women from the Philippines.
In the meantime, more than 15 million Filipinos today are living and working in some 150 countries around the world. The officials of our government are so proud of each other as these Overseas Contract Workers remit more than $10 Billion dollars back home yearly to help keep afloat the sinking economy of the Philippines. Indeed, the failure of our values under the Success of Christianity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

People Who love People

‘People who love people are the luckiest people in the world.’ Unfortunately, people cannot love people unless they love first and foremost - themselves. In America, we do not love each other as a people. We love only the almighty dollar and our government sees to it that we also love our guns, bullets, and bombs. Why not? More people throughout the world hate us more than they love us. It is called terrorism and we have to defend ourselves. Poch Suzara

More Hate in America

Here is a great example of more hate in America. In the History of Jim Crow, author Jerold M. Packard wrote: “Though for decades white supremacists would defend lynching as a safeguard against unpunished rape of white women by black men, rape was not in reality the usual motivation for the lynching. Of the 3,811 African-American men lynched between 1889 and 1941, no more than 641 – 17 per cent – had actually been accused of rape, either attempted or committed. Numerically, other offenses vastly outranked rape. Some of the imagined or real transgressions by African-Americans ending in lynching included attempts to sue a white employer, demanding to be allowed to vote, participating in union activities, exhibiting disrespect to a white or disputing a white, or simply for no reason that ever came to light – the latter perhaps a case of “sassing” or giving a white a “fresh” look (what was in the South sometimes called “reckless eyeballing”) or, most shocking of all, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when an “example” was thought by murderous whites to be needed to keep a black community in its “place.” Furthermore, it wasn’t only black males who were lynched. Most black women were murdered, too, including Mary Turner, who was killed by a mob in Chicago while nearly at the point of giving birth to her child, her killers hanging her and setting her body ablaze because she had threatened to disclose the names of the men who had earlier lynched her husband.”
Such is hate in America – the land of the free and the home of the brave. Poch Suzara

Science and Religion

Religion is dying. It is certainty without evidence. Science is growing. It is evidence without certainty. The belief that science and religion can reconcile one day is pure nonsense. To begin with, religion cannot even reconcile with other religions, why would science bother to reconcile with evils more known as silly religions of this world? Poch Suzara

What We Need

What we need is not a new President, but a new form of government. Indeed, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. What we need is a government to please the Filipino people, not to please the US government and its people specially those who are in the US military. Poch Suzara

It is the Same Old Story

For the New Year’s Eve. We waste about a Billions pesos worth of fireworks. To think the nation has a foreign debt of about a Trillion pesos. We are, indeed, a nation of educated morons, if not fire-cracking idiots. Our economists are silent. They have yet to figure out, however, what a billion pesos worth of fireworks for the new year’s eve celebration got anything to do with progress of the nation. To me, in my simplicity, a billion pesos could buy about 1,000 low cost houses to benefit poor families comprising about 50,000 Filipino men, women, and children. But then again, why should we bother? Why should we care? We have been taught by religious stupid morons that there is always God who will provide! Poch Suzara

What If the Lord

What if the Lord were at best a heretic; or, at worst an atheist who does not believe in any of man's religions? Genesis, 6:6 reads: "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Well, what if the Lord has ceased to believe in himself? Poch Suzara

It is truly Incredible

Millions of Americans still believe that there is a difference between the Republicans and Democrats in US politics. As if either party does not belong to the same party called “greed party.” As if the US government were truly free and democratic and not under the total control of the richest US corporations manufacturing goods not for world peace but for world war to destroy the enemies of Capitalism. Poch Suzara

Thou Art Dust

The bible says: “From dust thou art, and from dust thou shall return.”
Well, if we came from dust, and unto dust we shall return, and God made man in his own image and likeness, then God must be made of dust too. No wonder, God is everywhere, just like dust is everywhere too. In the meantime, isn’t it rather foolish to pray to a piece of dust for the salvation of dusty souls made of dust
too? Poch Suzara

More Civilization

What worth is there in gaining heavenly salvation by leaving this world in desperate need for more earthly civilization? Poch Suzara

We Pray

We pray for the spirit of the dead. We also pray for the spirit of the living. We do not know the answer to our prayer for the spirit of the dead individually. But for the spirit of the living collectively, the answer seems to be social insanity under our sick society. Poch Suzara

Atheists are Arrogant

Because atheists, they say, ignore the fact that religion is extremely beneficial to society. What a crock of bull. Listen to this famous philosopher, a great mathematician, a logician who gave birth to modern logic, a thinker imprisoned for his pacifist beliefs, and indeed, a publicly declared atheist – Bertrand Russell. He wrote: “If a majority in every civilized country so desired, we could, within 20 years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half the illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace.”
I, myself, am a proud and a happy atheist; and if you, my dear readers, were shallow-minded enough to believe that I am an arrogant person – thank you. In facing life’s horrors, would you rather I’d be like most people - timid cowards? Poch Suzara

Stupid Sense of Moral Values

Imagine helping the poor not out of concern for suffering people, but doing so because you have been frightened to believe the creator of the universe wants you to do it, will reward you for doing it or will punish you for not doing it? What kind of a creator is that who is stupid enough to have created poor and suffering people? Poch Suzara

A Biographical Tidbit

I have no problem with drugs. I have no problem with alcohol. I have no problem with gambling. I have no problem with women. Most amazing of all, however, is that I have no problem with the greatest evil of all - boredom. Indeed, not to be involved and not to exist amount to the same thing. If I am not busy physically, I am busy intellectually. I have developed the habit of questioning everything. I am therefore always thinking a lot. Thinking helps me to recognize the depths of my own ignorance and in facing such evils I am able to be intellectually honest with myself. I walk a mile each morning around the area where I lived. After breakfast, I write and re-write. After lunch, I take a little nap. Then I go to my blog, facebook, gmail, and Google. These are the little things that make me happy; but my happiness is more based on the fact that I no longer carry a religious burden on my back. I have thrown my superstitious beliefs out the window. I am an atheist. I no longer waste precious time, like millions do, praying daily to a silly God to “give us this day our daily bread,” and to “lead us not into temptation. Things being equal, what’s my problem in life? A lot of my dumbstruck friends and relatives are very disappointed with me. They would rather see me in trouble with a spouse or drunk every night with alcohol or gambling in the casino or even busy womanizing. They think of me as some sort of a weird fellow as I only love to read a lot and write a lot. To enjoy not only the freedom of thought, but also the freedom of expression. Those who are afraid to die are afraid to live. I am not afraid to live. At any rate, if I must die, I am sure to die sober, and not drunk with lies. In the meantime, happiness is not what a man has, but what a man is. Indeed, I do not want millions. I want answers to my questions. I care much for this life as it is the only life I know. I do not care for the next life as I know nothing about the existence of a next life. How can there ever be a hereafter after death when there never was, for any of us, before birth - a herebefore? Poch Suzara

Astronomy

According to the science of astronomy, there are more than 400 billion stars and planets that comprise the Milky Way Galaxy. But there are more than a trillion of such galaxies comprising the cosmos. In this light, the planet earth is like a grain of sand, and we, the people, are like parasites living on the surface of the earth.
According to theology, however, we must pride ourselves into believing that God made man in his own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

Nicole

Unless our women learn from Nicole’s rape case, they will continue to be third class citizens qualified only to be employed in the baby factory of the Philippines. Indeed, we have 1.8 million babies born yearly in our country. Most of them are un-wanted, un-loved, and un-needed even by the morons otherwise more known of the papa of these abandoned children. Poch Suzara

The Greatest Mystery

The greatest mystery, if not also the best kept secret in the world is the Revealed Truth. After all, it has yet to be revealed. Poch Suzara

A Whole Person

My teachers at De La Salle University impressed upon me when I was a grade school student that I was half animal and half man. When I became an atheist, however, I deeply felt the joys of being a whole person. Indeed, I became an atheist when I realized how silly of God to have made me half man and half animal in his own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

Junk Prayers

On earth we get junk mail. In heaven God gets junk prayers. Indeed, on earth as it is in heaven. Poch Suzara

Live Without God

Man cannot live without God? As a matter of fact men have not ceased hating and killing each other because they cannot agree as to which God to believe in, and cannot tolerate each other’s God to live for. Man cannot live without God? Which man? The man who is a speck of dust crawling helplessly on a small and insignificant planet as seen by the astronomers? Or, man as a heap of chemicals put together in some cunning way as seen by the physicists? Perhaps, man as he appears to Hamlet, noble in reason, infinite in faculty? For my part, as an atheist, I have, indeed, been living without a God. As a matter of self-respect, I don't need a God. I admit, however, that I would rather live with the goddess I love, worship, and adore. Her very presence fills my world with so much light and beauty and sanity. She never ceases to remind me of my duty and responsibility to humanity. Poch Suzara

In a Debate

The agreement or disagreement in any debate is a trivial matter compared to the conclusion from either side: what is far more important at the end of any debate is the never-ending search of the truth via our sense of curiosity, if not the promotion of a lively inquiry.
Bertrand Russell was more lucid: “It is recognized quite freely by Socrates that the sum total of what a man knows is vanishing small. What seems in the end more important is that one should pursue knowledge.” Poch Suzara

The Teachings of Jesus

Was Jesus really a kind and a lovable character? Please read Lloyd Graham, author of Deceptions and Myths of the Bible. He wrote:
“Instead of revealing to us our purpose in Creation and responsibility for our world conditions, He tells us to “take no thought” for anything, for your heavenly father knoweth your need before ye ask him” – a perfect example of that “false security” under which we lived. The statement has no literal significance whatsoever. Refuse to take thought for your own welfare and this “heavenly father” will let you starve. Take no thought for health and hygiene and you die of this “heavenly father’s” – murderous parasites. Take no thought for economic justice and you become an industrial slave. Take no thought for political justice and you have a world at war. Caring for these things is precisely our business, and in the present state of the world we see the result of leaving them to God – prayers for peace and incessant wars; wrong on the throne and right on the cross; the virtuous impoverished, the vicious enriched; our benefactors toiling alone, while the wealthy parasites loaf and play – this is “divine providence.” What we need is a little human providence: knowledge and intelligence to right these God-ordained wrongs, and a sense of values that will help our benefactors help us. In these things, God is helpless, and God’s extremity is man’s opportunity.” Poch Suzara

A Muslim and A Christian

Between a Muslim and a Christian, there is only the Muslim who sincerely believes in the existence of Allah and honestly believes in the existence of the hereafter. A Muslim could wrap dynamite around his tummy to blow himself up to kill the infidels around him. He has faith enough to believe that as a dead man, he will immediately proceed to a Muslim heaven where 72 young virgins will be waiting for him.
Oh well, why would a Christian be eager to blow himself up with dynamite to kill the unbelievers too? There is not enough incentive for him to do so. In the Christian heaven, there is only one old Virgin Mary waiting for him? Poch Suzara

Phil-American War

Excerpt from A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES by Howard Zinn:
“The fighting with the rebels began, McKinley said, when the insurrectos attacked American forces. But later, American soldiers testified that the United States had fired the first shot. After the war, an army officer speaking in Boston’s Faneuil Hall said his colonel had given him orders to provoke a conflict with the insurgents.”
“In February 1899, they rose in revolt against American rule, as they had rebelled several times against the Spanish. Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader, who had earlier been brought back from China by U.S. warships to lead soldiers against Spain, now became a leader of the insurrectos fighting the United States. He proposed Filipino independence within a U.S. protection, but this was rejected.
It took the United States three years to crush the rebellion, using 70,000 troops – four times as many as were landed in Cuba. It was a harsh war. For the Filipinos the death rate was enormous from battle casualties and from disease. . . .
William James, the Harvard philosopher, wrote a letter to the Boston Tanscript about “the cold pot grease of McKingley’s cant at the recent Boston banquet” and said the Philippines operation “reeked of the infernal adroitness of the great department store, which has reached perfect expertness in the art of killing silently, and with no public squalling or commotion, the neighboring small concerns.”
James was part of a movement of prominent American businessmen, politicians, and intellectuals who formed the Anti—Imperialist League in 1898 and carried on a long campaign to educate the American public about the horrors of the Philippine war and the evils of imperialism. It was an odd group (Andrew Carnegie belonged), including anti-labor aristocrats and scholars, united in a common moral courage at what was being done to the Filipino in the name of freedom. Whatever their differences on other matters, they would all agree with William James’s angry statement: “ God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippines Isles.” Unquote.
Today in the Philippines, we have famous columnists, such as Emil Jurado of the Manila Standard, who wrote: “Can our government ever modernize the military without American aid? Can we fight terrorism alone? Even now, US soldiers are helping the Armed Forces go against the Abu Sayyaf terrorists. So don’t give us that baloney that we can do without the Americans?”Wow!
Imagine the Filipino in this 21st century still killing fellow-Filipinos and we need the Visiting Forces Agreement to help us do the job with modern weapons Made In America! Poch Suzara

Fidel Castro

I have always admired this great man - a leader of decent men, decent women, and decent children. A rare breed, indeed, among world leaders. Castro never cared for expensive suits and neckties or expensive shoes. Never cared for expensive watch around his wrist or a diamond-studded gold chain around his neck. Never cared for silly daily shave. Never cared for wine, women, and song. Never lived in a palace. Never owned a Roll Royce or a Mercedes Benz. His security men to protect and defend his life were his own people. Far more than being an optimist or a pessimist, he was always a meliorist – one who believes words tend to become better by human action. He never amassed billions of dollars deposited in some secret account in some foreign bank. In fact, Castro cared more for knowledge and education as he was an avid reader, a deep thinker, a profound speaker, and in science and technology – he was a researcher. In religion, Castro was never devoted to the saints of God for the sake of that pie in the sky, by and by; but devoted only to his country and its people for the here and now. With much political sense, Castro reminded the world that the poor countries the US government liberated have only ended up poorer stuck in poverty rather than enjoying the legacy of prosperity. Under America for some 50 years, the Philippines is one great example of what it means to have been liberated by the US military-industrial complex. In 1946 an American president declared: “maintaining and building our preparations for war will be big business in the United States for at least a considerable period ahead.” Castro had the courage to speak out against the imbalance of world trade. He declared: “Never before has humankind had such formidable scientific and technological potential, such extraordinary capacity to produce riches and well-being, but never before have disparity and inequality been so profound in the world. The world economic order works for 20% of the population but leaves out, demeans and degrades the remaining 80%.” Castro echoed the sentiments of a bipolar world where developing countries spend $13 on debt repayment for $1 they receive in grants; have 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 a day; and 800 million people going to bed hungry. Indeed, the freedom of rich countries to get richer, and the democracy of poor countries to get poorer.Plans to kill Castro have often been organized by the CIA with blessings from the White House. They all failed as Castro enjoyed total protection from his own loved ones – the Cuban people. Thus, Castro has outlived 10 US presidents who tried to expunge his world image as a great leader of men, women, and children. To Fidel Castro: we shall never forget you. In the centuries to come, decent people everywhere will continue to have the greatest admiration for you as a great man - one who has had the courage to put beauty into Cuban affairs where the US government has only put the horrors of political creed as inspired by industrial greed. We, decent people throughout the world, salute you con amor y besos y abrazos. Poch Suzara Poch

The Bible Says

Love not this world, neither the things that are in the world. John 2:15. For heaven's sake where else do we find neighbors to love as also commanded in the same bible? Obviously, there is little love in our world because we have more passion for divinity than we have compassion for humanity. Poch Suzara

US 'Could be Going Bankrupt'

US 'could be going bankrupt'
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
(Filed: 14/07/2006)


The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank.

A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.

Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked.

According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed, bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who, in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various kinds''.

The budget deficit in the US is not massive. The Bush administration this week cut its forecasts for the fiscal shortfall this year by almost a third, saying it will come in at 2.3pc of gross domestic product. This is smaller than most European countries - including the UK - which have deficits north of 3pc of GDP.

Prof Kotlikoff, who teaches at Boston University, says: "The proper way to consider a country's solvency is to examine the lifetime fiscal burdens facing current and future generations. If these burdens exceed the resources of those generations, get close to doing so, or simply get so high as to preclude their full collection, the country's policy will be unsustainable and can constitute or lead to national bankruptcy.

"Does the United States fit this bill? No one knows for sure, but there are strong reasons to believe the United States may be going broke."

Experts have calculated that the country's long-term "fiscal gap" between all future government spending and all future receipts will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and Smetters.

The figure is massive because President George W Bush has made major tax cuts in recent years, and because the bill for Medicare, which provides health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid, which does likewise for the poor, will increase greatly due to demographics.

Prof Kotlikoff said: "This figure is more than five times US GDP and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap one's head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying. One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc."

The scenario has serious implications for the dollar. If investors lose confidence in the US's future, and suspect the country may at some point allow inflation to erode away its debts, they may reduce their holdings of US Treasury bonds.

Prof Kotlikoff said: "The United States has experienced high rates of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries over the past century."

Paul Ashworth, of Capital Economics, was more sanguine about the coming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. "For a start, the expected deterioration in the Federal budget owes more to rising per capita spending on health care than to changing demographics," he said.

"This can be contained if the political will is there. Similarly, the expected increase in social security spending can be controlled by reducing the growth rate of benefits. Expecting a fix now is probably asking too much of short-sighted politicians who have no incentives to do so. But a fix, or at least a succession of patches, will come when the problem becomes more pressing."

Comment: It looks like the terrorists in America are succeeding. It is frightening to realize, however, the terrorists are home-grown. These morons otherwise more know as Republicans and Democrats have been installed in our government since 50 years to destroy the United States of America. Poch Suzara

Western Civilization

The values of Western civilization have always been conceptually beautiful; except for the ugly historical fact that rich countries of the Western civilization always enjoyed the freedom to become richer; and poor countries of the Western civilization always enjoyed the democracy to become poorer. Poch Suzara

Watching The Economy Crumble

August, 2005 Good News! Soon You'll No Longer Need an Expensive College Education to Work in the US. Watching the Economy Crumble By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS. The US continues its descent into the Third World, but you would never know it from news reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July payroll jobs release. The media gives a bare bones jobs report that is misleading. The public heard that 207,000 jobs were created in July. If not a reassuring figure, at least it is not a disturbing one. On the surface things look to be pretty much OK. It is when you look into the composition of these jobs that the concern arises. Of the new jobs, 26,000 (about 13%) are tax-supported government jobs. That leaves 181,000 private sector jobs. Of these private sector jobs, 177,000, or 98%, are in the domestic service sector. Here is the breakdown of the major categories: 30,000 food servers and bar tenders; 28,000 health care and social assistance: 12,000 real estate; 6,000 credit intermediation; 8,000 transit and ground passenger transportation; 50,000 retail trade; and 8,000 wholesale trade. (There were 7,000 construction jobs, most of which were filled by Mexicans immigrants.) Not a single one of these jobs produces a tradable good or service that can be exported or serve as an import substitute to help reduce the massive and growing US trade deficit. The US economy is employing people to sell things, to move people around, and to serve them fast food and alcoholic beverages. The items may have an American brand name, but they are mainly made off shore. For example, 70% of Wal-Mart’s goods are made in China. Where are the jobs for the 65,000 engineers the US graduates each year? Where are the jobs for the physics, chemistry, and math majors? Who needs a university degree to wait tables and serve drinks, to build houses, to work as hospital orderlies, bus drivers, and sales clerks? In the 21st century job growth in the US economy has consistently reflected that of a Third World country--low productivity domestic services jobs. This goes on month after month and no one catches on--least of all the economists and the policymakers. Economists assume that every high productivity, high paying job that is shipped out of the country is a net gain for America. We are getting things cheaper, they say. Perhaps, for a while, until the dollar goes. What the cheaper goods argument overlooks are the reductions in the productivity and pay of employed Americans and in the manufacturing, technical, and scientific capability of the US economy. What is the point of higher education when the job opportunities in the economy do not require it? These questions are too difficult for economists, politicians, and newscasters. Instead, we hear that “last month the US economy created 207,000 jobs.” Television has an inexhaustible supply of optimistic economists. Last weekend CNN had John Rutledge (erroneously billed as the person who drafted President Reagan’s economic program) explaining that the strength of the US economy was “mom and pop businesses.” The college student with whom I was watching the program broke out laughing. What mom and pop businesses? Everything that used to be mom and pop businesses has been replaced with chains and discount retailers. Auto parts stores are chains, pharmacies are chains, restaurants are chains. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowes, have destroyed hardware stores, clothing stores, appliance stores, building supply stores, gardening shops, whatever--you name it. Just try starting a small business today. Most gasoline station/convenience stores seem to be the property of immigrant ethnic groups who acquired them with the aid of a taxpayer-financed US government loan. Today a mom and pop business is a cleaning service that employs Mexicans, a pool service, a lawn service, or a limo service. In recent years the US economy has been kept afloat by low interest rates. The low interest rates have fueled a real estate boom. As housing prices rise, people refinance their mortgages, take equity out of their homes and spend the money, thus keeping the consumer economy going. The massive American trade and budget deficits are covered by the willingness of Asian countries, principally Japan and China, to hold US government bonds and to continue to acquire ownership of America’s real assets in exchange for their penetration of US markets. This game will not go on forever. When it stops, what is left to drive the US economy? Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yaoo.com Dear Paul Craig Roberts: A great many thanks for your piece on WATCHING THE ECONOMY CRUMBLE I recently discovered in Google. Nowadays, it is next to impossible to find honest Americans dealing with so much American political lies and religious falsehoods. Either we just continue to kid ourselves or we just continue to believe that the USA will still be a superpower in the centuries to come. Perhaps, only with weapons of mass destruction, not weapons to install peace and goodwill to all men on this earth. Recently, I read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. It is first time I have come across an American historian so honest and truthful. I wish we had more and more Americans like you and like Howard Zinn. Please, dear Mr. Roberts, please keep up the good work and more power to you. It is precisely great men like you that may yet save the USA from totally falling apart as a nation as it is, indeed, crumbling for no reason at all except for local stupidity on the hand, and on the other hand for global insanity. With your kind permission, I am publishing your WATCHING THE ECONOMY CRUMBLE in my blog. With all good wishes, Poch Suzara, Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines. (PERMISSION GRANTED Dec. 29,2006)

Philippine-American War

Excerpt from A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES by Howard Zinn. Mindless and heartless Americans – read on:
“The fighting with the rebels began, McKinley said, when the insurrectos attacked American forces. But later, American soldiers testified that the United States had fired the first shot. After the war, an army officer speaking in Boston’s Faneuil Hall said his colonel had given him orders to provoke a conflict with the insurgents.”
“In February 1899, they rose in revolt against American rule, as they had rebelled several times against the Spanish. Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader, who had earlier been brought back from China by U.S. warships to lead soldiers against Spain, now became a leader of the insurrectos fighting the United States. He proposed Filipino independence within a U.S. protection, but this was rejected.
It took the United States three years to crush the rebellion, using 70,000 troops – four times as many as were landed in Cuba. It was a harsh war. For the Filipinos the death rate was enormous from battle casualties and from disease. . . .
William James, the Harvard philosopher, wrote a letter to the Boston Tanscript about “the cold pot grease of McKingley’s cant at the recent Boston banquet” and said the Philippines operation “reeked of the infernal adroitness of the great department store, which has reached perfect expertness in the art of killing silently, and with no public squalling or commotion, the neighboring small concerns.”
James was part of a movement of prominent American businessmen, politicians, and intellectuals who formed the Anti—Imperialist League in 1898 and carried on a long campaign to educate the American public about the horrors of the Philippine war and the evils of imperialism. It was an odd group (Andrew Carnegie belonged), including anti-labor aristocrats and scholars, united in a common moral courage at what was being done to the Filipino in the name of freedom. Whatever their differences on other matters, they would all agree with William James’s angry statement: “ God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippines Isles.” Poch Suzara

Necessary Evil

The trouble with the concept of necessary evil is that it is often more evil than it is necessary. Take for example, killing people. It is an evil. But killing people in God’s name is not necessary; it is stupidity as inspired by religious insanity. Poch Suzara

Biblical Laws of Rape

If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her. Deuteronomy 22:28-29
What kind of a monster would command a rape victim marry her attacker? Answer: God. And to think that the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines, in this day and age, still insist that rape cases are mostly caused by women flaunting their bodies to men. Poch Suzara

Street children

Hundreds of thousands, nay, millions of street children exist under subhuman conditions in this only Christian country in Asia. They live off garbage and trash in the streets of our major cities. The religious morons continue to distribute the holy bible messages to these miserable pieces of humanity. As if the mothers and fathers of these street children ( who are also created in the image and likeness of God ) should still believe in the bible message that says on this earth God loves men, women and children and will provide for them. What a crock of biblical hogwash. In the meantime, we have religious clowns pretending to be economists who says that we can export some of our successful solutions to poverty, like the Gawad Kalinga of the Couples for Christ and Workers Cooperatives for contractual services like farm workers, security guards and retail workers. . . The Philippines should share its NGO solutions to the poverty problem with China.” As I have written before, WOW! Philippines. Poch Suzara

Terrible Sight To See

It is a terrible sight to see: - strong and healthy grown-up men and women falling on their knees praying to the Lord for the forgiveness of their sins and crimes. They take attention away from the Almighty who is also trying to listen to the prayers of hungry children, the weak and the poor, the sick and the dying, not to mention the mediocre victims of religious insanity in the Philippines. In the meantime, in God’s kingdom is the power of love. In the devil’s kingdom is the power of hate. In man’s kingdom, however, is the power of timidity. Combined the three kingdoms together and they each add up to the kingdom of universal stupidity. Poch Suzara

The War Against Poverty

The trouble with the war against poverty is that there seems to be no end to it. Human misery is never defeated. In fact, thanks to the pretentious drama of the rich Filipinos waging a so-called war against poverty – poor people throughout the Philippines are multiplying and replenishing at the rate of almost two million babies a year. Thanks to Catholic teachings in our schools, such as: “blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.” I said it before, I say it again: it is time, for the sake of the economy, and especially for the sake of social sanity, that we should, instead, wage a war not against poverty, but a war against the teachings that maintains the wealth, power, and glory of Christianity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

The Formula

Here’s the best formula for human stupidity to last as long as infinity: always be satisfied with your opinion about anything. Always be proud of what you already know so dearly. Never change your mind. Do not bother to learn anything new. In other words, do not think! Do not read! Do not ask intelligent questions; just be contented with the stupid answers. Just continue to believe what your religious teachers frightened you to believe when you were a little boy or a little girl in school.Indeed, never mind intellectual honesty; just have faith in divinity. If, at your age today, you are still frightened by such sacred lies, then you might as well also admit that you are a religious as well as a superstitious - believer devoid of a precious mentality, if not bereft of human dignity. Poch Suzara

Courage

Courage is not needed in the struggle against non-existing entity like the one called Divine Grace. On the contrary, courage is precisely needed in the struggle to attain health and wealth and happiness, here and now, for the Human Race.Poch Suzara

Jesus Admonished

Sell all you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven. I ask: If what truly matters were only treasures in heaven, what do the poor gain from those who have given them? The misery of the poor is not due to the laws of nature. It is due to faith. Indeed, the silly faith that never ceases to preach: - blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the kingdom of God. In the meantime, both the rich and the poor alike all want to go to heaven. Nobody, however, wants to die. Poch Suzara

Filipino Education

What is wrong with our teachers in school and our professors in college? Don’t these professionals recognize the most urgent problems of our country – food, energy, population explosion, the filth and poverty, resources, ecology, climate, the problem of the aged, the backwardness of our cities and provinces, the need for productive, rewarding work – can never be resolved with the same recycled prayers said daily by our politicians in government? The same cheap politicians, like Marcos and his cronies then, who stole the Philippine government away from the Filipino people?
During Martial Law years, Marcos got to be a dictator. He was installed as our ruler. He was morally and financially supported by the military-industrial-university complex of the USA. Among the most prominent of his enemies were Max Soliven and Ninoy Aquino. Both jailed by Marcos, they nevertheless became famous for their anti-Marcos activities. To think that the enemies of Marcos were the same men and women who were products of the same system of education that Marcos himself enjoyed too during his academic years in the Philippines. The same system of education that is always maintained and sustained by the powers-that-be to keep our society stagnant under mediocrity rather than be developing with freedom under science and technology. Indeed, in this only Christian country in Asia, our leaders die not for love of country, but for love and faith in Jesus. The same Jesus who was born not in the Philippines, but supposedly born in a Jewish town in Israel some two thousand years ago that today is not even a Christian country. Poch Suzara

Merry Christmas

For this Christmas, I invite my relatives to please give not our children toys that are deadly and destructive. Instead, we should give them values to read; especially provocative ideas and beliefs that are both lively and constructive. In this way, our children will all grow up to celebrate the birth of social sanity, and no longer be celebrating the birth anniversary of a Jewish baby supposedly born in a Jewish town in Israel some 2,000 years ago that today is not even a Christian country.
In fact, for this Christmas, I highly recommend that you all read a great book: - WHY CHRISTIANITY MUST CHANGE OR DIE by Bishop John Shelby Spong. He clearly explained how religion today is tearing itself apart externally as it collapses internally.
As an atheist, I greatly admire Bishop John Spong; especially for his intellectual courage. Indeed, he had the courage to openly admit: “I have no interest in a system of rewards and punishments. I do not see the purpose of life after death to be that of motivating behavior in the here and now. I can live without sense of heaven as a place of reward or hell as a place of punishment.” Poch Suzara

Atheistic Contribution

The greatest contribution to the cause of atheism any atheist can make is to declare himself an atheist; especially to the community of believers at large. Proudly and happily, I have made such a contribution. In fact, more than I care to count, I have often publicly declared to the world at large that, just like each and every one else, I too was born an atheist, and that I have no need to promise that one day, whether I like it or not, whether you like it or not, I will die as an atheist too. Indeed, what beliefs could any one hold or what disbeliefs could any one embrace after death? Unless of course you are still silly enough to believe that a silly divinity has gifted you with a silly soul that will enjoy immortality as endless as the infinity of human stupidity? Poch Suzara

Blood Is Thicker Than Water

Blood is thicker than water. Not, however, in the Philippines. Not a single one of the blood relatives of Rizal, ( even up to this 21st century ) stood up to defend this great man’s high moral character as a Filipino, or stood up to defend his deep scientific intellect as an Asian. Just like all of my timid friends and relatives, they too have been duly frightened by the threats of hell-fire as taught to them to believe by the silly priesthood industry for the glory of social and political insanity in this God-forsaken country. Poch Suzara

A Korean Executive

Says he is very optimistic about the future of the Philippine economy because of the rich natural resources and beautiful tourism destinations.
For my part, I should wish to share that optimism with Min Byung-il, Korean professor and editor. However, in view of the same traditional stuff still taught to our children in our schools, colleges, and universities – that there is a better world to come after death – indeed, the teaching of silly, if not stupid theology – the Philippines in the modern world of science and technology will continue to remain in the backwaters of Asia especially in the race for growth as a people and maturity as a nation. Poch Suzara

Shuffling Ideas and Beliefs

Each time I shuffle ideas and beliefs, I can’t help but experience philosophical orgasm. Each time, however, I find myself shuffling a deck of cards playing poker with my highly educated Catholic friends, I feel like experiencing some sort of a mediocre spasm. Poch Suzara

Useless Prayer

Many people still pray. From infancy to senility they continue to believe in the power of prayer. Unfortunately, God - the Father, could not answer the prayer of God - the Son. Indeed, Jesus, crucified on the cross, prayed out loud: My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well, why couldn’t Jesus as a God himself, answer His own prayer? Jesus was obviously just bragging to high heavens when He declared: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Poor Jesus, the Son of God, a bunch of superstitious primitives ( created in the image and likeness of His Father God ) managed to get Jesus crucified on a piece of wood? John 14:6. Poch Suzara

Jesus in Islam

Here’s a clear example of what most religious believers know not what exactly they are talking about: - “People have committed horrible atrocities in the name of Jesus Christ, from the inquisitions to the slaying of abortionists. However, it is my position that it is not possible to justify these actions from the teachings of Christ Himself. Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus teach that one should kill for the sake of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God, or to defend the honor of Jesus Himself.”
Please open your bible and read carefully the following verses. And if you still believe that such verses have ever inspired peace on earth and goodwill to all men, then my dear reader, what hopes have we for local peace under global tranquility as inspired by religious insanity?
Matt. 10:34-35 “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.”

Luke 14:26 “ 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 19:27 “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them for me.”

Now please open the holy Koran. It clearly says that anybody who believes that Jesus was divine—as all real Catholics must—will spend eternity in hell (Koran 5:71-75; 19:30-38).

The Catholic Pope recently admitted that he has the highest respect for Islam. What a sanctimonious booboo. It is like admitting that he has the highest respect for what’s written in the Koran – the bible of Islam. A pontifical hogwash, I dare say! Poch Suzara

Our Newspaper Editors

They easily turn to lies and falsehoods according to the wishes of profiteering newspaper publishers because they fear losing their employment. They go against their own convictions and pervert the truth in order to sell more garbage for the readers to believe in as something sacred or trustworthy. They create spectacular fairy tales with their pens. Mostly recycled gimcrackery that continue to poison our sense of humanity. Indeed, the print media in the Philippines has more to do with the dead uniformity of beliefs than it should be about lively ideas flowing in and out of the free market of ideas. Poch Suzara

Exams for US Citizenship

It is the easiest of written and oral test. Any stupid boy of 10 can correctly answer all the mediocre questions asked by a US Immigration official before he can duly qualify you to become a naturalized citizen of the USA. As a matter of fact, it is not important to be a well-informed American citizen anywhere in America. What’s important, however, is to be a member of either the Republican party or the Democratic party – both as one and the same old political party that have remained always in power and in charge of the government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich in America. Poch Suzara

The History of the USA

Most Americans do not know that Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah use to be part of Mexico. During the Mexican-American war, we murdered Mexicans on their own soil and grabbed their land away from them to widen US territories. Indeed, we were neither happy nor contented with the land we grabbed away from the American Indians. We needed parts of Mexico too. Trouble is, most Americans are only familiar, if at all, with conservative history written by conservative American historians. Thereby depriving themselves of the real history of the United States and its people. Well, understandably, most Americans feel more at home with conservatism. Bertrand Russell said it: “None of the higher mental processes are required for conservatism.” In the meantime, poverty among Mexican people today is sad and pathetic. But if you refuse to see it from historical context, you will never appreciate the thought that the truth is always beautiful; but historical lies are always despicable. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

A Political Scientist

Here’s political scientist named Henry Kissinger, who once proudly declared: “With proper tactics, nuclear war need not be as destructive as it appears.” What a stupid thing to declare! Kissinger himself had the greatest admiration for another silly fellow named Herman Kahn, who wrote a book called, ON THERMONUCLEAR WAR, in which Kahn explained that “it was possible to have a nuclear war without total destruction of the world, that people should not be so frightened of it.” These misguided fools, like most stupid fools in charge of the US government, have successfully kept the USA backward in the movement for world peace and global harmony.
Here, however, are the words from Bertrand Russell, a real scientist, and the greatest among the 20th century philosophers and mathematicians. In his letter to the editor of New York Times in May 25,1955, he wrote:
“Sir, It has just come to my notice that in your issue of May 19 you say that I celebrate my birthday “by renewing his demand for a ban on hydrogen bomb”. This is not accurate. I consider that a ban on the hydrogen bomb would do very little since it would be disregarded in the event of a major war. What I demand is a more difficult thing: a ban on war. The world has to realize that, whatever agreements may be concluded, a serous war probably means the end of the human race. Is it worth it? Yours faithfully, Bertrand Russell. Poch Suzara

Happy Turkey Day

It's that time of year to thank the Indians for teaching the Pilgrims how to survive in the New World and then breaking their treaties, stealing their land and slaughtering them.
It is also that time of the year to thank the African slaves who worked for free in America for some 250 years especially on states called California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah, etc that our American government grabbed away from the government of Mexico.
In the meantime, as Howard Zinn wrote in his: - People’s History of the United States: “We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources we coveted by our multinational corporations. That hatred we have sown has come back to us in the form of terrorism… Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so we can have the oil under their sand, we should send them to rebuild their infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed starving children … In short, we should do good instead of evil. Who would try to stop us? Who would hate? Who would want to bomb us? That is the truth the American people need to be hear.” Poch Suzara

The US Constitution

Imagine the contents of the US constitution to have included not only the life of the indigenous people and the African Americans, and also included, specially, the women and children. What would the United States of America be today where all American citizens enjoy equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Indeed, the majority of the citizens of the USA have no economic power, and therefore they neither enjoy nor possess political power such as those of the rich minority in America?
Of course, under great pretense and drama, as in the Preamble to the Constitution, it is “we, the people” who wrote that document, and not the fifty-five wealthy elites, racists, white, chauvinists, slave-owners whose class interest required a strong central government. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Langdon, Gilman, Gorham, King, Johnson, Sherman, Patterson, Dayton, Morris, Butler, et al – the Founding fathers of America had nothing to do with the establishment of freedom and democracy for the rest throughout the continent. In fact, the people did not even know that the US constitution was being written. The establishment of the United States of America was more about the hidden promotion of plutocracy, if not the protection of oligarchy – the government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.
In his People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn wrote: “That use of government for class purposes, to serve the needs of the wealthy and the powerful, has continued throughout American history, down to the present day. It is disguised by language that suggests all of us - rich and poor and middle class – have a common interest.” Poch Suzara

The USA

There is not an iota of doubt that the United States of America has ruled the world during the past 100 years. And if you look at the state of our world – its poverty, misery, hunger, squalor, diseases, malnutrition, and the slum areas throughout the world – there is only the United States of America to blame. Indeed, America is a nation mostly populated by wealthy families - the greedy, the selfish, the stupid, and the insane. Not contented with the continent their families have, by conquest, stolen away from the Indigenous people, they must also own and control the rest of the natural resources of the world. The US military-industrial-university complex owns and controls such natural resources in foreign countries. For my part, I am utterly ashamed to be called American. As there is, however, only one race in this world, called the human race, I’d rather consider myself as one decent member of the human race. Poch Suzara

John Blanchard

In his book entitled HAS SCIENCE GOT RID OF GOD, John Blanchard writes: “Atheism’s creed is clear and cruel: we began as a fluke, we live as a farce, and we end as fertilizer.”
Obviously, this religiously blind follower does not read the contents of his own holy bible: “Thou art dust and to dust shalt thou return.” Gen. 3:19. What could be more of a fluke, a farce, and fertilizer than it is to be a piece of dust? Indeed, we live on a planet so tiny in that one million planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun. And the sun itself also comparatively so small in that 500 of our suns can be easily swallowed in one gulp by a bigger star called “Betelguese.”
But Blanchard also writes: “Strictly speaking, nobody is an atheist.” What a poor sap this Blanchard! He has yet to go and visit hospitals. Mothers have not ceased delivering babies that are strictly born atheists each and every day of the years. In fact 3 atheist babies are born each and every single second of the day and night somewhere in the world.
For my part, I am happy and proud to be born an atheist. I do not believe in the existence of a supernatural being called “God.” And if such a God exists, I do not care to love, worship, or adore such a supernatural monster!
Frightened teachers taught me to believe in God when I was a little boy in school. I believe teachers who are themselves victims of fright can never teach the truth. In the meantime, it is not the business of science to get rid of non-existing Beings. Religion has already done more than enough to prove that God does not exist by hating other religions. I rest my case! Poch Suzara, chairman, High-School Dropout Association of the Philippines.

Religious Enterprises

Mike Velarde is now a billionaire. Each and every week, a large crowd of El Shaddai followers have been buying, what Mike Velarde has been selling: Jesus. This has been going on since twenty years ago. Imagine the hundreds of billions more that is the worth of Manalo’s Iglesia Ni Cristo selling to its faithful followers the same Jesus since a hundred years ago. Now imagine the vast wealth and power of the Catholic Church in a wider and bigger control of religion in the Philippines selling the same Jesus to millions of Filipinos every single day since five hundred years ago. And to think that these religious enterprises are able to stay profitable and successful as a business by nurturing fear and by catering to human ignorance. Also by promising that better life to come after death with God in heaven. And to think further that even our frightened newspaper editors and frightened columnists have not ceased assisting these religious leaders make tons of money by selling Jesus in the Philippines - the only Christian country in Asia. Poch Suzara

God’s Existence

It’s a good thing God is omni-absent. Otherwise, if God were omni-present, He would obviously be such a totally useless God. Look at the perpetual state of our world with God producing and directing its terrible daily mess year in and year out. Forget free will. It arrived too late. After all, God created the world in the beginning and then created free will in the end. What a messy set of divine priorities. And to think that the frightened theologians have assured us that that God is not only All-knowing, but also all-powerful! Poch Suzara

God’s Holy Bible

How wonderful of God to have inspired authors to write the holy bible.
How dreadful of God, however, not to have also inspired readers to read the holy bible. Indeed, most believers, followers, worshippers, and defenders of the faith have no knowledge whatsoever about what’s written in the Old and in the New Testament. They are just told that the bible is the holy word of God and therefore there is no need to read the holy book. Just listen to the holy word of the holy priest and your next holy life in the hereafter is guaranteed in the eternal holy paradise. Poch Suzara

Taxes

Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” Tax monies are indeed needed to pay for the salaries of the US Armed Forces; especially for the US Marines. They continue to keep the Black African Americans and the indigenous peoples of America to play no part in the so-called white American civilized society. Poch Suzara

Sadly in the Philippines

Democracy is not our only failure. We, ourselves, are also the failures and indeed, the losers. We ignored to educate ourselves. We forgot to develop our minds and hearts when we made ourselves independent and sovereign. We thought there was power in democracy; but now it is obvious, there is only power in theocracy. Indeed, in this 21st century, the majority of poor Filipinos without jobs nor a future are still occupied enjoying the freedom to pray to God to “give us this day our daily bread.” While the rich Filipinos are enjoying the freedom to pray to God to “Lead us not into temptation.” What has been the result of all these wonderful prayers to God? Millions of Filipino children living under subhuman conditions in the streets of our major cities. And they are taught to believe that God is all so merciful, so loving and so wonderful. Poch Suzara

Robin Hood in Government

We are told that there are a few officials in our government who are not really all that evil because they are like Robin Hood: One who stole money from the rich and gave it to the poor. This is really corruption at its height because, in the first place, Robin Hood never run for government office; and, in the second place, Robin Hood never enriched himself by stealing from the rich. He gave all the loot to the poor. He never gave a cut of the loot for himself. Robin Hood died a poor man. He never left behind tons of monies in the bank for his stupid sons and stupid daughters to carry on human stupidity as the rich traditional way of life. Poch Suzara

Question Everything

A freethinker is a person who forms his or her own opinion about religion independent of tradition, authority, or established belief. A Freethinker rejects dogmas and creeds. Upon weighing the evidence of religious tenets put forth by others, he rejects the supernatural and rely more on logic, if not with mathematics.
This is all fine and dandy. I have met freethinkers, however, who could not entertain doubts about what the US government is doing with bombs, death, and destruction in foreign countries like in Iraq today. The US government there with bullets and bombs converting the Muslim theocracy into a Christian democracy for the sake of the growth and expansion of the American economy.
For my part, as a freethinker, I question everything. Be it religion and the church, politics and government. I also question education and the university. After all, there is no such animal as the finality in human affairs; or, for that matter, the last word in the scientific search of the truth. If we must evolve as freethinkers and as truth-seekers, we should not shy away from questioning not only our catechism, but also our liberalism, patriotism, capitalism, communism, terrorism or whatever isms there are existing that keep our world drunk with lies and deceits on the one hand, and, on the other hand, sick with illusions and delusions. Poch Suzara

Sam Harris

I truly enjoyed reading Sam Harris’ book – THE END OF FAITH. As a man devoid of faith myself I now am wondering what will happen to my own book soon to be published entitled: THE BEGINNING OF FAITH? It is mostly about, to begin with, how faith gave birth to human stupidity here, gave growth to human stupidity there, and gave development to human stupidity everywhere. And to think the freethinkers of this world have not stopped praising Sam Harris’ book – as if human stupidity were not anymore the very stuff comprising infinity under the inspiration of divinity. Poch Suzara

Thou Shalt Not Covet

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife is a silly command. What if it is your wife who covets the next door neighbor wife specially when her husband is in church praying to God for peace on earth and goodwill to all men? Poch Suzara

Religion and Music

We are told that music and religion are the same in that it brings all the joys, if not all the moral virtues to the heart it enters. This conclusion, I say, is nothing but pure gimcrackery. Music never killed any one. On the other hand, religion has inspired people not only to slaughter each other for the glory of God, but has even inspired nations to wage war against the other nations for the sake of spreading the Word of God. Poch Suzara

What BRAIN DRAIN Problem Have WE

There are more than 20 million Filipinos ( mostly Filipinas ) with college education who are working today as skilled laborers and professionals in more than 190 foreign countries. They could not be educated enough to be self-employed. They could not be educated enough to develop the agricultural enterprises. They could not be educated enough to exploit the trillion of dollars worth of natural resources, such as our mining products, to help the Philippines grow into a healthy society and develop into a wealthy nation, especially with the help of science and technology. Indeed, we could not even to be educated enough to seriously practice family planning and birth control measures to curtail the spread of poverty in this God-forsaken brain-drained country of ours. In the meantime, isn't it silly to believe that the so-called "BRAIN DRAIN" is such a difficult problem to solve in the Philippines? To begin with, what BRAIN DRAIN are you people talking about? what brain have we in the schools, colleges, and universities more referred to as "teachers," and "professors?" What brain have we in the churches and cathedrals more referred to as "priests, nuns, bishops, and cardinals?" What brain have we in the courts of law more referred to as "lawyers and judges?" What brain have we in the military more referred to as "generals and commodores?" What brain have we in the government more referred to as "barangay captains, mayors, governors, congressmen, senators, vice-president, and president?"

Mathematics and Politics

“Mathematics,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.”
Nevertheless, I wish we had more mathematicians in government than we have politicians. Politicians always pretend to know what they are always talking about. They do not even know if the promises they made during the last election have already been delivered. They do know, however, that by making new promises, they will succeed winning in the upcoming election. And that is how stupid we all are in not knowing any better the kind of men that are installed to run our government. Poch Suzara

We Filipinos

If we could only begin accept the reality that God does not exist and therefore cannot provide – we Filipinos could begin to provide for ourselves and develop our own country not only to be the happiest and healthiest, but also to be the wealthiest country in Asia today. But then again, what do we really care about the sick condition of our country since we have been taught to believe that there is a better world to come after death with God in the next life? Meanwhile, death is only another filthy manifestation of the absurdity of human existence in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Pinoys and Pinays

Millions of Pinoys without jobs and without a future are still in the habit of praying to God to “give us this day our daily bread.” In order to contribute also to the population explosion, millions of Pinays too pray daily to God to “lead us not into temptation.”
These are the same college-educated dummies who are more involved with corrupt politics married to corrupt religion that keep the Philippines rotten economically, rotten morally, and rotten socially. Consider the Philippines hopeless in a rotten foreign debt. And yet, it can afford to regularly conduct expensive military exercises together with the US Visiting Forces to be ready to fight its Asian neighbors, but more so to be prepared to kill fellow-Filipinos. Of course, we do not think of those who have already killed as Fellow-Filipinos struggling to survive in the provinces. We give them more dramatic description like “Islamic militants” or “communist insurgents.” Poch Suzara

White Supremacy

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.
What a crock of biblical lies. If God so loved the world, he would not have begotten a white Son to inspire the US government especially the White House of President George W Bush to keep the world drunk with white supremacy. Poch Suzara

Change the World

No doubt, it is not possible to change the world. It is possible, however, to embarrass those gang of thugs, nay, homicidal maniacs who still have faith that foreign countries endowed with rich natural resources must be liberated for the sake of their freedom and democracy. Poch Suzara

Which God

I am told that: “We inhabit a universe vaster than human comprehension, older than human wanderings, more wondrous than human conception. And in the face of that, we do the natural thing. We ask questions and seek answers. That's not a denial of God. It is evidence of Him.”
I entirely agree. However, I ask: evidence of which God? There are so many of them, not to mention a goddess! In the meantime, the whole of mankind is still in its diapers sucking on a security lollipop called God. For my part, I thank God I am an atheist. Poch Suzara

Believers in the USA

More than half of the American population believe Jesus is in heaven and that he will return to earth 50 years from now. This is a lesser tragedy. The greater tragedy, however, is that the candidates for the US Congress of both houses are derived mostly from these group of faithful believers in Jesus. They call themselves Republicans, or as the case may be - Democrats. Precisely the kind of people who need to believe. They do not care to find out or to know which is the exact opposite. Indeed, the kind of people who want a democracy, but do not care for the real values of liberty. Meanwhile, declare yourself liberated from theism and you could not land a job in the USA. Not even employed as a gofer in the White House. According to President George Bush senior, atheists are not patriots. Hell, they are not even citizens of the United States as America is one nation under God. Which God? Of course, the God known as the Almighty Dollar. Poch Suzara

White God

As a little boy at home and in school I was never taught to believe that God is black or brown or yellow or a red God. No, God is a white God. Jesus, the Son of God, is a white Son. Mary is the white Mother of God and Joseph the white husband of Mary. Even the inspired authors of the bible were all white men. As I alarmingly saw, however, how this world is getting more and more drunk with white supremacy, I slowly began to embrace the values of Atheism – its tranquility, its beauty, and its sanity. Poch Suzara

Jose Rizal

Think of it: If, just before he was executed by the order of Catholic Spanish friars, Rizal retracted from his series of attacks against the abuses of the church, Rizal could have been the first saint the Catholic Philippines ever canonized. After all, in the sainthood roster, virtually all of the saints of the church were first sinners, and then in the end found themselves kneeling down before the power of God, a.k.a. the Roman Catholic Church. For my part, after I am dead and I meet with God, this is what I will say: “God, when will you stop bragging about your supernatural power? Please go and visit the Philippines. Please God, see for yourself just exactly how, during these past five hundred years, Christianity has kept the Filipino mindless as a people still stuck under your divine wisdom; and has kept the Philippines heartless as a nation still stuck under your divine guidance.” In the meantime, we Filipinos could have been 500 years ahead of our time if it hadn't been for the Catholic Church dragging science and human dignity down the drain and executing our best thinkers by musketry like it did our Dr. Jose Rizal. A Filipino who wrote: “be careful, choose well, for this world is full of deceit, and deceivers” - cannot be anything but a great thinker. Rizal, indeed, was the greatest Filipino thinker. He had the courage to introduce social sanity in our society where the Catholic religion has only given birth to social stupidity. Poch Suzara

HISTORY

If we could only learn from history, it need not repeat itself. But since we do not even want to learn from the history of our own country, why should we want to learn from the history of the world? Before he died at the age of 98, struggling for human decency during most of long life, Bertrand Russell admonished: “One must care about the world one will never see.” Poch Suzara

What I love about America

In the present, I have the greatest love for all the cats and dogs in America. In a nuclear war, unfortunately, these house pets will all be reduced into cinders. And to think that no can accuse these animals of terrorism; or, for being a Republican or a Democrat creating not jobs for every American as the primary purpose of the US economy, but creating markets in foreign countries to buy “Made in America” weapons for war, death, and destruction. Only to prove that the USA is the one and only superpower among nations of the world.
Meanwhile, there is no greater crime than to scare mothers and fathers enough to send their sons off to war that need not be waged because there never was no real threat to begin with. To all you US soldiers fighting in Iraq today – you are all better off going home to your wives and children or to your mothers and fathers. Please stop fighting for and in behalf of the homicidal maniacs in charge of our government. It is no longer our government. It has already been stolen away from us – the American people – decades ago. Poch Suzara