A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

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

Letter to TIME MAGAZINE

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

Rizal, the first Flipino Humanist

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

Rizal's Unfinished Revolution in our country

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

Lies About Rizal

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

Rizal and the Spanish Friars

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

Rizal A Great Thinker

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

Rizal's Enemies

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

A Century After Rizal's Death

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

Rizal The Humanist

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

Rizal's Threat to the Friars

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

Rizal's Education

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

Rizal Versus Jesus

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

Rizal's College Years

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

The Shame in Rizal's Life

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

Rizal's Biographer

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

Rizal's Revolution of the Mind

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

Rizal's Retraction

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

Our Asian Neighbors

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

JESUS CHRIST part 2

MORE ON JESUS CHRIST ( part two )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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