The Ability to Think

Man’s stupidity is mostly due to, if from his infinite capacity to believe the incredible, the gullible, and indeed, to believe the inspired authors of the infallible. On the other hand, the ability to think is basic to what it means to be human. It is also the case that to think freely is basic to a free life. It is sad, however, that so much of human thinking is controlled by religious, political, and other social forces based upon a charade of sacred lies, if not a parade of holy deceptions. Poch Suzara

A Stupid Man

A stupid man who never experienced the thought that he might be stupid will enjoy the security of his stupidity for the rest of eternity. There is no hope for him. But if it sometimes occurred to him that he might be stupid, then there is every opportunity to resurrect his sick mind to make it functional as any healthy mind should be operational. Indeed, a stupid man remains stupid for as long as he remains consistently afraid to entertain new and fresh ideas from the free market of ideas. Poch Suzara

Measured Against Time and Space

Human life on this earth is but a wink of an eye in time. We also live on a speck of dust in an infinity of worlds in space. And to think that an invisible God without a beginning and without an end created little visible parasites called man in his own image and likeness on this earth. Poch Suzara

9/11

9/11 was not caused by the sins of feminists, gays, and lesbians as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson had both publicly declared. On the contrary, the total destruction of the World Trade Center was caused by the sins of the rotten politicians in cahoots with the crimes of rotten businessmen as blessed by those in charge of rotten organized religions keeping our world traditionally embroiled in hatred. Poch Suzara

Banana Republic

The Philippines is a “Banana Republic?” Please let us not insult the clean and green and beautiful banana. A banana is not only delicious to eat but also a healthy fruit to swallow. How can a republic of corrupt men and corrupt women be called a “banana republic?” You politicians in the government, please spare the innocent and decent banana away your dirty sins and rotten crimes. Poch Suzara

Intelligent Designer

If there were a kind and an intelligent designer of nature, such a designer should have designed the woman’s birth canal to be something not painful, but pleasurable when her baby is coming out. Just as pleasurable as when its father’s male organ was then going in. But then again, if a designer shamelessly designed the male and the female organ, for Christ’s sake, why be shameful of such creation displayed in public? Poch Suzara

Scientific

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

What Truth

July 22, 2005

Manila Standard Today

Dear Editor:

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

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,
Poch Suzara

Kudos for Walt Whitman

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

The Fear of Thought

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

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

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

Principles of Social Reconstruction by Bertrand Russell

The Voice of the People

Manila Standard Today

Dear Editor:

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

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

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

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

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

Noah’s Flood

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

Born Ignorant

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

Philippine Catholic Bishops

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

I love America and the Philippines

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

Only in the Philippines

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

What Then

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

King James Bible

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

From a Reader

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

My Road Less Traveled

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