Saturday, October 15, 2005
Politics of barbarism and terrorism
If I destroy a building in New York city with a hijacked plane, I am called: Mr. Terrorist. If I destroy a foreign country such as Iraq with the US Air Force, I am called: Mr. President. In the Philippines, steal small and you are called a thief. Steal big or borrow big money, however, and you immediately qualify to be a candidate for a high office in the government usually referred to as “Your Honor.” Of course, not every one is a thief in government. There are exceptions. Quite a few have arrived at high government office for having achieved a reputation in mediocrity. They are grateful as they are thought of "the good senators, even if such senators in the senate have been and still are - good for nothing. Poch Suzara
God’s Existence
It’s hard to believe in the existence of God; specially as such a Being seems more preoccupied with the joys of always being not omni-present, but only always omni-absent. Indeed, where is God? How come he is always hiding here, hiding there, and always hiding everywhere and nowhere at the same time? Poch Suzara
Let him be Ignorant
“But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” 1 Cor.14:38. Such are among the sacred truths of an All-Knowing God as revealed by superstitious primitives more popularly known as the inspired authors of God in the holy bible. Poch Suzara
Question
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 now ask the question: which God? There are a great many of them, not to mention so many Goddesses too! Poch Suzara
Thursday, October 13, 2005
St. Thomas Aquinas
St. Thomas Aquinas said, he learnt more kneeling in prayer before the cross than in hours of reading.
Unfortunately, only to be among those ancient in the communion of saints, but not in the communion of modern philosophers.
In his Understanding History and Other Essays, Bertrand Russell wrote: “No, the greatest men have not been “serene.” They have had, it is true, an ultimate courage, a power of creating beauty where nature has put only horror, which may, to a petty mind, appear like serenity. But their courage has had to surpass that of common men, because they have seen deeper into the indifference of nature and the cruelty of man. To cover up these things with comfortable lies is the business of cowards; the business of great men is to see them with inflexible clarity, and yet to think and to feel nobly. And in the degree in which we can all be great, this is the business of each one of us.” St. Thomas Aquinas was a great Catholic for divinity; he was not, by any measure, a great man for humanity. Poch Suzara
Unfortunately, only to be among those ancient in the communion of saints, but not in the communion of modern philosophers.
In his Understanding History and Other Essays, Bertrand Russell wrote: “No, the greatest men have not been “serene.” They have had, it is true, an ultimate courage, a power of creating beauty where nature has put only horror, which may, to a petty mind, appear like serenity. But their courage has had to surpass that of common men, because they have seen deeper into the indifference of nature and the cruelty of man. To cover up these things with comfortable lies is the business of cowards; the business of great men is to see them with inflexible clarity, and yet to think and to feel nobly. And in the degree in which we can all be great, this is the business of each one of us.” St. Thomas Aquinas was a great Catholic for divinity; he was not, by any measure, a great man for humanity. Poch Suzara
life of one man
What is the life of one man against the eternity of the creator and the immensity of his creation? Here’s a response from Bertrand Russell:
“Those who have lived entirely amid terrestrial events and who have given little thought to what is distant in space and time, there is at first something bewildering and oppressive, and perhaps even paralyzing, in the realization of the minuteness of man and all his concerns in comparison with astronomical abysses. But this effect is not rational and should not be lasting. There is no reason to worship mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less than the larger beast. The size of a man’s mind – if such a phrase is permissible – is not to be measured by the size of a man’s body. It is to be measured, in so far as it can be measured, by the size and complexity of the universe that he grasps in thought and imagination. The mind of the astronomer can grow, and should grow, step by step with the universe of which he is aware. And when I say that his mind should grow, I mean his total mind, not only its intellectual aspect. Will and feeling should keep pace with thought if man is to grow as his knowledge grows. If this cannot be achieved – if, while knowledge becomes cosmic, will and feeling remain parochial – there is a lack of harmony producing a kind of madness of which the effects must be disastrous.” Poch Suzara
“Those who have lived entirely amid terrestrial events and who have given little thought to what is distant in space and time, there is at first something bewildering and oppressive, and perhaps even paralyzing, in the realization of the minuteness of man and all his concerns in comparison with astronomical abysses. But this effect is not rational and should not be lasting. There is no reason to worship mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less than the larger beast. The size of a man’s mind – if such a phrase is permissible – is not to be measured by the size of a man’s body. It is to be measured, in so far as it can be measured, by the size and complexity of the universe that he grasps in thought and imagination. The mind of the astronomer can grow, and should grow, step by step with the universe of which he is aware. And when I say that his mind should grow, I mean his total mind, not only its intellectual aspect. Will and feeling should keep pace with thought if man is to grow as his knowledge grows. If this cannot be achieved – if, while knowledge becomes cosmic, will and feeling remain parochial – there is a lack of harmony producing a kind of madness of which the effects must be disastrous.” Poch Suzara
Bertrand Russell
In any of his voluminous writings, Bertrand Russell never said: “Come follow me and I will be your master”; or, “Obey me and I will purge you of your sins.” Russell had no use for self-sacrifice as such. He simply said, in effect: “Happiness is good. If you desire happiness, you must “be reasonable.” Indeed, the exact opposite of what we were taught to believe in our schools, colleges, and universities: - “Be faithful.” Poch Suzara
M. Scott Peck
In his ROAD LESS TRAVELED, M. Scott Peck wrote: “ We must continually expand our realm of knowledge and our field of vision through the thorough digestion and incorporation of new information. . . learning of something new requires a giving up of the old self and a death of outworn knowledge. To develop a broader vision we must be willing to forsake, to kill, our narrower vision. In the short run, it is more comfortable not to do this – to stay where we are, to keep using the same microcosmic map, to avoid suffering the death of cherished notions. The road to spiritual growth, however, lies in the opposite direction. We begin by distrusting what we already believe, by actively seeking the threatening and unfamiliar, by deliberately challenging the validity of what we have previously been taught and hold dear. The path to holiness lies through questioning everything.”
I have great respect for Peck for writing those simple, but powerful lines. Unfortunately, Peck who just died at the age 69, did not live up the values of skepticism to the end.
In his ROAD NOT TAKEN, Robert Frost writes: “It seems that as the years wore on his faculty for clear thinking was more and more clouded or occluded by supernaturalism. His last work may be a gauge of how deep he was in his late age into this: Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption. Rather than of demoniacal entities his account is more a glimpse into how far Peck had strayed from the rigors of scientific thinking.
This development reminds me of what Bertrand Russell said in his WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN about Immanuel Kant: - “He was like many people: in intellectual matters he was skeptical, but in moral matters he believed implicitly in the maxims that he had imbibed at his mother’s knees. That illustrates what the psychoanalysts so much emphasize – the immensely stronger hold upon us that our very early associations have been than those of later times.” Poch Suzara
I have great respect for Peck for writing those simple, but powerful lines. Unfortunately, Peck who just died at the age 69, did not live up the values of skepticism to the end.
In his ROAD NOT TAKEN, Robert Frost writes: “It seems that as the years wore on his faculty for clear thinking was more and more clouded or occluded by supernaturalism. His last work may be a gauge of how deep he was in his late age into this: Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption. Rather than of demoniacal entities his account is more a glimpse into how far Peck had strayed from the rigors of scientific thinking.
This development reminds me of what Bertrand Russell said in his WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN about Immanuel Kant: - “He was like many people: in intellectual matters he was skeptical, but in moral matters he believed implicitly in the maxims that he had imbibed at his mother’s knees. That illustrates what the psychoanalysts so much emphasize – the immensely stronger hold upon us that our very early associations have been than those of later times.” Poch Suzara
Myth
Cedric Whitman wrote: “Mythology is what grown-ups believe, folk-lore is what they tell children, and religion is both.” Bertrand Russell surmised it better: “There is something feeble, and a little contemptible, about a man who cannot face the perils of life without comfortable myths.” Poch Suzara
Rotten Institutions
I hold the view that man is good by nature and whatever ills and evils there are in human affairs are not due to sin, but due to the rotten institutions made rotten by an evil greater than the devil himself - religion. Bertrand Russell summarized it better: “Religion encourages stupidity and an insufficient sense of reality.” Poch Suzara
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Letter to the President of La Salle University
De La Salle University System
2401 Taft Avenue
Manila, Philippines
Attn: Brother Armin A. Luistro FSC
President
Dear Brother Luistro,
I am in receipt of and thank for your letter of scholarship solicitation. I ardently hope La Salle faculty experts and students can find ways and means to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources. I wish them all the success. However, please bear in mind that if they leave neglectfully alone, or fearfully untouched - the evils of uncontrolled population growth in this country, the result will only be more death and destruction.
The Philippines was once famous as the “Pearl of the Orient,” and even more famous as the only “Christian country in Asia.” Today, in the modern world, we are famous only as the Sick man of Asia. Indifference to the pursuit of truth is our national malady, and it is regrettable to see our schools, colleges and universities continue to devote their influence to increasing and justifying the corrupt state of affairs. In this country, indeed, we are all born ignorant, not corrupt; we are made corrupt by education.
My dear Brother, soliciting funds to help make scholarship grants available to 20% of the student population is noble; unfortunately, in the years to come, not noble enough. Yes, it’s noble of you to focus on the college education of a daughter of a taxi driver to receive full scholarship from DLSU-Manila. But do you know that many taxi drivers in our major cities earn higher wages than our teachers earn in schools? Such teachers and their sons and daughters live on a hand to mouth existence, too poor to buy nutritious food and to maintain health. Meanwhile, the poor and the hungry in this country multiply twice as fast as those who enjoy the sin of gluttony. My dear Brother, have you ever heard of Filipinos getting rich for believing that God is bad? Yet millions upon millions of Filipinos are poor for believing that God is good? What has happened to the power of prayer?
It’s good that DLSU-Manila has brought technology closer to the indigenous Tingguian community in Abra. The micro hydra power plant established there is quite impressive. Indeed, there is now a steady supply of electricity for that community. But my dear Brother, unless the community is also seriously educated to practice the values of family planning and the necessity of birth control – all the technology from the world of science will fail to upgrade the Filipino standard of living and thinking. Technology is not some kind of independent, autonomous force. It is merely a transformer of energy. Due, however, to our uncontrolled population growth, more people are using up more energy derived from natural resources much faster than nature can replenish them. Indeed, the first law of ecology tells us that “everything is connected to everything else,” any destruction of one part of nature will affect all other parts, including human beings.
According to United Nations figures, at the current annual growth rates of 1.7 per cent, the world’s population will double to 8 billion by the year 2015 and to 16 billion by the year 2055. In the Philippines today, we are about 88 million people. By the year 2010 our population will reach a 100 million. We have yet, however, to appreciate that each child we bring into our society places a burden on succeeding generations by denying them their own share of resources to sustain their own lives. Human growth and maturity does not come from people needlessly multiplying people. Human progress is born of doubt and inquiry and from the elimination of superstition and other falsehoods. It is sad, isn’t it, life in general in the Philippines can be characterized as the competition to be the criminal or be the victim of criminals.
Our population is indeed growing uncontrollably and needlessly. The more serious problem, however, is that we remain ignorant of those critical parts of the human inheritance – the ecological systems that support human needs and wants. In brief, we just do not know how the earth works. For the average Filipino, however, what he knows is only what the bible teaches him: “Love not this world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not with him.” Thus, the overemphasis of life after death in heaven has led to ecological destruction and exploitation of the natural resources. This view holds that the only things of true value are those found in the heavenly kingdom of God. People and the flesh and nature were taught to us to believe as something low, depraved and unworthy and therefore of little concern or consequence to those seeking the faithful Christian life. Indeed, we have been taught to believe that this world is merely a stopover on our journey to the next world. Therefore, the less love placed on it and more love placed on God’s heavenly kingdom, the better. I ask: is it any wonder that our Christian way of life makes us quite oblivious to the crimes we commit daily against the only home we have in this world: - The planet earth. It is bleeding to death!
By the way, in appreciation to your noble cause, I am sure you could refund my son’s non-refundable down payment of P4,000 at St. Benilde last April. Please use that amount as my humble donation to your scholarship project. My son Bertrand decided to enroll in another university. Happily for me, as his dad, he is already active exploring knowledge for himself even outside academic wall by reading the books comprising my personal library. I have every hope that with the habit of serious reading on science and philosophy, he too will pursue for himself the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
In this 21st century, nothing could be more important than saving humanity from self-destruction. What the Philippines needs now is not only love but greater knowledge about the nature of love, in all its complexity. In this connection, I think we should all bear in mind this simple truth: - every human project is a lost project unless there is family planning and human population control.
Sincerely,
Poch Suzara
High School Dropout Association
of the Philippines
P.O. Box 3036, Makati City
September 28, 2005
2401 Taft Avenue
Manila, Philippines
Attn: Brother Armin A. Luistro FSC
President
Dear Brother Luistro,
I am in receipt of and thank for your letter of scholarship solicitation. I ardently hope La Salle faculty experts and students can find ways and means to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources. I wish them all the success. However, please bear in mind that if they leave neglectfully alone, or fearfully untouched - the evils of uncontrolled population growth in this country, the result will only be more death and destruction.
The Philippines was once famous as the “Pearl of the Orient,” and even more famous as the only “Christian country in Asia.” Today, in the modern world, we are famous only as the Sick man of Asia. Indifference to the pursuit of truth is our national malady, and it is regrettable to see our schools, colleges and universities continue to devote their influence to increasing and justifying the corrupt state of affairs. In this country, indeed, we are all born ignorant, not corrupt; we are made corrupt by education.
My dear Brother, soliciting funds to help make scholarship grants available to 20% of the student population is noble; unfortunately, in the years to come, not noble enough. Yes, it’s noble of you to focus on the college education of a daughter of a taxi driver to receive full scholarship from DLSU-Manila. But do you know that many taxi drivers in our major cities earn higher wages than our teachers earn in schools? Such teachers and their sons and daughters live on a hand to mouth existence, too poor to buy nutritious food and to maintain health. Meanwhile, the poor and the hungry in this country multiply twice as fast as those who enjoy the sin of gluttony. My dear Brother, have you ever heard of Filipinos getting rich for believing that God is bad? Yet millions upon millions of Filipinos are poor for believing that God is good? What has happened to the power of prayer?
It’s good that DLSU-Manila has brought technology closer to the indigenous Tingguian community in Abra. The micro hydra power plant established there is quite impressive. Indeed, there is now a steady supply of electricity for that community. But my dear Brother, unless the community is also seriously educated to practice the values of family planning and the necessity of birth control – all the technology from the world of science will fail to upgrade the Filipino standard of living and thinking. Technology is not some kind of independent, autonomous force. It is merely a transformer of energy. Due, however, to our uncontrolled population growth, more people are using up more energy derived from natural resources much faster than nature can replenish them. Indeed, the first law of ecology tells us that “everything is connected to everything else,” any destruction of one part of nature will affect all other parts, including human beings.
According to United Nations figures, at the current annual growth rates of 1.7 per cent, the world’s population will double to 8 billion by the year 2015 and to 16 billion by the year 2055. In the Philippines today, we are about 88 million people. By the year 2010 our population will reach a 100 million. We have yet, however, to appreciate that each child we bring into our society places a burden on succeeding generations by denying them their own share of resources to sustain their own lives. Human growth and maturity does not come from people needlessly multiplying people. Human progress is born of doubt and inquiry and from the elimination of superstition and other falsehoods. It is sad, isn’t it, life in general in the Philippines can be characterized as the competition to be the criminal or be the victim of criminals.
Our population is indeed growing uncontrollably and needlessly. The more serious problem, however, is that we remain ignorant of those critical parts of the human inheritance – the ecological systems that support human needs and wants. In brief, we just do not know how the earth works. For the average Filipino, however, what he knows is only what the bible teaches him: “Love not this world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not with him.” Thus, the overemphasis of life after death in heaven has led to ecological destruction and exploitation of the natural resources. This view holds that the only things of true value are those found in the heavenly kingdom of God. People and the flesh and nature were taught to us to believe as something low, depraved and unworthy and therefore of little concern or consequence to those seeking the faithful Christian life. Indeed, we have been taught to believe that this world is merely a stopover on our journey to the next world. Therefore, the less love placed on it and more love placed on God’s heavenly kingdom, the better. I ask: is it any wonder that our Christian way of life makes us quite oblivious to the crimes we commit daily against the only home we have in this world: - The planet earth. It is bleeding to death!
By the way, in appreciation to your noble cause, I am sure you could refund my son’s non-refundable down payment of P4,000 at St. Benilde last April. Please use that amount as my humble donation to your scholarship project. My son Bertrand decided to enroll in another university. Happily for me, as his dad, he is already active exploring knowledge for himself even outside academic wall by reading the books comprising my personal library. I have every hope that with the habit of serious reading on science and philosophy, he too will pursue for himself the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
In this 21st century, nothing could be more important than saving humanity from self-destruction. What the Philippines needs now is not only love but greater knowledge about the nature of love, in all its complexity. In this connection, I think we should all bear in mind this simple truth: - every human project is a lost project unless there is family planning and human population control.
Sincerely,
Poch Suzara
High School Dropout Association
of the Philippines
P.O. Box 3036, Makati City
September 28, 2005
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Satan and God
Satan hates the existence of God. God hates the existence of Satan. For my part, I should think that if the two supernatural beings really existed, they should have already settled their endless war via either getting rid of the other. I am told, however, that both God and Satan are still alive and endlessly fighting to win over human souls for heaven, or, as the case may be – for hell. Don’t they have more noble ambitions in life? What’s the big deal about winning my silly soul? I don't want it. I don't need it. They can have it. Poch Suzara
Pray to God
People pray to God when they are in trouble. Unfortunately, God does not care to solve what troubles people. In the meantime, “give us this day our daily bread” has been implored by millions of people each and every day for thousands of years. But if there were power in prayer, how come the hungry of the world are multiplying twice as fast as the well fed? Poch Suzara
Telling the Truth
Was God telling the truth when He said, “ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart?” Obviously, if God were everywhere, what is the need to find Him? Perhaps, our teachers in catechism class lied when they told us about God being omniscient and omnipresent. Poch Suzara
If God exists
If God exists he knows in His heart that for a great many years I prayed nightly for Him to destroy the devil. The same devil who was always leading me to commit mortal sins; if not for me to tolerate the crimes committed against our country by God-fearing men and women. God never answered my prayers. He and the devil can therefore go take a hike. I don’t want to have anything to do with such supernatural beings. In the meantime, I ask: What if it turned out that the Supreme being is not a God, but a Goddess? For my part, I would have no problem loving a Goddess; but for me as a man to be loving of a God would be the height of absurdity. Poch Suzara
Poor Adam and Eve
The devil in the form of a Talking Serpent was in direct communication with Eve. God in the form of a Burning Bush had a talking relationship with Adam. Yet, in the Garden of Eden, there was nobody to protect Adam and Eve away from the evil called Original Sin. Poor Adam and Eve. Nobody told them about the power of prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Savior of mankind. And to think that Jesus admitted that “I and my father are one.” <
In the meantime, a God who allows Himself to be crucified on the cross by men created in His own image and likeness deserves to die on such a cross. Poch Suzara
Christ and Satan
Christ was offered by Satan “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory in them” if only Jesus would fall down and worship him. But Jesus rejected the offer in favor of dying on the cross to save the world. I ask: Was Jesus gullible enough not to have questioned Satan where he got the rightful titles to those properties and kingdoms to legally be able to give them away? See Matt. 4: 1 – 9. In the meantime, Jesus said: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” In other words, reject Satan; never mind your free will. Poch Suzara
The Immortal Soul
According to Church doctrines, the human body, since it is mortal, belongs to man. The human soul, however, since it is immortal, belongs to God. If this were true, and it is equally true that God is here, there and everywhere, why should the Church bother saving human souls that already belong to Almighty God? Indeed, what need does God have for the Church to save immortal souls for Him? Poch Suzara
The Sin of Stupidity
According to the teachings of the Church, except for the sin of blasphemy against the holy spirit, all other sins, including the sin of stupidity, can be easily forgiven by grace from divinity. In fact, looking at the insane social results of the teaching of the Church during these past centuries based upon the Old and the New Testament, stupidity is not a sin. It is a virtue. Poch Suzara
Knowledge
Bertrand Russell wrote: “What I will maintain – and maintain vigorously – is that knowledge is very much more useful than harmful and the fear of knowledge is very much more harmful than useful.” For my part, I think what is even more harmful, if not useless is overcoming one’s stupidity with knowledge and then feel guilty. Poch Suzara
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