Rizal’s Killers

What kind of men needed to see Rizal dead, discarded and forgotten? Were they men of reason, logic, science or philosophy? Were they avid readers, critical thinkers, or scientific investigators? Were they men at home with civilized humanity? No! On the contrary, Rizal’s enemies were the friends of blind faith: - the superstitious primitives, the sanctimonious hypocrites, and those indeed who were selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane. Rizal now dead more than a hundred years ago, still have the same enemies alive today. They are the ones insisting that it makes no difference whether Rizal retracted from his religious, political and philosophical principles or not. What a silly conclusion to bestow upon the greatest of Filipino seminal thinker who died for the liberation of the Filipino mind and heart, and indeed, for all mankind. Poch Suzara

JOSE RIZAL – THE FIRST FILIPINO 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.”

To me, in my simplicity, 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 brazen 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 for the here and the 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, more than all the angels in heaven, I have the greatest love you as a fellow human being, and I have the highest respect for you as a fellow Filipino. Poch Suzara

Sacred Absurdities

In his Science and Religion, Bertrand Russell wrote: “Now logical unity is at once a strength and a weakness. It is strength because it insures that whoever accepts one stage of the argument must accept all later stages; it is a weakness because whoever rejects any of the later stages must also reject some, at least, of the earliest stages. The Church, in its conflict with science, exhibited both the strength and weakness resulting from the logical coherence of its dogma.” The Church, however, got into deeper trouble not only with science, but with the opening remarks in her own silly bible. The first five words in the bible contain three supposition and a contradiction. Supposition one, there was a beginning. Supposition two, there was a creator. Supposition three, the creator was not created. Contradiction, there was a beginning, there was not a beginning. However the case may be, for the critical reader with a focused mind, the bible turned out to be nothing but a book for the superstitious primitives impressed with sacred absurdities. Poch Suzara

Worship

To worship the unknown is childish and to worship the unknowable is even more childish. In the Philippines, for the sake of our prayers and theology that’s based upon the unknown, we were taught in our schools to have faith in the supernatural that is based upon the unknowable. Poch Suzara

Function of a Teacher

Bertrand Russell wrote: “Men pass from birth to death, sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy; sometimes generous, sometimes grasping and petty; sometimes heroic, sometimes cowardly and servile. To the man who views the procession as a whole, certain things stands as worthy of admiration. Some men have been inspired by love of mankind; some by supreme intellect have helped us to understand the world in which we live; and some by exceptional sensitiveness have created beauty. These men have produced something of positive good to outweigh the long record of cruelty, oppression, and superstition. These men have done what lay in their power to make human life a better thing than the brief turbulence of savages. The civilized man, where he cannot admire, will aim rather at understanding than at reprobating. He will seek rather to discover and remove the impersonal causes of evil than hate the men who are in its grip. All this should be in the mind and heart of the teacher, and it if it in his mind and heart he will convey it in his teaching to the young who are in his care.”
For my part, if I had teachers like a Bertrand Russell at De La Salle University, I never would have been expelled out of high school. A teacher like Russell would never have taught me to believe in silly things under the threat of a silly damnation in hell-fire. Poch Suzara

Designed Intelligently

For: TIME magazine

Intelligent Design

The push to teach “intelligent Design” in America raises a question: Does God have a place in science class?

The Christians in charge of education in America apparently do not believe that God is everywhere. That God somehow is omni-absent during science class for American students.

In the bible, God admits: “For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” Well, if God made man in his own image and likeness, it follows that God must be made of dust too. What purpose is there to put God in science class if God, like dust, were already there as He is present everywhere?

As for the existence of monkeys, I think they are designed not only intelligently, but more so gracefully. Look how the monkeys live in peace on earth and goodwill to all monkeys. They do not terrorize each other in God’s name. Monkeys do not go to war to kill other monkeys in order to establish freedom and democracy.

For my part, I envy the life of monkeys. They have no system of salvation. They have no church, no synagogue, and no mosque to inspire amongst the faithful to become selfish, greedy, insane, and homicidal. Monkeys do not cut each other's throats because like the Christians, Jews, and Muslims do so because they cannot agree as to what will happen to them after their throats have been cut. Poch Suzara
Poch Suzara

Anti-Christ Movement in Europe

A great many Christians are bothered by the anti-Christ movement, especially in Europe. It does not seem to matter, however, if the anti-Christ movement in Israel have already been a tremendous success – the land where Christ was born. Indeed, due to the Jewish anti-Christ movement, Israel has never developed to be a Christian or a Catholic country. It is still pretty much a Jewish State. In the Philippines, however, JESUS IS LORD MOVEMENT is as active as ever. Not, however, with an advance, but by the Jesus followers attending “Retreats.” Poch Suzara

God’s Children

It is incredible to believe how a loving God created the human race – his children – to hate each other, specially in His name and for His glory. In fact, history shows countries under a theocracy have always been at war against each other. It is happening today in Iraq. America wants to replace Islam in that part of the Arab world with Christianity. As if both Christianity and Islam for that matter have ever been a peaceful grace for the whole human race. Poch Suzara

Jesus

If Jesus was born as a perfect child of a Holy Virgin Mother, why did Jesus have to go through circumcision?
If Jesus dead on the cross was not buried, but instead cremated, could he have resurrected? And to think that after He had resurrected, Jesus appeared secretly to his apostles in a remote mountain. He never visited his enemies – the believers who thought they had already gotten rid of Him dead and buried and gone. Poch Suzara

The Devil

As a prominent character, the devil played a major role both in the Old and in the new Testaments. To think that Jesus promised to destroy to devil centuries ago. But the promise was never delivered. The existence of the devil turned out to be the main and necessary ingredient in the Christian scheme of eternal salvation. Poch Suzara

Lies are more Damaging

The truth hurts, but lies are far more damaging and can last for a thousand but lies years. Poch Suzara

6 Billion People

The majority of the 6 Billion people struggling to survive on this earth - love, worship, and adore God. And to think that God continues to carry on with that “I don’t give a hoot” attitude. And to think further that the politicians and the theologians in the Philippines believe that God has never ceased to provide for them wealth, power, and glory. Poch Suzara

The danger from Hatred

In his Expanding Mental Universe, written in 1959, Bertrand Russell explained the danger generated by hatred: … “Although we have been told on Sundays to love our neighbor, we have been told on weekdays to hate him, and there are six times as many weekdays as Sundays. Hitherto, the harm that we could do to our neighbor by hating him was limited by our incompetence, but in the new world upon which we are entering there will be no such limit, and the indulgence of hatred can lead only to disaster.”
And to think that in the Philippines, we would rather love God up there with hatred for one
another down here. Poch Suzara

Happiness for the Atheists

Happiness for the atheists? Please read Bertrand Russell’s Conquest of Happiness: “A man who has once perceived, however, temporarily and however briefly, what makes greatness of spirit, can no longer be happy if he allows himself to be petty, self-seeking, troubled by trivial misfortunes, dreading what fate may have in store for him. A man capable of greatness of spirit will open wide the windows of his mind, letting the winds blow freely upon it from every portion of the universe. He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness of human life, he will realize also that in individual minds is concentrated whatever of value the known universe contains. And he will see that the man whose mind mirrors the world becomes in a sense as great as the world. In emancipation from the fears that beset the slave of circumstance he will experience a profound joy, and through all the vicissitudes of his outward life he will remain in the depths of being a happy man.” Poch Suzara

God’s Commands

If the Christians were mentally efficient at anything, it is at obeying God’s commands. Each can be summarized into one very easy command to follow: thou shalt not think. Poch Suzara

Organized Religions

Twisting reason before offering faith. Distorting the joys and pleasures in life before offering of salvation. These are among the fundamental ways to organize a religion. The capital to start with is fear: fear of the mysteries, fear of the unknown, and fear of death. Sales, marketing, advertising, accounting and bookkeeping are needless. The business is tax-free. The goal: destroy the minds and hearts of children to grow up mindless and heartless for the glory of divinity. This lucrative commercial enterprise is also known as “organized religion” in general. In particular, however, they are called Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each, by the way, still embracing a 14th century mentality now happy and proud to be in possession of 21st century weapons of mass destruction for war to destroy each other including atheists, agnostics, and heretics like me.
In the meantime, all the great religions of the world - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity – have their roots in fear and barbarism on the one hand, and on the other, ignorance and superstition. Otherwise, if only the revealed truths have already been revealed, the God behind these great religions should have been the creative and healthy impact on global history, and not just the destructive and sick faith of a local mystery. Poch Suzara

Theology

More than a hundred billion people already lived and died on this earth. So long as the theologians do not know how many souls are already saved in heaven; and, how many souls are already condemned in hell, theology will only continue to be the study of the unknowable. In the meantime, shouldn’t it be part of the revealed truth for the theologians to know God as a great success in winning souls for heaven, or the devil a great failure in winning souls for hell? Perhaps, it’s the other way round. Poch Suzara

Mediocrity

To the mediocre, mediocrity is not only an achievement; it is a respectable way of life, especially if one were a church dignitary or a high government official, or if one were connected with the Central Intelligence Agency protecting nobody except the homicidal maniacs in charge of the United States government. Poch Suzara

The Issue with God

The issue with God was that he created both man and the devil gifted not with good will, but with free will. And to think that sometime ago, God promised the world a Redeemer to destroy the devil. The mission, however, has yet been impossible.
In the meantime, the nature of God’s existence is a deep mystery. The nature of the devil’s existence is a deeper mystery. The nature of man’s existence is the deepest of mysteries. How are we to understand the nature of God’s existence and the nature of the devil’s existence, when we do not even understand the nature of human existence? Poch Suzara

Philippine Democracy

Philippine Democracy is all about the corrupt majority electing into office the few chosen from the corrupt minority to manage the corrupt government under the blessings of an equally corrupt theocracy. Poch Suzara