Jose Rizal a Heretic not a Catholic

We Filipinos are not winning in the struggle to achieve for ourselves a sane and a healthy society. We only believe what Ninoy Aquino believed that: “the Filipino is worth dying for.” And to think Ninoy died because the Filipino killed him. Unless we reform with the radical reform of humanitarian ideals, we will just carry on dying destructively as a people rather than living creatively as a nation. The Philippines is on the way towards extinction. No, we have not found the power that would destroy us. On the contrary, we have not found the truth that should save us. In 1896 Jose Rizal was put to death. He was executed because he was a heretic. He loved the power of reason. He was always at work to challenge deviltry as he was never comfortable with the promises of theology. He believed that the discovery of truth entails free inquiry and free expression. He wrote the Noli and Fili – two great books about our faith in sacred lies and other ecclesiastical deceptions. The same faith, in fact, that’s keeping the Filipino poor as a people and the Philippines backward as a nation. And to think that those in authority responsible for Rizal’s death are still the very same authority today that continue to dominate the minds and hearts of our children in schools, colleges, and universities. In the meantime, in this 21st century, we Filipinos are still bereft of national identity. We are still victimized to love not our country, but love only divinity. Rizal did not care to believe in the next world to come after death. A rarity as a thinking Filipino that he was, he believed, instead, in a better life for the Filipino living in a better country that needs always to be made better. Especially with the power of knowledge that frightens not, but joyfully enlightens the minds of men, and cheerfully strengthens the hearts of women. Rizal’s enemy was not the Filipino. He was executed by mindless and heartless believers - the real enemy that’s keeping the Philippines still pretty much defeated in the race as a nation to achieve peace and unity, security, social and political and environmental sanity, and indeed, economic prosperity. Rizal cared much for life not after death, but for life after birth. He cared much for the good life - one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Indeed, Rizal believed in the pursuit of endless education rather than the final preparation for eternal salvation. After all, in the ultimate analysis, eternal salvation is the condition of dead Filipinos who refuses to believe that they are already dead. Poch Suzara

Prayer To Afflict the Comfortable

For Michael Moore: Thank you for writing STUPID WHITE MEN. It is one of the most thought-provoking books I have read. I particularly enjoyed reading page 234-235 – A prayer to Afflict the Comfortable. How stupid of me not to have written that myself. It's a classical piece of thought that provokes thought. With your kind permission, I am publishing same in my blog: Thoughts To Provoke Your Thoughts. A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable Dear Lord ( God/Yahweh/Buddha/Bob/Nobody): We beseech You, O merciful One, to bring comfort to those who suffer today for whatever reason You, Nature, or the World Bank has deemed appropriate. We realize, O heavenly Father, that You cannot cure all the sick at once – that would surely empty out the hospitals the good nuns have established in Your name. And we accept that You, Omniscient One, cannot eliminate all the evil in the world, for that would surely put Thee out of a job. Rather, dear Lord, we ask that You inflict every member of the House of Representatives with horrible, incurable cancers of the brain, penis, and hand (thought not necessarily in that order). We ask, Our loving Father, that every senator from the South be rendered addicted to drugs and find himself locked away for life. We beseech You to make the children of every senator in the Mountain Time Zone gay – really gay. Put the children of senators from the East in a wheelchair ad the children of the senators from the West in a public school. We implore, Most Merciful One, just as you turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, that You turn the rich – all the rich – into paupers and homeless, wiping out their entire savings, assets, and mutual funds. Remove from them their positions of power, and yea, may they walk through the valley and into the darkness of a welfare office. Condemn them to a life of flipping burgers and dodging bill collectors. Let them hear the wailing of the innocents as they sit in the middle seat of row 43 in coach and let them feel the gnashing of teeth that are abscessed and rotted like the 108 million who have no dental coverage. Heavenly Father, we pray that all white leaders (especially the alumni of Bob Jones University) who believe black people have it good these days be risen from their sleep tomorrow morning with the skin as black as a stretch limo so that they may enjoy the riches and reap the bountiful fruits of being black in America. We humbly request that Your anointed ones, the bishops of the holy Roman Catholic Church, be smitten with ovaries and unplanned pregnancies and a pamphlet about the rhythm method. Finally, dear Lord, we call upon You to have Jack Welch swim the Hudson he has polluted, to force Hollywood's executives to sit and watch their own movies over and over and over, to have Jesse Helms kissed on the lips by a man of his own gender, to make Chris Matthews go mute, to let the air – quickly – out of Bill O'Reilly, and turn to ash all who are responsible for those who smoke in my office. Oh, yes, and unleash with a fury a plague of locusts to nest in the toupee of the Senate Minority Leader from the great state of Mississippi. May you hear our prayers and grant them, O King of Kings, Who sit on high and watches over us as best You can, considering what screwups we are. Grant us some relief from our misery and suffering, as we know that the men You shall smite will be swift in their efforts to rid themselves of their misfortune, which in turn may rid us of ours. With this we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit –Who-Used-to-be-a- Ghost. Amen. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Love of the USA

One of the most pathetic facts about the United States of America is the teaching of our boys and girls to love America. To prove it, however, they could wear a uniform and kill people in other countries. Look how the US government has profitably monopolized this global business for a long time now. Young Americans in the US Army, Navy, Air force, and the Marine Corps find themselves in some foreign land to be a part not of individual terrorism, but state-sponsored terrorism so that after these poor countries are liberated, these foreigners will begin to love America, especially the American economy under freedom and democracy. In the meantime, there are increasing indications that the economic cost of military power weaken the economy in specific ways and, to that extent, national security. Many jobless Americans, however, are so grateful not only to the Lord, but also to the US Military-Industrial-University-Oil Complex for giving them jobs. Be that as it may,
according to the American economy under freedom and democracy, never mind if more than half of the world’s population is seriously malnourished or struggling to live on a dollar a day income. God Bless America? You better believe it! Poch Suzara

Humanity and Generosity

My friend Victor Murillo, a freethinker, wrote an excellent letter in the PDI. It was published in 7/20/2006. I entirely agree with him, as a freethinker myself, I totally endorse his message:
“It makes one wonder if the Catholic Church, with its vast tax-free wealth accumulated through many centuries, would be willing to match even if only half of the humanity and generosity of Warren Buffet’s $37.4 Billion dollar donations, through Bill Gates’ foundation, for the poor, especially in Third World countries.”
And if I may add, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are not only billionaires. These men are not poor in spirit. On the contrary, they are very rich in spirit as both men are globally known to be freethinkers too. Poch Suzara

It is Incredible

It is, indeed, incredible how highly educated columnists of this country believe that Rizal did not retract only because they believe. first and foremost, the famous historian/theologian Father Horacio de la Costa, S.J. who claimed to have discovered that Rizal never retracted. Upon what evidence? The Jesuit de la Costa never produced.
For my part, I simply take it from Jose Rizal’s own writings, and from his life and times to prove to me that the great thinker that he was, never regretted or retracted. He was a man of the deepest intellect who struggled against religion that encourages not only spiritual poverty, but also promotes human stupidity. I do not need the opinion of a theologian to tell me anything about Jose Rizal – the scientist who was put to death by a theocracy. After all, it was the Catholic friars themselves who had him executed to protect and defend the lucrative business of the Catholic Church selling Christianity in the Philippines.
In the meantime, in this country, in Catholic universities, roll all the professors of theology and history into one personage they would not equal the intellectual courage of a Jose Rizal. Poch Suzara

Jose Rizal Retraction Lies

Hours before he was executed, in his last poem and testament, Rizal wrote: I am going where faith does not kill. And yet teachers and professors, historians and newspaper columnists of this country all believe that hours just before he was executed, Rizal cried like a little boy, went to confession, heard mass and received communion, had a scapular around his neck and a rosary in his hand and retracted from his writings against Christian values and beliefs. What a childish nonsense to believe about the first scientist and the greatest humanist thinker the Philippines, thus far, has ever produced. I suggest to you religiculous morons to please visit Manila City Hall. There is a blowup photo of Jose Rizal there taken by an American tourist while Rizal was being executed at the Luneta. Yes, I will give l0,000 pesos to your favorite charity if you can find in that photo a scapular around Rizal’s neck or a rosary in Rizal’s hands. Indeed, in this 21st century God-forsaken country, I dare say, our historians and columnists still believe the silly theologians who lied about Rizal’s last few hours of his life on this earth. It is even speculated whether Rizal’s soul went to heaven. In the meantime, we remain as the Sick Man of Asia still clinging with childish faith over a lot of religious hogwash. Poch Suzara

Only In The Philippines

Quite a few of our men in prisons are not necessarily criminals but the victims of criminals; especially by those corrupt to the core otherwise known as “corrupt lawyers,” “corrupt Prosecutors,” and “corrupt Judges,” keeping the judicial system of the Philippines corrupt as ever. These highly corrupt men in the legal profession would connive to handle first the lengthy legal court cases of those who are rich and powerful and famous; but hardly consider with as much attention and speed the legal cases of those who are impoverished without money, influence, fanfare, or publicity. Poch Suzara

Born-Again Christian

The most childish, if not most gullible individuals I have met were not only the confused, but also the misguided Christians. Instead of growing up, they are just proud to be Born-Again!
But then again, I also have devout Christian friends who would, during odd moments, bitterly criticize Christianity in the Philippines. Most of the time, however, they do not know what exactly they are talking about. They only display a shallow emotional drama, if not an infantile medulla oblongata. Their criticisms have neither intellectual basis nor social impact nor historical value in them. There is only that terror of the fear of punishment in hell as against the hope of a reward in heaven.
In the meantime, as a nation, this is our religious motto: “There is victory in surrender when the conqueror is not only Christ, but also Christianity.”
And that is how poor and defeated and backward we are as a nation. Poch Suzara

God Out of the Way

I ask: is it really true that the elimination of the concept of God will result in anxiety, despair, and alienation? Or that if God does not exist, everything is permitted? Or remove God out of this world and it will mean the elimination of the final restraints on human brutality? Well, I say, if God exist, why then, since time immemorial, the human race has been alone and insecure and doomed in this world? The most we decent atheists can do is to face the end of life with love, courage, cheerfulness, especially with dignity and self-respect. Admittedly, there is not much of the promise of liberation from atheism, but certainly there is something even much more profound, and indeed, even much more precious – it is called: - intellectual coherence. Bertrand Russell said it briefly: “If we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies.” The most childish, if not most gullible individuals I have met were not only those confused, but also those misguided Christians. Instead of growing up, they are just proud to be Born-Again! But then again, I also have devout Christian friends who would, during odd moments, bitterly criticize Christianity in the Philippines. Most of the time, however, they do not know what exactly they are talking about. They only display a shallow emotional drama, if not an infantile medulla oblongata. Their criticisms have neither intellectual basis nor social impact nor historical value in them. There is only that terror of the fear of punishment in hell as against the hope of a reward in heaven. In the meantime, as a nation, this seems to be our religious motto: “There is victory in surrender when the conqueror is not only Christ, but also Christianity.” Only In The Philippines - many of our men in prisons are not necessarily criminals but the victims of criminals; especially by those corrupt to the core otherwise known as “corrupt lawyers,” “corrupt Prosecutors,” and “corrupt Judges,” keeping the judicial system of the Philippines as corrupt as ever. These highly corrupt men in the legal profession would connive to handle first the lengthy legal court cases of those who are rich and powerful and famous; but hardly consider with as much attention and speed the legal cases of those who are impoverished without influence, fanfare, money and without publicity. Poch Suzara

Failures

There were, indeed, quite a few failures in this world who eventually enjoyed success. There are examples of Soldiers, Admirals, Judges, Boxers, Farmers, Doctors, Actors, Writers, Lawyers, Scientists, including Women Thinkers.
Unfortunately, there were also failures in the early centuries who are still the same failures in this century: the Theologians. They have yet to succeed in discovering incontrovertible evidences of the existence of God.
For my part, this much I can say: Prove to me that God exists or introduce God to me and I would still be the same atheist as I have been since birth. I would still refuse to love, worship, and adore such a God especially since he is always omni-absent; never omni-present. What is a God for if He is always lazy on the job not even pretending to correct the needless mistakes he committed when he created this world? If I were God I never would have created the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims - the trouble-makers that have not ceased destroying our home planet earth. Poch Suzara

College Education

College education in the Philippines is mostly about accreditation, certification, and indeed, graduation. It is hardly about the lifetime adventure in the never-ending search of the truth. Indeed, nothing to do with the habit of more and deeper learning through serious reading. As a matter of fact, throwing books out the window is the fun part of college graduation celebration in our sick society.
I often ask my college-educated friends why is there more of the spread of intellectual poverty than there is the bread for cultural prosperity in this God-forsaken country? Their reply: “Huh?” Poch Suzara

Poverty in the Philippines

The war against poverty in the Philippines can only be won with the creation of wealth. Unfortunately, wealth can never be produced unless there is first the birth and growth of mental health. In this country, children at home and in school are taught to be greedy, selfish, stupid, and insane - in brief, taught to be poor in spirit. Thus, there is always the problem from those who are not rich in spirit. They are deprived of the power to nourish mental health. It certainly discourages, by and large, the creation of wealth as a responsibility of every grown-up man and woman in the Philippines.
In the meantime, the population uncontrolled growth in the Philippines is a greater evil than the evil of poverty. The population explosion is depleting our natural resources faster than nature can regenerate or replenish them. Indeed, our rain forest is beginning to look growthless. Just like the Lunar landscape that's lifeless. Poch Suzara

Search of the Truth

In the search of the truth, it is more reliable to be on the side of science than it is to be on the side of religion. In order to get a bigger picture of the truth, if any, science, for example, will not only study carefully the balance of nature, but also even more carefully study the nature of balance. Another example, science would look at the molecular rather than the spiritual basis of life. After all, the spiritual cannot be tested and observed inside a cathedral. The molecular basis of life, however, can be tested and observed inside a laboratory for further experimentation and analysis. In the religious way of thinking, the search of the truth is a waste of time since the truth has already been revealed. In the meantime, science is not only a body of knowledge; it is more of a process, a method of discovering the truth, if any. In science, knowledge can generate more knowledge and can be improved upon, it can be changed, and this emendation represents a natural growth and development of the scientific spirit. Poch Suzara

Terrorism

Sending a powerful message fit the definition of terrorism. Sending a message to a child about the existence of God is the worst kind of terrorism. Especially if the message were accompanied with threats of eternal punishment. Thus, due to religious terrorism, most children grow up believing in cruel God. They live in fear as they do not want to suffer eternal damnation punished forever in hell after death.
For my part, I was lucky. I managed, somehow, to see through clearly the childish message. I saw the existence of God as something superstitious, nay, excrementitious, based upon nothing but childish terrorism. Indeed, if God exist, I refuse to believe that such a loving God, such a Supreme Being should allow such scatological nonsense be taught to children about Him. Poch Suzara

The Poor, Sick and Filthy

If I were poor, sick and filthy, I have no right to have children because my children have no right to be poor, sick and filthy. No doubt God provides wealth, power, and glory; unfortunately, only for the priesthood industry. As for the poor, the sick, and the filthy, - these children of God, in a devastating typhoon, are not even allowed to take temporary shelter inside the House of God called “Churches” and “Cathedrals.” Poch Suzara

Root of all evil

The killing of Hypatia in the 5th century, the onslaught of the Dark Ages from the 5th to the 15th century, the Inquisition organized by the Church, Copernicus exiled, Galileo silenced, Bruno burned at the stake, Jose Rizal publicly executed by a theocracy in the late 19th century, not to mention, time and again, the Church blocking the way towards the advancement of knowledge and emancipation of the human mind. In brief, the good life - one inspired by love and guided by knowledge - is not possible in our world for as long organized religions – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam continue to retard the spiritual growth and the intellectual development of human beings born on this earth. Organized religion, indeed, is the root of all evil. Poch Suzara

Thanks to Faith

Thanks to our Christian values and beliefs, we enjoy having faith not only in things we know nothing about, but also in things that we know are not true. It spares us from the ordeal of having to think for ourselves as a people, and from the ordeal of having to take responsibility for ourselves as a nation.
Indeed, thanks to our faith in Christian values and beliefs our population growth is making sure that our natural resources are depleting faster than the rate nature can replenish or have them regenerated.
In the meantime, as the bible says: love not your country, neither the things that are in your country. If any one loves his country, the love of God is not with him. See John 2:15. Poch Suzara

Beliefs and Facts

The religious and the superstitious share a common denominator mutually together. They do not alter their beliefs to fit the facts. They would rather alter the facts to fit their beliefs. They are even proud to call it “blind faith.” Poch Suzara

The Catholic Bishops

Eternal damnation is what is in store for the Filipino newspaper columnist who ventures any criticism against the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines. There is not a single one of these columnists that I know of who does not live in mortal terror of the power of this religious group. If the Catholic Bishops can bluff its way into a preferred position, the fault lies not only with the Bishops but due mostly with our frightened columnists. And to think that these Bishops are not even answerable to our society under a democracy. As citizens of the Vatican State, they report to the Pope who is answerable to a higher power under a theocracy. In the meantime, the most that our college-educated columnists can do with their precious talents and valuable abilities is to sell them to the Catholic Bishops – the major owners, if not the stockholders of major newspapers of this country.
As a high-school dropout, I do not believe that the mind is a terrible thing to waste; on the contrary, I believe that it is a terrible thing to waste the mind. Poch Suzara

The Psychotic

One of the most idiotic, if not imbecilic, nay, moronic facts about our time is the stupid fanatic who is just as pathetic as he is a lunatic. He actually believes with all sincerity that everyone else is just as intelligent as he is! Poch Suzara