Education

“Education,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “should fit us for the nearest possible approach to truth, and to do this it must teach truthfulness.”
If only truthfulness were taught in our schools, colleges, and universities, the Philippines could have been the most developed nation in Asia centuries ago. But then again, what can be expected of the millions of college degree holders of this country? They would rather have faith in the Revealed Truth for the sake of the next life rather than have faith by discovering the truth for the sake of this life. Poch Suzara

Death

Death is natural. It is also undeniable, unavoidable, and indeed inevitable. The big question, however, if death is the end, and there is no life after death, and humanity will perish utterly, then all our efforts will eventually come to nothing. As an atheist, I do not agree.
Well, to begin with, I know I will surely die one day. The problem, however, is how would I know that there is life after death in heaven or in hell since I would not even know that back on earth I am already dead and buried or cremated?
Bertrand Russell explained it briefly and, indeed, cheerfully: “Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.” Poch Suzara

Theology

Theology is the study of the good; especially, the good for nothing. Look at the good for nothing theologians. After centuries of studying the existence of God, the one and only thing these so-called religious scholars have learned about God is that His existence is a mystery. No doubt, the theologians have power; but their power comes not from knowledge. It comes only from human ignorance and fear. In fact, in order to keep themselves in power, they only have to repeat and repeat the claim that wisdom for this world is evil with God. Is it possible that God’s mystery is not as serious a matter as it is the study of nothing called theology? Theologians have the gall to tell us that if we do not worship God, we will just end up instead worshipping ourselves. As if that exactly isn’t what we are doing all the time – worshipping the same reflection – the same image and likeness of a silly God in the mirror. Poch Suzara

Oh God

In the spiritual world, God expelled the devil and his demons out of heaven.
In the material world, God expelled Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.
In the academic world, and for questioning too many biblical nonsense, God also had me expelled out of high School at De La Salle University. Among other pertinent questions:I ask: if God could very well create a lasting happiness in heaven, why could He not also create the same lasting happiness on earth? Poch Suzara

A Belief

A belief always follows the path of the least resistance. It is like shallow water that seeks new grounds no more. It is already satisfied stuck on its own shallow level. Poch Suzara

Freedom of the Mind as the Greatest of Freedoms

Freedom is neither a party celebration nor a pleasurable fecundation. Freedom means work, especially more work in the search of the truth. In brief, if it should make any sense at all, freedom has nothing to do with intellectual poverty; on the contrary, it has mostly to do with experiencing intellectual prosperity. Francis Bacon admonished: “Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.” Indeed, the truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free... In the meantime, I know only of one freedom worth embracing to the end of my days, and that is the freedom of the mind... Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

The Crime of Silence

The crime of silence arises when the need to protest makes men cowards. Of course cowards do not bother with corruption here, corruption there, and corruption everywhere in our sick and corrupt society; especially corruption in the senate or in Congress. After all, according to the coward's faith in God, there is always that forgiveness of sin and crime and that better life to come in the hereafter after death. Poch Suzara

Freedom of Expression

What value has the freedom of expression if, as children in school, we were never taught to value the free play of free thought in the constructive or creative arena of free ideas? Indeed, what value has the freedom of expression if we were never encouraged to question, for example, the destructive influence of sacred beliefs, sick parental prejudices, frightened school teachers, or even to challenge the validity of ecclesiastical authority? For my part, as long as I am enjoying the freedom to make mistakes, and more especially, to learn from my mistakes, I will always, to the end of my days, embrace the freedom of expression as one of life’s most precious of freedoms. . . Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Democracy

Compared to a theocracy or a kleptocracy or the government of deviltry, democracy is the best form of government. It is the lesser evil. Democracy has its great values and merits. It has, however, its own inherent defects. The worse of it is that democracy encourages the cult of mediocrity. Indeed, in a democracy, like that of the United States of America, one must first accomplish a reputation for mediocrity before getting elected into high office.
Indeed, I have lived and worked in America for some 17 years. Twelve years in Los Angeles and 5 years in San Francisco There never was a politician in high government office I could intellectually love or respect or be worthy of my confidence, trust or even vote. The one and only time I entered a voting booth was when I voted for Jimmy Carter for president of the United States of America. He won. He turned out
to be good; unfortunately, for the United States and for the world - good for nothing. Poch Suzara

Rich Americans

In the past, rich Americans said to foreigners: “Give me liberty or give me death.” In the present, however, rich Americans say to foreigners: “Give me cheap energy or our military will give you death.” Poch Suzara

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