Sunday, July 15, 2007

A Religion Worthy of Trust

Of course only the religious morons will insists that we cannot live without a religion; especially RELIGION defined as the daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
However, RELIGION defined as teaching our children to believe in the potentials of and for humanity, and not for some silly divinity, I would be among the first to embrace such a RELIGION as worthy of trust.
Wasn’t Jose Rizal himself, as a man of science, more concerned about cultivating the minds and hearts of the Filipinos in this world rather than about saving the silly souls going to the next world?
In the meantime, there seems to be a terrible confusion on the part of a great many religious morons to the effect that when you no longer believe you may no longer behave. Poch Suzara

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Bertrand Russell's Logic, mathematics, and the Computer

One should read and study the works of Bertrand Russell. He has been described by great mathematicians as the greatest logician since Aristotle. Indeed, Russell showed that there were many forms of inferences than Aristotle had thought three thousand years ago. Aristotle tried to guard against fallacious reasoning by making a complete list – they might be called working rules – of all forms of deduction which are valid. Aristotle decided that these were nearly all syllogistic: for example, “All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal.” Russell showed how much more there was to logic, and that syllogisms should have no such pre-eminence. But that is not all. When asked why Russell was a great logician, there is another important answer which is somewhat a paradoxical one; it was because he showed how little logic can do. Meantime, Russell not only insisted on the importance of philosophy and science to each other, he also tried to redefine the fundamental principles of mathematics on a few basic laws of logic. The whole project may have been misconceived and a grand failure, but it helped to make modern logic the analytical tool that it is today. Though he himself never realized it, Russell was, indeed, one of the founders of the modern computer age. Yes sir, that's the machine facing you right now at this very moment! Poch Suzara

Focus on Rizal

Only a religious moron can relate to, and agree with, another religious moron. This is usually referred to as the communion of saints and sinners.
Only a great man can read and understand and relate with other great men. This is usually referred to as the communion philosophers and thinkers.
Too bad for Jose Rizal – among the rarest of Filipino thinkers. The religious morons, those in authority, including his own Knights, have unduly reduced this great Filipino into an ordinary run-of-the-mill Filipino. They promote what the other religious historians have declared to be part of Philippine history. That before he was executed, crying like a frightened little boy, our national hero Jose Rizal went to confession, mass and communion and that he retracted. In other words, Rizal was like a little hero proud to confess his sins to a deluded priest, heard mass said by a mediocre priest, and received communion given by a stupid priest. As if these were the courageous activities worthy of a hero eager to be a winner in the childish rat-race for salvation? Meanwhile, in this poor and backward country, our schools, colleges, and universities continue to teach that Jose Rizal retracted. He therefore never really taught us how to think intelligently; but only what to believe what the religious morons have always believed traditionally.
Thus, only the religious morons can relate to, and agree with, other religious morons. Only great men can read and understand and relate with other truly great men.
To a few thinking Filipinos, however, who could read, understand, and relate to him, - Jose Rizal was always a thinking man, incorruptible, fearless and unbribable. Indeed, Rizal was never, ever, a saint - one who is always useless, if not always worthless, and indeed, always senseless – especially in the task of elevating the welfare of the Filipino as a people in the here and in the now. Poch Suzara

Reading the Bible

Most Christians in general and Catholics in particular do not read the bible from cover to cover. They even say that it is not important to read the bible as what is more important is having “faith in God.”
When, however, they read verses in the bible but do not understand what they are reading - they call it “divine wisdom.”
For my part, I am no longer in a quandary as I used to be when I was a little boy in school. I have come to the conclusion that there isn’t that much of a difference if the bible produced the religious morons or, the religious morons produced the bible. I think both mutually produced each other! Poch Suzara

Belief

If a belief is false, it cannot be true, even if it is called “sacred belief.” Indeed, a false belief anywhere is a false belief everywhere.
In the meantime, contradict yourself and you are sure to be wrong. Not to watch out for contradiction is the same as not watching out for the truth. We are all, each and every one of us - guilty. The most we can do is to be fully aware of the mess. In the meantime, never mind the revealed Truth. It has never been revealed! Poch Suzara

All Boys

All boys are born supot. It is therefore an insult to God when boys get circumcised. The male organ with the prepuce cut away is not the way God created it in his own image and likeness. Indeed, far more original than the original sin is the original supot! Poch Suzara

Rizal's Retraction

My good friend Manny Almario wrote: “If Rizal heard mass, went to confession, took communion and married Josephine, how come there were no photographs of these alleged events, while there was a photograph of his execution? And Rizal's photograph at execution did not show him holding a rosary around his hand or wearing a scapular around his neck! People who tell lies about him are traitors to our country.” Poch Suzara

Necessity

“Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows, and necessity is the resultant of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces." - Jose Rizal
Poor Jose Rizal, I bet it had never crossed his brilliant mind that in the future his own Knights of Rizal and the majority of RP-Rizal Forum discussants would be praying to Necessity to pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, amen?

Belief in Which God

I don’t believe in God? Which God? The God of Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism or Brahmanic God. There are ten thousand others Gods out there. Perhaps, I should believe in the UNKNOWN God also mentioned to the holy bible. See ACTS 17:23
Indeed, the bible is a wonderful source of inspiration especially for those who do not bother read it or even to understand it.
Nothing is sacrosanct to the mind of an atheist. Everything must be examined. Everything must be questioned. Everything must be put under scrutiny and tested by objective criteria. Anything that cannot be measured up, anything which succumbs before an onslaught of questions, should never be tolerated by the human mind.
To be an atheist, one must first enrich one’s precious mind with knowledge based upon science and the scientific way of thinking. Also, it is not possible to be an atheist if one chooses to remain ignorant of the contents of holy books.
Life’s purpose of the atheists is to involve mankind to lift itself up out of the deadly maelstrom of superstitious nonsense that continue to generate hate and war that does not upgrade, but only degrade – our one and only precious world. Poch Suzara

Play God

“A lot of our problems and miseries happen whenever we play God, and refuse to obey and follow Him.” Fr. Jerry M. Orbos, SVD.

It obviously never occurred to this shallow-minded priest that as soon as God plays the role of a decent God, we too can begin to live like decent men, decent women, and decent children in this God-forsaken country since Christianity arrived here some 400 years ago.

For Christ’s sake, haven’t we been already praying daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to Jesus for, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Is heaven such a sick place too? Poch Suzara

Beautiful Message

Here is beautiful message from a beautiful song sang by beautiful people: “For, what is man, what has he got, if not himself then he has not to say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels – the record shows I took the blows and did it My Way.” By the way, if only such beautiful words were written in the holy bible – I never would have learned how to embrace atheism. We atheists say things we truly feel as well as we feel what we truly say. We have no need to kneel down to religious morons, especially those created in the image and likeness of God! Poch Suzara

Why I Love Bertrand Russell

As a little boy, my father-confessor in school, often told me that I am not a perfect being. I should therefore always kneel down and ask God for the forgiveness of my defects and seek only obliteration. Never mind reconstruction.
Bertrand Russell arrived into my life when I got to be 18 years old. He said: “No
one is perfect and we should never be bothered by the fact that no one is perfect.”
If there were ever a thinker I have learned to love, worship, and adore – such a thinker was Bertrand Russell. Indeed, Russell saved not my stupid soul; he saved, instead, my intelligent mind.
Oh Bertrand Russell, whenever you are - thank you for showing me intellectual courage to face human stupidity everywhere keeping our world still infested with religious and political insanity. Poch Suzara

What if the Pinoys and Pinays

What if the more than the 10 million Pinoys and Pinays doing great, useful, valuable, and meritorious jobs in some 162 countries around the world today were doing exactly the same work right here in our own country? Wouldn’t that help the Philippines grow and develop into one of the healthiest and wealthiest countries in Asia today? Unfortunately, we Filipinos do not love our country nor do we love fellow Filipinos. Why should we? We were taught to believe to love only God, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and the saints of the church. In fact, to love only any of those supernatural characters who will insure our salvation in the next world after death. In the meantime, take a good look at our dilemma. It has been going for almost 100 years now: we have government officials, but hardly have we a government. Especially a government working for the people and with the people. Poch Suzara

Why I do not Believe in God

I do not believe in God because I do not believe that a God created man in his own image and likeness. All men are born supot. I do not believe in a God who is Himself an Almighty supot. Poch Suzara.

Think of It

Jesus was crucified on a cross by the same religious morons who were created by God in his own image and likeness. And to think this is the same God who had an illicit affair with Virgin Mary - who got pregnant with baby boy Jesus. Poor Joseph, her husband, he got so dumbstruck after he was told by God’s angel that his wife Mary was still a virgin.
I ask: do any of you religious morons really believe in this biblical hogwash? Poch Suzara

What If

What if God answered the prayers of people to recover from cancer, would not that discovery for the cure of cancer no longer be a problem for medical scientists to solve? To think the Son of God Jesus cured leprosy in his community some 2,000 years ago. Unfortunately, Jesus never divulged to any one how to cure leprosy on a permanent basis. Jesus himself miserably failed to do so. Leprosy is still much of a debilitating disease in our world today. Especially in the Philippines - the only Catholic country in Asia since the 16th century. Poch Suzara

Silly Beliefs

“For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no explanation is needed.” What tragedy must be those who believe needlessly. To begin with, no explanation was needed for them to start believing. They just began to believe as frightened into them by religious bullies to believe. As if a belief, any belief for that matter, - could be of any value to what could perpetually be false, if not worthless, nay, harmful belief - especially as it encourages the life of fear and thoughtlessness. Poch Suzara

Poor Philippines

I remember as a teen-ager some 40 years ago I listened to my father, grandfather, and uncles arguing about the situation in the Philippines as a nation. Always doing poorly in significant categories like domestic economy, international trade, import/export, international investment, employment, government efficiency; but doing quite well in graft and corruption and political instability.
I thought then to myself, what could we expect of ourselves as a nation waiting for the Second Coming of the Lord to fix our troubles and problems. Even the soul of our own national hero Jose Rizal was thought to have made it to heaven after he was executed for writing against Catholic authority will be coming with the Lord back to the Philippines. Poch Suzara

The Mother of All Miracles

A man of blind faith able to see absolutely nothing except see the invisible God who, according to him, is a spirit here, a spirit there, and a spirit everywhere! In fact, the man of blind faith even believes that an invisible God created him in God's own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

Conscience

Conscience is not innate. It is acquired through evolution and education. It also varies with geography. Otherwise, if conscience were universally planted, then people everywhere would cherish similar beliefs and values. We would all embrace one standard of morality. There would be no disagreement over what is right or wrong. There would be no need for policemen, no need for laws and lawyers, judges in court; no need for a military to go to war to settle disputes. In this connection, throughout the world the religion of mankind is determined by the geographical accident of their birth. In England men grow up Protestants; in Italy, Catholics; in Russia, Greek Christians; in Turkey, Mohammedans; in India, Brahmans; in China, Buddhists or Confucians; in the Philippines, Christians as Christians must hate other Christians. What they are taught in their childhood they believe in their manhood; and they die in the faith in which they have lived. In the meantime, the Revealed Truth in the holy bible has yet to be revealed. Poch Suzara