The Trouble with the Bible

The trouble with the bible is that none of the inspired authors bothered to read together the bible when it was completed as a finished published product. Otherwise, if they did, they would have found each other shocked with the contradictions, inconsistencies, obscenities, atrocities, and absurdities that fill more than half in what is written in the bible. I have a sneaky suspicion even God did not read the bible for final approval. In fact, I think the devil also did not read it too for his disapproval. Poch Suzara

The Filipino

“No one stands as tall as a Christian on his knees.” Phil Star Nov. 28.2008.
Still the faithful Christians since Christianity arrived in the Philippines in the 17th century, the poor Filipino is still on his knees praying daily to God to “give us this day our daily bread,” and to “lead us not into temptation,” in this 21st century. Poch Suzara

Dear Catholic Bishops

I should wish to share with you words from a psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, author of THE ROAD LESS TRAVEL. It is a bit about psychiatry at its best on top of Christianity at its worst: “The 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 the unfamiliar, by deliberately challenging the validity of what we have previously been taught and hold dear. The path to holiness lies through questioning EVERYTHING.” Well, in our sick society today, if we question the evils of corruption, we find that corruption is not a political or a legal or a medical issue. Corruption is a moral issue. During these past centuries under Christian authority, hasn’t it been your sole responsibility to shepherd the flock, to be in charge of the teachings of moral values? Especially to establish self-respect and human dignity as the foundation of a healthy and a sane society? Why is it that after 400 years of Christianity solidly established in this country, tens of millions of Filipinos in this 21st century continue to experience interior emptiness, still thirsting for some form of spirituality? No doubt, we still have deep faith in the holy Trinity known as the “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit,” but in our race to achieve a higher standard of living as a people, and to accomplish a higher standard of thinking as a nation – where is the Holy Trinity on our side as our “Creator,” “Redeemer,” and the “Sustainer?” For my part, as a humanist, I embrace morality as one of the greatest of human values. Not, however, superstitious morality. I do not do good because there is a greater power out there who will reward me for my goodness after death. On the contrary, I do good precisely because of what’s higher and greater than me, namely, - my family, my country, and indeed, this planet earth as the home of humanity. I duly recognize that there is little difference between the goals of the Christians and the humanists. We both value helping others. But as a humanist I am drawn to this goal out of unselfish love and empathy – which arises from education in rationality. As a humanist my goal in life is to try and spread the virtues of felicity via intellectual growth and maturity. Indeed, to keep ignited the torch of enlightenment. To see things now as they will seem forever, - “in the light of eternity.” The Christian, however, is driven to it out of fear for his own eternal welfare. For the Christian, helping others is not an end in itself, but only a means of saving himself from damnation. As a humanist I realize that I could be mistaken about what is best for my fellow-Filipinos; so I am willing to listen to criticism. I am willing to have my ideas torn apart and will listen to the power of reason. The Christian, however, cannot admit that his ideas of right and wrong might be mistaken, because to doubt would imperil his immortal soul. He must have faith in Christian doctrines – out of fear of eternal torture if he does not. He must be anti-intellectual in order to maintain his faith – out of fear of torture if he does not. And he must never doubt that his action is correct – again out of fear of torture if he does not. What is happening to us, I ask? Why is it that we Filipinos do not, and cannot as yet enjoy social unity, moral sanity, and political maturity in our own country? We only continue to be a people of childish followers; hardly a nation of intelligent thinkers as leaders. Why is it that in this day and age, under your moral guidance and inspiration, we Filipinos only continue to believe that human life is but a defect, and that we must only live our lives seeking not reconstruction, but only obliteration! My dear bishops, as citizens of our country, isn’t it time for you to take a deeper look at our spiritually poor and morally bankrupt nation - the Philippines - the only Christian country in Asia since 400 years ago? No doubt, Christianity has been a great success. But what has been a greater success, however, is the Filipino way of life. We are still faithful to a higher power out there, but paying for it at a expensive price down here: the horrors of spiritual corruption, moral degradation, economic stagnation, political delusion, educational deception, not to mention the lack of national health, hygiene, and sanitation in our country everywhere! In the final analysis, I say it again: it is time for us Filipinos to stop fooling around with our silly “free will” for the sake of heavenly salvation. We should, instead, begin to believe and have faith in our intelligent “good will,” especially for one another for the sake of promoting in our country - civilization? Yours sincerely, Poch Suzara Chairman Center for Inquiry, Philippines December 13, 2008

Letter to the Editor

Dear Sir:

Mr. Alexander L. Lacson’s piece OUR ENEMY ( PDI, Nov. 30, 2008 ) is another reflection of why we are the Sick Man of Asia.
He says that during the Spanish time, the face of our enemy was very clear. It was the Spanish conquerors and the rulers of our country. They used force and violence against our people, raped our women, stole our gold and spices, exploited our natural resources.

But today, Mr. Lacson says, our enemy is the “trapo” in government – the mayor, the governor, the congressman, the Cabinet secretary or department undersecretary, the president, the senators, etc.

I ask: aren’t those leaders in our government products of La Salle, Ateneo, University of Santo Thomas, Letran, San Beda, Mirian college, Assumption college, Asian Institute of management, etc. etc. including the University of the Philippines that produces men like a Marcos - a Jesus-loving, God-fearing Filipino leader?

Indeed, in this poor and backward country, we are all born ignorant, not stupid and corrupt. We are made stupid and corrupt by education.

Millions of minds are distorted and hearts twisted with false beliefs during the formative years in school. All for the sake of having faith in the next world to come, and to have faith also in the next country to go to in order to earn a decent living. What keeps us Filipinos stupid and corrupt? Isn’t it glaringly obvious that decent growth as a people and decent development as a nation can only be the result of a decent system of education?

A decent life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. It has nothing to do with prayers to God to give us this day our daily bread, and to lead us not into temptation? Isn’t it tragic enough that we Filipinos are winners in the rat-race for eternal salvation, but are poor losers in the race for human civilization under a better system of education?

To teach Filipino children in school to reach for fantasy solutions to real life problems is the worst possible training Filipino children can have for their outreach toward emotional growth and intellectual maturity – indeed, for love of fellow-citizens and for love of country.

The success of Christianity in the Philippines is our one and only real enemy. Its basic teachings in the schools, colleges, and universities have always shaped the Filipino mind and molded the Filipino heart to live faithfully as the poor victims, but never as the healthy masters of religion in our own country.

If there is purpose to life that purpose must be that we should leave this world a little better than we are born into it, especially in the humanitarian sense, or there is little reason for our having lived.

Yours sincerely,
Poch Suzara
Chairman
Center for Inquiry, Philippines
Dec. 2, 2008

Jesus

Jesus is usually referred to as Jesus of Nazareth though he was born supposedly in Bethlehem. What’s remarkable about this discrepancy, however, is not the Jesus of this or that town, but that neither Nazareth nor Bethlehem got to be a Christian place as part of a Christian country. Israel is still a Jewish State.

Here, however, is something even more remarkable. In the State of Israel today there exist no school, college, or a university that teach Jesus is the Son of God who was crucified on a cross to redeem the souls of Filipinos in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Jesus Crucified or Hang on a Tree

Was Jesus crucified on a cross or hang on a tree? Listen to the reports of the Inspired by God authors of the holy bible: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Matt.27:37 The King of the Jews. Mark 15:26 This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Luke 23:38 Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. John 19:19 One would think that there was only one cross, not four, and therefore only one inscription written on the cross. However, in the book of Acts 5:30, Jesus was not crucified on a cross, he was hanged on a tree. In Acts 10:39, it also reads: “And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, or in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree.” Again, in Acts 13:29, it reads: “ And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree. And laid him in a sepulcher.” And again, in 1 Peter 2:24, “Who on his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. In the meantime, St. Augustine was obviously not a critical bible reader. He wrote: “Nothing is to be accepted except the authority of scripture, since greater is that authority than all the powers of thehuman mind.” Poch Suzara

Created Equal

We are all created equal? Equal in what? I’d rather acknowledge that we are all equal by having been born of woman and that we owe our allegiance to motherhood, fatherhood, and to nationhood. Forget the priesthood. They are all a gang of religiously unequal bullies in business for themselves. Poch Suzara

Piety

“Piety,” Rizal wrote, “does not consists in prolonged kneeling, long prayers, large rosaries, soiled scapulars, but in good conduct, clean conscience, and upright thinking.”

No wonder after they had Rizal arrested, jailed, and publicly executed, his enemies - the Catholic Spanish Friars had to spread scandalous lies to the effect that Rizal retracted. That just hours before he was executed, he died as a penitent Catholic with a rosary in his hand and a scapular around his neck. Well, a blow-up photo during his execution at the Luneta displayed in the Manila City Hall today disproves such a silly claim.

Well, in this 21st century Philippines, despite the killing of our Jose Rizal, piety has not changed a bit. It is still about prolong kneeling, long silly prayers, large silly rosaries, soiled scapulars, and hypocritical conduct, corrupt conscience, and a religiously twisted mind devoid of thought.

In the meantime, ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES, our national hero Jose Rizal was not a Filipino. He could not be a Filipino. Rizal was far too intelligent to be a Filipino. Indeed, Filipinos even in this already 21st century, believe that Rizal retracted. What an insult to Filipino intelligence. Poch Suzara

Life and Death

It is incredible how some people, specially priests, claim to have knowledge about the nature of death. As if they already have knowledge about the nature of life.

Except perhaps that life is a sexually transmitted disease with the mortality rate of 100 per cent, what else do we really know of the nature of life? Where does sexual desires come from that produces life in the first place? Why are we here? Is there a meaning to life? Who knows? All we know is that life stops. But whether life has meaning, even the inspired bible authors of God did not know why life stops. Poch Suzara

The Spirit of Liberty

I write always in the spirit of liberty, especially in the possibility that I could be wrong. My thoughts, however, are always subject to change or emendation. My doubts are always tentative, never dogmatic. Show me evidences where I am wrong and I will make the necessary adjustments or discard my doubts down the tube.

As an atheist, I have neither faith nor a system of beliefs. Knowing is always more reliable than just believing. My faith lies in human intelligence. I don’t give a hoot for divine benevolence. Poch Suzara

Religious Fears

Most people hardly know that the reason they live a life filled with religious fears, it is because they themselves have not read the bible. Instead, like a bunch of mentally-retarded believers, they would rather inspire others to read and interpret the bible for them. The bible is a good book; unfortunately, good for nothing.

Look at what bible messages have done for mankind during these past 2,000 years in the Western world in general, and during the past 400 years in the Philippines in particular? Far from the Age of Critical Analysis, we Filipinos are still living in the Age of Mental Paralysis. Poch Suzara

In Southern California

I lived and worked in Los Angeles, Southern California, for 12 years. 1967 - 1979 There were then some 3 Filipino associations existing. Each trying to bring down the other owing to petty squabbles., if not childish jealousies. When I left after 12 years, there was some 140 different Filipino associations. Today 2008 there are more than 200 different Filipino associations each busy finding faults about the Filipino way of life in the USA. Thus, Filipinos disunited as Filipino-Americans. Nobody wants to be the Indian in such association, especially to pursue its goals and aims. Everybody, however, wants to be the chief. And so, Filipino associations are formed for the simple reason that its Filipino president wants to be famous carrying around with him business cards that read: president. In the meantime, of all the Asian-Americans in the United States, the Filipino-Americans are the most disheveled, disorganized, and full of mutual hatred and envy leading each other to a bridge that goes nowhere. Poch Suzara

Joys of Life

The joys of life in this world are subject to birth, growth, death, and decay. How utterly silly of God not to protect such joys so that we may together exist forever alongside the existence of our deathless, if not utterly worthless – silly immortal souls. Poch Suzara

Barking idiot

If an idiot barks at you, you only have to bark louder and the idiot backs off. Living in a sick society, sometimes, angry reptilian rudeness is more effective than gentle mammalian politeness. Hello you psuedo-Pinoy psuedo-atheists – you gang of sick idiots! You people are only good at barking. Poch Suzara

God is like Dust Existing Everywhere

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust", a phrase in Christian burial service, used sometimes to denote the total finality of the corporeal body, thereby contrasting the temporary nature of worldly existence to the eternity of the spirit. It is based on scriptural texts such as "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19), and "I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee" (Ezekiel 28:18) Well, If dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, and if God created thou in his own image and likeness, then God must be made of dust too. No wonder dust is like God. It is existing here, there, and everywhere. Poch Suzara Twitter@ Facebook# Google#

God Lied

In the Old Testament, after God created the world and everything in it, he said: “it was good.” In the New Testament, however, God said: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not with him.” John 2:15. In the Old Testament, God lied. Poch Suzara

St. Augustine and Free Will

“When, therefore, man lives according to man, not according to God, he is like the devil,” wrote St. Augustine. An individual, according to St. Augustine, has little power to influence his or her predetermined fate and is entirely dependent upon God for salvation. So, I ask St. Augustine: what is the use of the free will as a gift from God? Poch Suzara

The Bible

The bible repeatedly exhorts readers to fear God: “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” “Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord.” “Fear Him, which after he hath power to cast into hell; yea. I say unto you, Fear Him.” Indeed, the bible even encourages the frightened readers to fear the bible itself. Thus, the majority of the religious believers are not really that familiar with the contradictions, absurdities, inconsistencies, and obscenities that run through the bible from cover to cover. In fact, only the few are conversant with the fact that there are about 450 different and conflicting versions of the bible sold in the market today. Poch Suzara

A Great Dream

I had this great dream the other night. I ardently hope it will become a reality one day. Thousands of my Jesus freak classmates and schoolmates in La Salle received this text message saying: “Poch Suzara died yesterday and was cremated today. With his last breath, he cried out: Screw you religious morons who with your silly Son of God Jesus made a silly religious mockery out of my beautiful country.” Poch Suzara

Allan Greenspan

Alan Greenspan was, for a great many years, a true believer in the god of market fundamentalism. The great man that he is, he recently admitted publicly, that he was wrong. The former Federal Reserve chairman, said that the current financial crisis had uncovered a flaw in how the free market capitalism works that shocked him.

He told the House Oversight Committee that his belief that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders had proved to be wrong.

This is like admitting that the Ayn Rand philosophy for the selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane works but works only for those who are precisely greedy, selfish, stupid, and insane.

He admitted that he had made a “mistake” in believing that banks operating in their self-interest would be enough to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions.

He said that he had found “a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”

He headed the nation’s central bank for 18.5 years, said that he and others who believed lending institutions would do a good job of protecting their shareholders are in a “state of shocked disbelief.”

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 feel nobly. And in the degree in which we can all be great, this is the business of each one of us.”

In this 21st century, Allan Greenspan is one such great man in the world today. He will yet change the filthy ways of filthy Americans who became filthy rich in the filthy way. Poch Suzara