Am Not a Real Atheist

I am told that I am not a real atheist because I read and study the bible. Indeed, I have been reading and studying the bible for almost 30 years now. The bible has been the most potent reason that convinced me to embrace the beauty and the harmony of atheism. But I have also been reading and studying the writings of Bertrand Russell during these past 50 years. I am a slow reader. I was born gifted with a low I.Q. In fact, I was expelled out of high school for being such a “dumb” student in la Salle. Of course in school, I got failing grades for “wanting to know;” but I got excellent grades for “consenting to believe.” Perhaps, it is true. I am not a real atheist. After all, if God exists he could only exist for me in the personage of a Bertrand Russell. Indeed, he was a real God to me. Russell saved not my silly soul, but saved instead my precious mind and precious heart living on this earth. Oh yes, I love, worship, and adore Bertrand Russell. If it turns out that there is life after death but Bertrand Russell will not there on my side in my pursuit of the truth, then I say fuck life after death. Poch Suzara

The Religious Cowards

The religious cowards would always look at church history with sanctimonious reverence and deem it like the ark of the covenant – too sacred to be touched. I say this is sacred infantile timidity. In the pursuit of the truth every angle that comprises human knowledge should be questioned.

Bertrand Russell, famous for criticizing his own philosophical findings, the world’s greatest thinker as far as I am concerned, honestly admitted in the end of his thinking career: “all human knowledge is uncertain, inexact, and partial.” Poch Suzara

Immanuel Kant

He was such a weird thinker. He wanted to save religion from reason, and yet, at the same time to save science from skepticism. He had great hopes in accomplishing these ambitions by longing to preserve for himself and for the world the essentials, at least of the faith inculcated in him by his mother. No doubt, in his time, he won much popularity; unfortunately, as a monument to German insanity. Save religion from reason? It is time well-spent if religious education was not evil. On the contrary, to begin with, religious education is evil because it means teaching children to believe and to have faith in the unknowable that is not even worth knowing. Now to save science from skepticism is a total waste of time and energy. Skepticism is what science is all about. There is nothing definite in science as everything in science is tentative. Listen to Carl Sagan on science: “Its only sacred truth is that there are no sacred truths. All assumptions must be critically examined. Arguments from authority are worthless. Whatever is inconsistent with the facts -- no matter how fond of it we are -- must be discarded or revised. Science is not perfect. It is often misused. It is only a tool, but it is the best tool we have -- self-correcting, ever changing, applicable to everything.” Bertrand Russell once admitted that what science cannot know, mankind cannot. Too bad an earlier philosopher in the likes of an Immanuel Kant could hardly grasp science is what we know and philosophy is what we do not know. Poch Suzara

Confusion Behind Delusion

To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. Luke 1:27

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Rom. 1:3

Jesus, the son of Joseph which was the son of Heli. Luke 33:23

And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus. Matt. 1:6

Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" Matt. 17:5

The beloved son declares: "If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26

In view of the above complication, is it really that hard to see why as the only Christian country in Asia, we Filipinos are so proud of our delusion as a people and even more so proud of our confusion as a nation? Poch Suzara

THERE IS NOTHING TRAGIC

There is nothing tragic about having been raised by ignorant parents at home; or educated by ignorant teachers in school; or indoctrinated into one’s faith by ignorant priests in church.

What’s truly tragic, however, is if, in later life, under the inspiration of more fear and ignorance, we care not for the power of ideas or to be involved in the search of the truth. We just carry on with our children and grandchildren to have faith in the same old religious mendacity; to believe in the same old political hypocrisy; and to contribute to the same old social insanity – that’s perpetually keeping us Filipinos spiritually poor as a people and keeping us morally bankrupt as a nation. Poch Suzara

For God so Loved the World

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting.” What a lie!

God never loved the world. If God did, his own son Jesus, an abused child, crucified on the cross, need never have cried out loud: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Now why should a God with power to perform miracles forsake Himself? Poch Suzara

Image and Likeness

“God made man in his own image and likeness” are words written by men in the bible. If women wrote the bible they would have written that a “Goddess made woman in her own image and likeness.”

For my part as a bible reader, I am happy and proud that there were no women who contributed any of the inspired garbage written in the Old and in the New Testament. Indeed, revelation in the bible all teach that women, like the negro slaves, are not human.

The most destructive attitude that the bible imparts, however, is the hatred of human intelligence. Indeed, the Bible is a paradigm of misology - the hatred of reason. Even in Genesis, God expected Adam and Eve to have absolutely nothing to do with the Tree of Knowledge. Poch Suzara

The Creator

“How foolish to worship the creation when the creator is so much greater.” Phil Star April 22, 2009

Indeed, if creation is the norm, isn't it more foolish to worship the creator when we do not even know who or what created the creator. Poch Suzara

Born Ignorant, not Stupid

We are all born ignorant, not stupid. We were made stupid by education. Especially as our schools, colleges, and universities are owned by the priesthood industry. The same Catholic industry with the vested interests in human misery that promotes our sick society for the sake of maintaining Christianity. In the meantime, the existence of stupid divinity and the existence of human stupidity are one and the same holy baloney that promotes nothing in the Philippines except social and political and historical insanity. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

INTELLIGENT DESIGN IN NATURE? NO KIDDING?

The creationists continue to amaze me. Specially those who insists that if there were no Creator, there would be no “intelligent design in nature.” Let’s examine, with a healthy dose of imagination, the creationists’ proposition. I should submit at once that if there were intelligent design in nature, such designs are as intelligent as the hairstyle of the evangelists preaching sacred lies on television. Let’s briefly explore “intelligent design” in the cosmos. How intelligent is it that everything out there, billions of galaxies are existing too far away from each other and traveling and getting farther every second away from each other? How are we to travel to the other planets and stars? Even nearby Andromeda, the closest galaxy to our Milky Way, is 2.2 million light years away (a light year is about trillion miles). One heck of a long and boring journey. Our own solar system, while relatively compact, is still a traveler’s nightmare. It takes our fastest probes years to reach the outer planets, and once we get there, we find not angelic nor demonic spacemen, but only find frozen rocks or giant balls of gas. The point is: design implies a designer; but more than that, design implies purpose. It’s hard enough to prove that the universe was designed by a designer. What’s even impossible to prove is that the existence of the universe has a purpose. The inner planets are almost as inhospitable. Mars is a dead, airless, dry, and frigid planet. One day, however, with scientific intelligence, Mars will probably be terraformed to make it habitable for humans. Venus is caught in an endless loop of a runaway greenhouse effect. Mercury’s surface temperature is over 450 degrees Celsius. Earth is our only home and we have yet to learn to love our home planet earth. But thanks to our conflicting religious beliefs, we only love God in heaven up there by hating one another down here on earth. Now comes the major premise of intelligent design - that life, specially, human life, is too complex to have just happened. If the creator had power, wisdom, and knowledge, it was shown by his creation of man. Unfortunately, we came not from among the best blueprint. In fact the creator failed to look at His master plan before starting work. Look at the facts. First, if we admit the desirable aspects of nature as products of design, we must also admit the undesirable aspects of nature as products of design. After Adam and Eve, who was the designer who designed the Talking Serpent who caused the Fall of Adam and Eve? Oh well, let’s leave that behind. Now there’s the problem of sexual reproduction. Requiring two people to make babies is so inefficient, painful and messy. Sexual reproduction breeds not only children, but also contempt. The male contribution to the process of making babies is so insignificant. It is accomplished in just a few seconds. The female then spends the next nine months in discomfort waiting the birth. The male, on the other hand, gets on with his life bragging about his God-given erectability. Now if the creator were an intelligent designer, Why would he just take a rib off Adam to design an Eve? Now look at babies born into this world. They come out of mother’s womb wet, hungry, crying, and indeed, as unbelievers of the faith. None of the baby boys born have one less rib than the baby girls. Now if circumcision were important to the creator, why did he put that extra foreskin in the boy’s genital to begin with? Sounds unintelligent to me. But then again, why couldn’t the creator designed the human stomach exactly like that of the Boa Constrictor, ( in order to survive, that snake needs only one full meal a month ). In this way, with a better designed stomach - the 800,000,000 women and children throughout the world need not go to sleep hungry every night. Next comes the fact that we are bipedal. That means when we are young we fall down a lot. And when we are old we fall down a lot. The other day, my best friend, who is neither young or old, but a devout Christian, fell down from bed and painfully broke his leg. And it wasn’t even his God-fearing wife who was with him in bed. Man is intelligently designed? How come we can’t breath water? Is that important? Think about it – what creator would make us so we can only breath oxygen, then puts us on a planet which is 78% water? Hello? Anybody home out there? The creator gave us a useless organ like the appendix, but couldn’t afford to throw in fins and gills as part of our physical nature so that we may live deep in the sea as well. All knowing and powerful, indeed. We are intelligently designed? From caducity to senility, we get sick, grow bald, get fat, lose our sense of hearing, teeth fall out, skin sag, bones become brittle, sexual performance fades, vision fails, arteries clog, senses become dull, memory becomes unreliable. Children are born ignorant in that the priesthood industry takes advantage of the situation by making it even more ignorant for the glory of God in heaven. Really, how so intelligent a design is the human body? Is it really a sacred temple of God? But the human body is also the happy home of some 2 billion germs, viruses, bacteria and other nasty little monsters trying hard everyday to kill vital human organs always at war against the human immune system. In the long run, however, as in cancer, a group of these little monsters engages in a career of imperialism, and in bringing the rest of the human body to death, these little monsters would decree its own death too. Most obviously the argument against intelligent design is the fact that we have a free will. We experiment. We observe. We discover. We think. We theorize. We disagree. We quarrel. We extrapolate. We make war against each other. If humans were the result of a master plan, the creator could have made us gifted not with a free will, but only with a good will. In this way, we need not doubt the existence of a creator or doubt the claims of his inspired writers of the bible. We could then learn to live peacefully and intelligently together as one big happy family exploring deeper the wonders in nature of which we not apart, but precisely a part of nature. In the final analysis, intelligent design is an argument from ignorance. It is equivalent to the “true or false” or “none of the above” test category. Intelligent design is a sophisticated way of admitting “I don’t know.” It is like asking: who designed the “turtle’s shell?” “I don’t know.” “You don’t know.” “Therefore we both know that the creator designed the turtle’s shell.” Indeed, an intellectually honest person, when confronted with something he knows nothing about, will admit at once that he knows nothing about it. In the meantime, in order to conclude that an object was designed, we must first establish that it was manufactured. Therefore, in order to conclude that the natural universe was designed, we must first establish that it was manufactured by an intelligent manufacturer. Nobody is perfect; but however scientifically well-informed many of us have become, the creationists would still insists that we all came from dust and unto dust we shall all return. But really, if the Creator made man in his own image and likeness, it follows that the Creator too is made of dust. Now, isn’t it rather silly to pray to a Creator who is made of dust to save our silly souls that’s made of dust too? Poch Suzara

Supernatural Light

Jesus said: “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.” John 12:46

Oh Jesus, my dear Jesus, why all the drama? If you were a bright radiant luminous light yourself, darkness in the land of your birth yesterday need no longer continue to be in darkness today! Poch Suzara

As an Atheist

I have no access to radio, television, newspaper, and magazine – all are owned and control by the theists.

I have no access to express my views in the schools, colleges, and universities – all are owned and controlled by the theists.

I have no access getting into politics because if I admit my atheism I am automatically disqualified. Indeed, belief in God is mandatory in order win a government position.

I have no access to speak in the halls of Congress or in the Senate or even to speak to the General Assembly of the UN – all are under the eyes and ears of the theists.

I have no access to express my views to my friends, relatives, and associates as they have virtually banned me from their premises.

And yet, via the internet, as I am able to expound a bit of the views of an atheist, it is immediately branded as “atheistic propaganda.”

Well, Bertrand Russell, always on my side, summarized it for all of you: The love of “knowledge is very much more often useful than harmful and the fear of knowledge is very much more often harmful than useful.” Poch Suzara

The Religiously Ignorant

The religiously ignorant are so impressed with these words written in the bible:

“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matt 16. 18-19.

Thus, the Catholic church is founded on Peter whom, four verses later, Jesus openly calls Satan.

“But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me.” Matt.16:23

Well, according to the bible itself, if the Catholic church is founded on Peter, it is founded on Satan – a fact I have long suspected ever since I was first year high school (1952) at De La Salle University. Poch Suzara

On Death

Death is the experience of nothing. Paradoxically, nobody dies of nothing. We all got to die of something.

The so-called near-death-experience is a not local, but a universal – hogwash. In fact, near-death experience is an occurrence by each and every one of us on a daily basis. Consider the day we are born, it is the day we also begin to experience dying.

Now I am told that in my death-bed, I will change and beg God to forgive my sins? I say: No way will I do such a thing! Over my dead body. I’d rather kill myself first.

No doubt, we all have talent for self-deception. Especially when our emotions are stirred and there are few notions more stirring than the idea that there is a better world to come after death. I ask: isn’t it better if there were a better world to create after birth rather than just believe that there is a better world to come after death?
Indeed, the very word afterlife is contradictory? How could there be a life after death when there is no such thing as a life before birth? What really is being suggested here is that life never ends and the first part of a human life takes place in a body and then that's disposed of but we somehow go on living with a soul. What a crock of superstitious crockery. It is all so childish as a belief and so infantile as a value unworthy of self-respect and human dignity.

In the meantime, I am indeed, dying and while I am at it beyond my control, I am living, thinking, learning, questioning, and thought-provoking.

The rest of my friends, relatives, associates, classmates, and schoolmates are doing nothing too but simply just dying too. It is nature's decree - the day we are born is the day we begin to live in a dying body.

Well, I asked it before, I ask it again: Why should we not try to leave this world a better place than we found it? Not for the sake of a sick divinity, but precisely with a healthy sense for humanity? Poch Suzara



Poch Suzara

Oh, Jesus

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have life everlasting.” John 3:16 This is the same Son of God Jesus, in Matthew 18:3 who said, “Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Well, it looks like Jesus himself never grew up. He was also an abused child. Crucified on the cross, he cried out loud: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Too frightened while crucified on the cross, Jesus could hardly hear the voice of God who said: “I help only those who help themselves.” And to think that in the Sermon of the Mount this is the same Jesus who exhorts the multitude: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5:48 For my part, I thank God I was an atheist when I arrived into this world and will be an atheist when I depart dead out of this world. In the meantime, I have no fear of death because I have already experienced death for billions of years before I existed on this earth. Poch Suzara

Please Read Your Bible

My atheism comes from reading and studying the bible. What about you dear reader? What do you really know about the incredible foundation of your religious beliefs that make for our sick society? I am not asking you to ignore, on the contrary, I am begging you to read and to study your own book.

Indeed, no other book has done more harm to the Filipino as a people and to the Philippines as a nation than the destructive messages written in the bible.

Take, as an example: “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. Or, “Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt 3:1.. Or, “Take no thought for your life or for the morrow…” Matt. 6:24-35. Or, “Jesus prepares a special place for believers in heaven.” Thess 4:13-18

We Filipinos hardly know that the preachers of these messages have ended up not only as the owners of the Vatican Bank – the richest and the most powerful bank in the world today, but also the owners of the Philippines especially as it is a religious banana Republic. Poch Suzara

Nature

My dear reader, nature will kill you one day. At my age of 72, however, I am sure nature will kill me first ahead of you.

Nature is cruel. It is apathetic. Indifferent to the plight of humanity. Nature is devoid of love and bereft of compassion. Millions upon millions of people nevertheless do not call it nature. They prefer to call it God. In fact, they believe the cruelty in nature is really the will of God. They are the religious morons of this world. They have neither the inclination nor the fascination to study nature, like the scientists are doing, exploring the possibilities in how nature, like a wild animal, can be tamed to behave not recklessly, but friendly and harmoniously.

Perhaps, I may not be on this earth when that day comes. But science will one day will make longevity a matter of lasting creativity. Science will conquer death. Indeed, immortality of the human body will be one day soon a reality. I hope for that day to come soon. Especially as it will finally mean the death and burial of silly theology in a Catholic cemetery. Poch Suzara

Hope for the Philippines

We are told that as long as there is life, there is hope. Unfortunately, since we are already dead spiritually as a people, and, already dead intellectually as a nation - how can there be hope for the Philippines? We are, indeed, a hopeless country due to our hopeless system of education. Look how in this already 21st century, our educators are still pretty much concerned not with science shortage, the scientific way of thinking shortage, or technology learning shortage, but only stupid classroom shortage. As if the development of the Filipino minds and hearts can be the result from stupid classrooms! We Filipinos are the Sick Man of Asia. For us Filipinos, there could only be more of the same - more of the same prayers to forgive our sins against divinity and to forgive our crimes against our own country and - all for the glory of Christianity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Think of It

The great religions of the world, especially Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have enemies. No, not only the animosity of one against the other. The enemy is religion itself. This is due to faith in a local divinity that spreads stupidity globally.

To think that after all of these past thousands of years of God here, and God there, and God everywhere - the world today is still in a spiritual mess, still in a moral mess, and still in a religious mess. Especially due to fear hear, ignorance there, and human stupidity on the march everywhere. Poch Suzara

The Atheists

Unlike the Christians, the Muslims, and the Jews who have not ceased hating and killing each other – we atheists have no fixed or dogmatic faith. We atheists do not hate or kill other atheists for not believing in God. Indeed, we atheists do not kill people. With the power of reason we would rather kill mindless arguments or thoughtless testaments.

In the meantime, to encourage false beliefs and to protect them by discouraging, if not prohibiting, honest discussions and free inquiry may well be the road towards social sanity. Those who assume that some beliefs, even if false, are necessary to preserve morality have an infantile notion of morality.

For social cohesion morality is best when it is based upon the veracity of reality. It is worthless as it is based upon fantasy to please a divinity so at home with mendacity. Poch Suzara