Self-Direction

“The capacity for consistent self-direction, “wrote Bertrand Russell, “is one of the most valuable that a human being can possess.” Fortunately, our system of education produces men and women who are consistent; unfortunately however, not for self-direction, but only for self-obliteration. This, for the sake of heavenly rewards in the next life with a God as promised by a bunch of Jewish authors who wrote about it in the silly bible some three thousand years ago. Poch Suzara

Jesus Promised

Jesus promised: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Matt. 7:7-8. Really, if Jesus could not deliver these promises to the Jews, God’s Chosen people, why should Jesus deliver them to the Filipinos – God’s Forsaken people? Poch Suzara

Pseudo Family

As it gradually dawned on me that I was habitually addressing a priest as “Father” and a nun as “Sister” and my teachers in La Salle as “Brother” I thought I’d better put to a stop to those self-appointed phoney family members who never gave a hoot at anytime or anywhere about the welfare of my real family life on this earth. Poch Suzara

Bob Garon

Bob Garon wrote: “We need to begin behaving like the Christian country that we are, not just in our religious rites. We need to stop being religious hypocrites and start the living the faith we profess.” For my part, I say it again: Blind faith is exactly that – blind. In the meantime, tens of millions of Filipinos pray daily to God to: “Give us this day our daily bread,” and to “lead us not into temptation.” After 500 years devoted to Christian values and beliefs, look at the results of our daily prayer: we are not only poorer with degradation as a people, but also poorer with corruption as a nation. Only because we Filipinos have not ceased living destructively due to the faith we profess. Poch Suzara

Serve Jesus

Bertrand Russell wrote: “The whole idea of throwing away your life blindly as an imagined service to Christ is a form of glorifying masochism and self-abasement before power.” In the Philippine, however, service to Christ as preachers of Catholicism, or as evangelists of El Shaddai, or as ministers of Jesus is Lord Movement, or as pastors of Iglesia Ni Cristo, etc. – means self-aggrandisement by way of tons and tons of money deposited weekly in local and foreign banks in the name of Jesus and for his glory. Poch Suzara

Atheism

Reason leads men to atheism because religion is absurd. The creator of the priesthood industry is a malicious and a ferocious God. Consider the 100 billion faulty humans that have already lived and died on this earth. The creator seems neither satisfied nor concerned as he is still creating more of the same faulty human beings on this earth. No attempts as yet have been tried by the creator to right the wrongs in the human design. Perhaps, the Creator is blind; or maybe he is just a sort of a spoiled supernatural brat who enjoys playing eternally capricious with toys. Poch Suzara

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, the famous American TV Evangelist, said: “Satan is a tool of God’s love in the sense that he forces us to see God’s loving patience.” For my part, I would not be surprised if it turned out that Pat Robertson is a direct descendant of the Talking Serpent
that caused the Fall of Man as written in Genesis. Poch Suzara

Peace On Earth - a possibility

The bow and arrow were once weapons of attack and defense with the aim to kill, but today the Art of Archery is a pure exercise in skill. Fencing and sword fighting were once a weapon of dueling. It has become a sport in the Olympic Games. Today weapons of wars like helicopters from an aircraft carrier were flown to help the poor victims who survived the Tsunami Disaster in South Asia last December 2004. It certainly makes one feel the idea of peace on earth and goodwill to all men can be a reality in our world of disasters. But for world peace and goodwill to all men, - here’s something even more profound. The late Scientist Carl Sagan wrote: “The Cosmos may be densely populated with intelligent beings. But the Darwinian lesson is clear. There will be no humans elsewhere. Only here. Only on this small planet. We are a rare as well as an endangered species. Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” Poch Suzara

Death In Terms of Eternity

In terms of eternity – human life is so short and in brief,  a wink of an eye, a flash in the pan, a split of a second long on this speck of dust called “earth.” Indeed, one million planets the size of earth can fit inside Jupiter - the biggest planet like earth orbiting round the sun. In the meantime, What meaning is there in life since the day we are born, is the day we begin to live in a dying body.

We may die this year or next year or ten or twenty or fifty years from now – what’s the difference? Our lives here on this earth is so short and brief in comparison to a billion years which in turn is just a fleeting spark in terms of eternity. Success in life or failure in life would really amount to nothing. But with courage, the best we can do in this this world is to try and leave it one day a better place than how we found it. No necessarily in the material, but in humanitarian sense. Otherwise there would be no reason for our having lived. Poch Suzara

American Convicts

In his book PERIL AND PROMISE, published in 1990, John Chancellor, one of America’s top TV newscasters, wrote: “America is losing its competitive edge in high technology, but it was the world’s leader in building prisons and filling them with convicts. In the last ten years, the United States overtook the Soviet Union and South Africa in what is called the incarceration race. Today, of every 100,000 Americans, 426 are behind bars. The rate in South Africa is 333; the Soviet Union, 268; Great Britain, 97. In the Netherlands, 40 out of every 100,000 Dutch citizens are in jail, a rate 90 per cent lower than that of the United States.” For my part, I have the greatest admiration for John Chancellor. Not only is he an intellectually courageous man, he is also one of those few admirable thinking American. A rarity, indeed, in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Poch Suzara

What Can Be Expected

What can be expected of a poor and backward Christian country where its men and women, blessed with college education, are on their knees praying daily to a silly God to save their silly souls in the next silly world? In the meantime, quite a lot of these so-called highly educated individuals have already migrated to live and work in foreign countries where its citizenry are already enjoying the impact of science and the benefits of technology. Oh yes, science may have brought troubles into our world, but as Bertrand Russell made clear: what is needed is not less, but more science to fix the troubles in our world. Poch Suzara

The Chinese People

I have the greatest respect and admiration for the Chinese people. They were a great people with a great past. Today, owing to science and technology, together with their sense of national pride for down-to-earth hard work, China is a great nation with a great present and indeed, with a great future. The only thing that worries me is that the Chinese people might soon be the new Americans of Asia: greedy, selfish, corrupt, and insane. Poch Suzara

A Precious Book

A book is a precious gift that you can open and read again and again. Not, however, among Filipinos. By any standard, the Philippines is not a nation of book readers. Only a nation of daily prayers, if not faithful believers. Poch Suzara

Inspired Bible Authors

"The bible is a record of man's complete in sin and God's remedy in Christ." Philippine Star, August 12, 2014 If the authors of God were inspired to write, why not inspire the readers to read too? Why should they not have same understanding of what was written? If it is claimed that they are so inspired, why is it then that they understand bible messages differently, if not conflictingly? Hell, for the love of God op there, bible readers are even willing to hate each other down here. Poch Suzara

It is Silly

Why should reading a book written by inspired authors of God leave the reader feeling clammy and shivering. The Multiplication Table was written not by inspired authors of God, and yet, nobody feels threatened or intimidated reading it. In fact, the Multiplication Table has been and still is the perfect model of truth - free from contradictions, absurdities, obscenities, inconsistencies, and indeed free from cruelties. The question is: Is it really inspiring that the Multiplication Table is not even mentioned in the Old or in the New Testament? Poch Suzara

Education more expensive

There is a saying among University professors: if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. But as the existence of universities have developed to be commercial rather than educational enterprises, education in the Philippines, just like in the United States, has turned out to be far more expensive than ignorance. Poch Suzara

Faith and Fear

Whether faith proves stronger than fear or fear proves stronger than faith matters not a pin. Whatever the case may be, faith and fear form a sort of a balance: - when one goes up, the other goes down. And the balancing board is called "ignorance." Poch Suzara

Christian Love and Compassion in the Philippines

I love the Philippines more than any other country in Asia, and for this reason, I cling to my right to often criticize her. In this connection, it pains me to see how we Filipinos have no sense of pride as a people and no sense of self-respect as a nation. After birth, we only look forward to a better life to come in the next world, if any. For God’s sake, we even kneel down and worship a Savior who was born in a foreign land called “Bethlehem” some 2,000 years ago. It is, in this way, that we look forward to a better life to come in the next world. No, for the sake of Christianity, we have neither love nor compassion for each other down here. We only love God and his Son Jesus up there. Poch Suzara Twitter# facebook# Google#

Old Age

Bertrand Russell said: “I consider old age a time to struggle for human decency – like any other.” Indeed, in his old age, he organized the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation to explore the causes of war between nations; he led the fight in England against the proliferation of nuclear bombs; and, he campaigned against the American involvement in Vietnam. It is sad to notice, however, Russell admirers are just waiting for their old age. In this way, they too can, if at all, begin to struggle publicly for human decency as Bertrand Russell did globally throughout his entire career as a courageous and as a world famous philosopher. Poch Suzara

The Work In Congress

The working Congressmen can best be described by visiting Philippine Congress at work: - Delivering useless, if not bombastic privilege speeches; and, busy at pointless investigation in “aid of legislation.” Not to mention how to rescue each other by covering up for each other’s crimes away from the public view. Poch Suzara