Terrorism, Religion, and Superstition

Feb. 28, 2005 Dear Editor: Terrorism, Religion, and Superstition Think of it: terrorism against the Christians is committed in Allah’s name. Terrorism against the Muslims is committed in God’s name. But we have never heard of terrorism committed anywhere in the devil’s name. I ask: what can we expect of a world where half of its population believe in God, and the other half believe in Allah? Where people are willing to terrorize and kill each other based upon their beliefs as if they knew anything truthful at all about the existence of such extraterrestrial beings. Bertrand Russell, In his The Prospect of Industrial Civilization, wrote it quite clearly: “Governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that the love of the truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.” For so many centuries religion has done mankind so much harm. Religion has made people love supernatural beings, and at the same time, make them misunderstand and kill each other. I say: enough is enough. If we must enjoy peace on earth and goodwill to all men – we must first enjoy not the freedom of religion, but only the freedom from religion. Look at religion in America in cahoots with rich corporations. Religion has stolen the government away from millions of ordinary American citizens. The separation between Church and State in America is no longer a reality. It is now a fantasy. President George W Bush even admits that he talks to God for advice. The Founding Fathers of America must be turning over in their graves. Look at religion in the US government? It has wings. It can fly. It’s known as the US Air Force. And if the US government continues to insists to oil-rich countries to sing: "God Bless American Democracy," innocent blood, enough to float the US Navy, will continue to flow as it did in the rivers of Vietnam and now flowing in the rivers of Iraq. Look at religion in Israel today. It is the place where Christ was allegedly born. Yet Israel today is not a Christian country. It is Jewish State surrounded by hostile Arab countries that hate not only the Jews, but as Muslims, they also hate each other in Allah’s name. Look at the Catholics and the Protestants of the same Christian religion in Northern Ireland. They have not ceased hating and fighting each other confirming that Christian love and compassion does not exist there. And how about us Filipinos, look how we pray to God. We pray for the forgiveness of our sins and crimes. But we also pray to God to “lead us not into temptation.” It is surely time to understand prayer for what it simply is: Asking an imaginary being that apparently knows the future to change his mind. Couldn’t we pray to God to convert the devil back to the ways of the Lord? In this way, we will commit no more sins and no more crimes as the devil will no more make a mockery of our daily prayers to God. Some African tribes worship anthills for being the source of human life, Filipinos worship a biblical supernatural being that made the world in seven days. A visitor from another planet would find it hard to see either as anything other than primitive superstition. Tradition does not make fairy tales real. In fact, tradition practiced by a people says nothing about its veracity, viability, or even its common sensibility. Take, indeed, the tradition of daily prayer. It has yet to decrease insanity, not increase human stupidity that’s generating our sick society. For my part, I am happy to be an atheist. I do not care to go to heaven to please God; neither do I care to go to paradise to please Allah. I also do not care to go to hell to please the devil. I care only for the human race of which I am a member. If we must believe in anything precious – let us believe in our precious minds and precious hearts. In the meantime, if we must leave this world one day, let us leave it sober and not drunk with lies; let us leave it a much better place than we found it; or there will be no reason at all for neither of us to have lived. Yours Sincerely, Poch Suzara Bertrand Russell Society, Phil. San Lorenzo Village, makati, Philippines

I love Buddha of the Ancient world and I love Bertrand Russell of the Modern World

If you were a Christian and wish to know just how insane are the Muslims, please open the Holy Koran and read 3:169 “Never think that those who were slain in the cause of God are dead. They are alive and well provided for by the Lord.” If you were a Muslim and wish to know just how insane are the Christians, please open the Holy Bible and read Luke 14:26 “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.” If you were neither a Christian nor a Muslim and wish to know too just how insane are the Jews, look at how they believe that they are the Chosen People of God. However, according to President George W. Bush, Americans are God’s real people as he believes that America is God’s only real country. For my part, as a non-believer of silly faith, I love Buddha. He was neither religious nor superstitious. He was not a lunatic. Buddha was atheistic as, in his way of thinking, he was rather scientific. Take heed and Listen: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it. "Siddharta Buddha But I love Philosopher Bertrand Russell even more. He summarized the entire religious mess neatly into one simple sentence: “Religion encourages stupidity and an insufficient sense of reality.” Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Bruce Hall

Feb. 11 /2005
Dear Mr. Bruce Hall,

I should not hope to rain on your parade, but I should wish, however, to comment on your letter published in the Daily Inquirer today.

As soon as the American Indians are properly compensated for the precious land (worth trillions of dollars today) expropriated away from them by the white men, I will believe freedom exist in America.

As soon as the freethinkers or atheists, and not just the wealthy Jesus freaks, have equal opportunity to run for high government office in the US, I will believe democracy exist in America.

As soon as all the Black Americans are duly compensated for having their ancestors from Africa transported to America to work as slaves, I will believe that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

No doubt, America installed democracy in the Philippines. But thus far, such American style democracy in the Philippines has only been a farce, a fraud, and a ceremony. I am afraid, in the years to come, it will be more of the same in Iraq.

Freedom and democracy can exist only for the rich; not for the poor. The poor Americans in the USA do not enjoy freedom or democracy. In fact, poor Americans have no government; it has been stolen away from them by the rich in cahoots with the religious freaks in control of ignorance of which is quite unique in the world - American ignorance has wing. It can fly. It flies with the US Air force. And indeed, as long as ignorance remains in control of the US government, innocent blood, enough to float the US Navy, will continue to flow.

With all good wishes,
Poch Suzara
c.c. Philippine Daily Inquirer

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