Designed Intelligently

For: TIME magazine

Intelligent Design

The push to teach “intelligent Design” in America raises a question: Does God have a place in science class?

The Christians in charge of education in America apparently do not believe that God is everywhere. That God somehow is omni-absent during science class for American students.

In the bible, God admits: “For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” Well, if God made man in his own image and likeness, it follows that God must be made of dust too. What purpose is there to put God in science class if God, like dust, were already there as He is present everywhere?

As for the existence of monkeys, I think they are designed not only intelligently, but more so gracefully. Look how the monkeys live in peace on earth and goodwill to all monkeys. They do not terrorize each other in God’s name. Monkeys do not go to war to kill other monkeys in order to establish freedom and democracy.

For my part, I envy the life of monkeys. They have no system of salvation. They have no church, no synagogue, and no mosque to inspire amongst the faithful to become selfish, greedy, insane, and homicidal. Monkeys do not cut each other's throats because like the Christians, Jews, and Muslims do so because they cannot agree as to what will happen to them after their throats have been cut. Poch Suzara
Poch Suzara

Anti-Christ Movement in Europe

A great many Christians are bothered by the anti-Christ movement, especially in Europe. It does not seem to matter, however, if the anti-Christ movement in Israel have already been a tremendous success – the land where Christ was born. Indeed, due to the Jewish anti-Christ movement, Israel has never developed to be a Christian or a Catholic country. It is still pretty much a Jewish State. In the Philippines, however, JESUS IS LORD MOVEMENT is as active as ever. Not, however, with an advance, but by the Jesus followers attending “Retreats.” Poch Suzara

God’s Children

It is incredible to believe how a loving God created the human race – his children – to hate each other, specially in His name and for His glory. In fact, history shows countries under a theocracy have always been at war against each other. It is happening today in Iraq. America wants to replace Islam in that part of the Arab world with Christianity. As if both Christianity and Islam for that matter have ever been a peaceful grace for the whole human race. Poch Suzara

Jesus

If Jesus was born as a perfect child of a Holy Virgin Mother, why did Jesus have to go through circumcision?
If Jesus dead on the cross was not buried, but instead cremated, could he have resurrected? And to think that after He had resurrected, Jesus appeared secretly to his apostles in a remote mountain. He never visited his enemies – the believers who thought they had already gotten rid of Him dead and buried and gone. Poch Suzara

The Devil

As a prominent character, the devil played a major role both in the Old and in the new Testaments. To think that Jesus promised to destroy to devil centuries ago. But the promise was never delivered. The existence of the devil turned out to be the main and necessary ingredient in the Christian scheme of eternal salvation. Poch Suzara

Lies are more Damaging

The truth hurts, but lies are far more damaging and can last for a thousand but lies years. Poch Suzara

6 Billion People

The majority of the 6 Billion people struggling to survive on this earth - love, worship, and adore God. And to think that God continues to carry on with that “I don’t give a hoot” attitude. And to think further that the politicians and the theologians in the Philippines believe that God has never ceased to provide for them wealth, power, and glory. Poch Suzara

The danger from Hatred

In his Expanding Mental Universe, written in 1959, Bertrand Russell explained the danger generated by hatred: … “Although we have been told on Sundays to love our neighbor, we have been told on weekdays to hate him, and there are six times as many weekdays as Sundays. Hitherto, the harm that we could do to our neighbor by hating him was limited by our incompetence, but in the new world upon which we are entering there will be no such limit, and the indulgence of hatred can lead only to disaster.”
And to think that in the Philippines, we would rather love God up there with hatred for one
another down here. Poch Suzara

Happiness for the Atheists

Happiness for the atheists? Please read Bertrand Russell’s Conquest of Happiness: “A man who has once perceived, however, temporarily and however briefly, what makes greatness of spirit, can no longer be happy if he allows himself to be petty, self-seeking, troubled by trivial misfortunes, dreading what fate may have in store for him. A man capable of greatness of spirit will open wide the windows of his mind, letting the winds blow freely upon it from every portion of the universe. He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness of human life, he will realize also that in individual minds is concentrated whatever of value the known universe contains. And he will see that the man whose mind mirrors the world becomes in a sense as great as the world. In emancipation from the fears that beset the slave of circumstance he will experience a profound joy, and through all the vicissitudes of his outward life he will remain in the depths of being a happy man.” Poch Suzara

God’s Commands

If the Christians were mentally efficient at anything, it is at obeying God’s commands. Each can be summarized into one very easy command to follow: thou shalt not think. Poch Suzara

Organized Religions

Twisting reason before offering faith. Distorting the joys and pleasures in life before offering of salvation. These are among the fundamental ways to organize a religion. The capital to start with is fear: fear of the mysteries, fear of the unknown, and fear of death. Sales, marketing, advertising, accounting and bookkeeping are needless. The business is tax-free. The goal: destroy the minds and hearts of children to grow up mindless and heartless for the glory of divinity. This lucrative commercial enterprise is also known as “organized religion” in general. In particular, however, they are called Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each, by the way, still embracing a 14th century mentality now happy and proud to be in possession of 21st century weapons of mass destruction for war to destroy each other including atheists, agnostics, and heretics like me.
In the meantime, all the great religions of the world - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity – have their roots in fear and barbarism on the one hand, and on the other, ignorance and superstition. Otherwise, if only the revealed truths have already been revealed, the God behind these great religions should have been the creative and healthy impact on global history, and not just the destructive and sick faith of a local mystery. Poch Suzara

Theology

More than a hundred billion people already lived and died on this earth. So long as the theologians do not know how many souls are already saved in heaven; and, how many souls are already condemned in hell, theology will only continue to be the study of the unknowable. In the meantime, shouldn’t it be part of the revealed truth for the theologians to know God as a great success in winning souls for heaven, or the devil a great failure in winning souls for hell? Perhaps, it’s the other way round. Poch Suzara

Mediocrity

To the mediocre, mediocrity is not only an achievement; it is a respectable way of life, especially if one were a church dignitary or a high government official, or if one were connected with the Central Intelligence Agency protecting nobody except the homicidal maniacs in charge of the United States government. Poch Suzara

The Issue with God

The issue with God was that he created both man and the devil gifted not with good will, but with free will. And to think that sometime ago, God promised the world a Redeemer to destroy the devil. The mission, however, has yet been impossible.
In the meantime, the nature of God’s existence is a deep mystery. The nature of the devil’s existence is a deeper mystery. The nature of man’s existence is the deepest of mysteries. How are we to understand the nature of God’s existence and the nature of the devil’s existence, when we do not even understand the nature of human existence? Poch Suzara

Philippine Democracy

Philippine Democracy is all about the corrupt majority electing into office the few chosen from the corrupt minority to manage the corrupt government under the blessings of an equally corrupt theocracy. Poch Suzara

The Simple versus the Great Life

The simple life is achieving the higher standard of living. The great life, however, is achieving the higher standard of thinking. In a religious country, like in the Philippines, neither the simple life nor the great life is possible to achieve. Filipinos would rather be escaping daily away from human responsibility by trying, instead, to achieve the higher standard of praying. Poch Suzara

So What?

Hundreds of thousands of people everyday die of starvation in India. Tens of thousands of people everyday are murdered in the Congo. Millions of Filipino children are malnourished trying to survive on street diet in the Philippines. What is our attitude towards such horrors? Silently, we say: So what? When a princess die in a car accident, however, about 2 billion people of the earth’s 6 billion people falls prostrate with grief, tears and sadness. Indeed, so what? Famous dead personalities are often revived. Never mind those who have no celebrity status trying so hard to survive. Poch Suzara

For This Christmas

For this Christmas I urge my friends and relatives to please give not your kids and grandkids toys that are destructive. Instead, give them ideas that are constructive. In this way, we will grow up celebrating yearly the birth of religious sanity, and celebrate no more the birth anniversary of a Jewish baby some two years thousand ago in Israel that today is not even Christian country. Poch Suzara

Most Married Men

Most married men are not faithful husbands. They cheat on their wives. And to think that such unfaithful husbands are more afraid of their wives than they are afraid of God. After all, God is always there to forgive them of the sins against divinity and to forgive them of their crimes against the family. The Sick Man of Asia, indeed, in thought and in action as victims of a stupid system of education.
For my part, I never was unfaithful to my wife. Instead of murder, however, I chose the lesser evil. With much pain and regret, I was constrained to divorce her legally. Poch Suzara

My Stupid Teachers

A stupid man is a happy man specially as he believes that everyone else is just as stupid as he is. And to think that a stupid man is happy not finding the light at the end of the tunnel. He does not even bother to look for the tunnel. I should know. Quite a few of such stupid men were my teachers in grade school and high school at De La Salle University. They conspired together to expel out me out as I was a rare student always questioning what we were always being threatened to believe. For Christ's sake, this was some 60 years ago. It is still a great part of the system of education in the more than 1,000 Catholic schools, colleges, and Universities owned by the Catholic church today in the Philippines. Poch Suzara