Thursday, January 05, 2006

Jesus – The Man

“Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which is made of the seed of David according to the flesh” – Romans 1:3 – meaning Joseph was his father; moreover, “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,” – Galatian 4:4 – meaning Jesus was human with no reference whatsoever to the miracle of a divine virgin birth. And to think that this is the same Jesus who proclaimed that: I am the way, the truth, and the life: No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. Was Jesus really a miracle worker? Did he perform major or just minor miracles. Take his resurrection, a minor miracle. It could have been a major event had he not allow others to get him crucified dead on the cross. Remember, Jesus could even walk on water or raised back to life the dead. Take again, the Second Coming – a minor miracle. If His mission on earth were a major miracle during the First Coming, what need is there for a Second Coming? And to think this promise was made some 2,000 years ago and it has yet to be delivered. Poch Suzara

MELCHISEDEC, King of Salem

“For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. . . . Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.” Heb. 7:1. See also Genesis 14:18 Where is Melchisedec? How come no one has met or seen this fellow? Where on earth is he hiding? Why is he unwilling to share his fantastic experience in life with the rest of mankind? I, for one, would like to see Melchisedec reveal to us the Revealed Truth as written in the bible. Poch Suzara

My Former Classmates

My former classmates at De La Salle University laugh at me because I read a lot. I laugh because they only pray a lot. I read a lot to be rich in spirit. My former classmates pray a lot to be poor in spirit. In school, we have been taught to believe that to be poor in spirit is something of a grace from God.

Poverty of the mind is the worst kind of poverty. The greatest of wealth can only come from mental health. To be poor in spirit obviously means enjoying lies and deception and other forms of superstition. For my part, I enjoy searching for the truth. In the meantime, the success of social insanity in the Philippines is the exact reflection of what it means to be proud of one's so-called "education." Poch Suzara

1st AND 2nd WORLD WAR

The last two world wars were indeed fought by and among Christian nations: in the first, between England, France and the United States on one side, and Germany on the other. In the second, between Germany, Italy and (the only non-Christian) Japan on the other side and England, France, the United States and several other European countries on the other side. Yes, in these two world wars, the contending sides surely did pray to God for victory. The victorious then thanked God for listening to their prayers. The counties defeated prayed to God for vengeance.
Bertrand Russell wrote in his NEW HOPES FOR A CHANGING WORLD – that the painful thing “about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.” Poch Suzara

ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Steal small and you will end up in jail like a damned fool. Steal big, however, and you will be treated with respect and admiration. In fact, as a big-time thief, you immediately qualify to be a candidate for a high government position. And if you campaign by declaring yourself a man of deep faith in God, you have more chances to win in the elections by landslide. Poch Suzara

I AM AN ATHEIST

Yes, I am an atheist. I do not believe in the God of the Catholics; neither do I believe in the God of the Protestants. I also do not believe in the God of the Jews or the God of the Muslims or the God of the Hindus. I do not even believe in the God of the Americans – the Almighty DOLLAR. Consider the Millions of American families derailed and destroyed yearly due to the worship of this powerful American God. Poch Suzara

A GOOD TEST

“A good test of character: when we do wrong, who do we blame? Philippine Star, December 10, 2005.
Speaking for myself, I blame entirely the system of education. In school at De La Salle University, after having our minds twisted with fear and our hearts distorted with more fear, we were then taught to believe that God is always available at any time to forgive our sins and our crimes. As long as we do not miss going to confession regularly and not miss sunday Mass consistently where we can donate to the priesthood industry in the name of charity. Poch Suzara

A Critic Wrote

A critic wrote: God needs evil in this world in order to guarantee the freedom of man.
If this were true, I must assume that the devil too needs good in order to guarantee deviltry in this world. Is it any wonder that we all enjoy first class stupidity perpetually in the light of eternity? Poch Suzara

THE WORDS OF A SCIENTIST

Listen to the words of a scientist, a chemist, physicist, crystallographer, molecular biologist, and medical researcher, and atheist – the famous Linus Pauling: I had made many discoveries in chemistry and other fields of science and had even made some contributions to medicine, although it was not clear that these contributions would have much effect in decreasing the amount of suffering caused by disease. Now, I thought, I have learned about something that can decrease somewhat the amount of suffering for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of people, something that had been noticed by other scientists and by some physicians but for some reason had been ignored. Linus Pauling – How to Live Longer and Feel Better.
Is there a match anywhere in the history of the church
when a theologian uttered the same sentiments? Poch Suzara

It is Incredible

It is incredible how the birth anniversary of Christ is highly celebrated in the Philippines, but not celebrated in Israel – the place where Christ was born.
It is more incredible, however, to see how the birth of our national hero Rizal not as equally celebrated in the Philippines – the place where Rizal was born. This is the same Rizal who was executed by the Catholic friars because he wrote books on the evils of the Church teaching the Filipino to love not the Philippines, neither the things that are in the Philippines. If the Filipino love the Philippines, the love of God is not with him. ( See John 2:15 ) Poch Suzara

ATHEISM IS NOT A RELIGION

The word religion comes from the Latin, religare, which means “to tie back, to fasten or to bind.” Another word for religion is theism which holds that there is a super-thing existing outside of nature, that it proves itself by miracles – which is the breakthrough of natural laws, that this super-thing has agents which communicates its wishes to people, that there is communication with the super-thing and it rewards the believers and punishes the unbelievers. Atheism, however, embraces none of this superstitious nonsense. There is nothing of religion that is associated with Atheism. We have no dogmas, no rituals, no gods, no priests, no worship, no prayer, no holy places, no churches, temples, no synagogues, and no miracles. Any dictionary or encyclopedia will tell you that religion is a system of attitudes, practices, rites, ceremonies and beliefs by means of which individuals or the community put themselves in relation to a god or to a supernatural world, and from which the religious person derives a set of values by which to judge events in the natural world. As an atheist, I embrace not only the freedom of religion; but I embrace even more - the freedom FROM religion. As an atheist, I kneel to no one. In this connection, I do not care to identify myself as an agnostic, a rationalist, ethical culturist, humanist, freethinker, objectivist, secularist, iconoclast, and whatever other gutless nomenclature you can find in the dictionary. I am atheist. Period. My dear reader, If you find that word hard to accept, then that is your positive problem; not mine. In the ultimate analysis, I say what we need in life is not a religion, but a philosophy – where faith is replaced with reason, where holy paralysis is replaced with lively analysis, where our useful book is the book called the world right here in front of us, and a sick written by sick authors of a sick God who came to visit earth thousands of years ago. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

THE TROUBLE WITH RELIGION

The trouble with religion is that it makes us believe in the existence of a supernatural papa who will readily forgive us of our sins and crimes. Who will also give us strength to pray daily to him to give us this day our daily bread, and indeed, to lead us not into temptation. More devastating, however, religion makes us believe that such a supernatural papa created us in his own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

THE PROMISES OF JESUS

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. [Matthew 21:21]
If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. [John 14:14]
Ask, and it will be given you. [Matthew 7:7]
Nothing will be impossible to you. [Matthew 17:20]
Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. [Mark 11:24]
What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark 11:24
The handicapped children without arms or legs in this country have prayed hard to Jesus to restore their lost limbs. So how come they are still handicapped? Where is the result from the power of prayer? How come the promises of Jesus have not been delivered? Where is Jesus? Poch Suzara

The POWER OF UNIVERSAL STUPIDITY

In God’s kingdom is the power of love. In the devil’s kingdom is the power of hate. In man’s kingdom is the power of fear. Combine the three kingdoms inextricably together and they all add up to the power of universal stupidity at home with infinity. Poch Suzara

God – With a Poor Memory

God is depicted in the bible as being angry that “man has become one of us, in knowing good from evil.” I ask: did God have a poor supernatural memory in that he totally forgot to remember that he made man in his own image and likeness? See Genesis 3:22. Poch Suzara

Psychics Vs Psychotics

Psychics claim they can talk to the dead. Psychotics claim God can talk to them. Indeed, the psychics and the psychotics are able to talk to each other but only about a lot of childish nonsense. As for me, please excuse me. I would rather hold on to my self-respect and dignity as a skeptic. Poch Suzara

The Good versus the Bad life

“The good life,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Does it not follow that the bad life is one inspired by hate and war and fear and ignorance? Such evils have always been behind the great religions that have contributed much to what is bad in this world. In the future, there is a big chance, that is, if we do not wake up soon enough, the great religions armed with nuclear weapons will reduce the planet earth into a lunar landscape. . . We atheists should work harder to convince the whole of mankind to start looking at atheism as the best and only road toward world peace and tranquility; indeed toward our sense of common humanity globally. Poch Suzara

Modern Education

Modern education has to do with pupils learning from the teacher, but more so, it is about the teacher learning from his pupils. Academic freedom means opportunity to develop one’s talents and abilities. This is where the teacher plays an important role – exploring or discovering the talents and abilities of his pupils as great gifts from nature. Modern education does not mean recruiting the young to become members of this or that political party or to become members of this or that church or synagogue or temple or mosque. That is not modern education. That is harmful indoctrination. Poch Suzara

Too Complex

We can see the micro universe better and brighter with a microscope, and we can see the macro universe better and brighter with a telescope. It is sad, however, to meet college-educated men and women insisting that they see better and brighter both the world in the small and the world in the large with blessed by God horoscope. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

STAYING and LEAVING

One in three Filipinos have hopes of moving to another country. That’s about 29 million Filipinos. At one million Filipinos migrating per year, it would take 29 years to move them all out. Of course, after 29 years, at 2.3 per cent growth per year, our population then will have reached more than 150 million Filipinos.
What can be expected of ourselves as a people who, during childhood days at home, we were taught to believe that God will provide? And in school, we were taught to believe not in the power of reason and science, but only to have faith in the power of prayer as among the best way to solve real problems and troubles in life?
In this 21st century, even our high officials in government have high hopes that the best answer to all of our problems is not via efficient and honest government, but only by searching for the revealed truths in the Old or the New Testament.
I remember my grandfather asking: “Where is the government of the Filipino, by the Filipino, and for the Filipino?” to think this was some 50 years ago. Today, as a grandfather myself, I find asking: What government?” Poch Suzara