Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Jesus Revealed

“I am the way, the truth and the life.” John 14:6. I ask: under this theological revelation, how did Jesus, as the Son of God, alleviate pain or spread the sympathy for human suffering and poverty in this world? So much so that in his own community no one need have been that ungrateful to shout “Crucify Him!” “Crucify Him!” Poch Suzara

Jesus Replied

What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Unfortunately, by the time I am through loving the infinite God with all of my heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, - I will be so exhausted in that I will have no more time to love my neighbor nor have the energy to love even myself. Poch Suzara

Jesus Preached

Love your neighbor as yourself. I ask: What if your neighbor were a congressman? Poch Suzara

RELIGION

Religion is a childish toy, and it is played with guilt and sin in the playground of ignorance. Religion profits not divinity. The profits are all for the priesthood industry. Indeed, all the organized religions of the world today are among the top most richest organizations in the world. Poch Suzara

FAITH AND BLIND FAITH

Faith is not wanting to know what is true. Indeed, faith is the best excuse we have for being thoughtless so that we may continue to feel blessed living in darkness. In fact, blind faith is the season for keeping away from the light of reason.
Poch Suzara

SPIRITUALITY

The path towards spirituality has nothing to do with embracing sacred lies and other pontifical delusions. On the contrary, the way towards spirituality lies through questioning everything; especially questioning the Revealed Truth as it has yet to be revealed. Poch Suzara

Caesar and God

Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. Matt. 22:21. This is all fine and dandy, but not, however, since we find both God and Caesar are already rendering unto each other first and foremost. If God renders unto Caesar’s the things that are Caesar’s and Caesar renders unto God the things that are God’s, where do we go to render to whom? Hello, Philippines - the only Catholic country in Asia! Poch Suzara

THE PUNY MIND OF MAN

“The mind of man,” wrote John Calvin, “undertakes all that is perverse, base, and impure and always remains involved in hypocrisy and deceit.” I ask: what vital role has Christianity played to make our politicians in government and our theologians in church all together be less perverse, less base, and less impure and no more involved in hypocrisy and deceit in the Philippines? Now I am told that I have a mind that is puny. Oh yes, indeed, since I am human, my mind is just as puny as your mind and just as puny as the mind of the theologians and the politicians. So how come you religiously frightened morons pretend that you have a mind that understands the mind of God? As if God has a mind since God is not human? Poch Suzara

TURN THE OTHER CHEEK

For the sake of peace and harmony, Jesus exhorts his followers with these words: “But I say unto you, that ye resists not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matt. 5:39

 I ask: what is so noble about turning the other cheek, if one knows that each time he does so,           he is    earning his salvation in heaven, while the one who strikes is earning his damnation in hell?          Poch Suzara

BIBLE MESSAGES

I see no truth behind the traditional benevolence of religion. I do not think one religion any better than another. I think, however, since it is older than Islam, Christianity has brought far more darkness, misery, crime, and suffering, and far more evil and tyranny than any other religion. Especially in this Asia’s only Christian country since the 16th century. One need not read Philippine history for evidence. Just read and study the bible and discover the horrors of divine grace for the human race. Intelligently read the bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived by inspired writers of God. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Gilbert K. Chesterton

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried." Chesterton ( 1874-1936 ). I ask Mr. Chesterton: Have you heard of the Multiplication Table as the perfect model of truth? It has been tried for thousands of years, and without hate or wars. It has always been tried and found useful, always precise and certain and free from all temporal dross! And to think that the Multiplication Table as a perfect model of truth is not even mentioned in the bible - a book written by inspired authors of God. In the meantime, Christianity thrives not on love, but on hate. This is symptomatic of a viciousness in Christianity that few people care to acknowledge. For all of its alleged concern for the “poor” Christianity does its best to perpetuate suffering but calls it “sacrifice” which easily transforms into hate – hate of each other down here for the love of God up there; specially while believing that this world is coming to an end as predicted by Jesus in his own time some two thousand years ago. Poch Suzara

Politicians and Theologians

We have good politicians in our government. We have good theologians in our church. Unfortunately, however, it is not enough to be good; especially if one were only good for nothing. Perhaps, in the centuries to come, our politicians together with our theologians would have learned to be good for something. At least be better professionals in learning to stop making a mockery of everything. Poch Suzara

In the Bible

In Genesis, it is asked: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (18:14); and Jesus, more than once, said that “all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27).
I ask: is it possible for God to make Filipinos love fellow-Filipinos and to love the Philippines too?
What is so precious about God’s gift of Free Will if the Good Will were more socially beneficial, and indeed, more harmoniously functional? Poch Suzara

God of the Filipinos

The bible clearly states what God said to Moses: “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Exodus 3:6.
There is nothing in the bible where God also said: I am the God of Juan De La Cruz, I am the God of Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora, or I am the God of lapulapu.
In the meantime, the failure of our values continues to inspire and to generate the success of social insanity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

The Bible Says

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. Colossians 11:8
These words must have been written by an inspired moron spoiled with silly theology, but totally ignorant of the beauty and power of philosophy – the Queen of all her daughters – the sciences. Poch Suzara

Filipino Leader

We admit that even if we do not have a strong leader in government, we do have a Jesus, the strong leader of our church. Never mind if Jesus was born a Jew in Israel some 2,000 years ago. Never mind if Israel is not a Christian country as it is a Jewish State. And to think that this is the same Jesus who admonished: “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.
Think of it: as Christians, if the bible tells us to love not the world, why then should we love the Philippines? More to the point: if we do not love our country, why should we love one another? And as we all struggle against each other in order to exist, we might just as well love God up there and hate one another down here! Poch Suzara

IF THERE IS A GOD

If there is a God, it just seems fair that such a God should be existing not vaguely somewhere way out there but clearly right down here. For example, inside a church, a mosque, or a temple. Where God could easily be accessible to anybody in desperate need of help or protection of the innocent.
Well, if God lives inside this church or that mosque, or that temple, how come there is much pain and suffering in this world?
Oh God, my dear God, how do you get rid of evil? As the bible claims that everything is possible with you, is it not possible for you to destroy the devil and deviltry - a promise already made by your own Son Jesus some two thousand years ago?
In the mentime, the bible admits: God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Acts. 17:24 Poch Suzara

The Philippines

The Philippine archipelago is composed of 7,100 islands, large and small. Because of rugged topography, marked by wide rivers and deep creeks, high mountains and ravines, not to mention sea channels, most of the 88 million Filipinos live in 16 regions, 79 provinces, 1,496 municipalities and 41,943 barangays are islolated for lack of road and bridges. The isolation is one of the reasons for the slow economic growth.
Perhaps, the break-up of the Philippines into three – the Republic of Luzon, the Republic of Visayas, and the Republic of Mindanao -- might facilitate more growth and development as independent smaller nations minding its own viability and manageable economy. Poch Suzara

IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES

In Southern Philippines – the Christians and the Muslims have been hating each other since the 16th century.
These are actually Filipinos hating other Filipinos. On the one side, the Filipinos hating the Muslims for the glory of God; and, on the other side, the Filipino hating the Christians for the glory of Allah.
No doubt, the Christians have faith in God; and, the Muslims have faith in Allah; unfortunately, however, faith has nothing to do with wanting to live in peace under common decency with those who do not share the same faith as we have. Poch Suzara

AS ATHEISTS

As atheists, we have made our point clear. Our outrage is not directed against this or that war-like nation, Jews or Gentile, Muslim or Christian, but is aimed at the psycho-neurosis called religion, the most harmful idea ever conceived by the superstitious crackpots of the ancient world. Religion is an evil responsible for more deaths than all the plagues combined. As atheists, our clearly expressed outrage is against that superstition that has brought man nothing but fear, suffering, death, turmoil including the whole gang of raving lunatics such as the Robertsons and the Grahams and the burning Bushes of this world. Poch Suzara

Friday, February 03, 2006

Jerry Lewis

I met Jerry Lewis at his home in Beverly Hills, California in l967. He had already heard about me from my sister. Especially about my activism having been primarily responsible for setting up the Philippine branch of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in l964. We were then struggling against the Vietnam War in particular; and, against the concept of war as a way of settling international disputes in general.
Jerry’s greeting words to me: “Hi there, Poch – you poverty-stricken Filipino!” I retorted: “Hi there, Jerry – you rich-stricken Jew!” Jerry looked at my sister, laughingly said: “I like this brother of yours.” Jerry indeed, is a great comedian and, I must add, on and off the stage - a great man.
I salivated with envy as I was particularly impressed with him not because he was such a world famous Hollywood celebrity, but because of his huge personal library of great books. A few he himself had authored.
His son Gary of the Playboys, an equally famous singer and rock drummer ( I am a jazz drummer myself ) married my sister - Jinky. Sadly, it did not turn out to be a happy matrimony. After three years, it ended in a divorce. Both, however, have an only daughter – Sara. She is married now with two children – the first two great-grandkids of Jerry Lewis
Since 1966, every Labor Day, the Jerry Lewis Telethon has already raised more than a BILLION DOLLARS to fight and to find the cure for Muscular Dystrophy – a disorder of the skeletal muscles characterized by weakness.
Despite the existence of the American Medical Association, and the Food and Drug Administration, and its partner in business – the American Pharmaceutical industry that’s dearly protected by the Federal Trade Commission - there are more cases of Muscular Dystrophy victims in America today than ever before. Hopefully, the cure is just around the corner.
For my part, though I have neither the ability nor the popularity to raise billions, I too, have been fighting, in my own little ways, to find a cure of a disease of the worst kind. It continues to infect a great many people worldwide. It is called religion – born of fear and ignorance and superstition. Indeed, religion is what is keeping our world poor spiritually and backward scientifically. In America, a billion dollars can be raised for healing, but trillions of dollars are readily available for killing. Thanks to religion and its ability to spread more fear, ignorance, and superstition everywhere throughout our world.
In the meantime, Jerry Lewis continues his own fight to help financially find the cure for muscular dystrophy in America one day. I ardently wish him more power and success in his humanitarian works and dedication. Poch Suzara

Thursday, February 02, 2006

A Word Missing

There is one last word missing in God’s 5th command - Thou shalt not kill. At the rate the human heart has been more proned to hate than to love in this world since the beginning, the one last word missing in God’s 5th command is the word: - HATE. Poch Suzara

The Supernatural

The problem with the existence of the supernatural is that it exists only outside the human brain! How could we possibly believe in the existence of the supernatural that does not even exist inside our brain? How come, on the day we arrived on this earth, none of us had brain to know anything about the existence of the supernatural? Poch Suzara

Women in the Bible

Woman as written in the bible is depicted as the main cause of the Fall of Man, and why men are corrupt and depraved. This is obvious in the Old and in the New Testament. When Jesus, however, said, love one another, he was referring to men, not to women. Poch Suzara

Stephen Hawking

Is a brilliant scientist on a wheelchair who writes books with his brilliant mind even as his body fails him. In his Brief History of Time, Hawking wrote: “Throughout the 70s I had been mainly studying black holes, but in 1981 my interest in questions about the origin of and fate of the universe was reawakened when I attended a conference on cosmology organized by the Jesuits in the Vatican. The Catholic Church had made a bad mistake with Galileo when it tried to lay down the law on the question of science, declaring that the sun went round the earth. Now centuries later, it has decided to invite a number of experts to advise it on cosmology. At the end of the conference the participants were granted an audience with the pope. He told us that it was all right to study the evolution of the universe after the big bang, but we should not inquire into the big bang itself because that was the moment of Creation and therefore the work of God. I was glad then that he did not know the subject of the talk I had just given at the conference – the possibility that space-time was infinite but had no boundary, which means that it had no beginning, no moment of Creation.”
In this world, we have, no doubt, monuments to human mediocrity; but we certainly do also have men of science like a Stephen Hawking who is a monument to the human spirit. Poch Suzara

God and Allah

One would think that after all these past centuries of conflict and misunderstanding, God and Allah would have already smoked the peace pipe to enjoy peace and goodwill with each other. Both should have already inspired their respective followers – the Christians and the Muslims to stop the hate and the killing of each other for the glory of the either. But no! These supernatural brats apparently want to remain like a couple of supernatural brats for the rest of eternity.
I beg of you Christians and Muslims – why don’t you dump your respective beliefs and stop emulating supernatural childishness? Neither God nor Allah is worth loving or dying for. Let’s all live in peace together and have faith in each other for the sake of global sanity. Let's all enjoy peace on earth and goodwill to all men for the sake of our human family. Poch Suzara

Only in the Philippines

We start everything with a prayer. We end everything with a prayer. Indeed, in this only Christian country in Asia, when all else fail, we only say more prayers. After all, what is important to us is our faith in divinity. Never mind the failure of our values or the success of social insanity in this Asia's only Christian country. Poch Suzara

There is Nothing Wrong

There is nothing wrong with either the admission or the belief that something exists beyond our understanding. What is ludicrous, however, is when we love, worship, and adore that something, specially if everyone else knows absolutely nothing about that something. Poch Suzara

National Catholic Almanac

According to the National Catholic Almanac, “God” is defined as “Almighty, Eternal, Holy, Immortal, Immense, Immutable, Ineffable, Infinite, Invisible, Just, Loving, Merciful, Most High, Most Wise, Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Patient, Perfect, Provident, Supreme, and Incomprehensible.
I ask: If God were incomprehensible, how did any one come to know about the twenty-two other supernatural qualities of God. Poch Suzara

A Logical Unity

“A logical unity,” wrote Bertrand Russell, “is at once a strength and a weakness. It is a strength because it insures that whoever accepts one stage of the argument must accept all later stages. It is a weakness because whoever rejects any of the later stages must also reject some, at least, of the earlier stages.”
For my part, I reject the earlier stages of what’s written in the Old Testament, and I therefore cannot accept the later stages of what's written in the New Testament. It is as simple as that. Poch Suzara

Generosity

Giving away things you might need in the future is the true measure of generosity. Otherwise, giving away things you want discarded is not generosity. It is a mockery of charity. It is a form of religious vulgarity. Poch Suzara

If we only Knew

If we only knew for certain that there is life after death, and that death is more superior than life, then suicide should be a happy remedy out of human misery. We fear death, however, because we know absolutely nothing of its aftermath, if any. At any rate, how can the dead human body decomposing and rotting recognize and enjoy at same time the lively experience of life after death?
For my part, instead of contemplating on death, I would rather try and substantiate the words of a famous atheist – Bertrand Russell: “I consider old age a time to struggle for human decency – like any other.” Poch Suzara

The Theologian versus the Philosopher

The philosopher values the life of the mind. The theologian, on the other hand, values the life of the soul. Unfortunately for the theologian, the soul cannot be understood without the power of the intellect. The philosopher therefore is a far more superior thinker than the theologian can ever hope to be. Poch Suzara

The Creative Mind

In the material sense, a man may be worth something. But if he remains thoughtless to the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge, his life in the end will be worth nothing. It is not worldly possessions, but the creative mind that is clearly the major aspect of who or what we are that matters. Francis Bacon admonished: “Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied, or its loss will not be felt.” Poch Suzara

Passport to the Next Life

It’s easy to apply for a passport issued by the church to travel to the next life. All that’s required is baptism in holy water. What’s hard to acquire, however, is the visa to go to heaven. It requires a lifetime of fear, ignorance, pain, suffering, misery, poverty, stupidity, and indeed, insanity. And to think that everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Poch Suzara

The Greatest Failures in Life

The greatest failures in life are those who live with the right answers to wrong questions. The greatest success, however, are those who question everything as the answers, with few exceptions, in time, become obsolete. Only the few have the courage to question what has always been taken for granted. The many, always living in fear, question nothing. Indeed, they hate the power of a question. What they love is faith. Faith has the power to make people timid comfortably, if not lazy mentally. In the Philippines, however, faith has even been quite a success as the engine generating the failure of our values that is promoting the success of what makes us the Sick Man of Asia. Poch Suzara

Notice

Ever notice how God is never around each time he is needed or wanted. Even his son Jesus, who took on a human form, after a few years on this earth, some two thousand years ago, decided to disappear out of sight away from everybody!
In the meantime, churches are empty on Sundays in European countries. It is the same situation in the United States. The ones who still go to church, however, are the Filipinos. They do not believe that God is everywhere. We have been taught to believe that God can be found, somehow, only inside a church or a cathedral. Poch Suzara

On Being Negative

Those who fought to abolish slavery were considered “negative” by the slave traders. Indeed, slavery was eventually abolished by those who were negative toward the evil business of slave trading. For my part, I am known to be “negative” too in my fight to abolish religious teachings in our schools, colleges, and universities. I would rather be “negative” in the eyes of the religious morons spreading silly faith in the supernatural that's keeping us selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane as a sick and a corrupt society as ever. Poch Suzara

Knowledge is Power

Knowledge is power; but that’s only half true. The other half that is true is when knowledge is put into effect. It then becomes a real power which is defined as the production of desired effects. Poch Suzara

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

A Strong Leader for the Philippines?

It is highly recommended that Jesus Christ be the one and only strong leader for Filipinos. As if Jesus Christ, who was not born in the Philippines, should have anything to do with Filipino values and beliefs.
Jesus Christ was born in Israel that today is not even a Christian country. It is a Jewish State. If Jesus Christ, who was himself a Jew, was never a leader in his own country, how and why should he be a leader in the Philippines? As a matter of fact, where is Jesus Christ? He is not even in Israel today? Nobody knows where Jesus is! Even the Filipino bishops do not know his whereabouts!
What we need in this country is not a strong leader but a strong system of education that gives birth to a strong people and, indeed, a strong nation. Unfortunately, our system of education has nothing to do with science developing the human intelligence. Learning in our schools, colleges, and universities is mostly about religion: - the preparation for the next life; or, worst, about the preparation for the coming of the Lord who will solve all our troubles and problems in this life. Poch Suzara

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Family Planning Bill 3773

It is not surprising that there are many who find nothing but the devil’s work in the Family Planning Bill 3773. These are the same fellow-Filipinos who remain obedient to God’s command, especially the 4th: - Honor thy mother and father. Even if millions of the nation’s children exist filthy poor and malnourished in the streets of our major cities.
As if strength of high moral character or even a high I.Q. is a requirement to bring forth children into this world. Consider the physical position that a man and a woman must assume in order to multiply and replenish the earth: It has got to be one of the most contorted positions mindlessly designed by would-be mothers and fathers.
Honor is not something freely given. It is deserved as it is earned with dignity.
In the meantime, it is not a crime in the Philippines to let children live off garbage in the streets of our sick society. But if these poor children somehow survive and grow to up to be rebellious citizens embracing anti-democratic or even anti-religious values, it is not a crime to have them killed or salvaged by the military as that is “war” in defense of freedom and democracy.
As a people, we have yet to get beyond the so-called sanctity of life, and begin to understand and appreciate the quality of human life in the Philippines.
Forget the promises of those allies in the sky. Let’s start paying attention to needs of humanity. Where is our sense for common human decency? Must we really be all that perpetually serious promoting the success of our social insanity? Poch Suzara

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

The five senses

The five senses – feeling, seeing, tasting, smelling, and hearing - basic in man as taught to us in school during our formative childhood years have turned out to be not scientific at all. There are more.
Notice how not every one has a sense of rhythm or a sense of melody or a sense of harmony to become a musician; or possessed with a sense of power like most of the corrupt politicians in government? Or the sense of clarity in a philosophical pursuit. Or the sense of symmetry on a dance floor? Notice as well one’s sense of intellectual balance to become not a fanatic. Scientists discovered these additional senses in man. The original five senses were purely the conclusion of the obsolete theology based upon the virtues of religious mediocrity and not based upon the pursuit of veracity. Poch Suzara

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell considered religion as a disease born of fear and a source of untold misery to the human race.
To think that the atheists in the United States today are frightened by the theists. So much so that American Atheists no longer want to identify themselves as atheists, but as “rational.” They do not want to hurt the feelings of the superstitious leaders, specially those in charge of the US government. What’s happened to America? Is it still the land of the free and the home of the brave? Poch Suzara

The Failure of our Values

If what is happening in our sick society were due to the will of divinity, it follows that as the Sick Man of Asia, we must be just as sick as the angels in heaven we all love; and, we are also just as sick as the demons in hell we all fear. Religion, indeed, is a disease born of fear and ignorance and has certainly been the main cause of the failure of values generating the success of political stupidity, cultural depravity, and social insanity in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

My Greatest Achievement in Life

I was able to engineer my own expulsion out of high school. It paved the way clear for me to seek not only the answers to my own questions, but precisely to formulate for myself better kinds of questions that my mediocre teachers in school ignored, if not disparaged, or even, at times, ridiculed. Imagine the power of education not as a matter of learning the right answer to stupid questions but simply to learn as a lifetime adventure - how to always ask intelligent questions! Poch Suzara

Filipino Progress

Filipino progress can only be born of questions and doubts. Barren of questions and other inquiries the TREE OF FILIPINO PROGRESS will never grow.
In this only Christian country in Asia, we are, indeed, a grace in the rat-race for salvation. We should be more of a grace in the race for civilization. Poch Suzara

Curiosity

Curiosity killed the cat. At least, before the animal died, it had a sense of curiosity. Most humans are killed, especially in war, not to satisfy their sense of curiosity, but to die in battle to promote political stupidity, if not to generate religious insanity. Poch Suzara

A Simple Truth

If God never listens to the Pope’s prayer to deal with the existence of the devil, why should God listen to your silly prayers to deal with existence of a Poch Suzara?

I am Told

I am told to fear not the future because God is already there. But if God has not been here in the present nor there in the past, why should God be anywhere in the future? To play more Hide and Seek games? Poch Suzara

How to Read

I loved the Christian Brothers at De la Salle University. They taught me HOW to read. Then I hated them. They dictated to me WHAT to read. And to think that these teachers were the same religious crackpots who also frightened me to believe that God gifted man with a free will. Poch Suzara

According to Christian Beliefs

According to Christian belief humans are depraved and corrupt. If this were true, why would God have a depraved human for a Mother and have a corrupt human for a Son? But then again, If Jesus and Mary were such exceptionally decent people, why didn’t God create them in the beginning? Why create a depraved Adam and a corrupt Eve to turn out guilty of the original sin? And to think that both Adam and Eve were never taught of the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread, and lead us not into temptation.” Poch Suzara

I love Atheism

Atheism is not the rejection of natural morality. It is the rejection of supernatural morality as concocted by silly deviltry begat by theology. Poch Suzara

If God does not Exists

If it were proved that God does not exist – would it be still necessary to be an atheist? Oh yes, it would still be necessary to be an atheist. Look how the Christians and the Muslims have been cutting each other’s throats? Only because one tells the other: Thou shalt have no other gods before me! If we were all atheists – there will be peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Atheists do not kill other atheists to prove to each other that God does not exist. In fact, in all of man's
history, there never was a war declared by the atheists against the theists. It was always the other way round - killing atheists by the theists always pleased the good God. What a bunch of barbaric morons!
Poch Suzara

Death In Religious War

In a religious war, dead Christians is God’s plan to populate Christians in Heaven; and, dead Muslims is Allah’s plan to populate Muslims in Paradise.
As an atheist, I hope both God and Allah will grow up sooner and learn to stop playing deadly games against each other. Both supernatural beings are achieving nothing lively or even anything healthy. It is just plain terrestrial insanity. Poch Suzara

Bertrand Russell

A great many Christians believed Bertrand Russell was an evil man devoid of gratitude with God who created him.
Indeed, Bertrand Russell did not waste his life having faith in mediocrity or praying daily to a divinity. He had no taste for theology as he was a great man of logic, mathematics, and philosophy.
Russell devoted 70 years of his life in the search of the truth. He was honest and frank to admit his failure in not having found the truth. He said others might find if we can all continue to search for the truth. As for the rest of his life, since he died at the age of 98, he devoted much of his days struggling for world peace. Russell hated the nuclear bomb. He organized the “ban the bomb” international movement. He was always on the side of humanity. He was never prepared to meet universal death to prove the stupidity behind global insanity. Poch Suzara

Mental Torture

The most painful kind of mental torture a thoughtless man can experience in life is to think that he could himself do a little thinking. Poch Suzara

The Irony of a Stupid Man

The irony of a stupid man is that he actually has the intelligent impression that everybody else is just as stupid as he is. Poch Suzara

Genesis

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. “
I ask: where was the inspired author located while he was actually reporting creation then going on? Did he actually see or hear God said, Let there be Light? Poch Suzara

Cathedral

A cathedral is grand work of art with great building materials erected with engineering skills. But isn’t God already everywhere on this planet and already present in the billions upon billions of galaxies. Why would the Supreme Being need
a House of God established on this tiny atom called earth? Isn't a cathedral a monument to human stupidity? Poch Suzara

Theology

Theology has been in a bankrupt state of affairs during the last many decades that the most the theologians can do these days is to brag that it was they were the first who discovered the power of science. What a pathetic and a dishonest group of liars these theologians are! Ever since the birth of science, the theologians have not ceased envying, hating, fighting, opposing, threatening, imprisoning, torturing, burning at the stake, hanging, and executing men of science. In the Philippines, our own national hero - Jose Rizal was indeed executed by the Spanish theologians.
Bertrand Russell wrote it simply: “Science, while it diminishes our cosmic pretensions, enormously increases our terrestrial comfort. This is why, in spite of the hs of the theologians, science has on the whole been tolerated.” Poch Suzara

Religion

It is the greatest evil that continues to keep our world in the dark. Religion has crippled the minds of children, distorted the minds of men, and twisted the hearts of women. No doubt, religion teaches one to be good; unfortunately, to be good for nothing. Look where faith has taken the human race since God knows when? In this 21st century, the majority of people still need to have faith in a lot superstition nonsense in order to feel that life has meaning. Poch Suzara

Saturday, January 21, 2006

The new name is "Rational"says Marshall Brain

The new name is "Rational" says Marshall Brain:

It is time for us to recognize as a society that there is no such thing as an atheist. Let me help you understand why this is the case.

Do you believe in Leprechauns? Probably not, because Leprechauns are imaginary. Yes, there are lots of books, movies and fairy tales dealing with Leprechauns. People talk about Leprechauns all the time. Leprechauns even have a popular brand of breakfast cereal. But that does not mean that Leprechauns exist.

We know that Leprechauns are imaginary. Why? Because there is noevidence for their existence. Despite all the publicity Leprechauns get, normal people dismiss storybook creatures like Leprechauns as myths, and rightly so.

If you do not believe in Leprechauns, what are you? Are you an aleprechaunist? Of course not. You are normal. People who do not believe in Leprechauns are completely normal.The new name is "Rational"

In just the same way that we don't use the word aleprechaunist to describe the people who do not believe in Leprechauns, we should not need the word atheist. We should be able to say, "I am a normal person" and be done with it.

The problem is that, in America today, if you say, "I am a normal person," what everyone assumes is that you mean, "I am a Christian." Currently we are a minority, and as long as we are a minority we need a name.

It is time to choose a new name for those of us who know that all human gods are imaginary. There are two good reasons for picking a new name. First, the word atheist is overloaded with extraneous meaning right now, most of it negative. Second, there is no reason to define ourselves as the opposite of theists.

My response:

This is about more frightened childish nonsense. Leprechauns hold no power over schools, colleges, universities, including governments, especially the US government today. Leprechauns hold no power over the minds of men and the hearts of women as the belief in A SUPERNATURAL BEING does. We atheist must fight evil no matter how religious evil is. Atheists should stop hiding inside the rational closet. Come and out and fight the evil that is perpetually keeping our world in hate and in war - this belief in the existence of a good God. We atheists must never be ruled by the theists. To begin with, we must never shy away from the word ATHEIST. For my part, I thank God I am an ATHEIST. Poch Suzara

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Gearing Towards Economic Recovery

In his piece published in the Philippine Star today, Vicente G. Roxas wrote: “Efforts should be geared towards the satisfactory solution of the current economic crisis through an increase in productive capacity and productivity which will generate our overall production in the three sectors: the Agro-industry, the Agro-Business and Technical Vocational Education and Training Program. To attain the objective, the following policy guidelines or measures may prove helpful: “Love yourself and country next to God. It is quite unfortunate that a good number of our fellow countrymen do not put this into practice. Apparently, what they do believe is love GOD next to yourself or to your country, obviously for self-aggrandizement.”
I ask Mr. Roxas: have you heard of Filipinos who got filthy rich for believing that God is bad? And yet, millions upon millions of Filipinos are filthy poor for believing that God is good! Perhaps, as an expert economist, Mr. Roxas can further expound why our stupid economy should have any connection with our stupid theology? Poch Suzara

Top Filipino Economists

Top Filipino economists are still insisting, as a matter of fantasy, that the biggest problem confronting the nation today is how to pay our external old debt of $65 billion dollars.
These economists are not even ashamed of themselves. As a matter of reality, our biggest problem is how to catch and put in jail those corrupt officials in government that made such loans not to benefit the nation, but to deposit into their personal bank accounts such foreign loans. Well, more loans are needed for the nation and, as we are acquiring more loans, how come the nation is getting poorer and sinking deeper into the economic quagmire?
As a matter of reality, however,, the biggest problem of the nation is the population explosion. Two million babies are born every year in the Philippines. Whatever economic productivity, if any, we may achieve, it will be just eaten up by more mouths to feed. Thus, instead of the higher, only the lower standard of living.
The trouble with our God-fearing, college-educated and faith-soaked economists is that they feel so blessed by God. Specially when they see Filipinos smiling and proud of their lower standard of thinking. As if with our poverty as a people and bankruptcy as a nation God will continue to bless this Pearl of the Orient Seas – the only Christian country in Asia.
It is all about the same stupid economy in cahoots with stupid theology year in and year out: the religious insanity ever playing the major role to keep up with the economic insanity of this God-forsaken country. After all, according to our Christian values and beliefs, the more we suffer, the more sacrifices we make for the Lord, the chances are better for the Philippnes to remain forever famous as the only Christian country in Asia. Poch Suzara

Friday, January 13, 2006

A Thinking Filipino

For a great many years, I prayed daily on my bended knees but received no response. Then I started to think daily with my head.
It got me into more responsible thinking. As a grown-up man, I no longer bother with childish prayers. I gave up trying to change the mind of God. God, after all, is immutable. Poch Suzara

Faith

Religions in general and Christianity in particular have always been an impediment to our growth as a people and to our development as a nation. Consider faith: how it has crippled the Filipino mind. Faith has subverted our natural ability to question, to learn, to discover, and indeed even to love one another and to love our country. In fact, due to faith, we have never ceased praying to Mary, the Mother of God, to pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, amen. For my part, I think it's unfair that in the eyes of Mary, the mother of God, she has not ceased looking at Filipinos as having no purpose in life other than just be sinners in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

The Immortal Soul

God in heaven will judge the immortal human soul that all this time apparently could see, hear, taste, feel, and smell. But if that were the case, why would the immortal soul need a mortal human body on earth to begin with? More to the point: if God created heaven for happiness and created earth for unhappiness, why bother to create earth for unhappiness to begin with? Poch Suzara

Hereafter and Herebefore

I never worry about the hereafter because I never worry about the herebefore. I do not recall existing before I was born. If I never existed before birth, why should I worry about not existing after death? Immortality of my personality is neither a feasibility nor a possibility. It is, in fact, a ridiculosity. Poch Suzara

Free Will

If God gifted man with a Free Will, why would his first command be – Thou Shalt have no other gods before me? Who are those other gods? Where did they come from? Who created them? Were they not gifted with Free Will as well? As the song goes . . . what's going on? Poch Suzara

Dangerous to Society

“It is not disbelief that is dangerous to our society; it is belief.” George Bernard Shaw. This is right on target. May I, however, add: especially if we respect such beliefs that are baseless, aimless, rudderless, reckless, and thoughtless. Poch Suzara

As An Atheist

As an atheist, I do not retreat in the face of threats or punishments dispensed by theocratic terrorists. They are only more interested in protecting their own power and glory indulging in their vanity. Theocratic terrorists do not care to promote humanitarian ideals for the happiness of the human community in the here and the there nor in the hear and the now. Poch Suzara

Jesus and Education

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18:2-3 It is obvious that Jesus did not give a hoot about the value education.
For my part, I have no wish to go to heaven. I do not wish to enjoy happiness in the company of little children happy with immaturity for the rest of eternity.
On this earth, however, I would rather listen to Bertrand Russell: Most children wish to know until they go to school; in many cases it is bad teaching that make them stupid and uninquiring.
In the meantime, the bible totally contradicts Jesus: “My friends, stop thinking like children. Think like mature people.”
( 1 Corinthians 14:19 ). Poch Suzara

Reality and Fantasy

As an atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, I appear like a lost damned soul in the eyes of my God-fearing friends and relatives, specially as they are in closed touch daily with fantasy. Poch Suzara

All Religions

All religions of the world came from only one source:- God; unfortunately, God does not exist. Otherwise, if there is a God, there would only be one intelligent religion. There would be no need for the existence of many stupid religions that’s keeping our world wracked in mutual hatred. Poch Suzara

Honor Mother and Father

The 4th commandment: honor thy mother and father. I ask: how exactly could a son or a daughter obey this commandment of God if his or her father were a politician and mother is just one of the many wives of the politician who has also sired some other 27 illegitimate step-brothers and step-sisters? Oh yes, God’s 4th commandment - Honor thy Father and Mother- is a sick and an insane commandment. On the contrary, it is mothers and fathers who should love and honor each other as decent parents. In this way, no millions of street children need live like sick animals in the sick streets in our poor country – the only Christian country in Asia since 500 years ago. - Poch Suzara Google# Twitter# Facebook#

Why

Why something rather than nothing? Precisely. That something is the entire universe itself of which, as basic energy, we are all part of. As energy can neither be created nor destroyed, we will always be a part of that something.There is nothing outside the universe. We will always be a part of the universe, whether we like it or not. Forget nothing! It does not exist. Poch uzara

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Yes, I am a Pinoy

Indeed, I am proud to be a Pinoy. I am happy to be a citizen of the Philippines. I am also proud to have Spanish, American, and Filipino blood in me.
The shame, however, is that we Pinoys continue to love, worship, and adore anything foreign specially a foreign God called Jesus who was never a Filipino as he was born in the land of Israel that today is not even a Christian country, but a Jewish State.
We Pinoys should have our own local God. May I suggest the thinkers and philosophers amongst Filipinos? How about Jose Rizal – our national hero – why don’t we start studying seriously and learn from this courageous Filipino thinker who said that it is better to be truthful to each other than continue spreading mediocre, if not sanctimonious, - lies about ourselves. Indeed, to love our country and not to love that pie in the sky by and by.
It is time we Pinoys stop the business of easy believing; instead, we should begin to appreciate hard and serious thinking. We should stop having faith in a lot of sacred nonsense, and begin instead to think for ourselves. It is not the responsibility of foreigners to think for Filipinos or to think for the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Thursday, January 05, 2006

We Filipinos

We Filipinos must extricate ourselves up and out of our ancient superstition that’s only giving us more faith in sacred illusions, if not some other biblical delusions. Such evils need not be placed at the foundation of our essential beliefs and other social values.
That there is power in prayer has got to be among the first sacred concept that must be thrown out the window. Otherwise, in the centuries to come, if we continue to believe in the power of prayer, we Filipinos will just continue to accomplish the same nothing as a people, and we will just continue to achieve the same nothing as a nation. Indeed, we will just continue to oppose each other not for the sake of developing or accomplishing something, but only for the purpose of recycling to death the same nothing. Poch Suzara

Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe

In recognizing the unsolved mysteries of the universe, the scientist does not kneel down to supernatural explanations. He stands up to the natural explanations, if any. Otherwise, he suspends his judgment and seeks not obscurity, but evidence for the sake of clarity. In his “Brief History of Time,” Stephen Hawking wrote: “Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have not been content to see events unconnected and inexplicable. They have craved an understanding of the underlying order in the world. Today, we still yearn to know why we are here and where we came from. Humanity’s deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest. And our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in.” In the same book, Hawking also wrote: “So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor an end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator? Poch Suzara

The Wealth of the Catholic Church

The wealth of the Catholic Church in the Philippines comes mostly from its priests who can determine who will go to heaven or who will go to hell. If a Filipino died in a state of mortal sin, he will go to hell. If he died after the priest gives him extreme unction, he will go to heaven. Before reaching heaven, however, he must spend years suffering pain in Purgatory. The situation in Purgatory can be diminished considerably by indulgences which is money paid to the priest for saying mass for the souls of the dead. Holy Mass can be purchased wholesale or retail. There are discounts offered and therefore big saving to be made buying it wholesale. Billions of pesos that are then remitted each and every month to the Vatican State. Poch Suzara

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