College Education

College education in the Philippines is mostly about accreditation, certification, and indeed, graduation. It is hardly about the lifetime adventure in the never-ending search of the truth. Indeed, nothing to do with the habit of more and deeper learning through serious reading. As a matter of fact, throwing books out the window is the fun part of college graduation celebration in our sick society.
I often ask my college-educated friends why is there more of the spread of intellectual poverty than there is the bread for cultural prosperity in this God-forsaken country? Their reply: “Huh?” Poch Suzara

Poverty in the Philippines

The war against poverty in the Philippines can only be won with the creation of wealth. Unfortunately, wealth can never be produced unless there is first the birth and growth of mental health. In this country, children at home and in school are taught to be greedy, selfish, stupid, and insane - in brief, taught to be poor in spirit. Thus, there is always the problem from those who are not rich in spirit. They are deprived of the power to nourish mental health. It certainly discourages, by and large, the creation of wealth as a responsibility of every grown-up man and woman in the Philippines.
In the meantime, the population uncontrolled growth in the Philippines is a greater evil than the evil of poverty. The population explosion is depleting our natural resources faster than nature can regenerate or replenish them. Indeed, our rain forest is beginning to look growthless. Just like the Lunar landscape that's lifeless. Poch Suzara

Search of the Truth

In the search of the truth, it is more reliable to be on the side of science than it is to be on the side of religion. In order to get a bigger picture of the truth, if any, science, for example, will not only study carefully the balance of nature, but also even more carefully study the nature of balance. Another example, science would look at the molecular rather than the spiritual basis of life. After all, the spiritual cannot be tested and observed inside a cathedral. The molecular basis of life, however, can be tested and observed inside a laboratory for further experimentation and analysis. In the religious way of thinking, the search of the truth is a waste of time since the truth has already been revealed. In the meantime, science is not only a body of knowledge; it is more of a process, a method of discovering the truth, if any. In science, knowledge can generate more knowledge and can be improved upon, it can be changed, and this emendation represents a natural growth and development of the scientific spirit. Poch Suzara

Terrorism

Sending a powerful message fit the definition of terrorism. Sending a message to a child about the existence of God is the worst kind of terrorism. Especially if the message were accompanied with threats of eternal punishment. Thus, due to religious terrorism, most children grow up believing in cruel God. They live in fear as they do not want to suffer eternal damnation punished forever in hell after death.
For my part, I was lucky. I managed, somehow, to see through clearly the childish message. I saw the existence of God as something superstitious, nay, excrementitious, based upon nothing but childish terrorism. Indeed, if God exist, I refuse to believe that such a loving God, such a Supreme Being should allow such scatological nonsense be taught to children about Him. Poch Suzara

The Poor, Sick and Filthy

If I were poor, sick and filthy, I have no right to have children because my children have no right to be poor, sick and filthy. No doubt God provides wealth, power, and glory; unfortunately, only for the priesthood industry. As for the poor, the sick, and the filthy, - these children of God, in a devastating typhoon, are not even allowed to take temporary shelter inside the House of God called “Churches” and “Cathedrals.” Poch Suzara

Root of all evil

The killing of Hypatia in the 5th century, the onslaught of the Dark Ages from the 5th to the 15th century, the Inquisition organized by the Church, Copernicus exiled, Galileo silenced, Bruno burned at the stake, Jose Rizal publicly executed by a theocracy in the late 19th century, not to mention, time and again, the Church blocking the way towards the advancement of knowledge and emancipation of the human mind. In brief, the good life - one inspired by love and guided by knowledge - is not possible in our world for as long organized religions – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam continue to retard the spiritual growth and the intellectual development of human beings born on this earth. Organized religion, indeed, is the root of all evil. Poch Suzara

Thanks to Faith

Thanks to our Christian values and beliefs, we enjoy having faith not only in things we know nothing about, but also in things that we know are not true. It spares us from the ordeal of having to think for ourselves as a people, and from the ordeal of having to take responsibility for ourselves as a nation.
Indeed, thanks to our faith in Christian values and beliefs our population growth is making sure that our natural resources are depleting faster than the rate nature can replenish or have them regenerated.
In the meantime, as the bible says: love not your country, neither the things that are in your country. If any one loves his country, the love of God is not with him. See John 2:15. Poch Suzara

Beliefs and Facts

The religious and the superstitious share a common denominator mutually together. They do not alter their beliefs to fit the facts. They would rather alter the facts to fit their beliefs. They are even proud to call it “blind faith.” Poch Suzara

The Catholic Bishops

Eternal damnation is what is in store for the Filipino newspaper columnist who ventures any criticism against the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines. There is not a single one of these columnists that I know of who does not live in mortal terror of the power of this religious group. If the Catholic Bishops can bluff its way into a preferred position, the fault lies not only with the Bishops but due mostly with our frightened columnists. And to think that these Bishops are not even answerable to our society under a democracy. As citizens of the Vatican State, they report to the Pope who is answerable to a higher power under a theocracy. In the meantime, the most that our college-educated columnists can do with their precious talents and valuable abilities is to sell them to the Catholic Bishops – the major owners, if not the stockholders of major newspapers of this country.
As a high-school dropout, I do not believe that the mind is a terrible thing to waste; on the contrary, I believe that it is a terrible thing to waste the mind. Poch Suzara

The Psychotic

One of the most idiotic, if not imbecilic, nay, moronic facts about our time is the stupid fanatic who is just as pathetic as he is a lunatic. He actually believes with all sincerity that everyone else is just as intelligent as he is! Poch Suzara

The Religious Attitude

Whether one is a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Jew – each would readily admit something like: - so what if this world were embroiled with poverty, pain, cruelty, violence, suffering, hate, murder, and wars?
There is always a better world to come after death with God, says the Christian. There is always a better world to come with Allah, says the Muslim.
There is always a better world to come with Yahweh, says the Jew.
Such is our unpredictably trouble-infested world. Thanks to religious attitude – the root of human stupidity lasting much longer than infinity. Poch Suzara

Money

“Our society,” Bertrand Russell wrote, “is so imbued with the belief that happiness consists of financial success that men do not realize how much they are losing, and how much richer their lives might be if they cared less about money. But the results of their instinctive dissatisfaction are all the worse for being unconscious.”

In the Philippines, however, even those who are not suppose to be in the business of making money are busy making money on the side – teachers and professors, congressmen and senators, and, among the most successful – the priests and nuns. Such religious men and women of God are able to collect and then remit, quite successfully, tons of tax-free money yearly to the Vatican bank. It is already worth In the trillion of dollars today. Thanks to so-called Catholic Charity.

In the meantime, most of my college-educated friends and relatives struggle in life over nothing except to earn or make more millions, if possible. They are the poor in spirit. For my part, I’d rather struggle in the search of the truth. The truth, after all, is worth far more than billions. Moreover, even if I were poverty-stricken, I would rather be happy getting richer in spirit. There is nothing quite like it in all the joys found in nature. Poch Suzara

Theological Rubbish

One of the ugly things about our society: millions of our children in school are still indoctrinated with threat of eternal damnation to believe and have faith in a higher power otherwise known as the Supreme Being.
There is, however, an uglier side to this sad horror. Most of the grown-up men and women in our sick society today still believe in the same old childish rubbish. They even believe in the Revealed Truth that has yet to the revealed.
As a schoolboy, once during weekly confession, I asked the priest to please reveal to me the whereabouts of my dead loved-ones? Are they in heaven or in hell? In what level of happiness are they in heaven? Or in what level of punishment are they suffering in hell? Today, as a grown-up, I am asking as to the whereabouts of the more than 1,000,000,000 Filipinos who already lived and died in the Philippines since Christianity arrived here some 500 years ago. How many Filipinos made it to heaven and how many have been damned to hell? I am told, however, that even among the brightest of the Jesuit theologians, no one knows as it is still one of God’s great mysteries.
In the meantime, critics today are asking me to explain what triggered my hatred of Catholicism. So that they could psychoanalyze my bigotry. It seems to be alarmingly translucent, however, that these critics are the same type of believers who had Jose Rizal put to death by musketry. What a bunch of faith-based, priestly-indoctrinated cowards. No, my friends, I do not hate Catholicism. I hate the lies and falsehoods behind the history of the Catholic Church. Poch Suzara

Superman and Jesus

In the Da Vinci Code movie – Jesus is a depicted as a man married to Mary Magdalene.
In the Hollywood movie, Superman is depicted as a hero to the millions crying out for a Savior.
Superman is a greater fictional savior than the biblical Jesus. A savior should not put his power in abeyance, nor should he be inefficient at his job. Consider how Jesus as a Savior has been hiding since his resurrection from death on the cross centuries ago! Poch Suzara

Faith

A Christian says: I have faith in God because my mother and father raised me as a Christian as both were themselves Christians.
A Muslim says: I have faith in Allah because my mother and father raised me as a Muslim as both were themselves Muslims.
A Jew says: I have faith in Yahweh because my mother and father raised me as Jewish as both were themselves Jewish.
Faith indeed is not a matter of free will, but a matter of accident as to which parents gave birth to each and every one of us. If our parents were Buddhist, we, most likely, would have been raised and indoctrinated as Buddhists.
My parents were both devout Catholics. Happily, they played no role during my free choice to decide for myself as to which freedom I should wish to entertain: the freedom of religion or the freedom from religion.
In the meantime, there is, indeed, something bigger and a greater power than my own existence to love and respect in this world. No, not a mysterious God out there; but my family, my country, and indeed, the whole of humanity down here. Poch Suzara

Jews and Muslims and Christians

To establish peace on earth and goodwill to all men, may I suggest that the Jews and Muslims should only sit down together and stop behaving like the good Christians. Indeed, they should all stop emulating the Christian way of hating and cutting each other’s throat and stabbing each other back in God’s name and for his glory in heaven. Look at the Catholics and the Protestants. After all this past centuries, look how they have not yet learned to love and respect each other’s beliefs in the same Jesus Christ to help establish local and global sanity! Poch Suzara

Adam and Eve

According to the bible, our first parents - Adam and Eve were the first couple to worship God. They were also the first human couple to be rejected by God. In His wrath over a meaningless, nay childish issue God punished and expelled Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.
As a descendant of Adam and Eve, can you blame me for believing that God was such an ungodly God to our first parent? I say: Phooey to such a God! Phooey also to the Devil in the shape of a Talking Serpent! And if you, my dear Born-again Christians do not like to read what I write, then I say phooey on you too. Poch Suzara

The Right to Believe

Is it your right to believe there is a God? Is it your right to believe there is no God? As a matter of fact, you have no right to believe this or to believe that unless you have first fully explored every facet or duly discovered every angle of the belief in question. Indeed, everybody believes this or believes that. Nobody, however, knows exactly what believing means. For my part, I’d rather remain in constant doubt. I’d rather suspend my judgment. I do not care to believe. I only want to know.
In the meantime, we continue to spill blood over what is, at bottom, a conflict of sick beliefs. Arguments for or against healthy ideas have never done any one any harm.
I am a conscious objector. I do not believe in going to war against others just because they have weird beliefs.
The one and only war I approve without any hesitation whatsoever is the war of logic against the concept of the existence of God and the existence of the devil. Until the concept of supernatural monsters are defeated in the minds of men and totally expunged out of the hearts of women, we shall only continue to hate and kill each other for the sake of nothing. We shall never enjoy peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Poch Suzara

Atheism

Charles Bradlaugh was one of the greatest atheists who ever lived. I challenge you believers to discard your logical fantasy by listening carefully to this man’s logical reality: “Atheism is without God. It does not assert no God. The atheist does not say that there is no God, but he says "I know not what you mean by God.” I am without the idea of God. The word God to me is a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation. I do not deny God, because I cannot deny that of which I have no conception, and the conception of which by its affirmer is so imperfect that he is unable to define it for me.” Poch Suzara

An Anonymous Critic wrote

“Poch is a failure. You are rehashing your arguments for ages, like mustard seeds falling on arid soil.”
“It would be interesting though to read what triggered your hatred against Catholicism, so we can pychoanalyze your bigotry.”
“Catholicism or none, man is predisposed to supernatural beliefs. Just live with it. This diversity makes the world colorful. God--oops, did I offend you?-- I could not imagine living in a world with one train of thought, certainly not following yours.”
My response: the superstitious primitives are always predisposed to supernatural beliefs. They are the poor in spirit. For my part, I would rather be a failure at natural disbeliefs than be a success at supernatural beliefs. I have no desire to be successful at promoting ancient stupidity especially if it means embracing faith in the false foundation of Christianity. I was raised and indoctrinated to be a questionless Christian and so, eventually, in order to regain my self-respect, I dropped out. However, instead of believing more of the same old childish pursuits, like be a Born-again Christian, I decided to simply grow up.
In the meantime, my dear critic, please stop revealing your infantile contempt for human intelligence. It is always a virtue to be able to think for one’s self. Please stop displaying the inferiority of your childish faith. Instead, try to manifest your mind as something brightened and superior, and not something as frightened and inferior. Argue your case with the power of reason. Do not fault me for taking the side of science, humanity, respect for life, reverence for nature and understanding of our place in evolution, caring for our biological heritage and for the future of our children’s children. The higher power that you are referring to can only be found in the better part of ourselves as humans on this earth. It is we who must realize that love and happiness and the joys in life do not come from somewhere vague out there. They are clearly the beauties found right here as they come from our own minds and hearts, experiences, passions and compassions, laughter, friends and family. Poch Suzara

Purpose Driven Life

Pastor Rick Warren writes: “Long before you were conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God.” Imagine a Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Truman, Chiang Kai-Shek, Emperor Hirohito, Noriega of Panama, Batista of Cuba, Somoza of Nicaragua, Diem of South Vietnam, Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden, Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Tony Blair, and Marcos of the Philippines. Imagine also the leaders of other countries too created not only in the mind of God but also installed by the US government to serve the interest of the US military that serves the interest of the rich US armament corporations own by the wealthy few and the powerful in America. Since the time of Jesus, hundreds of billions people already lived and died on this earth. Among them were the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims. They lived hating and died cutting each other’s throats in God’s name and for His glory in heaven. For my part, I find it incredible to believe that the children of the Christians, the children of the Jews, and the children of the Muslims were once all conceived in the mind of God. If I were present with the Lord when he made man, I would have said, Lord, make the Christians, make the Jews, and make the Muslims; but Lord, if you want peace on earth and goodwill to all men, please do not make man in your own image and likeness! To Pastor Rick Warren, the author of PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE, a best seller, I should wish to congratulate you. Also, I should wish to convey to all of your faithful readers: It is good to be Born-Again. It is, however, much better to grow up! Poch Suzara

Humanism - Behind Bar

The essay below was hand written and mailed to me by Roy G. Angana, a prisoner, among the 1,000 prisoners in Dapecol, Maximum Compound, Davao Del Norte, Philippines. I typed it for you readers in the hope that you too can help this prisoner and his group materialize their aims and ambitions. I have been sending these men magazines and articles including used books in the hope that I can help to keep their spirit free and rich. For their further studies in the search of the truth, they need more reading materials, pocket book dictionaries, ball-pens, notebooks, pads of paper and, most useful would be a donation of old typewriters. Any other contribution, I am sure, will also be highly appreciated.
I have been in correspondence with these people since 6 years ago. It is encouraging to know how men in prison can write good articles and still be involved with civility and humanity. I should wish to invite you to enter into the picture and correspond directly with Roy G. Angana. After all, even while in prison, he too is seeking the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. For the pleasure and the attention of my readers residing in some 90 countries around the world, I am publishing Roy G. Angana's piece in my Blog
www. thoughtstoprovokeyourthoughts.blogspot Poch Suzara

HUMANISM – BEHIND BARS

by: Roy G. Angana – July 2006

Humanism is not innate in our being human. As humans living in the materialistic world, we are inherently governed by our natural instinct well-defined by Darwin as the survival of the fittest by natural selection. However man’s capability to think and reason makes him to be far more superior than any other mundane life-forms. Being highly intelligent, he is capable of changing and controlling his own environment to make it suitable for habitation, hence, he can also choose and direct his own destiny. Yet, in spite of human progressive advancement and modernity, man can easily turn inhuman quarreling with each other like savage animals due to his unbridled greed for wealth and power which caused so much pain and misery to all humanity.

And through his mental faculties, man has also produced lots of ideas, sometimes insane ideas and misguided philosophies, a product of his vain attempt to explain the mysteries of the unknown with total disregard to scientifically established facts. Born-out of his ignorance and the fear of the unknown, he created a system of beliefs for the supernatural and called it a religion. Consequently, he invented the gods and the goddess of all sorts. The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Xenophanes rightly concluded that the gods had been created by humans in their own image. With these he also promulgated religious laws and doctrines which as history itself has testified, wrought untold havoc and the trail of blood since the earliest dawn of man. Religion is a self-serving human enterprise that promotes nothing but self-preservation, dominance and moral ascendancy to other human beings. Today, the world is not only geographically divided but more so, divided by man’s religious beliefs and understanding of the supernatural that produce open or silent hatred and intolerance among the humankind. Finally after the enlightenment, a new era of self-realization emerged and the understanding of the natural world has arrived. It started when it dawned on man that he has moral obligations and capabilities to change his world for the better, thereby took the responsibility. It is self-awareness which gave birth to humanism. Humanism is basically acquired and learned that will give a better chance of survival of the human species. Man started now to question critically the wisdom, if not the folly of his previous actions and beliefs and started to seek to understand the nature of his character. Indeed, it is only through the use of rational and critical thinking man can have a fair chance to resolve the problem of his character and understand the consequences of his actions.

Thus, humanism in Dapecol is born. The common existential self-awareness that whenever or wherever we can always do something for the good of society in particular and humanity in general. A realization that against the back-drop of a fast-paced society outside in a race of a never-ending quest for selfish gain and survival, we could slowly but surely plant a seed of reciprocal altruism among us and learn to co-exist in a win-win situation thereby surviving together in this hostile environment. Of course pessimist may think that behind bars is the most unlikely place for humanism to start with, however, it is the most challenging too. And we believe that our own efforts towards humanist ideals will serve as a catalyst for inspiration to other humanist in the free world. In here is the most acid test for humanism workability because it is in behind bars where the primeval survival of the fittest instinct rules. People in the free society considered prisons as the haven of lawlessness, ruthless and hardened criminals, though I know being an insider, this is an overstatement. There are still many of us who are trying to retain any semblance of human dignity and cling to whatever left of our morality while continually hoping to be given a second chance to live a normal and a decent life again upon re-integration into society. At present, we are slowly gaining grounds in promoting humanist ethics and philosophy despite lack of resources, mobility and only minimal outside support. What is the most important is that, though we are still in prison, our thoughts are free. That constitutes a big difference. We learn to value free thought being purveyor of humanism. Fred Edwords, a famous humanist, explicitly puts it, “free thought isn’t just a set of abstract philosophical ideas or critique of religion. It is and always has been a commitment to social change and social action, having a profound and positive impact on the advancement of civilization.” Thus, we look forward to the day when our country is no longer held captive of the caprices of the few and a prisoner of poverty, ignorance, and superstitious beliefs that have enslaved us for so long, but instead to be a truly free country that adheres to truth and justice and reciprocal altruism for the sake of our children’s children.

Roy G. Angana
Dapecol, Maximum Compound
Davao Del Norte, 1801

You Have Got a Problem, Buddy

You've Got a Problem, Buddy! I find it incredible that you ask me to believe that the earth was created in six literal days; women come from a man’s rib; a snake, a donkey, and a burning bush spoke human language; the entire world was flooded, covering the mountains to drown evil; all animal species, millions of them, rode on one boat; language variations stem from the tower of Babel; Moses had a magic wand; the Nile turned to blood; a stick turned into a snake; witches, wizards, and sorcerers really exist; food rained from the sky for 40 years; people were cured by the sight of a brass serpent; the sun stood still to help Joshua win a battle, and it went backward for King Hezekiah; men survived unaided in a fiery furnace; a detached hand floated in the air and wrote on a wall; men followed a star which directed them to a particular house; Jesus walked on water unaided; fish and bread magically multiplied to feed the hungry; water instantly turned into wine; mental illness is caused by demons; a “devil” with wings exists who causes evil; people were healed by stepping into a pool agitated by angels; disembodied voiced spoke from the sky; Jesus vanished and later materialized from thin air; people were healed by Peter’s shadow; angels broke people out of jail; a fiery lake of eternal torment awaits unbelievers under the earth ... while there is life-after-death in a city which is 1,500 miles cubed, with mansions and food, for Christians only. If you believe these stories, then you are the one with the problem, not me. These myths violate natural law, contradict science, and fail to correspond with reality or logic. If you can’t see that, then you can’t separate truth from fantasy. It doesn’t matter how many people accept delusions inflicted by “holy” men; a widely held lie is still a lie. If you are so gullible, then you are like the child who believes the older brother who says there is a monster in the hallway. But there is nothing to be afraid of; go turn on the light and look for yourself.

The Philippines

The land blessed with a democracy but not separated from a theocracy. The land of a troubled public in dire need of a healthy republic. The land of bible studies, blind faith, prayer rallies, and other miracles. The land of deadly faith-healers; but hardly a land of truth-seekers. The land where schools are about religious indoctrination, not about scientific education. The land where priests, ministers, seminarians, and pastors are venerated more than college professors are respected. The land where school teachers enjoy a higher standard of earning doing household chores in other Asian land. The land where the few filthy rich are getting richer, and the many filthy poor are getting poorer. The land of undelivered vows, broken promises, missed opportunities, empty celebration, and historical degradation. The land where progress is not about good government, but progress as promised only from the New Testament. The land where the sinners in government are far more destructive than the sinners in the Old Testament. The land where the matured thinkers are wasted, neglected and rejected; but the childish believers are always tolerated, accepted and rewarded. The land where life in general is a competition to be the criminal rather than be the victim of the criminals. The land where thoughtless values on top of worthless values pretty much describe the nature of our social values. The land where three babies are born every single minute of the day adding to 1.5 million children every year. Most of them unwanted and unloved. The land where children struggle to survive under subhuman conditions are believed to be one of the mysteries of a higher power known as God. The land where we believe that a divinity is responsible for our spiritual leaders. That if we do not listen to the pronouncement of these holy men, such as the Catholic Bishops, Bro. Mike of El Shaddai, Bro. Eli of Dating Daan, Bro. Eddie of Jesus is Lord Movement, Bro. Manalo of Iglesia Ni Cristo, etc., – the love of God up there will no longer benefit any one down here. The Philippines - the land of the angelic, the diabolic, the lethargic, the fanatic, the evangelistic, the apologetic, the fatalistic, the apathetic, the frantic, the melancholic, the sadistic, the cleric, the masochistic, the unscientific, the prophetic, not to mention the millions of Filipinos who would rather be identified as Catholic than they be considered patriotic or nationalistic. For my part, I love the Philippines, the country of my birth. I am proud to be a Filipino as I am, more than anything else, Asiatic. I have no taste to be theistic, in fact, I thank God I am atheistic! I have learned to be no longer a religious lunatic! Poch Suzara

My Critics

My critics tell me that I am a failure. That I have been rehashing my arguments for ages, like mustard seeds falling on arid soil. Oh well, I say, what can you expect from a high-school expelled student out of a Catholic school? Anyway, here is the arid soil my critics are referring to. Please check your GOOGLE in the internet and please reflect on: Poch Suzara in BBC Poch Suzara in CNN Poch Suzara in ABS,CBN Poch Suzara in Manila Standard Today Poch Suzara in Philippine Daily Inquirer Poch Suzara in Malaya International Poch Suzara in Business World Poch Suzara in the Manila Bulletin Poch Suzara in Philippine Star Poch Suzara in Newsbreak Magazine Poch Suzara in Davao, Cebu, Bacolod Times, Poch Suzara in the Philippine Free Press Poch Suzara in Gabriela Poch Suzara in Philippine History Poch Suzara in American History Poch Suzara in the San Francisco Public Library Poch Suzara in the Los Angeles Public Library Poch Suzara in the Berlin Public Library Poch Suzara In the Swiss Public Library Poch Suzara in Newsweek, USA Poch Suzara in Time, USA Poch Suzara in New York Times Poch Suzara in Los Angeles Times Poch Suzara in International Tribune Poch Suzara in the US Senate Poch Suzara in the Vatican Poch Suzara in the Opus Dei Poch Suzara in the Catholic Church Poch Suzara in the Jesuit Order Poch Suzara in the Born-Again Christian Poch Suzara in the Intl Church of God Poch Suzara in Adamson University Poch Suzara in De La Salle University Poch Suzara in Santo Thomas University Poch Suzara in Ateneo University Poch Suzara in University of the Philippines Poch Suzara in Letran, San Beda, Miriam College Poch Suzara in Harvard University Poch Suzara in Princeton University Poch Suzara in Yale University Poch Suzara in Cornell University Poch Suzara in Stanford University Poch Suzara in Mcmaster University, Canada Poch Suzara in Tokyo University Poch Suzara in Singapore University Poch Suzara in Sidney University Poch Suzara in City College of New York Poch Suzara in the United Nations Poch Suzara in the American Atheist Association Poch Suzara in the Central Intelligence Agency Poch Suzara in the White House, USA Poch Suzara in the Pentagon, USA Poch Suzara in Iran, Bangladesh Poch Suzara In the Islamic world Poch Suzara in the Buddhist world Poch Suzara in the Hindu world Poch Suzara in the holy bible Poch Suzara in the Bill Gates Foundation Poch Suzara in the Humanist Association, USA Poch Suzara in the B Russell Peace Foundation Poch Suzara in the B Russell society, USA Poch Suzara in the B Russell Society, Philippines Poch Suzara in the Pinoy Atheist Association Poch Suzara in the Philippine Society of Rational Humanists Poch Suzara in the Moral League and Enlightenment Society Poch Suzara in the High-School Dropout Assn of the Philippines Cheers!

Teachers

Bertrand Russell compared the work of teachers with those of philosophers. “The teacher, like the artist, the philosopher, and the man of letters, can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority.” For my part, I was most unhappy with my teachers in La Salle grade school and high school. They were such that I could not admire nor respect nor to emulate them. I imagine myself today as as individual like most of my teachers were then - habitually and utterly thoughtless. No thanks. I am most happy to have accomplished getting expelled out of high school in order to acquire real education through a lifetime of self-study via reading books, books, and books. Poch Suzara

Jesus as a Failure

Many a good man is a failure from a worldly point of view, but failure is not what one should wish to emulate. Jesus sought to save the world. Is there a dispute that Jesus as a “savior” has proved to be a global failure? Is our world today safer and saner or even a more humane place than it was during the time of Jesus? On the contrary, his plan of salvation was a failure. An ideal savior is needed now as much as 2,000 years ago. Right here in the Philippines, the biggest Catholic country in Asia, millions of Filipino families are crying daily for a Savior!
In the meantime, we are told that tolerant religious people can unite peacefully with non-religious people for a change. I agree. But before that could transpire, religious people must first learn to be tolerant of each other before the non-religious people can peacefully entertain and welcome the unity. Poch Suzara

The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is a commercial enterprise masquerading as a religion. The pope is the chairman of the board and its CEO, the curia is the board of directors, the cardinals are the regional vice-presidents, and the priests are the sales managers. The customers are the 700 million Catholics living in Catholic countries.
Each and everyday, millions of faithful Catholics contribute to their Church. Specially as Catholics are told “to lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth . . . A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven . . . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God . . . Woe unto you that are rich.” And so, the Vatican Bank had to be established. Its deposits are now in the trillions of dollars.  The Catholic Church is the richest organization in the world.
Both the Catholic Church and the US government mutually share a common denominator: each other’s source of tremendous wealth, power, and glory comes from exactly the same traditional evil: fear and ignorance, on the one hand; and, on the other, hate and war.
In the meantime, Bertrand Russell wrote: “What the world needs now is not only love, but the also the greater knowledge about the nature of love, in all of its complexity.” Poch Suzara








































Theocracy and Democracy

Has not the church its own network of schools and parishes? And, as an aside, via the faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus – does not church also own and control major newspapers and magazines; radio and television stations propagating daily religious matters throughout the Philippines? What about banks, corporations and other commercial enterprises owned by the Opus Dei, the Jesuits, the Christian Brothers, the Franciscan Order, Dominican Order, not to mention the wealth, power, and glory of Iglesia Ni Cristo and El shaddai organization and the Jesus is Lord Movement!
Indeed, in this country, before we can begin to enjoy the freedom from mediocrity, or the freedom from bigotry, or freedom from stupidity, we must, first and foremost, enjoy the freedom from Christianity. It is, only in this way, that we can enjoy a true democracy.
The Catholic Bishops speak daily of corruption rampant in our sick society. How come our newspaper columnists have not had the spirit to write about the daily corruption of the Bishops themselves who are keeping the Filipino spiritually poor as a people and keeping the Philippines backward morally as a nation? In the meantime, in this God-forsaken country, thanks to our Christian values and beliefs, we are told that there is no salvation outside the Church. Hell, to prove just how poor and backward we are, millions of Filipinos also admit that there is no salvation inside the government either. Indeed, there is only corruption both inside the church and inside the government. But then again, what can be expected of a theocracy and a democracy together pretending mutually to solve the nation’s troubles and problems? Poch Suzara
Moral Strength
“It may be that religion is dead, and if it is, we had better know it and set ourselves to try to discover other sources of moral strength before it is too late.” -- Pearl Buck, What America Means to Me, 1947.
Moral strength, indeed, is not only a beauty, but also a necessity. Its basic sources, however, must always be found upon the search of the veracity, and not based upon easy beliefs in sacred mendacity. Moral strength is a matter of facing the problems of the human race that’s clear down here. It has nothing to do with the troubles of divine grace that’s vague up there. Poch Suzara






Rizal’s Biographer
Leon Ma. Guerrero was a faithful Catholic more than he was a faithful biographer. It is, indeed, incredible that after studying Rizal’s life and works, Guerrero had no idea what Rizal, a genius, lived and died for? Imagine a biographer asking of his subject: “Was he innocent or guilty? If innocent, then why is he a hero? If guilty how can he be a martyr? The answer is that he was neither guilty nor innocent.”
Rizal believed in the power of education to shape character and in the power of character to shape history. Innocent as a hero or guilty as a martyr had nothing to do with what Rizal precisely stood in his fight to liberate the minds of men and the hearts of women of his country.

Blind Faith

There is no such thing as the power of the God. There is only the power of the church. If we were unable to distinguish this simple truth, it is clearly due to another power. It is called: - blind faith. In the meantime, to the mediocre, mediocrity is the highest form of felicity. Never mind poverty or human misery or social insanity. After all, in faith, what we must always protect and defend in the Philippines is Christianity. Poch Suzara

College-educated Fools

College-educated friends and associates regularly email me pornographic materials, on the one hand; and, on the other, email me reading materials on the evils of family planning and birth control practice in this country. These are the same college-educated individuals who believe that even if our population were growing at the rate of 1.5 million babies a year, it poses no problem on our society because there is always God who will provide. Most of these children, however, are unloved and unwanted and abandoned by their parents. In fact, millions of these children - the future citizens of the Republic of the Philippines, are struggling to survive under subhuman conditions in the streets of our major cities. Poch Suzara

A Genuine Atheist

I have the highest respect for the genuine atheists. They are aware just how terrestrially fruitless have been the belief in the existence of God. These are atheists, however, who are gutless, if not just as thoughtless as those exactly like the millions of believers who have been indoctrinated to be utterly mindless. For my part, as an atheist, I have no desire to support financially or morally those who carry on spreading the Word of God. I do not care to contribute one way or the other for the expenses of the oldest, largest, and among the richest of industry in all history – the priesthood industry. Poch Suzara

The Most Sellable Item

The most sellable item in the world is a lie. Try, however, selling the truth; it is the most difficult, if not the most impossible, - task. There are no buyers. The ridiculous part about this whole pathetic state of affairs, however, is that the truth does not even exist; it has not yet been found. The search of the truth goes on forever in the light of eternity!
In the meantime, we are the victims. Our attitudes and beliefs have been formed by lies and deception otherwise more known as "education." Poch Suzara

Church and State Separation Mockery

The separation of Church and State does not exist in the Philippines. All the officials of the State, first and foremost, are faithful members of the Church. All the officials of the Church, however, have citizen’s allegiance to the Vatican State; moreover, they do not give a hoot about the Philippines. After all, the church teaches “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any one love the world, the love of God is not with him.” In the Philippines, democracy is not a reality. It is not even a necessity. It is a mockery as inspired by a theocracy under the wealth, power, and glory of Christianity. Poch Suzara

Justice to Criminals

How can we make the death penalty law effective in deterring criminals? It is very easy. Legislate a better law to the effect that would-be parents should only propagate babies that they can love and want and need, and not replenish the Philippines with unwanted, neglected and abandoned children.This would be not only the most sensible step in bringing not criminals to justice, but precisely bringing justice to criminals. What better justice could there be available for would-be criminals other than to prevent their existence via the feasibility and the sensibility of family planning and birth control measures? Poch Suzara

A Nation of Prayers

We have been taught in our schools, colleges, and universities to believe that what we do for Christ in this life will be rewarded in the next life to come in heaven.
I ask: what life to come? After we are dead, and our body begins rotting, with what rotting eyes shall we see? With what rotting ears shall we hear? With what rotting nose shall we smell? With what rotting skin shall we feel? With what rotting palate shall we taste? And indeed with what rotting brains shall we be able to believe anything as rotten as death itself?
We Filipinos are poor as a people and the Philippines is backward as a nation? Why are we still deeply entrenched with silly religion that encourages human stupidity? In this 21st century, we have yet to touch the surface of the power of science that encourages human intelligence as much as human benevolence. Poch Suzara

Science

If your theories or ideas were science based, you will continue to make not only more discoveries, but will also continue to make more observations which is precisely what science is all about. In the meantime, asking questions and observing reality is a never-ending task. Science, however, is honest enough to admit that it only understands 1 per cent of what it observes in reality. Poch Suzara

John Milton, the Poet

He was disinherited by his father “because he kept not the Catholic religion” and he was caught reading the Bible. “
As for me, however, after reading the bible a great many years, I walked out of the Catholic Church. Bible contents certainly inspired in me to embrace the beauty of Atheism. God as depicted in the Bible is not the supernatural character worth loving. The devil too as depicted in the Bible as a supernatural character is not worth fearing.
I refuse to be intimidated by anything supernatural. Indeed, if supernatural beings exist, they can do what they want with me; but never, will they ever win my love and respect for either of them. Not in this life, or even in the next world to come, if any. Poch Suzara

Mary Magdalene

The church says Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. What was Jesus then doing with a prostitute during his crucifixion? According to the bible, she was also the first person Jesus appeared to right after his resurrection!
Let’s face it: if Mary Magdalene turned out to be the wife of Jesus, then the Vatican is in trouble with sacred lies. On the other hand, if Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, the Vatican is still in trouble with more sacred lies. Imagine Jesus – the Son of divinity, the paragon of purity, the epitome of respectability, the prince of tranquility, the savior of humanity - sexually involved with Mary Magdalene – a patuti, if not a tuti- frutie!
For my part, as an rational humanist, I ask: - what has Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Paul, James, Judas and all the rest of the apostles of Christ – all belonging to Jewish families born in Israel during the 1st century have anything of human value to do with Filipino families born in the Philippines in the 21st century? Poch Suzara

Pure Baloney

God allowed Satan in the shape of a talking serpent to deceive Eve. Adam, however, was depicted as a coward too thoughtless to stand up for Eve. I said it before, I say it again: To believe this bible story as something true and holy is pure baloney. It degrades humanity.

For my part, if I were Adam, I should have been more responsible for Eve. I would have told both God and Satan to take a hike or to stick to their own kind of woman! Why bother with my one and only love?

Is it possible that we are all sick in this country because we love, worship, and adore a sick God who is always friendly and tolerant, - of a sick devil? It is time to dump Christianity as it is all based upon a silly mythology. Consider Christianity in history. She has had 2,000 years of opportunity to straighten out the mess in this world. Now it is getting more alarmingly translucent, if not glaringly transparent that Christianity has never been the solution simply because she has always been the problem to begin with. Not only in matters of spiritual poverty; but look at the hate and wars that have been declared in God’s name and for his glory ever since man evolved on this planet.

Let us, instead, as a human family, love one another. There is no such thing as divinity. It is time to pay more attention to the plight of humanity. There is absolutely nothing more precious globally. Poch Suzara

Die for an Idea

It is heroic to die for an idea; it is, however, tragic to die for an idea that is false. What is even more terrible, however, is to die while intoxicated with the belief that brazen religious lies are among the most sacred of revealed truths. Poch Suzara

Masonry

Masonry was never a political party or a religious organization. It has always been a humanitarian and civic association. In fact, speaking as a Mason, Rizal once said: “Humanity cannot be redeemed while reason is not free, while faith would want to impose itself on facts, while whims are laws, and while there are nations to subjugate others. For humanity to be able to attain that lofty destiny toward which God guides it, it is necessary that within its fold there should be no dissensions nor tyranny… and no groans and curses be heard in its march … Masonry believes in God who guides mankind in its progress.”
No, I am not a Mason, though I was invited to be one. But as I openly declared myself an atheist, the invitation was withdrawn. Quite a few of my lawyer-friends are Masons. Be that as it may, I think, however, that the Catholic friars were rather stuck in the quagmire of mediocrity. They had nightmares of getting Rizal to retract from his errors against Masonry. Poch Suzara

Nothing

Nothing can be more degrading than to see millions of poor Filipinos have nothing going for them in this life except God – another nothing! My dear reader, have you ever heard of Filipinos who became rich for believing that God is bad? And yet millions of Filipinos are poor for believing that God is good.
But then again, it is just as degrading to see millions of rich Americans have nothing going for them in this life except money – another nothing.
My dear reader, have you ever heard of rich Americans who, in this life, before they died, converted their cash into traveler’s checks to take along with them in the next life? Poch Suzara

Beliefs

People believe this or believe that. People will even kill other people for not believing this or for not believing that. I think, however, it is time to take a good look at our harmful beliefs responsible for so much hate and killings in our world. Indeed, time has elapse. If we wish to save our world, we must learn to entertain more realistic and intelligent non-beliefs than have faith in our fantastic and stupid beliefs.Poch Suzara

Philippine Media

The Philippine media could mold public opinion to admire science rather than religion; to prepare for peace rather than to work for war; to love philosophy rather than theology. Indeed, the media could very well promote all that is creative for our society, and so diminish the impulses and desires that center round Filipinos getting more selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane. And yet, Filipino editors and columnists of newspapers and magazines; teachers and professors of schools, colleges and universities; producers and directors of the movie and television industry - all share a common interests together in this country: - they all try their utmost best to keep all of their readers and students and audiences as thoughtless as ever so as not to displease the Catholic Bishops enjoying theological and political control of the Philippines. And to think that these are the same Bishops who are the experts with the Revealed Truth that have yet to be revealed.
In the meantime, thanks to power of our media, we remain rudderless as a nation as we continue to be leaderless as a people. Poch Suzara

My Own Retraction

I am told by my Catholic friends that I too will eventually retract from my errors against God and from my errors against Christianity. I say, over my dead body. I’d rather die first. Indeed, in this life, I would rather enjoy the madness in my search of the truth than feel saved, secured, and mindless having faith in sacred lies.
In the meantime, my dear reader, never mind your free will. It is a piece of spiritual garbage as compared to the precious free will that God has gifted the devil. Poch Suzara

My Atheistic Religion

If I had to choose a religion, I should worship the sun. It is the universal giver of life. The sun is also much bigger and greater and older than the planet earth. One million planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun. What could be more worthy of worship! I should love and worship and adore the sun. She has never threatened me with eternal punishment if I did not believe in her life-giving grandiosity, not to menton her existence as the greatest of glory. Poch Suzara

Obedience

Obedience is not a virtue but a tool to enslave those who have been indoctrinated to have faith in their free will. Consider virtues. They consist in obedience to God's will and nobody knows anything about God's commands except the priests. In the Philippines, obedience saves the vast majority of Filipinos from the trouble of having to think together as a people and from the problem of having to work together as a nation. Indeed, in this country, our sick attitude towards each other can be summarized with these words: “Sila sila, kame kame, tayo tayo, – bahala ka na sa dios mo.” Poch Suzara

Rizal’s Biographer

Leon Ma. Guerrero was a faithful Catholic more than he was a faithful biographer. It is, indeed, incredible that after studying Rizal’s life and works, Guerrero had no idea what Rizal, a genius, lived and died for? Imagine a biographer asking of his subject: “Was he innocent or guilty? If innocent, then why is he a hero? If guilty how can he be a martyr? The answer is that he was neither guilty nor innocent.”
Rizal believed in the power of education to shape character and in the power of character to shape history. Innocent as a hero or guilty as a martyr had nothing to do with what Rizal precisely stood for in his struggle to liberate the minds of men and the hearts of women of his country.
In the violent opposition of mediocrity against greatness, what Albert Einstein said of Bertrand Russell, Einstein could have said exactly the same thing to our Jose Rizal: “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”
It must have been a sin for Guerrero to write truthfully about Rizal’s real motives in his struggles against theocracy. Thus, because of Catholic writers like Guerrero, most Filipinos believe Rizal retracted and died repentant. Indeed, in this predominantly Catholic country, Filipino historians, school teachers, college professors, and newspaper columnists have all tried their best to avoid discovering Rizal’s real nature as a rare man. Only the esoteric few know the real Jose Rizal who, at the expense of his own precious life, had the spiritual courage put more philosophical beauty in the Philippines where the Catholic Church, for centuries, has only put theological horrors. Poch Suzara

My Opinion

I would rather have an opinion on the question rather than on the answer. And opinion should always be tentative, never definite or dogmatic. It is always subject to change or emendation. If you point out errors in my opinion, I would just be happy to change my mind, and make the necessary corrections, especially if your own opinion made more sense than mine. In the meantime, please remember that no one has the right to an opinion on anything. You are entitled to such rights only after you have thoroughly studied every aspect and explored every facet indeed only after you are converstant with all sides of the issue in question. Poch Suzara

Moral Strength

“It may be that religion is dead, and if it is, we had better know it and set ourselves to try to discover other sources of moral strength before it is too late.” -- Pearl Buck, What America Means to Me, 1947.
Moral strength, indeed, is not only a beauty, but also a necessity. Its basic sources, however, must always be found upon the search of the veracity, and not based upon easy beliefs in sacred mendacity. Moral strength is a matter of facing the problems of the human race that’s clear down here. It has nothing to do with the troubles of divine grace that’s vague up there. Poch Suzara

Theocracy and Democracy

Has not the church its own network of schools and parishes? And, as an aside, via the faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus – does not church also own and control major newspapers and magazines; radio and television stations propagating daily religious matters throughout the Philippines? What about banks, corporations and other commercial enterprises owned by the Opus Dei, the Jesuits, the Christian Brothers, the Franciscan Order, Dominican Order, not to mention the wealth, power, and glory of Iglesia Ni Cristo and El shaddai organization and the Jesus is Lord Movement! Bro. Eli soriano of Dating Daan is on TV daily for hours and hours selling what millions of Filipinos are readily buying - Jesus Christ in the bible.

Indeed, in this country, before we can begin to enjoy the freedom away from mediocrity, or the freedom away from bigotry, or freedom away from stupidity, we must, first and foremost, enjoy the freedom of Christianity. It is, only in this way, that we can enjoy a true democracy.

The Catholic Bishops speak daily of corruption rampant in our sick society. How come our newspaper columnists have not had the spirit to write also about the daily corruption of the Bishops themselves who are keeping the Filipino spiritually poor as a people and keeping the Philippines backward morally as a nation? In the meantime, in this God-forsaken country, thanks to our Christian values and beliefs, we are told that there is no salvation outside the Church.

Hell, to prove just how poor and backward we are, millions of Filipinos also admit that there is no salvation inside the government either. Indeed, there is only corruption both inside the church and inside the government. But then again, what can be expected of a theocracy always in cahoots with a democracy pretending to mutually solve our history of national insanity? Poch Suzara

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSE RIZAL

Please be assured that there are those who are carrying on, somehow, what you can no longer do. We are a group composed of freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, humanists, and avid readers. We hope to continue the crusade you so bravely started a century ago. To liberate the Filipino mind from blind faith. Indeed, to banish the evil exploiters, executioners and liars out of our way of life. The evil called "Christianity" that was not only responsible for your death by public execution, but also entirely culpable for the strangulation of the search for truth, knowledge and wisdom for us as a people. Sir, I must sadly tell you that Christianity is the only thing that is a success in the Philippines. During your time, the Catholic friars shaped and controlled the destiny of the Filipino. Today, our country is controlled by the Catholic bishops and their political partners. There is no such thing as the power of God. There is only the power of the church, which maintains itself by teaching successive generations of impressionable Filipino students to embrace faith instead of science, reason and thought. Thus - via our schools, colleges, and universities - Christianity perpetuates the Filipino dream of the next life, whilst the priests and the politicians enjoy wealth, power, and glory in this life. We are taught by the millions to believe in sacred lies that only those biblically frightened would believe – that hours before you were executed – you retracted from your errors against Christianity and Masonry. Imagine Masonry. It was not even a religious organization or a revolutionary society. It was a humanitarian association dedicated to the liberation of mankind from being submerged in ignorance and slavery to progress in science and freedom. As a matter of fact, adherence to intellectual honesty and pursuit of veracity characterized you as a great man at home with scientific rationality. Indeed, you always struggled in the arena of ideas, using truth as your weapon, and reason as your shield. In the meantime, ours is not a system of education that encourages human intelligence. On the contrary, we are still stuck under a basic system of indoctrination that inspires social and moral and political decadence. Sir, you are the first intellectually courageous Filipino put to death by Christianity in the Philippines. It was due to your writings on the values of Filipino dignity, the beauty of a sane society, and love for humanity. You are the one and only great Filipino scientist-humanist-freethinker this country has ever produced. Instead of worshipping the saints of Christianity, for the sake of the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge - we would rather love you, respect you, and admire you! Dearest Sir, Happy Birthday on June 19. Poch Suzara pocholosuzara@gmail.com

Decline and Fall of Christianity

The Christian churches today are tearing each other apart externally. I am most elated to see these churches not only retreating, but also collapsing internally. It is about time to challenge its veracity historically.
For my part, after I am long dead and gone, I would like to be remembered as an individual who was primarily responsible for the death and burial of Christianity in the Philippines. I said it before and I say it again: - enough is enough. It is time to develop the most priceless treasures we all possess on this earth – our human mind and human heart. We need such treasures so that we can develop as well another precious thing on this earth - our own country for the sake of the nation’s children to grow up healthy, wealthy, and wise no longer having faith in a lot of priestly hogwash.
It is time to discard the promises of Christianity; for, as we search for the truth, we will discover that even the existence of God has all been based on religious threats concocted by the priesthood industry as a profit generating enterprise to benefit no one but themselves. Poch Suzara

Human Lifetime

Human lifetime is but a fraction of a millimeter long, a bittersweet instant in eternity, a wink of an eye, a flash in the pan, a split of a second long. Even our planet earth is so tiny in that a million planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun.
To think that the Son of the God Jesus during ancient times was born on this piece of dust called earth. In order to save mankind from sin he allowed himself to be crucified on the cross by men created too in the image and likeness of his own Father. And this is the same crucified Jesus who cried out from the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Poch Suzara

The Politicians

The bible says: “If you live after the flesh, you shall die.” ( Rom 8:13). “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexuals offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ( 1 Cor. 6:9-10 ).
One thing glaringly obvious written in the bible: it knew exactly what it was writing about when it came to the life style of most politicians installed in the United States government with headquarters no longer at the Oval but in the Oral Office! Poch Suzara

US Economy

The US economy gets on high gear especially for the Industrial-Military-University Complex for as long as the US government prepares to go to war. War is big business globally. Especially under the pretext of installing freedom and democracy in foreign countries. But there has yet to be the same economic windfall if the US government were to install freedom and democracy to benefit the native American Indians, the Black Americans, and the homeless and jobless – the victims of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the United States of America. Poch Suzara

Life on Earth

Life on earth may be expensive, but it includes a free ride for everybody while the earth spins on its axis at 1,037 miles per hour. It includes another free ride as the earth orbits annually 595,000,000 miles around the sun at 66,000 miles per hour. And yet another free ride as the earth follows the sun going around the galaxy 250,000,000,000 miles at 400,000 miles per hour. Despite the astronomical free rides, only the esoteric few love the spaceship earth. The rest have been indoctrinated to ignore it or even to hate it for heaven’s sake. Poch Suzara

Illegitimate Jesus

The father of Jesus never legally married his mother Mary. Jesus therefore was an illegitimate Son. What a rotten way to give birth to family values. Nevertheless, can any one blame Jesus for preaching: "If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, brothers and sisters, and ye his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. See Matthew 10:34-37 and Luke 14:26. Poch Suzara

The USA

The USA may produce a filthy-rich criminals like Donald Trump worth in the billions of dollars. The same USA, however, can also produce millions upon millions of American citizens who are not only homeless, not only jobless, not only hopeless and thoughtless, but also landless. And to think that we millions of poor and sick Americans love to sing with pride “God Bless America - land of the free and the home of the brave." Poch Suzara

Japanese Proverb

“Baka ni tsukeru kusuri wa nai”- ‘There is no medicine that cures stupidity.”
But the worship of divinity is a greater evil than stupidity. Why not therefore find the cure not for stupidity, but the cure for divinity? Please do not misunderstand me. I have the greatest respect for Japan as a nation and the greatest admiration for the Japanese as a people. They do have another slogan which is more powerful as well as enviable: "A world without kindness is grim; a world without sweat is decadent." Often times, I have wondered if Japan had won the Second World War in the pacific, the Philippines would have been a better place than it has been. For one thing, Christianity would have died out as the Japanese culture, values and beliefs would have eradicated in the Filipino psychology that destructive faith in a God who will provide.Poch Suzara

Christianity

I discovered through self-study how Christianity has not been based on values that promote health or wealth; or, for that matter, that promotes the welfare of humanity. I then began to look deep at the social and political and economic conditions of Filipinos dominated from infancy to senility to have faith in sacred lies and to believe in other biblical falsehoods?
What a thrill it was for me to have gradually discovered the beauties of atheism. How, in fact, atheism promotes the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. To begin with, we atheists have no God to love up there as an excuse to hate one another down here. Poch Suzara

Save Democracy

If we Filipinos were interested to save our democracy, the first thing we must do is to shut down and abolish all of our schools, colleges, and universities. Especially those owned and controlled by the Catholic Church and Iglesia Ni Cristo. The greatest enemy of democracy has always been and still is Christianity – the religion that makes a mockery of liberty by encouraging more faith only in divinity.
Consider our college-educated men and women of this country, including college professors: - none are qualified to be decent leaders to manage a decent government for the creation of a decent society to enhance throughout the land common human decency! In fact, our schools, colleges, and universities are places where minds are twisted and hearts are distorted to feel more at home with the fantastic promises of Christianity; and, at the same time, to feel terrorized when facing the realistic works needed to nourish freedom and to cherish democracy in our country. Poch Suzara

Love

To love my mother and father, brothers and sisters, friends and other relatives, or even to love my country was hardly an issue at the foundation of my education at De la Salle University. In fact, I was taught to love Jesus first and foremost. However, since Jesus was never around to reciprocate love and affection for him, I learned in the end to love and to respect only his priests and nuns, bishops, cardinals, and his pope. As I was just one of the millions of such students, I imagined the impact of such teachings on the Filipino mind as a people, and on the Filipino heart as a nation.
My dear reader, if you have some other logical explanation as to why we Filipinos are impoverished spiritually, bankrupt morally, childish emotionally, insane socially, and frightened biblically; in brief, why, in this 21st century, we are the Sick Man of Asia, I would be most anxious to learn from you. Poch Suzara

Guardians of Christianity

For those who believe, no explanation is needed. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible. In other words, it does not matter what you believe as long as you believe. Tertullian, the great Christian theologian, once admitted: “It is true because it is absurd. I believe it because it is impossible.” And to think that this famous dumbstruck theologian was once highly feared, respected and admired as one of the greatest spiritual guardians of Christianity! In the meantime, it is easy to believe. It is hard to think. That is why, in our sick society, there are far more stupid believers than there are intelligent thinkers. Poch Suzara

What Does It Profit

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but suffers in the end the lost of his soul in the next world? I asked it before, I ask it again: What does it profit a man if he wins eternal salvation in heaven but leaves this world a worst place than he found it? Obviously, such a man had little reason for having lived. Indeed, such a man saw neither the beauty nor the power or even the worth in saving something even more priceless - his own precious mind and precious heart. Poch Suzara

Philosophy

Religion shows us how to go to heaven. Science, on the other hand, shows us how the heavens go. For my part, I’d rather be on the side of philosophy: it shows us how to question both science and religion as neither has found the truth. In finding the truth, however, I would pin my hopes first on science; never on religion. I do not trust religion. All the great religions of the world began with sacred lies. Poch Suzara

Pagan Satirist Celsus

At the end of the 2nd century the Pagan satirist Celsus writes: “Christians, it is needless to say, utterly detest each other. They slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse, and cannot come to any sort of agreement in their teaching.”
It is the same old story today in this 21st century. Look at us Filipinos in this biggest Christian country in Asia. Look how we all love divinity up there by making a mockery of our sense of humanity down here. Poch Suzara

Three Kinds of People

There are only three kinds of people in this world: those who upgrade the human race; those who degrade the human race; and the rest who could not care less as nothing matters to them except divine grace. Perhaps, there is the fourth kind - the Americans who will insist that there is more grace in the love of money than there grace in the love for the human race! Poch Suzara

Practice Makes Perfect

If practice makes perfect and we practice unhappiness everyday on this earth, by the time we get to heaven, we shall surely be experts at how to be unhappy perfectly. Indeed, as the prayer goes.. "on earth as it is in heaven." Poch Suzara

Power of God

There is no such thing as the power of God. There is only the power of the church. Church power comes from human ignorance of which the church has insured and perpetuated for herself with fear of the Lord on the one hand; and, on the other hand, with threats of eternal punishment in hell; especially for those who have no wish to embrace blind faith in the teachings of the church. Indeed, if there is a God, I refuse to believe that such a God would allow the Church to spread more nonsense to believe in this world so as to prepare its believers to enter a next world called the power and the kingdom of God. Poch Suzara

Work of Fiction

No matter how a reader views a work of fiction, it cannot be denied that reading fiction shapes imagination, stirs emotion, and stimulates the intellect. Such is Dan Brown’s best seller the Da Vinci Code – 60 million copies sold and translated into 24 different languages worldwide.
The church claims that it does not manipulate revealed truth. It only serves the truth. What the church really means is that it serves fiction as the revealed truth has yet to be revealed. In the Da Vinci Code novel, a historian asked: what if the greatest story ever told is a lie? I watched the movie, then I read the book.Dan Brown indeed is a great writer. A better author than all the bible writers put together. Dan Brown makes his readers think. He teaches his readers to question and therefore to become less gullible.
To Dan Brown, please accept my deepest apologies for having written criticisms against you. My attack against you was based on catholic ignorance about your work. I am sorry, but now I know better. Thank you. Poch Suzara

The Death of Religion

A psuedo-scientist writes: “Humankind cannot abide the terror of mortality without the promise of immortality, I have argued in the past. In the absence of religion human society sinks into depressive torpor. Secular society therefore is an oxymoron, for the death of religion leads quickly enough to the death of society itself.” I ask: how true is this in China today as the Chinese people have been irreligious since the 11th century? Or take the USSR – a so-called atheistic nation that eventually crumbled but only because after dumping Christianity, the USSR replaced Christianity with another religion called “communism.” In the meantime, our world view has been deranged by myths imposed upon us by Christianity. For my part, I refuse to believe that centuries before Christianity arrived, ours was a dying society deprived of Christian teachings, values and beliefs. In fact, what diminished the Filipino of their rights to grow and to mature as decent human beings is evil of Christian religion. Indeed, up to this day and age, we still believe that religion has only to do with our knees, and not with our heads. I ask: What happened to our sense of intellectual honesty? I say phooey on Christianity. It continues to twist our minds as a people and continues to distort our hearts as a nation. And until we dump the evils of Christianity out of our country, indeed, out of our culture and tradition, the nothing that we Filipinos accomplished in the 16th century, we will only continue to accomplish more of the same nothing in this 21st century. Poch Suzara

The World

The world is painfully split into areas of wealth and poverty, with little prospect of narrowing the gap. The politics of global economic affairs in this century, as it was during the previous century, have been the politics of inequality, inherently a politics of internecine suspicion and power struggle and wars. With thanks to the US government always ready and eager to install freedom and democracy overseas. To mitigate not world poverty, but to liberate countries in order to promote and to develop American prosperity. Poch Suzara

Curiosity

Curiosity killed the cat. How fortunate for the cat. At least it was curious before it died. A lot of my friends and relatives and associates in the media and as professors in college who are all still alive have, instead, unfortunately, already killed their sense of curiosity. Consider the religious nonsense they were taught to believe during infancy; they still do believe it today even as they are already approaching senility. Poch Suzara

Prayers

The existence of hospitals prove that prayers are utterly useless. As a matter of fact, if prayers work, we must pray harder for more hospitals, especially mental asylums, to be established throughout the Philippines. We need such facilities to help cure the Sick Man of Asia. A great many of them today were my former classmates, teachers, and professors at De La Salle University. Imagine these people. They still believe that the birth of health and the spread wealth and the general promotions of Filipino decency throughout the Philippines as a nation can only be a reality as soon as the Son of God Jesus from heaven will return back to his place of birth and death in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. Poch Suzara

The Archbishop of Manila

The Archbishop of Manila urged the faithful to pray for Filipino priests so that they may remain true to their vocation.
I ask: if God does not listen to the prayers of his priests, why should God listen to the prayers of those who are not priests? And to think that these religious cripples are suppose to be our spiritual guardians! Is this therefore a matter of: - ask not what God and his archbishop and priests can do for you; instead, ask what you can do for God and his archbishop and priests?
And to think that these are the same mental midgets who inspired the Filipino since the 16th century to believe that God will always provide!
In the meantime, may I suggest to you so-called religious leaders of this country please read Bishop John Shelby Spong’s - WHY CHRISTIANITY MUST CHANGE OR DIE: “Christian ethics are not found in a system of behavior control. They are rather found in a call to the fullness of life. The business of the church is, therefore, not to judge life, but to enhance consciousness, to expose ignorance and prejudice, and to remove the barriers to life in all of its fullness. The Church’s task is to assist its people in plumbing the depths of their own humanity, where transcendence, mystery, being, and even love are to discovered, and to bring qualities found in the center of life into the world." Poch Suzara

God and Jose Rizal

God does not prevent an airliner from crashing into a mountain; does not prevent a passenger ship from sinking into the ocean; does not prevent a residential building from burning; or did not even prevent the Catholic Spain in the 16th century to conquer the Philippines in his name and for his glory.
But lo and behold, because our Jose Rizal dared to bring intelligence and enlightenment to the Filipino mind, God was able to successfully prevent our national hero from getting executed without first signing the retraction papers.
And to think that if Rizal retracted, the Catholic friars who planned his death could have given him a decent Catholic burial. Instead, after being shot dead, this rare Filipino was just put inside an old sack and then thrown in a little corner where heretics and infidels were buried in Paco cemetery. In the meantime, for the love of Jesus, even the distant relatives of Rizal today have been kept unduly frightened by the mediocrity of the Catholic authority.Poch Suzara

Darwin and Rizal

Charles Darwin was a more fortunate scientist than our own scientist Jose Rizal. Due to his own theory of intellectual evolution for the Filipino, Rizal was put to death by musketry as decreed by the ecclesiastical authority. Darwin was only arrested and then incarcerated. Darwin’s evolution, however, is no longer a theory. It is a scientific fact. In the meantime, intellectual evolution for the Filipino in the Philippines remains neither a fact nor a theory. It is simply, a Catholic inspired tragedy. Poch Suzara

The Catholic and the Protestant

The difference between a Catholic and a Protestant is that both read the bible but do not agree as to what exactly the so-called good book says. The similarity, however, is that both the Catholic and the Protestant are mutually inspired not by the Satan of religion, but to follow the religion of Satan. Look how the Catholics and the Protestants treat each other: they have not ceased hating each other for the sake of deviltry keeping our country poor and backward. Poch Suzara

Pope Benedict XV1

Pope Benedict XV1 discounted efforts by some quarters to rehabilitate Judas, calling the 13th apostle of Christ “a greedy liar” who cared nothing about love.
I ask: What happened to that message as preached by Jesus in the bible such as love your enemies? Poch Suzara

Catholicism

As a devout Catholic during the first 18 years of my life, I was then good; unfortunately, good for nothing. I loved Jesus more than I loved my mother and father and my sisters and other relatives and friends. I was always ready and willing to defend the values and beliefs of Christianity. I could not care less about the human family. I could not care less about the plight of humanity. I certainly had no feeling of urgency to participate in the struggle for either social sanity or for peace on earth and goodwill to all men living in harmony. Mine, indeed, was the triumph of faith; but a dismal failure in education. It was the philosopher Bertrand Russell – who showed me that there is more life than just my silly beliefs. Who showed me the way towards grace as to why I should always be on the side of the human race. Indeed, to love mankind, not for what they are to the outward eye, but for what imagination shows that they have in them to become. Poch Suzara

Death

I have more respect for the dead Filipino than I have respect for the dead Jew. When a Filipino dies, he does not resurrect back to life. He does not make a mockery of immortality.

In the meantime, there is only one truth, only one fact, and that is the reality of our own mortality. Religion is often used to deny this truth, to negate this fact. However the case may be, no matter how one looks at it, life is but a brief fleeting, bittersweet instant in eternity.

For my part, as an atheist, I entirely agree with Bertrand Russell: If we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies. Poch Suzara

Christianity

Christianity is not only something of a superlative entertainment. In the world of trade and commerce, Christianity is also the most profitable of business enterprises. Consider the price of admission needed to gain entrance to this greatest show on earth. It is rather too heavy a price to pay: the mindless surrender of the precious self via the mutilation of the intellect. Poch Suzara

People Who Need People

People who need people are not only the luckiest people in the World. They are also among the wealthiest people in the world; especially if they were in the business of foreign politics specializing in the business of foreign wars. Poch Suzara

As an Atheist

I stand alone. It matters little to me if there were 10 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 or even 1,000,000 other atheists standing behind me. As an atheist, I have no need of other atheists to hold my hands especially as I struggle against the never- ending evils of superstition otherwise more popularly known as religion. To be worthy of atheism one must only carry on with the joys and beauty of intellectual courage. After all, all the great virtues are the virtues of men who stand alone.
In the meantime, as an atheist, let it be clearly understood that I do not believe in the existence of the God of the Catholics. I do not believe in the existence of the God of the Protestants. I do not believe in the God of the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or even in the God of my own creation, another omni-absent, good-for-nothing, supernatural -the ever mysterious and never so serious - Pocholian God! Poch Suzara

Imagine

What if Jesus, Mary and Joseph together with the twelve apostles were first created by God in the Garden of Eden? What if Adam and Eve, Cain, Abel and the Talking Serpent have had no existence to disgrace the future of the human race? And to think that the bible admits that everything is possible with God. He could even impregnate a Virgin Mary to improve upon the descendants of Adam and Eve. And yet, God could not find it possible improve upon His original mess. Poch Suzara

The Wicked Says

In his pride the wicked says, There is no God to ask me for account. Psalm 10:4
On the contrary, there if there is a God, He should be held accountable for the conditions he had created that made men wicked. Poch Suzara

Religion and Prayer

Religion is supposed to comfort, not frighten – people. Religious people may feel the comfort of religion, but only for as long as they believe in what religion teaches, especially how to fear both life and death.
In the meantime, prayer is charlatanry, if not beggary; indeed, a pretentious effort at work to win that pie in the sky. Honest work is the only miracle that works. Poch Suzara

Religious Believers

The religious fanatics are up in arms about the Jesus and Magdalene marriage scandal written in the Dan Brown’s book the DA VINCI CODE – a work of fiction. But if you really want to get at the sources where Dan Brown formulated this work of fiction, please read the non-fiction book HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. Indeed, in HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL Judas never betrayed Jesus who did not die on the cross. Jesus was married, a father of sons and daughters, and that his bloodline still exists today. The parchments found in the South of France a century ago reveal only a tiny portion of the best-kept secrets in Christendom. For my part, one need not go that far. Just read the four Gospel writers – Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John in the bible - to discover more about the pious frauds and other sacred lies that have kept Christianity rich and powerful during all these past centuries. Poch Suzara

Faith

Faith has reached its end. It is now dead. Any one who claims that he is a man of faith is not only insulting himself, but is doing his utmost best to prevent his own enlightenment. Respecting a man of faith is like respecting a drunkard who clings to a lamppost for support, not illumination. Poch Suzara

Closer to Jesus than to his own family and country

It’s incredible how most men with a school-boy mentality can have a personal relationship with Jesus. However, they could not have a meaningful relationship with their own spouse, or with their own parents, or with their own grandparents, or with their own sons and daughters, or with their own in-laws, or other friends and relatives. I try to imagine these men and women doing better for the good of their own country by having a harmonious relationship with their own minds and hearts - they are in closed touch with the hopes and dreams of fellow-citizens for the here and now. Sadly, however, these poor frightened saps only end up as either alcoholics, or drug-addicts, lunatics, fanatics, psychotics, or as Catholics for the glory of Jesus on earth as he is in heaven! In the meantime, when men talk to God - they are PRAYING. When God talks to men - they are HALLUCINATING. In either case, the result has always been SICKENING - there is only the SICK MAN OF FAITH - a blessed by God drunkard always clinging to a lamppost for support, not illumination. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

The Gods as Particles

The Christians do not believe in the Muslim God. The Muslims do not believe in the Christian God. And neither the Christian nor the Muslim believe in the mother of their religion – Judaism which was founded upon an older religion – Mithraism.
More than a hundred billion religious people have already lived and died on this earth. My dear reader, do you really believe that a Christian God or a Muslim God or a Jewish God gives a hoot about the religious life on this earth? Consider the one million (1,000,000) planets the size of our earth can fit inside the sun! And our sun is just one of the trillions of suns called stars! If those Gods exist, they are just as microscopic a particle that exist in the universal scheme of existence.Poch Suzara

Economic Growth

It is still taught in our universities that population growth is a stimulant to economic growth. The opposite, in fact, is obviously true. Poverty growth, not economic growth, has been the result of population growth. Our economists still have the impression that there is no limit to growth; that there is in nature an infinite amount of resources, and that a satisfactory substitute can be found for every depleting resource. No doubt, during the past centuries, economic growth was the cure; today in this 21st century, economic growth is a disease. Consider most of today’s economic productivity causing “ecological destruction.”
In the 1950s, the population of the Philippines was 15 million Filipinos. We were then a poor country. Today in the year 2006, our population has reached 88 million Filipinos. We are poorer in this decade than we were poor during the past decades. In the meantime, the faithfools of this God-forsaken country are still preaching to the multitudes not to worry because God will provide. Poch Suzara

Morality

We atheists have nothing against morality as a method of insuring law and order in society. What we are against, however, is morality based upon religious mendacity and other ecclesiastical authority that have absolutely nothing to do with the creation of a sane and a healthy society.
Bertrand Russell wrote it briefly: I am not suggesting that a man should be destitute of morality. I am only suggesting that he should be destitute of superstitious morality, which is a very different thing. Poch Suzara

War

War is all about soldiers dying in the field of battle. After
the war, the stupid politicians take over the mess while the
economists under the payroll of the industrialists prepare for more war to take place. After all,there is more money to be made in the art of hating and killing than there is in the art of loving and healing. War is big business. Poch Suzara

Nothing is Permanent

Everything is in a state of flux. Everything is in motion. Nothing is permanent as everything is tentative. Change is the only reality. To believe means to be stuck under mediocrity. To think means being unstuck under rationality. It is therefore silly to believe in anything unchangeable as even life itself is all about growth and constant movement towards death and decay. Let us all enjoy the ride as it is free. The trip free on earth as our vehicle around the sun annually. Poch Suzara

Prayer

I remember in school and at home how we were always active daily with prayers. I remember my parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties, and cousins and how we all prayed the rosary together nightly. We prayed for a miracle from God to please transform the Philippines into a decent country for all Filipinos. Today, it is just more of the same. We Filipinos are still as active as ever with daily prayers. Even the millions of Filipinos already enjoying higher standard of living in foreign countries continue praying to God for a miracle to change the Philippines for the better. These are the same Filipinos who long to come back home already. Especially, if they will have the same opportunities as employees working in the Philippines growing, expanding, and developing as a civilized nation. For my part, I say it again: it is about time we stop wasting time and energy with this prayer business as prayer is nothing but a lot of religious garbage? Isn’t it time that we Filipinos begin to grow as a people and begin to develop as a nation with the power of our own minds and hearts? If there were power in prayer, where are the results? How come in this day and age, even our own church officials are asking us to pray for the priests so that they may remain faithful to their vows, and not walk out of the priesthood industry? What we desperately need in the Philippines is more science and the scientific way of thinking. It is all about the power of knowledge that has nothing to do with the Gospels. Indeed, knowledge has nothing to do with the bible? Knowledge can never be discovered by reading a book written centuries ago by half-starved, protein-deficient, and poorly educated men wondering around the desert hallucinating from the desert heat in which they tried to make sense out of their own mediocre existence. And to think that those were the kind of superstitious morons who brought Christianity into our shores some 500 years ago. Indeed, Christianity – the religion based not upon the good life as inspired by love and guided by knowledge, but the religion based upon the thoughtless scheme of salvation from death. Until we learn to stop hating one another in God’s name, we shall never emerge out of our poverty as a people. Until we learn to love only the Philippines, we shall only continue to remain morally and spiritually bankrupt as a nation! Poch Suzara

Poverty of the Mind

The worst kind of poverty is the poverty of the mind. In this God-forsaken country, even the filthy rich are unable to enjoy the wealth of the mind because they have been taught to believe that if they remain poor in spirit – God will always bless them. Thus, the filthy rich and the filthy poor in the Philippines both equally suffer from the worse kind of poverty – the poverty of the mind.
In the meantime, we members of the intellectual community entirely agree with Bertrand Russell: - Happiness is the nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Poch Suzara

I am a Filipino

I am an Asian and a Filipino born in the Philippines. Jesus was a Jew born in Israel. What have I anything to do with the Jews – supposedly already God’s Chosen people? And to think that the Philippines is predominantly a Catholic country; Israel is a Jewish State. And to think further that even Jesus Christ himself was not born of Catholic parents or even raised and educated in a Catholic school. Poch Suzara

God Will Provide

In the 1950s, the population of the Philippines was then 15 million Filipinos. We were then a poor country. Today in the year 2006, our population has reached 88 million Filipinos. We are poorer in this decade than we were poor during the past decade. In the meantime, the religious leaders of this God-forsaken country are still preaching to the multitudes not to worry because - God will provide. Poch Suzara