Friday, February 02, 2007

Truth and Lies and Liars

The truth hurts but lies can be far more damaging. Lies, especially ecclesiastical lies, - can last a thousand years. Take a good look at the priestly liars who, for centuries, with sacred lies have successfully kept the Filipino spiritually poor as a people and morally bankrupt as a nation! Poch Suzara

Rizal

After six months of stay, he left for Europe for the second time on February 3,1888 to pursue the task he had set for himself. His brief stay enabled him to judge the effect of his Noli Me Tangere. He knew he was a marked man for writing the book which not only shook the Spanish rule, but precisely rattled more the foundation of authority in the Philippines - the Catholic church and its teachings.
The military trial of Rizal was not meant to administer justice throughout the land. It was done purposely to execute him in public so that the Filipinos would be frightened to death and subsequently to stop dreaming of freedom under free thought. Thus, when the so-called Spanish rule was thrown out with the interference of the US naval forces, what stayed behind to continue controlling Filipino minds and dominating Filipino hearts was the Catholic Church. Via Catholic schools, colleges, and universities – Catholic teachings prevailed in the Philippines. Consider the average Filipino in this 21st century. He is more conversant about the fantastic life and times of Jesus Christ than he knows anything about the realistic life and times of Jose Rizal. And to think Jose Rizal was born in the Philippines - a Christian country. Jesus Christ was born, if at all, in Israel that is today not even a Christian country. It is a Jewish State.
Catholic friars claimed that before he was executed Rizal retracted and asked for the forgiveness of his sin against God and for the pardon of his crime against the Filipino people. These developments, however, are based upon religious hogwash. The Rizal retraction scandal was concocted by the religious cowards. Just as much as the religious cowards of our day – the Knights of Rizal - continue to be afraid to stand up to defend Rizal’s great intellectual capacity as a rare Filipino gifted with the capacity not only to think but even to die for a just and a decent cause. Poch Suzara

Helen Keller

A gifted blind-mute-deaf woman, Helen Keller was also a great intellectual with extraordinary social vision. She said: “Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature. . . Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Indeed, our planet earth is a speck of dust in this universe. It is most likely that we human beings are alone and insecure and doomed. There is no other way to meet life but only with courage especially in the pursuit of our ideals as inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Poch Suzara

Reality versus Fantasy

It makes more sense to face reality as we know something of it than be afraid of fantasy as we know nothing of it. Poch Suzara

A Sick Marriage

When the wife fears her husband because he is a psycho-ceramic; or worse, when the husband fears his wife because she is a crackpot – that to me is a sick marriage. I should know. I once experienced a sick marriage myself. My wife was always scolding me for something or another. Instead of correcting and learning from our mistakes, shortcomings, and imperfections, she would rather blame my parents, my sisters, in-laws and friends for what was sick about our marriage. I was on the verge of suicide. I decided, instead, to save my life. I abandoned her because I thought going back to my first and only real love – reading books - was a healthier kind of marriage for me than being married to an utterly thoughtless woman who loved her police dogs more than she loved me.
Do I ever feel guilty for having deserted my wife and children? Hardly. The constant message my wife always made me understand then was that our children will be raised and educated as good and faithful Christians. And that being a non-believer, even if I am the father of my children, I shall have no say whatsoever on the issue.
Well, Jesus Himself recommended deserting one’s family: “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Matthew 19:29.
For the sake of my personal sanity, however, I abandoned my faith precisely due to the teaching of Jesus as written in the Bible. Jesus said, and never will I ever agree with him that: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. “Luke 14:26. Poch Suzara

Catholic Free Will

Catholic teachings say that true freedom is not choosing our way, but yielding to God’s way. In other words, free will is not choosing our way, but yielding to divinity via papal authority. Catholics may have the free will to choose leaders, but not parents. Indeed, Catholics with free will have yet to figure what got them to be Catholics to begin with. Of course, Catholics believe in free will. They have to. They have no choice.
With free will to choose, however, try getting any younger, or try not getting any older. Golly, we never even had the free will to choose to arrive into this world born not naked, how may we have the free will to choose to leave this world one day naked as well? We were cast into this world by accident of time and place; and we shall leave this world one day against our will. Free will is bunk.
Is free will truly God’s greatest gift to men? Take a good look at those morons gifted with a free will, and created in the image and likeness of God. Those morons who successfully got Jesus, the Son of God, crucified on the cross! And to think that this is the same Jesus, while crucified on the cross, cried out” “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Poch Suzara

Silly Religious Beliefs

Why should we care for our spouses and children, our friends and relatives and neighbors, and indeed the whole of mankind specially senior citizens? After all, our stupid religion has deeply impressed upon our minds and hearts to love only God up there even if it means social insecurity under hate for each other down here? Poch Suzara

Communism and Capitalism

After all these past precious decades of threats of war and real wars against each other, all that wasted resources destroying each other, it has finally turned out that both Communism and Capitalism are not enemies. In fact, they both function very well together. Look at the wealth, power, and glory of China today enjoying both Communism and Capitalism as partners in peace and growth and productivity together. The credit goes to the Chinese – a great people. Bertrand Russell said it better some 50 years ago: “I have come to realize that the white race isn’t as important as I used to think it was. If Europe and America kill themselves off in war it will not necessarily mean the destruction of the human species, nor even an end to civilization. There will still be a considerable number of Chinese left; and in many ways China is the greatest country I have ever seen. It is not only the greatest numerically and the greatest culturally, but it seems to me the greatest intellectually. I know of no other civilization where there is so much open-mindedness, such realism, such willingness to face the facts as they are, instead of trying to distort them into a particular pattern.” Poch Suzara

Thomas L. Friedman

In his recent book - The Lexus and the Olive Tree, author Mr. Friedman wrote: “Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire with his own global network, declared war on the United States in the late 1990s, and the US Air Force retaliated with a cruise missile attack on him (where he resided in Afghanistan) as though he were another nation-state. Think about it. The United States fired 75 cruise missiles, at $1 million dollars apiece, at a person! That was a superpower against a Super-empowered angry man.”
What Mr. Friedman neglected to articulate, however, is how the US economy is based mostly on war production materials and at global activities creating enemies of all sorts to facilitate the use of US made weapons even if drains the national wealth or the USA allying herself with right-wing tyrannies overseas. Poch Suzara

The Human Heart

The human heart is more prone to hate than to love. That is why bullets, guns, and bomb makers have been the most profitable of industries. Especially in the United States of America. In fact, the economy of the USA has been and still is based not upon a world at peace with goodwill to all men, but upon foreign countries at war or preparing for war against each other. Thus, the core of the US foreign policy has more to do with military greed. It has virtually nothing to do with human need.
In the meantime, the whole world today is in desperate need to wage a battle against ignorance. It does not need to wage a war against terrorism. Terrorism is just one product of ignorance as inspired by stupid religion. Poch Suzara

Cosmic Insignificance

Our entire world is one planet so small in that 1,000,000 planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun, Indeed, we are living on a speck of dust in a galaxy that contains 400 billion suns, and is itself only one of the several billion galaxies. According to science, however, our sun will grow cold, and life on this earth will come to an end. The universe, however, will continue to exist while utterly indifferent to human destiny. Poch Suzara

Childhood Impressions

One of the hardest things to achieve in life: throw off childhood impressions out the window. Early impressions have an immensely stronger hold upon us than those acquired in the later years. Thus, a child grows up to be a Catholic or a Jew or a Muslim because of nursery environment and early teachings. Sometimes, even a biologist devoted to the science of biology believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. As a child, said biologist had been frightened to believe that God had a virgin for a Mother. Poch Suzara

The Power of Philosophy

The power of philosophy lies not in the agreement, but in the disagreement among the philosophers. What is even more powerful, however, are the daughters of philosophy – the sciences – each in their respective field of endeavor discovering more and more scientific knowledge for the philosophers to disagree or agree with. Poch Suzara

It is the Same Thing

The pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of knowledge amount to the same thing. What is essential for the good, happy, and creative life is not deadly paralysis, but lively analysis. Bertrand Russell wrote it more gracefully: “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.” Poch Suzara

Jesus Died On the Cross

It has been two thousand years since Jesus died on the cross to destroy the devil. Yet today millions of Christians still believe that their greatest enemy is not those lively little creatures found under a microscope, but the silly devil and his deadly influence found in their daily horoscope. Obviously, dying on the cross was a barbaric way to remedy social problems. It has not work in the past. Never will in the future. Poch Suzara

Jesus Baptized

Jesus, the Son of God, was born without sin. And yet John, the Baptist, the religious moron that he was, baptized Jesus to cleanse his presumably blackened soul due to the mess called original sin. Poch Suzara

Childhood Friends

My friends since childhood days have turned out to be not friends at all. They have never met Jesus personally. And yet in our old age my friends are peeved at me because they expect me to be more of a friend to Jesus than be a real friend to them. Well, I don’t know Jesus. I never met Jesus. Jesus and I never grew up together laughing, playing, studying, misbehaving, traveling, and chasing after girls together? In fact, Jesus was never here or there or everywhere with me at any time or place during my trials and tribulations! Why should I be a friend to some one who is not only a Jewish ancient mystery, but who was also never a living flesh and blood personality to me? Poch Suzara

Atheism

Do you believe in God? It is a meaningless question. What is more meaningful to ask, however, is whether God (if he exist) believes in you. After all, God has the kingdom, the power, and the glory. For my part, as I have nothing why should God give a hoot whether I believe in him or not?
Since the time of Jesus, more than ONE HUNDRED BILLION people have already lived and died on this earth. That God is so worried about the salvation of souls has got to be a sick joke concocted by the corrupt priesthood industry. Really, if God cares for souls, why create them to be in danger on this earth? Why not create souls happy in heaven? Or, better yet, why bother to create silly little souls to begin with? Poch Suzara

Lord Acton

“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by the minorities.” Lord Acton
In the Philippines, however, despite the more than one million security guards from licensed private security agencies guarding our banks, government buildings, piers and airports, hospitals, schools, colleges, universities, restaurants, plush villages, condominium buildings, shopping malls, and indeed guarding even our churches and cathedrals, nobody but nobody enjoys security in our sick society.
One thing, however, stands out very clear. We have no need of security guards to guard our public libraries since there aren’t any existing that is worth visiting anywhere in the Philippines. Never mind guarding the existence of Science Museums throughout our country. No such creatures exist in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Ignorant Religion

Imagine the harm that has come from ignorant religion. On the other hand, think of how much help has come from human intelligence, kindness, courage, and perseverance. Indeed, freedom of religion is important, but what is even far more important is freedom from religion.
We could never achieve the full potential as a human being if we remain not only religiously ignorant, but also remain ignorant religiously. Poch Suzara