War

War is nature’s spasmodic effort to change the status quo, but we have none of that. As soon as one war is over, we lay the foundation of another. Blinded and obsessed by either ecclesiasticism or commercialism, - old boundaries, old sovereignties, old systems, and old ways are set up, when the purpose of war is to destroy them. Do you not see then the part self-righteous wrongdoers play in war? Indeed, the righteous are always ready and willing to kill those who are more righteous.
We atheists have found intellectual as well as moral equivalent for war, something that can bring about change without bloodshed, without violence – brains instead of battles, books instead of bullets, and mature thinking instead childish believing. Poch Suzara

The Priesthood Industry

The priesthood industry fears atheism, not because it is inimical to human welfare, but because it is inimical to its own welfare. The priesthood industry wants and needs their mythical God because in him they live and move and have their cake and eat it too. The priesthood industry sees to it that the world remains full of suffering, tragedy, disease, disaster, pain and misery. Thus, the priesthood industry has become an institution not for human welfare, but only for the care and maintenance of God. For my part, I cannot imagine a powerful supernatural being behaving not only like a spoiled brat, but also proving to be such a cold-blooded perfection but quite engrossed if not lost in self-admiration. Poch Suzara

Sacred Books

The bible of the Christians, the Quran of the Muslims, and the Talmud of the Jews are all exactly alike and easy to understand. They are sacred books about how to hate everything that might enhance the achievement of the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Hatred of life, hatred of learning new and fresh ideas, hatred of curiosity, and indeed hatred of women and the hatred of human intelligence. Such sacred books divert men’s outlook toward the extra-terrestrial heavens, by loosing sight of the terrestrial life on this earth. Hope of eternal salvation or aspiration to the hereafter promotes a sense futility in the present. If the prospect of getting taken up to God’s kingdom generates comfort, it is the mindless comfort of a child picked up from his crib. Poch Suzara

Jesus as Savior

Jesus came to save the world. That was more than 2,000 years ago. The world, however, is not any safer, any saner or any more humane than it was during the time of Jesus, nor is man appreciably any more sensible or responsible. There is little dispute that Jesus as a “savior” has proved to be a dismal failure. His plan of salvation was a failure; it did not work out as Jesus intended. A great teacher is needed now almost as much as 2,000 years ago. If the world, however, is gradually improving, it is because of science, not due to ancient superstitions. Jesus may have resurrected his dead body from the grave back to life, but he failed to resurrect the dead minds of men and the dead hearts of women of his community. Jesus failed to provide the knowledge so much needed by man to enable him to shape his course through life. No one knows how to live intelligently, how best to meet life’s situation, what action is best suited to the occasion. Jesus did not tell us what to do. His sayings are interpreted in many conflicting ways. He failed to predict the needs of the future. He said little of international strife. He offered no program for arbitration of global disputes, no substitute for war between nations, no policy of war prevention. Jesus did not explain what entailed a happy relations between man and wife, nor between employer and employee, nor how to educate children, nor how to preserve health, nor how to make a living, nor how to prevent war, or prevent poverty and suffering. Jesus gave little information, and his spiritual advice was not clearly enough expressed to enable man to apply it to modern times. Jesus neglected to show his followers how to live in search of the truth. His knowledge of the world was less than the knowledge of a high school dropout today who reads with much gusto the basic writings of Bertrand Russell. Poch Suzara

Imagine a God

Imagine a God who can create a trillion stars to comprise the Cosmos. He could create a home called hell for the devil and his fallen angels. He could even create a purgatory as a stopover for silly souls on the way to heaven. God could even split the Read Sea for his Chosen Jewish people to march across. God could even create churches and cathedrals throughout the Philippines. But God would not and could not create houses for my poor brothers and sisters living under subhuman conditions in the Philippines. And to think that these are the same poor and homeless Filipinos who hate each other and who hate their country down here but have so much love God and respect for his saints up there. Poch Suzara

The Supernatural Being

The supernatural being traditionally called God has been vanishing by the explosion of scientific knowledge around the wrld during the last 500 years. Not, however, in the Philippines. We may have a supernatural being no more, but we certainly had human beings like Jaime Cardinal Sin, who was even more supernatural than he was the Archbishop of Manila then. Even the president of our Republic would kneel down to him as a confirmation that our democracy is nothing compared to the power of theocracy in this God-forsaken country. Poch Suzara

As Atheists

Our task as atheists is to help others deepen their courage to embrace the reality of common humanity by ignoring the fantasy behind childish divinity. There is no such thing as the perfection of creation. After all, creation is still expanding and human life is still evolving. Evolving into what? Nobody knows. We hope, however, with more intelligence as intelligence will lead us not into temptation as we should already know where were are going. Poch Suzara

The Job of a Creator

In his book, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking surmised: “ So long as the universe has a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?”

I ask: Which creator? The one who is always omni-absent everywhere; or, the creator who is never omni-present anywhere. Poch Suzara

I am Told

Who am I to question God? My reply: Who are you not to question God whose existence has been concocted by superstitious writers of the bible? Thousands of years ago, they knew much less about our world than our own grandparents knew about our world a hundred years ago? As a matter of fact, our grandchildren’s children will know more, a great deal more about the nature of our world in the centuries to come? Such knowledgeable people in the future should be the ones writing the bible for God, if there is any. Poch Suzara

When we were babies

None of us were believers when we were babies. We were all sane, pure, and atheistic. None of us lived in fear of shame or suffered from guilt. As babies, none of us believed in the cult of the Supreme Being. Until of course the religious morons started to frighten us to have faith in God. Today as grown-ups, in God’s name and for his glory in heaven, whether we are Christians or Jews or Muslims - we are even willing to destroy our home planet earth just to prove how right is our own religion and how wrong the other's religion. Indeed, religion encourages cruelty, stupidity, and insanity. If we were all atheists as we were all born atheists – we can all learn to live in peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Poch Suzara

Bible Lessons

There is nothing in the bible that says Jesus was a Catholic or a Lutheran or a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or a Mormon, etc. In fact, Jesus was a devout Jew. But then again, if Jesus was the Son of God and Jesus was a Jew, then God must be a Jew too. Here, however, is something else to think about. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus must be proud of Filipinos. After all, we Filipinos are the most corrupt sinners in all of Asia. We never stop to commit sins and crimes and thus we also never stop to add more meaning to the Jesus martyrdom. As far as latest chosen people of God are concerned the Filipinos are in. The Jews are out. Poch Suzara

Jesus Said

“Man does not live by bread alone.” In the Philippines, however, we hardly have bread. More than 70 per cent of our population live on $2.00 a day. The rest live on sin and crime, indeed, by greed, graft, and corruption. In order, however, to remedy the ills of our sick economy, we export Filipino workers abroad. More than 15,000,000 of our PEOPLE have already found a better standard of living and thinking having already migrated to 169 countries around the world. If we could only export sick teachers and professors, sick government officials, sick theologians, sick evangelists, and sick criminals not yet sentenced to prison in this faith-soaked republic. Aside from bread, let us begin to entertain other values that make for the good life under a growing and developing civilization right here in our own beloved country. Poch Suzara

Luke 19:27

In Luke 19:27, Jesus said: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them for me.” Indeed, If Jesus were alive today he would be an American and could be as great as president George W. Bush of the United States of America. Poch Suzara

World History in Brief

In the history of world, there never was a war declared by atheists on other atheists for not believing in God. In fact, if peace on earth and goodwill to all men will ever become a historical reality one day, it will be due to, if not the result of, - the spread of atheism throughout the world.
In the meantime, I have yet to hear of atheists who invented, manufactured, and sold weapons of mass of destruction anywhere in the world. Poch Suzara

Human Dignity in Hinduism

Human dignity rests on the assumption that human life is, in some way, significant. Indeed, significant to what is clear and natural down here, and not significant because of what is vague and supernatural out there.
A Hindu has greater opportunities to enjoy human dignity than a Christian. Hinduism maintains no creeds or doctrines. It is more of a way of life. It grows, changes, and assimilates when it meets new and fresh ideas. It does not resist, attack, or convert. In Hinduism, no one is right or wrong; each is simply on a different level of consciousness. In Hinduism, life’s common purpose is not to be right or prove others wrong, but to help one another to deepen one’s respect for life on this only home we have called “earth.”. Poch Suzara

The Power of Christianity

The power of the priesthood industry comes not from God. It comes from the human ignorance supported by the horror of fear, if not the terror of guilt. Indeed, fear of eternal punishment; and, guilt of the Original Sin. As if we humans originated anything in this world to begin with.
In the meantime, if only Jesus had resurrected not himself from the dead, but resurrected instead the dead minds and dead hearts of his apostles and followers and disciples comprising his dead community, we Filipino Christians would probably be enjoying today social sanity with health and wealth in the Philippines. Poch Suzara

Fantastic

I am having a lively debate with a bible lover at present. He admits that the holy bible is the greatest book he has ever read. He admits, however, that he does not understand a great many portions written in the book.
Well, I have myself read and studied bible contents and messages for some 15 years. I have had problems too understanding some of the things written in the bible. Instead of admitting my ignorance as something of a divine wisdom, I submitted bible contents and messages into deeper scrutiny and then threw my bible out the window. Why not? After all, the bible should be as simple to understand as the Multiplication Table – the perfect model of truth which is precise and certain and free from all temporal dross. The bible, however, is a compilation of trashy, incoherent, confabulated, incredible tales, poems, sagas, and pieces of dramas. It is full of hatred, murder, greed, selfishness, falsehoods, lust, sadism and masochism, absurdities, inconsistencies, contradictions, stupidities, and cruelties written by superstitious primitives. No doubt, there is something for everyone in the bible. Indeed, nothing is missing in the bible; except the most priceless of values: - the growth and development of the human intelligence. Especially the kind that should lead to intellectual potency; not psychological stagnancy.

After Five Centuries

After five centuries of spiritual guidance derived from bible lessons, we Filipinos are still praying daily to God to “lead us not into temptation.” As we are already successful sinners, isn’t it time to pray to God to lead us now into health and sanitation? One of the most painful facts about life in general in the Philippines is that the majority of Filipinos still believe in God’s ancient command: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Today, however, if we Filipinos do not alter those words with “be truthful and dignify,” we are on the way to national suicide. Poch Suzara

Atheism at the Foundation of Science

As a matter of historical fact, Atheism is the one and only religion that has always played a major part in the foundation of science. The other great religions of the world have only been too busy hating and fighting each other; especially on how to impede the advancement of science, especially in Jesus's name on earth and for his glory in heaven. Poch Suzara

The Most Expensive

The most expensive thing you can own in this world is a closed mind. The prize paid for it is too costly: the mindless surrender of the self via the mutilation of the intellect. The intellect precisely that brings about the achievement of self-respect and dignity. Poch Suzara

Fear and Wisdom

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. Bertrand Russell
But the bible says: For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Ecc. 1:18.
For my part, after I am dead, and I meet the creator, and he will ask me if I brought along with me the bible, I shall simply reply that I threw it out my holy window while I was still alive and kicking back on earth. Poch Suzara

Family Values in the Bible

Those who refuse to read bible verses because such verses contradict each other are no better off than those who can’t read at all. Here, however, are a few verses among the many more on the art of gracious living by way of family values as written in the bible: Moses commanded his army: “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have no known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. Numbers 31:15-18 Joshua commanded the sun to stop in the sky for the sole purpose of allowing him the time to slaughter more of his enemies, the Amorites. Josh. 10:12-15 God plays favorites. He chooses one people to be God’s Chosen to the neglect of all the others. Genesis 26. God could split the Red Sea for his Chosen people to get away from the Egyptian army. God who could manipulate the weather in order to send the great flood that drowned all his children save for Noah’s family because human life has become so evil God needed to destroy it. Genesis 7. God commands: “Thou shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall yet eat.” Leviticus 26:29 God commands: “thou shalt eat it as barley bakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. Ezekial 4:12 God said: “Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces.” Malachi 2:3 God said: “I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.” God is a spirit. John 4:4. No man hadth seen God at any time. John 1:18. And the Lord appeared unto him. (Isaac). Gen. 26:2 God sent the angel of death across the land of Egypt to murder the firstborn males in every Egyptian household in order to facilitate the release of the chosen people. Exodus God says to Hosea, Go, take thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom. Hosea 1:2; 3:1-3 God is the father of the whole human family. Mary was his daughter who gave birth to Jesus. Jesus therefore was the son and grandson of God. In the meantime, God is not the author of confusion. 1 Cor. 14:33. God admits that “I create the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do these things.” Is. 45:7 (see also Judges 9:23) God says things in the Old Testament only to be repeated in the New Testament: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Ps 22:1 God “sent me to thy master and to speak to thee these words? Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?” Is.36:12 God inspired his authors to write about Melchisedec in the Old and in the New Testament. A king of Salem, priest of the most high, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Heb. 7:1-3. Now where is Melchisedec? How come nobody among the bible readers do not bother to find out more about this bible weird character? Heb. 7: 1-3 God says: “The lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.” Deut. 28:27 Mediocrity at best, stupidity at worst approved as a revealed truth: “For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Ecc.1:18. And due to the religious hogwash as claimed in the bible - I threw my bible out my holy window. Ever since then, I ceased praying to God to lead me not into temptation. I would rather lead my own way in this life devoid of religious illusions or biblical delusions, and to hell with the rat-race called “eternal salvation.” In the meantime, No knowledge can be discovered by reading the sacred writings of some inspired bare-assed, half starved, protein-deficient, illiterate Jews wandering around in a desert in a nomadic tribe, hallucinating from the oppressive conditions and climate in which they tried to eke out an existence. Poch Suzara

God’s Chosen People

That the Filipino today is also among the chosen People of God says little about the Filipino. In fact, it says a great deal more about God and the ways of his sick partner – the devil gifted with a more efficient free will than yours or mine. To be God’s Chosen means to be subjected to persecution as well as degradation. Consider the Jews then popular as the Chosen People of God: they have been driven from their natural home by the Roman capture of Jerusalem ( 70 a.d. ), scattered, persecuted, and decimated by Christianity and Islam – which have been born of their scriptures; barred by the feudal system from owning land; shut up in congested ghettos; mobbed by people and robbed by kings; outcast and excommunicated, insulted, and injured; and in modern times in Germany, they were isolated, mutilated, decapitated , asphyxiated, cremated, and granulated. These are some of the horrors Chosen people of God must experience in this world. I said it before, I say it again: - so long as we continue to have faith in divinity, so long as we continue to be frightened of deviltry, so long as we continue saving our stupid souls with prayer and theology, so long as we continue degrading the evolution of our intelligent minds, so long as we continue degrading the power of science and technology, we Filipinos, in the centuries to come, shall surely be even more famous as the Sicken People of a Sick God in Asia... Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

God Debate Letter to Newsweek

April 10, 2007 Newsweek Letter to the Editor Gentlemen: In the God Debate (April 9 issue) between Sam Harris and Rick Warren, this much I should say: It does not bother me to realize that for millions of years before my birth, I was a nothing. Why then should it bother me to realize also that after my death, I will again be a nothing? In the meantime, just like everyone else, I too was born an atheist. Indeed, no child is born a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or what-not. That a creator made me in his own image is no burden to me. It’s the problem of the creator. After all, we are all born on a planet so tiny in that one million planets the size of earth can fit inside the sun. More than a trillion of such suns otherwise called “stars” comprise the cosmos. If the creator is also like a speck of dust floating aimlessly in space – what’s all this fear and guilt about behind man’s silly religious beliefs? If there be a purpose to life, that purpose must be those of the atheists – to leave this world a little better than we found it, or there is little reason for our having lived. Sincerely, Poch Suzara, San Lorenzo Village, Makati city, Philippines Cellphone: 09165724788

Philippine College Education

College education in the Philippines is about having two goals in life: 1) to be prepared to go abroad to earn your living. 2) to be prepared to go to heaven after death to earn your believing.
In the meantime, the Filipinos are the poorest people on this earth. Imagine for centuries us Filipinos impoverished with our brains washed with original sin and our hearts dry-cleaned with Christianity. Poch Suzara

Face Death

I am asked if I can face death without faith? What a silly question. After death, we have no more eyes to see, no more ears to hear, no more nose to smell, no more skin to feel, no more palete to taste. The better question to ask: what conceivable value has your faith after you are already faceless and indeed, - lifeless? Poch Suzara

Sam Harris

Sam Harris wrote a most interesting piece on the 10 myths and the 10 truths about Atheism. If you wish to read it, I’d be happy to email to you.
In the meantime, I have discovered the 11th truth about Atheism: - No one ever became filthy rich for believing that God is bad. Yet, millions upon millions upon millions of people are filthy poor for believing that God is good. Poch Suzara

World Insanity

During the Second World War, 1941–l946 American factories built 94,000 planes and launched 30 aircraft carriers. The question is not what happened to those planes and aircraft carriers after the war ended, but what happened to those factories, including those producing other weapons of destruction for battle in the field and in sea and in the air?
Notice in the meantime civil war has been the most frequent kind of war since 1946: something like two-thirds of all postwar conflicts have been within, rather than between, - states. And weapons used in these conflicts are “Made in America.” Not to mention American troops involved also taking them further and further away from home, though presumably in the cause of “homeland security.”
Indeed, more and more American kids are shipped overseas to fight terrorism or more specifically to drain the breeding grounds of anti- Americanism.
It seems to me clear that if America was truly the land of the free and the home of the brave, we Americans should bring the world together in putting an end to the worst of Anglo-American commercialism: the production of weapons of mass destruction to defend and protect nothing but capitalism. Poch Suzara

Scientist and Theologian

Better a scientist dissatisfied than a theologian satisfied. A scientist dissatisfied never threatens any one with eternal damnation if you do not believe in his tentative conclusions. Indeed, in science, far more questions are entertained than answers retained. Science is a never-ending search of the truth. Science is honest enough to admit openly and publicly that it understands only a little bit more than 1 per cent of the nature of reality
In theology, however, there are only answers. No questions are allowed. Moreover, there is also the threat of eternal damnation if you do not believe in the theological dogmatic claims. Theology is the study of the unknown for the sake of having faith in the unknowable. Who benefits in this religious mess? The silly theologians, who else, specially as they act in their respective churches, schools, colleges, and universities Poch Suzara

Women of the Philippines

Our women are still on their knees before the alter of mediocrity. They are always frightened to believe that someone died on the cross for their Original Sin. Indeed, the majority of our women prefer delusion to truth. It sooths. It is easy to grasp. They embrace faith; not reason. Faith, after all, is nothing but the free will to lazily avoid discovering what is true. Sadly, the intellectual capacity of our women to seek the truth has been damaged by stupid religious beliefs and values as taught to them in our schools, colleges, and universities. Poch Suzara

War as Big Business

As the number one supplier of arms in the world, the US government abhors the idea of peace agreement between countries at war. The US government loves to hear of conflicts or killings such as those between the Christians and the Muslims in the Philippines. Such evils create profitable opportunities to sell weapons to both parties at war within or even between, states. Such terrors keep the existence of US industrial-military-university complex on high gear. The war against terrorism is nothing but a business concoction of American capitalism. Decades ago, it was known as the war against communism. It was all a joke on the global scale. Today, the war against terrorism is another joke on the global scale. All thanks to the wealth, power, and glory of American Capitalism. Poch Suzara

Bertrand Russell

Russell’s intellectual life was devoted to three main quests. He sought impersonal objective truth successively in Religion, Mathematics, and Science.
I ask: can you name another scientist who lived to be ninety eight years, and devoted seventy years of it in the search of truth in Religion, Mathematics, and Science? In his remaining years, however, involved in global affairs, Bertrand Russell – the philosopher-humanist – worked very hard for peace on earth and goodwill to all governments, especially those headed by homicidal maniacs like the US government under the power of the industrial-military-university complex. Poch Suzara

Created Equal

If all men were created equal in the sight of God, what was God’s purpose in giving men free will? Especially to white men to wage war against non-white men in order to prove white men are free, rich, intelligent, and God-loving; while non-white men are slaves, poor, stupid and God-loving too. Poch Suzara

Rich in Spirit

Bless not those poor in spirit for they shall inherit lies. Bless instead those rich in spirit for they shall inherit the truth. Poch Suzara

Diminishing Faith

Nick fatool writes in the Manila Standard Today: “Faith is something that is sadly diminishing among us.” Sir, a man of faith is like a drunkard who clings to a lamppost for support, not illumination. Moreover, faith is never wanting to know what is true. Do you speak of faith that 2 plus 2 equals 4? Or that the earth is round? No, you only speak of faith when you do not know and hope to remain ignorant by letting others in authority do the thinking for you. This is wrong and childish . Faith in our childish religion has kept us spiritually stagnant as a people and morally malignant as a nation. In this 21st century, isn’t time for Filipinos to ask: where is our national health as a people and where is our national wealth as a nation under the power of Christian faith during these past 500 years in the Philippines? Sir, Christianity thrives not on love, but on guilt? Guilt, not love, is the fundamental emotion that Christianity seeks to induce – and this is symptomatic of a viciousness in Christianity that few Filipinos care to acknowledge. For all of its alleged concern for the “poor in spirit,” Christianity has only done its best to perpetuate spiritual poverty and intellectual stagnancy in the Philippines. Indeed, to be moral, according to Jesus, we must shackle the beauty of reason. We must force ourselves to believe that which we cannot understand. In the name of morality, we must always suppress doubts. We must never subject religious beliefs to critical examination. Less criticism leads to more faith – and faith – Jesus declares is the hallmark of virtue. Indeed, “unless you turn and become like little children, you will never the enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 18:3. Children, after all will believe anything; even the promises of the mediocre politicians running for government office. In the final analysis, Christianity must first destroy reason before it can introduce faith, so it must destroy joys of the heart and happiness of the mind before it can introduce salvation. Thus, we are neither growing as a people nor developing as a nation. We are not even reasonable in the race to achieve higher civilization; only faithful in the rat-race for eternal salvation. I say: to hell with faith in that biblical corruption called faith in the Original Sin. After all, none of us ever originated anything in this world to begin with. Poch Suzara

White-American Gimcrackery

On CBS ‘60 Minutes’ Andy Rooney remarked: “My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.” No kidding? Any native Indian or native Mexican can cry about it with more truthfulness: “My ancestors died in vain for you to leave the countries you were born in to come over and claim it as your own by naming it the United States of America. And to think in America, there is this grand claim inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” At any given day, (7) seven million white American citizens cannot find decent employment in America. It is all about a lot of white American gimcrackery! I should know. As a poor immigrant, I lived and worked in America for some 17 years. My job there was about working hard to help my white rich employer become filthy richer. Oh yes, in America there’s the beauty of individualism; but what is, however, far more important is capitalism. US Capitalism now owns and controls more than 60 per cent of the world’s natural resources. Moreover, as the only super power, American capitalism has but one single goal: to rule the world unchallenged with its military fire power. My dear Andy Rooney, may I suggest you read history books written by a rare and honest American historian - Howard Zinn. It is truthful historians like Howard Zinn that prevents me from totally losing hope with America and its decent future. In his PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, he writes: - “We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources we coveted by our multinational corporations. That hatred we have sown has come back to us in the form of terrorism… Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so we can have the oil under their sand, we should send them to rebuild their infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed starving children … In short, we should do good instead of evil. Who would try to stop us then? Who would hate us then? Who would want to bomb us? That is the truth the American people need to hear.” Poch Suzara

Email Response

I get messages such as "Please do not include me in your e-mailing list. My mind is not that great to comprehend your message."
My response: Ok will delete your name in my address book. I understand your predicament. You must be a college educated individual. I feel so sorry for you.
Yours sincerely, Poch Suzara, Chairman, High School Dropout Association of the Philippines.

Religious Morons

Religious morons will tell about the wonderful word of God written in the bible. But never will they ever inspire you to read the bible thoroughly and properly. You can only read the bible under ecclesiastical guidance. You are not allowed to interpret bible contents. In other words, the bible was not written for the inspired readers, but only written by inspired authors of God. Well, I read the bible and studied it for some 20 years. After I threw the bible out the window, I began to be happy as a thinking man. Also, I was able to recapture the lost reality of my birth called “atheism.” Just like you my dear reader, I was also born an atheist. Indeed, no one is born a Christian or a Muslim or a Jew, or what-not. We are all born devoid of conscience and therefore arrived into this God-forsaken world as unbelievers of the faith. Poch Suzara

The Filipino Challenge

The greatest challenge we Filipinos must face in this 21st century is to stand up as a people against our childish religious beliefs that have not ceased to inspire fear and ignorance, poverty and suffering, and backwardness in this Asia’s only Christian country.
We need public discourse about the life and times of our greatest hero – Jose Rizal and his courage not only at love of country, but especially about his critical thinking and intellectual honesty. Nothing stands in the way of this progress more than the respect we give to our Christian religion. Indeed, the same religion that has caused so much troubles and problems in the Western world ever since its Founder – the Son of God Jesus – crucified on the cross, cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” Poch Suzara

Thought and Love

One of the horrors we first learned in school was how to be habitually thoughtless. We all wished to win the love of our teachers in school, and so we showed our teachers how happy we got to be thoughtlessly believing as we hated higher learning especially via hating questioning with deeper thinking. In the meantime, the greatest creation we can enjoy in life is not love but the power of thought; for, devoid of thought, the power of love cannot exist. Poch Suzara

Rizal's Death-defying Poem

In his death-defying Ultimo Adios poem, Rizal said: I go where faith does not kill, and God alone reigns over all.”
millions of Filipinos really believe that Rizal was such a mediocre thinker in that he was referring to the God of the Christians or the God of the Muslims or the God of the Jews or the God of the Lilliputians. Indeed, these assorted believers of Gods have not ceased cutting each other’s throats because they cannot even agree as to whether God is a he, a she, or an it?
Rizal was obviously referring to the God of the thinkers, philosophers, and scientists. The God otherwise known as the simple God of Reason. Poch Suzara

Poor Jose Rizal

I am asked to give three reasons why Jose Rizal should NOT be the national hero of the Philippines. I can only give one reason: Rizal died for thinking men and thoughtful women and for children to be educated with the values in truthfulness. Since we continue to be a nation of dumbstruck certified morons, Rizal does not deserved to be our national hero. Our real heroes should be the Knights of Rizal and other Rizalist groups who are all so proud and happy spreading more spiritual poverty, moral bankruptcy, political mediocrity, social insanity, and religious stupidity, not to mention science inefficiency as the great values and beliefs that keep the Filipino as the Sick Man of Asia who gives not a hoot about the habit of serious reading of books. Especially books on the philosophy of the sciences.
And to think our Asian neighbors are today enjoying not only the higher standard of living, but more so the higher standard of thinking only because they have been substantiating quite seriously what Jose Rizal has been saying more than a hundred years ago: -“If our country is ever to be free, it will not be through vice and crime, it will not be so by corrupting its sons, by deceiving some and bribing others, and it will be through education and industry.”
Poor Jose Rizal, he never knew that our schools, colleges, and universities will be under the manipulative control of his deadly enemy – stupid religion keeping the Philippines ever poor and ever backward. Poch Suzara

American Students and Apes

The push to teach “intelligent design” in America raises the question: “Does God have a place in American science classrooms?
The fundamentalists in charge of education in America apparently do not believe that God is omni-present. That God, somehow, during science classrooms is only omni-absent.
In the bible, God admits: “For dust art thou and unto dust shalt thou return.” Well, if God made man in his own image and likeness, it follows that God must be made of dust too. What purpose is there to put God in American science classrooms if God, like dust, were already omni-present everywhere?
For my part, I have more respect for the apes. They were designed not only intelligently, but more so gracefully. Look how the apes live in peace on earth and goodwill to all apes. Apes do not terrorize each other in God’s name. Apes do not go to war to kill other apes in order to establish freedom and democracy!
I envy the life of the apes. They have no system for eternal salvation. They have no church, no synagogue, and no mosque to inspire the faithful to become selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane. Apes do not prove themselves worthy of divine rewards by cutting each other’s throat so that they can go to paradise to be with a peaceful, kind, and ever loving God. Poch Suzara

Salvation via Corruption

There is economic growth in the Philippines for as long as there is corruption. Economic growth not only for the corrupt rich getting richer, but also for the corrupt poor getting poorer. Corruption as the basis of Filipino culture has more to do with Christianity. Indeed, why bother with the creation of a sane and a healthy society? Or respecting law and order? Or why bother with growth as a people and maturity as a nation? After all, for the sake of salvation, there is always the forgiveness of sin and the forgiveness of crime available at any time from God via the Christian priesthood industry. In the meantime, in this only Christian country in Asia, we Filipinos still faithfully believe what Jesus preached centuries ago: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In other words: Do not think like men and women. Just believe like boys and girls do believe. Poch Suzara Atheist# Google# Twitter# Facebook#

Jesus as God and God as Jesus

In John, Jesus speaks frequently of his extraordinary status in life and speaks of himself in the most exalted language: I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 8:12 A AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. 6:35 I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. 11:25 I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. 14:6 I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE. 10:30 WHOEVER HAS SEEN ME HAS SEEN MY FATHER. 14:6 NO ONE COME TO GOD EXCEPT THROUGH ME. 16:6 And yet, crucified on the cross, with more exalted language, Jesus cried out: “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” Now how could a God possibly forsake Himself? And to think this is the same Jesus who, as a member of the holy trinity, pleaded: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Perhaps, Jesus was referring to those sinners who did not know what they were doing before the great flood and indeed, especially, even after the great Flood? In the meantime, I ask: why should God tell parents how to raise children when he himself had drowned his own children? In the last analysis, I am told that 98 per cent of Filipinos believe, love, and worship God; and only 2 per cent do not as they are the atheists - I am most proud that I am among those in the 2 per cent as I am not only deadly spiritually, but also lively intellectually as an atheist. Poch Suzara, Google# Facebook# Twitter#

God Found Me Experience

The bible relates an account of one man's "God found me" experience. It is recorded in the Hebrew Old Testament. His name is Elisha. The bible readers are inspired to believe Elisha probably experienced this unique encounter with God around 3,000 years ago.
“Come out," He called, "and stand on the mountain before the Lord." And lo, the Lord passed by.
There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks by the power of the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind - an earthquake;
but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake - fire; but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire - 'kol demamah dakkah,' the sound of delicate silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his mantle about his face and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. - 1 Kings 19:11-13 ***
Millions of people believe this fairy tale as something actual or factual. These are the same dumbstruck bible believers who are just as impressed with Jesus in the New Testament. Indeed, Jesus changed water into wine, cured leprosy, made the blind see, the deft hear, the dumb speak. Jesus raised the dead back to life.
It would have been far more miraculous, however, had Jesus cured diseases not in retail, but wholesale. How? By simply making not diseases, but health contagious. In this way, Filipinos would waste no more time waiting for the Second Coming of Christ to remedy the diseases that make for our sick society.
But then again, what could be more miraculous than curing not bodily diseases, but infirmities of the soul – that is to say curing men of their vices and their depravities, which are worse than germs, bacteria, and viruses living inside the human body created in the image and likeness of God? Well, this is Jesus – the Son of God? Now what about His God the Father himself? He was kind enough to send an angel to console and to assist a young Virgin Mary, while He left, and still leaves every day millions of mothers and children to languish and to starve to death.
As for me, I thank both God and the devil together that I am an Atheist. Indeed, a proud and a happy Atheist till the day I turn into dust. As a matter of fact, I would rather end up as a pile of dust enjoying infinity than having to meet in the "next world" either deviltry or divinity. Poch Suzara

The Stupid Devil

Was The devil really that stupid? The bible account clearly proves it. Please see Matthew chapter 4 verse 8-10. “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.“And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou will fall down and worship me.” “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Of course, Jesus in this episode, was not only childish himself, but also gullible. He miserably failed to remind the stupid devil that he had no legal title or rights of ownership to assets and properties and kingdoms of this world to offer to anyone. Jesus could have simply told the stupid devil that “Hey, you poor sap! What are you talking about? My father, the creator of heaven and hell, is the rightful owner of the kingdoms you are offering me!” Really, if we were to read bible contents inspired with critical analysis, we need not end up being bible believers stuck with mental paralysis. To begin with, why would God inspire only authors to write the bible? The more intelligent thing to do is to inspire the best part of any book - the millions of readers? In this way, we need worship divinity by hating humanity which in fact characterizes the entire history of Christianity. But then again, I could be dead wrong. The devil could be the smartest creature God ever created. After all, ours is not only the devil of religion, but also the religion of the devil! Poch Suzara

More on the Stupid Devil

Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr wrote “The devil continues to dangle every kind of temptation before us.” Manila Standard Today 2-27-2007
And to think that millions upon millions of poverty stricken Filipinos have never ceased praying daily to God to “give us this day our daily bread,” and to “lead us not into temptation.” Poch Suzara

Destiny

There is no such thing as destiny. There are only choices. For my part, I choose to live the good life - one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. After which, after death, I have no choice but to be where I was millions of years before I was born – a place called nothing. Just like you, my dear reader, and just like everyone else. We may fear dying, but death itself should not be feared because death is an absolute nothing and it is utterly foolish to live in fear of nothing. Poch Suzara

Newspaper Banner

The Philippine Star has this front page banner: THE TRUTH SHALL PREVAIL. No doubt, the truth according to the Catholic teachings. All the owners and stockholders and members of the Board of Directors and employees of the Philippine Star are all devout Catholics.
In the meantime, the struggle for press freedom in this God-forsaken country is a sick national mockery. Journalism is not answerable to the truth but answerable only to God via the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines. Indeed, in this 21st century, both readers and writers in this God-forsaken country still believe in the existence of eternal hell-fire as taught to us to believe when we were little boys and girls in school. Poch Suzara

Best Seller

Best sellers come and go, but the Word of God abides forever. Philippine Star January 29, 2007.
Obviously, the religious buffoon who wrote those words could not fathom two essential issues related to what he wrote. In the first place, in this country, nobody gives a damn about best sellers since we are not a nation of mature readers.
n the second place, if the Word of God written in the bible made more sense rather than nonsense, made more construction rather than destruction, indeed, made more social sanity rather than religious insanity - what need is there for best sellers? Poch Suzara

Erich Fromm

In his anatomy of Human Destruction, Erich Fromm wrote: “Man is the only animal who not only knows objects but who knows that he knows. Man is the only animal who has not only instrumental intelligence, but reason, the capacity to use his thinking to understand objectively – i.e., to know the nature of things as they are in themselves, and not only as means for his satisfaction. Gifted with self-awareness and reason, man is aware of himself as a being separate from nature and from others; he is aware of his powerlessness, of his ignorance; he is aware of his end: death.”
As a matter of fact, no other living creature on this earth except man who has the temerity to believe that God created man in his own image and likeness. Poch Suzara

College Students

College students, especially those enrolled in Catholic colleges are not taught to make things happen. Instead, they learn only to wait for things to happen. Especially to wait for the Second Coming of Christ – the Redeemer who will remedy all the ills of our sick society.
What’s sad, however, among my friends, relatives, and associates who are all college graduates is that they all love their so-called education, but hardly love the Philippines – their nation. Well, to begin with, they all were taught to believe in the better life to come after death in heaven. Such a sacred belief has certainly devalued human life in this country. Poch Suzara

Money

Aside from that love for divinity, most people love even more money. They have been taught to believe that money is not everything. It is the only thing. No, they would not bother looking for valuable answers to precious questions. Clearly, they haven’t got intelligent questions to ask. They are happy with the stupid answers. Inside or outside their empty head nothing intellectual bothers them. But they will do anything for money. Steal it. Swindle it. Grab it. Get married for it. Lie for it. Kill for it. Even inherit it. What matters is having lots of money. It does not matter where the money would come from. What matters is that they have must it. Tons of it. The crime or the sin involved along the way does not matter either. After all, what matters in the end is the forgiveness of human stupidity by a great and wonderful divinity. Poch Suzara

Born Naked

Just like every one else, I was born naked. But not like everyone else, I have every wish to leave this world one day stark naked. Indeed, if it is true that I will meet my creator after death, it would truly be exciting to meet a naked creator. God created man in his own image and likeness, didn’t he? Poch Suzara

Sex

To bring forth children into this world of hate and poverty is the greatest of crime. Men and women have yet to learn how to have sex for fun since only very few couples, married or un-married, have the ability or the talent to raise children with loved and affection. Children that are wanted, needed, and loved are never a disgrace; on the contrary, they always grow up to be a grace to the human race. If peace on earth and goodwill to all men will ever become a terrestrial reality one day, it will be due to all children being born welcomed not only by both mothers and fathers, but by a sane society in general.
To me, in my simplicity, mothers and children are the most precious people in this world. I should therefore be very careful and most concerned in how such precious children and precious mothers are being multiplied and replenished on this earth. Poch Suzara

Religion and Science

Science at its best is the rebellion against divinity. It is the exact opposite of religion – at its best it is the rebellion against deviltry. Indeed, in any human enterprise, science produces the greatest and the most original burst of creativity. Religion encourages only stupidity in facing reality as it promotes local as well as global insanity. Poch Suzara

War

War is not only a clash of values and cultures; it is not only a political decision; it is not only nature’s way of blasting stupid men out of their stupid existence. War is mostly about the owners, stockholders, and the traders of the arms industry who make tons of money. They pray daily to God to inspire nations to hate and to kill each other, especially in His name on this earth and for His glory in heaven. Poch Suzara

Eternal Salvation

Nothing could be more truthful than the belief that the dead man lives no more. Nothing could be more untruthful than the belief that the dead man is still alive.
In the meantime, the belief that we will be happy or unhappy after death of the body, is to pretend that we will be able to see without eyes, to hear without ears, to taste without a palate, to smell without a nose, and to feel without hands and without skin. Indeed, the dogma of immortality is purely based upon the condition of a dead man who refuses to believe that he is already dead. Poch Suzara

Born Ignorant

We are all born ignorant, not stupid; we are made stupid by education. And to think that God gifted man with a free will in order that we may be happy with our stupid education down here. Indeed, to the mediocre, mediocrity is a form of happiness; especially for the sake of anything out there. Poch Suzara

Psuedo-Atheist

There is no such animal as a psuedo-atheist. Either you are a genuine atheist or just a religious clown pretending to be one. Once, however, you have seen the bright light of atheism, it is ridiculous to go back to embrace darkness called theism. Otherwise, if you do, you are either a “psycho-ceramic” in the scientific term; or, in the layman’s term, - a “crackpot.” Indeed, a troubled brain believes everything. It examines nothing. We atheists are fully aware that religion buys its benefits at too dear a price: - the mindless surrender of the self via the mutilation of the intellect. Atheism is all about the power of reason. It is also about the bed-rock of sanity in a world gone mad. We atheists do not want to believe. We want to know. And we know that the search for the truth is man’s most noble profession. Prove to us that God exists and we will prove to you that God is neither a Catholic, nor a Muslim, nor a Jew, or what have you. Intelligent thinking is far more valuable to an atheist than infantile believing. In the history of our world, no atheist has ever waged violence and war against other atheists for not believing in God. In the ultimate analysis, we do not hate life nor do we live in fear of death. We have no fear of what is known neither do we tremble before what is unknown. The human race is alone and insecure and doomed. Let us meet these facts with cheerfulness, courage, love, beauty, and the joys in life. Let us carry on the pursuit of our ideals for human happiness in the here and the now. We atheists would rather stand and face death with intellectual sobriety. We do not care to meet death on our bended knees drunk with ecclesiastical mendacity. Poch Suzara

I love and respect Scientists

In the conflict between the theology against science, I am on the side of the scientists. Never will I ever be on the side of the theologians. Especially the kind I had as my teachers in De La Salle University. They always threatened me with “believe this, because if you don’t, God will punish you.” I was therefore always punished in class because far more than I wanted to believe, I wanted to know and understand. In class, I always asked questions. I always wanted to formulate for myself better kinds of questions. Indeed, for me, hard intelligent thinking is more fascinating than just easy stupid believing.
With Jose Rizal, however, outside academic wall, it was, for him, a deadly experience. Theologians threatened him with: “Retract the truthful things you wrote about us in your NOLI and FILI books or we will have you executed in public by a firing squad.” Rizal virtually replied: “go fly a kite!” The theologians with authority and power over the civil government had Rizal put to death. In order to intimidate not only the brave thinkers in the minority, but also throughout the land – to frighten to death the cowardly and faithful believers in the majority.
And to think that today college educated men and women in this country would rather believe the theologians than be on the side of a mature and a courageous scientist like a Jose Rizal. He was, indeed, the first Filipino scientist who tried to generate the revolution of the mind to get the Filipino growing with self-respect as a people and to get the Philippines developing with dignity as a nation.
I ask: is it any wonder that in this 21st century we are known as the Sick Man of Asia? We live in a poor and backward country. Indeed, what have we Filipinos got to show for ourselves except, as a people, we can only be proud of the failures of our social and political and religious values under the great success of Christianity in the Philippines? Poch Suzara

Our Asian Neighbors

The secret why other Asian neighbors are economically ahead of the Philippines is no secret at all. They have been substantiating to the fullest extent possible what Jose Rizal, the nation’s chief hero, was precisely saying to fellow-Filipinos more than a hundred years ago: “Wake up! Embrace science! Utilize the scientific way of thinking! Start to emulate the freethinkers! Knowledge is the heritage of mankind, but only the courageous inherit it! We can only serve our country by telling the naked truth. However bitter it may be!”
Indeed, in this center of Catholicism in Asia, we would rather have more faith in the power of prayer and theology than seek the power of knowledge, science, and technology. Poch Suzara

Rizal’s Retraction

If Rizal had retracted from his attacks against the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church, and if, according to his Catholic biographer Leon M. Guerrero, Rizal had gone to confession four times, heard mass in his death-cell, and received holy communion before he was executed, then Rizal should be branded a traitor to all freedom fighters. He deserved not to be respected or admired as a hero. He should, instead, be canonized a saint. But then again, if Rizal had retracted, why then should the church feel dedicated to get Rizal’s true character expunged out of the Filipino psyche? The truth of the matter was that the Church did everything possible to counteract Rizal’s honest-to-goodness scientific temper of mind. Indeed, in his Noli and Fili, Rizal exposed the Philippine damaged culture caused by organized superstition otherwise popularly known as Christianity. Thus, the story of his retraction was nothing more than a theological concoction to sanitize, if not to neutralize considerably the volume of Rizal’s humanistic and scientific messages to his people - the Filipino people. Poch Suzara

Rizal’s Biographer

Rizal’s biographer – Leon M. Guerrero, clearly notes that Rizal returned to the Church of his youth in extremes of self-abasement, frenziedly in childlike fashion, spending the remaining hours of earning indulgences from purgatory by confessing four times, and obsequiously attending to Fr. Balaguer and Villaclara’s wishes. In brief, according to this biographer, Rizal died as a timid coward. Indeed, according to this official government commissioned biographer, our national hero in the end turned out to be a turncoat.
But then again, four years before his death, Rizal in 1882 wrote a letter to Gregorio Aglipay: “In all parts of the world where an honest man tries to achieve reform he is crucified on Golgotha. Christ had nowhere to lay his head, when Pilate governed. It is probable that I will be executed – then they will try to bring along my moral death by covering my memory with slander.” Poch Suzara

The Shame in Rizal’s Life

The shame in Rizal’s life is not the retraction of his deeds, writings or personal conduct. Such retraction was only a frailocratic figment of the impoverished priestly imagination. The real shame comes from the Filipino historians and other Catholic writers who believed not in Rizal’s power of intellect, but believed instead his enemies – the friars – who invented sacred lies about this great man. Via the control of the system of education in the Philippines, these friars have and still are blocking, expediently and consistently, Rizal’s qualified and legitimate entry into the world stage as one of mankind’s greatest thinkers. But then again how can the world learn of Rizal’s intellectual power if the Filipinos themselves know so little of the health and wealth of this great 19th century Filipino scientists and thinker and writer? Poch Suzara

Rizal of Ateneo and UST

Rizal was a product of Ateneo and Santo Thomas; yet both Catholic universities continue to assassinate the character of this great humanist thinker. Rizal had learned on his own initiative, outside academic wall, how to think deeply and how to embrace intellectual honesty valiantly. Indeed, to this day, all Catholic universities still teach that during his last day on this earth, just hours before he was executed for his principles, noble values, and rational beliefs, Rizal retracted and went back to embrace the Catholic Church and its teachings. What brazen lies! It is no less than a tall story. A cheap shot at a great man. Otherwise, after his death, he should have been given a Catholic burial and his bodily remains not just put inside an old sack and thrown in the Paco Cemetery in the corner where heretics are stashed away like dead animals. Poch Suzara

Rizal and Education

Jose Rizal pointed out that evolution in education, ( not reliance on foreign investments ), is the best hope of the nation to enjoy the highest standard of living and thinking. The system of education for the Filipino must be based on science and technology, and not on prayers and theology. Indeed, according to Rizal, a free nation can rise no higher than the standard of beliefs and values set in its schools, colleges, and universities. In there hope for the Philippines? Yes, there is! But first its system of education must be radically revamped. No more silly prayers to support a stupid theology. Only more science and more technology via more scientific method of thinking. Poch Suzara

Rizal – the Humanist

Rizal struggled not only against Spanish authority, but against superstition. He fought not in the battlefield, but in the minds of men and in the hearts of women. Rizal was Asia’s first scientific-humanist thinker put to death a century ago by musketry as imposed by theocracy. The same Catholic theocracy today that is keeping the Filipino youth via education to live in guilt and to fear new and fresh ideas; indeed, to keep away from the free market of ideas, and to hate, at the same time, the freethinkers, especially the books written by freethinkers. “Blotting out their brains,” Rizal wrote, “in faith, prayers, masses, novenas, superimposed these onto native superstition.” Poch Suzara

A century after Rizal’s Death

After a hundred years, how influential has Jose Rizal been on the Filipino as a people? Millions today would readily give credence by listening to the words of a Mike Velarde of El Shaddai preaching pastoral nonsense derived from the bible – a book written not by Filipinos but by foreigners. Only a handful of scholars would care to read and understand the real Rizal and carry out his principles and ideals for the achievement of pride, dignity, intellectual and scientific honesty for the Filipino as a nation. And to think, the Jews, the Chosen People of God, never considered the bible as a holy book at any time in their history. In fact, the Jews live in a Jewish State. They do not live in a Christian country – the land where Jesus Christ was presumably born. Poch Suzara

Rizal and Ninoy Aquino

Ninoy Aquino said: “The Filipino is worth dying for.” Well, Ninoy is a hero today. Filipinos killed him. Imagine Jose Rizal having said too: “The Catholics are worth dying for.” Rizal today would be a saint. The Catholics had him killed. And this is exactly how sick we all are today as the Sick Man of Asia. Thanks to Filipino catholic theologians, like Father Jose S. Arcilla, S.J., and his gang who have not ceased writing brazen lies about Jose Rizal’s soul saved in heaven. What a crock of religious lies generating hypocrisy! Poch Suzara

Rizal – a great Thinker

Rizal, indeed, was a great thinker. He clearly saw in his day what we vaguely see around us today: religion and diseases flourishing hand in hand under ignorance, filth, hate, and poverty. What irked the friars against Rizal was his refusal to continue to believe in Christianity; for, he learned to be on the side of humanity. For my part, if there’s life after death, it’s great thinkers like Rizal that I should wish to be with. Otherwise, if I will just find myself in the company of Filipino theologians, or among the Opus Dei gang – the kind of people who had Rizal put to death, please Lord spare me the sacred horror. I would rather be forever in hell. Poch Suzara

The Spanish Friars

The Spanish Catholic friars arrived in the Philippines bringing with them the holy bible and Christianity. They stole our land. Crushed our sense of human dignity and self-respect. And now via the schools, colleges, and universities that they own and control, the Catholic Church teaches us to be always grateful to the Lord for having saved us. In the meantime, if the Spanish friars had only introduced the concept of humanism instead of establishing in the Philippines religious barbarism and other forms of supernaturalism, Filipino priests like Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora need not have been garroted to death for wanting reforms within the Catholic Church in their time. Moreover, great thinkers like Jose Rizal need not have been arrested, incarcerated, and executed by Catholic firing squad for writing the NOLI and FILI - 2 books that could have brought enlightenment to the Filipino minds and hearts to earn national pride as a people and Asian dignity as a nation. Poch Suzara

Lies about Rizal

Rizal never said or wrote: “It was my pride that ruined me.” Those words were put into the mouth of Rizal by his official prize-winning biographer Leon Maria Guerrero who believed, as a Catholic, the Rizal retraction story as concocted by the sciolistic friars. Moreover, Rizal never “got rid of his political appetite, moral perplexities, and intellectual pride.” On the contrary, Rizal chose to die proudly. After the superstitious friars stripped him of his dignity, it was no longer possible for Rizal to go on living as a decent man and as a thinking Filipino. Poch Suzara

Rizal ’s Killers

What kind of men needed to see Rizal dead, discarded and forgotten? Were they men of reason, logic, science or philosophy? Were they avid readers, critical thinkers, or scientific investigators? Were they men at home with civilized humanity? No! On the contrary, Rizal’s enemies were the friends of blind faith: - the superstitious primitives, the sanctimonious hypocrites, and those indeed who were selfish, greedy, corrupt, stupid, and insane. Rizal’s enemies of a hundred years ago, are still the same enemies we have today. They are the ones insisting that it makes no difference whether Rizal retracted from his religious, political and philosophical principles or not. What a silly conclusion to bestow upon the greatest of Filipino seminal thinker who died for the liberation of the Filipino mind and heart, and indeed, for all mankind. Shame on you cowards - the so-called “Knights of Rizal.” Poch Suzara

What is a Great Filipino

A great Filipino is one who has had the intellect and the courage to put more sense where the theologians and the politicians in cahoots together have put only nonsense making for our sick society. In the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, only one rare Filipino had the courage and the intellect to stand up against great odds to be a great Filipino - Jose Rizal - a truth-seeker, a scientist, and a humanist. To keep the Filipino frightened of the truth, however, Rizal was publicly executed by those in church authority - the ecclesiastical liars gifted with a free will from divinity. Poch Suzara

Spanish Catholic Friars

In his official biography of Rizal, Guerrero disclosed that the Spanish Catholic friars made a firm offer to Rizal the amount of 100,000 pesos and a chair to teach philosophy at the University of Santo Thomas on the condition that he signed the retraction document. It has been reported by the friars that Rizal did sign his retraction papers. And yet, after Rizal was shot to death at the Luneta by a firing squad, not even a mass in church was said for Rizal who died as a penitent Catholic. In fact, Rizal was not even given a proper Catholic burial. His remains were just thrown in a little corner in Paco cemetery where heretics and infidels were buried.
The trouble with Guerrero as the Rizal biographer, he was more interested in defending the business of the Catholic Church and its teachings than defending truthfully the subject of his biography – Jose Rizal and his teachings.
As a great admirer, since Rizal never threatened me with eternal hellfire if I did not believe or spread any of his words, in the fight between Rizal and the Catholic Church, I will always be on the side of Rizal. Never will I abandon such a great man even if it means losing my stupid soul to end up in a stupid hell as managed by the stupid devil in cahoots with a stupid Supreme Being. Poch Suzara

Rizal’s Predilection

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 and humanistic 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 also to die with self-respect and dignity. Poch Suzara

Great Men

India had Mahatma Gandhi. France had Voltaire. Germany had Nietzsche. Austria had Freud. China had Sun Yet Sen. England had Bertrand Russell. Italy had Galileo and Bruno. America had Tom Paine and Ingersoll. Cuba had Jose Marti and Fidel Castro. These were some of the great men who, with courage and intellect, put more sense into the minds of men and the hearts of women where nature has put only insane horrors. We could have had our own Jose Rizal. The greatest and rarest Filipino this country has ever produced. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church cut him down to size. Millions of Filipinos still have no inkling as to why Jose Rizal was one of mankind’s greatest heroes. Indeed, college professors, historians, biographers, newspaper editors, including his own descendants have been frightened by the Catholic Church authority to believe that Rizal was executed while repentant of his sins against God and regretful of his crimes against his own people. What brazen lies to tell about the greatest Filipino thinker who ever lived. The greatest Filipino who died sober and not drunk with sacred lies. In the meantime, pontifical fear and ecclesiastical ignorance are the recycled garbage dished out in our schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries. Especially those owned and managed by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations in the Philippines. Consider the average Filipino in this 21st century: he is more comfortable with childish prayer under a theology than he is at home with science and philosophy for the sake of our sense of humanity enjoying freedom and democracy under a sane and a healthy society. Indeed, science is what we know. Philosophy is what we do not know. Religion is pretending to know what we not know. In this past centuries, because Jose Rizal was more at home with the nature of science, philosophy, and the evils of religion, he was locally the pride of the Malay race; but today great men in the same intellectual level of a Jose Rizal globally is the pride of the human race. Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

Albert Einstein on Jose Rizal

“Great spirits have always found 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 and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.” Indeed, Einstein had in his mind men like Jose Rizal when he wrote: “It keeps repeating itself in this world, so fine and honest: The parson alarms the populace, the genius is executed.” Poch Suzara

Bertrand Russell on Happy Men and Women

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

Carl Sagan on Jose Rizal

“As a consequence of the enormous social and technological changes of the last few centuries, the world is not working well. We do not live in traditional and static societies. But our governments, in resisting change, act as if we did. Unless we destroy ourselves utterly, the future belongs to those societies that while not ignoring the reptilian and mammalian parts of our being, enable the characteristically human components of our nature to flourish; to those societies that encourage diversity rather than conformity; to those societies willing to invest resources in a variety of social, political, economic and cultural experiments, and prepared to sacrificed short-term advantage for long-term benefit; to those societies that treat new ideas as delicate, fragile and immensely valuable pathways to the future.” Poch Suzara

Sam Harris on Jose Rizal

“We are the final judges of what is good, just as we remain the final judges of what is logical. And on neither front has our conversation with one another reached an end. There need to be no scheme of rewards and punishments transcending this life to justify our moral intuitions or to render them effective in guiding our behavior in the world. The only angels we need to invoke are those of our better nature: reason, honesty, and love. The only demons we must fear are those that lurk inside every human mind: ignorance, hatred, greed, and faith, which is surely the devil\s masterpiece.” Poch Suzara

Richard Dawkins on Jose Rizal

Fraud, illusion, trickery, hallucination, honest mistake or outright lies – the combination adds up to such a probable alternative that I shall always doubt casual observations or second hand stories that seem to suggest the catastrophic overthrow of existing science. Existing science will undoubtedly be overthrown; not, however, by casual anecdotes or performances on television, (or by public execution of scientists like Rizal) but by rigorous research, repeated, dissected and repeated again.” Poch Suzara

TO JOSE RIZAL

Wherever you are, I have the highest respect for you as a man, and I have the deepest love for you as a Filipino. In this connection, I shall continue, to the end of my days, to struggle against those who had you, publicly, put to death. They are still existing, alive and kicking doing more harm, more damage, than ever. Indeed, in this 21st century, your enemies are still in control of our schools, colleges, and universities twisting the mind of the Filipino to remain spiritually poor as a people, and still distorting the heart of the Philippines to remain morally bankrupt as a nation!
Sir: in the God-forsaken country, you are about the one and only Filipino, with dignity and self-respect, worthy to be called Filipino! The rest are trying only to save themselves the trouble of having to think. As the Sick Man of Asia, we only love to believe. Thus, instead of appeals to principles and logic and philosophy, our public spirit is only aroused by personalities and celebrities. Indeed, instead of being the mature masters of our ideals and principles as a society, we only continue to be the childish victims of a foreign Jewish deity. Poch Suzara

Rizal’s Ultimo Adios

How do we summarize it? The poem was completed on Dec. 29, 1896 hours before he was executed. He was able to smuggle out the finished poem. He placed it inside a lamp and gave to his visitors, among whom was his sister and whispered to her: “look inside. There is something inside it.” He made an extra copy by putting it inside his shoe for insurance purpose.
The Ultimo Adios was Rizal’s last poetic defiance against those who continue to be childish believers instead of being intelligent thinkers. The Ultimo Adios is a strong message to the Filipino as a people: – to begin to think that we all share only one common enemy together. No, not the Spaniards or the Americans or the Japanese, or what have you, etc. But our enemy is stupid religion. Indeed, religion that encourages individual stupidity that culminates into social insanity. Poch Suzara

Mar Patalinjug

My great friend from New York wrote: Dear Poch: I think we should forget not only this generation of Filipinos but let us try forgetting a total of five generations. That's a period of more than 100 years. You and I won't be around by then. We will have long turned to dust! Mar
My response to Mar: I agree with you 100 per cent. Dust we are and unto dust we shall return. But we need not live as a farce just because we will end as a fertilizer. Let us, on the contrary, be involved and be like those rare thinking individuals who, throughout history, have had the courage to put sanity into this world where nature has only put insanity. In his NEW HOPES FOR A CHANGING WORLD, Bertrand Russell said it better: “Those who feel nobly, even if in their day they live obscurely, need not fear that they will have lived in vain. Something radiates from their lives, some light that shows the way to their friends, their neighbors, perhaps to long and future ages. I find many men nowadays oppressed with the feeling that in the vastness of modern societies there is nothing of importance that the individual can do. This is a mistake. The individual, if he is filled with love of mankind, with breadth of vision, with courage and with endurance, can do a great deal.” Poch Suzara

Three Kinds of Filipinos

There are only three kinds of Filipinos in the Philippines: Those who upgrade humanity; and, those who degrade humanity. And the rest who could not care less
as nothing matters to them except worshipping divinity. Poch Suzara

Tony Abaya

Wrote a great article in the Manila Standard Today on how we are as a nation of Idiots with idiot candidates and idiot voters.
Far more disastrous, however, than we are a nation of idiots, we are, indeed, a nation of sinners and criminals.
Our schools, colleges, and universities are places where they teach us to believe that there exists a higher power called “God” who will not only provide from out there, but will also forgive us of our idiotic sins and idiotic crimes down here. No doubt, ours is an idiotic system of education. But blaming our officials and voters for what is idiotic in the Philippine government will not do. After all these Filipinos are among the prestigious products of La Salle, Ateneo, University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Miriam college, Assumption college, Lyceum.
Letran, San Beda, Mapua, Sta. Escolastica, Santa Teresa, Don Bosco, etc. Not to mention products too of Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and our public school system.
As for me personally, if there is anything I am eternally proud as a Filipino, it was my great success at having engineered my own expulsion out of high school in De La Salle University some 50 years ago. It certainly opened the greatest opportunity for me to acquire genuine learning. I hit my strides by enrolling in the greatest of all universities: it is but a collection of books – a library of my own. Happily, I am still a faithful and an active student even in my old age. Learning, indeed, is a never-ending adventure. Poch Suzara

The Hidden God

According to TIME, “There is enough light for those who want to believe, and enough darkness for those who do not want.”
I ask: What good is God’s existence if he does not expose himself by creating more and heavier light into this world of darkness? What good is a hidden God where, in darkness, he stays hidden? Poch Suzara

God Admits

I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Exodus 3:6, Mark 12:26, Luke 20:37.
There is nothing written in the same holy bible where God also admits: I am the God of Juan de la Cruz, the God of Juan de la Tamad, or the God of Juan de la Sipul?
Again: I am God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matt. 22:32
I ask: What have we living Filipinos got anything to do with the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? To think these bible characters were all born in some Jewish land, and have been long dead and buried in a foreign country since thousands of years ago. Poch Suzara

The Voice of the People

The Son of God Jesus, crucified on the cross, cried out: “Father, forgive them; for they know now what they do.” Luke 23:33
Well, if the Son of God Jesus clearly admitted that the people know not what they do, isn’t it rather childish to believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God? Poch Suzara

Mother Teresa

“…We cannot solve all of the problems of the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all that is that is to destroy love. And this happens when we tell people to practice contraception.”
This is really another pontifical way of saying that nothing pleases God more than to see poor women here and poor children there and the propagation of poverty spreading everywhere. After all, Mother Teresa loved not only poor people here and there but loved even more poverty everywhere. Poch Suzara

Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr.

wrote: “Somebody has remarked that if we offend God, God will forgive us if we repent. If we hurt our fellow humans, they will forgive us if we apologize. But if we destroy the Earth, it will not forgive us even if we ask for its forgiveness.”
Bishop Bacani ignores the biblical teachings of Christianity with its vested interests in poverty and misery: The bible clearly declares: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” John 2:15

Cardinal John Newman

wrote: “Conscience has rights because it has duties.” Indeed, it has: duties not to religious authority, not even to any other outside forces, but duties only to one’s self as a self-respecting man. Conscience should and must decide for itself what is good or evil. Revelation does not count. Revelation exposed “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Unfortunately, it has failed to reveal why such a silly tree had been created and planted by God to begin with! In the second place, no one knows where that tree is to be found anywhere in the world today.
In the meantime, Proverbs 28:26 states: “he who trusts in his own mind is a fool; but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.” Is it any wonder that the faithful always end up walking mindless, if not always thoughtless as believers of bible wisdom? Poch Suzara

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

“Modern man . . . has long believed that right and wrong were only differences in point of view, but now when evil works itself out in practice he is paralyzed to do anything against it.”
I ask Archbishop Sheen: what about your own church from ancient days to modern times during these past 2,000 years? What exactly has your church done to diminish, nay, eliminate the evils in this world? What has happened to the power of God almighty always behind the power of your church? Poch Suzara

St. Augustine's Silly Philosophy

Wrote: “It is the mark of perfection to recognize one’s imperfections.” This is childish dishonesty with one’s self as far as I am concerned. I’d rather embrace Bertrand Russell’s sense of truthfulness: “No one is perfect and we should not be bothered by the fact that we are not.” Poch Suzara

Alvin Capino

Wrote in the Manila Standard Today: “There is no better expression of love than to help feed the hunger.”
Alvin, I totally disagree. There is no better expression of love than that of informing as well as encouraging would be mothers and fathers to seriously practice family planning and birth control. In this way, there will be less sick and hungry people to feed in our already sick and hungry society. Moreover, as we over-populate, nature will destroy us off with famine, disease, and environmental destruction. It is already a reality in so many parts of the fragile world. The alternative is family planning and birth control. In the meantime, every cause is a lost cause without population control. Poch Suzara

Emil Jurado

Wrote in the Manila Standard Today: “We all admire Pacquiao for his boxing skills. But I am afraid he’ll be a fish out of the water in Congress. What is pathetic about it is that he could win and kiss his boxing career goodbye. What happens if somebody in Congress challenges him to a debate? Will Pacman box him? Why can’t he just settle with the boxing career?
What happens, you asked, if somebody in Congress challenges Pacquiao to a debate? Well, what happens I ask, when Pacquiao challenges Congressmen to kneel down and make the sign of the cross before he starts punching everybody on the Congressional ring? Poch Suzara

G. K. Chesterton

Wrote: “The trouble when people stop believing in God is not that they thereafter believe in nothing, it is that they thereafter believe in anything.”
I ask G.K. Chesterton: What happens when God stops believing in God? After all, God made it very clear in his first command: Thou shall have no other gods before me?” For Christ’s sake, who created those other gods? Where in hell do they come from? Poch Suzara