The Lord’s Prayer

The faithful believers pray daily with these words: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, amen.” If Jesus were truly the Lord worthy of love, respect and admiration, he should have already eliminated evil out of this world. In this way, He need not waste any more time and energy leading his faithful followers into temptation. Poch Suzara

Jesus and Socrates

Socrates – the Greek philosopher was a better man and indeed a wiser thinker than the Jesus – the Son of God. For one thing, Socrates never invented the concept of hell for those who disagreed with his logic. Jesus, however, was more theologic. He said: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should rule over them, bring hither, and slay them for me.” Luke 19:27. For my part, I have more love and respect for Socrates. He said: The unexamined life is not worth living for man. Poch Suzara

The Three Wise Kings

A wise king usually enjoys power and glory and authority over his people. Imagine a wise king being told that there is a pregnant Virgin Mary in some remote town who will soon deliver a child who will be the king of the world. The wise king not only believes the story, but also goes out of his way to notify two other neighboring wise kings to come along with him to visit with gifts and to adore the child-king of a virgin woman. If you can believe this Three Wise Kings story as true, you might as well believe also that you too can become a very wise king one day. Poch Suzara

Parental Love and Affection

Parental love and affection can never be repaid. It can only be passed on to our own children and they in turn to their own children. Not, however, according to Jesus Christ. In Luke 14:26, Jesus admonished: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, his mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Such were the sacred words uttered by Jesus - the Prince of Peace, the most lovable of men, and the Savior of the mankind. Poch Suzara

A Holy Spirit

A holy spirit existing way out there among the clouds that can actually experience emotional breakdown or psychological injury due to blasphemy from an atheist like me down here does not deserve to be called a holy spirit. In the scientific term, it deserves to be called a psycho-ceramic. Or, in the layman’s language, - a crackpot. Poch Suzara

The New Pope Benedict XV1

It is claimed that the newly elected pope receives an average of 56,000 e-mails a day. As if this were something to brag about. God receives an average of 56,000,000,000 prayers a year. One would think that these two powerful and famous characters would get together and have a heart to seriously introduce here and now - peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Poch Suzara

Failures and Losers

There are a variety of failures and losers in this world. The most prominent are those quite respectable. They made tons of money working for, if not got to be closely associated with, the wealthy land grabbers – among the biggest thieves in this only Christian country in Asia. Thanks to the inheritance from the Spanish Friars of centuries ago, who grabbed land for themselves and for their children and grandchildren and called it - blessings from God on the Philippines. Poch Suzara

G. K. Chesterson

He wrote: “When people cease to believe in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything.” On the contrary dear sir, when people cease to believe in God, they are no longer encouraged by fantasy; in fact, they begin to develop a sufficient sense of reality. For my part, when I gradually ceased to believe in God, heavy theological baggage was unloaded off my back making it more comfortable for me to proceed with my happy life, brief and fleeting as it is, on this earth. Poch Suzara

Much Easier

It is much easier to believe than to think. Look at our sick society composed of sick believers. Golly, even our daily newspapers must cater to its readers as they are silly believers, but not to readers as they may be intelligent thinkers. Poch Suzara

What Is An Atheist

What is an Atheist

An atheist is not an object to hate. He is a person just like you to love. The right question to ask therefore is: Who is an atheist?
An atheist accepts that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth – for all men together to enjoy.
An atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner convictions and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and to enjoy it.
An atheist accepts that only in knowledge of himself and knowledge of his fellowman can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellowman rather than to know a god.
An atheist accepts that a hospital should be built instead of a church.
An atheist accepts that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said.
An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants diseases conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He accepts that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in the hereafter. He accepts that we are - in a great sense – our brothers’ keepers in that we are first, keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now.
Lastly, an atheist accepts that if we must die, we must die intellecutally sober, and drunk with religious lies. Poch Suzara

St. Augustine and Women

St. Augustine considered women as very inferior to men and blamed Eve for the fall of Adam. Did this famous saint make sense even as a Catholic? You be the judge. Listen to St. Augustine’s confession: “There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. . . It is this which drives us on to try to discover the secret of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which men should not wish to learn. . . In this immense forest, full of pitfalls and perils, I have drawn myself back, and pulled myself away from these thorns. In the midst of all these things which float unceasingly around me in everyday life, I am never surprised at any of them, and never captivated by my genuine desire to study them. . . I no longer dream of the stars.” The time of Augustine’s death, 430 A.D., marks the beginning of the Dark Ages in Europe. From the 5th to the 15th century, the Dark Ages in God’s name and for His glory lasted for a thousand years. And to think that in this 21st century there are still religious fanatics who are in authority leading us back to the Dark Ages. Poch Suzara

What God

I never met God. He was not around the day I was born. He was never at home or in school with me. He never played any games or sports or danced or appreciated music together with ma. He never shared good and bad times together with me. We never laughed or cried together. God never showed up at my marriage nor was he there during the birth of my children. God and I never had breakfast or lunch or dinner together. My own father devoted most of his life to God; I was there at my father's death-bed, but I never saw God around anywhere. Now what reasons should I have in life to always take the side of God who was never there existing for me as a friend or even existing for my loved ones? Poch Suzara

Mediocre Writers

What makes mediocre writers? Instead of intelligently attacking stupid ideas or beliefs, they would rather attack stupid individuals who, to begin with, do not care to cultivate the habit of serious reading. Indeed, mediocre writers love mental paralysis; but hate, at the same tme, lively analysis. Poch Suzara

The Catholic Popes

If peace on earth and goodwill to all men prevailed, the newly elected 265th pope benedict XVI of the Catholic Church need not pledge to work to unify Christians, to reach out to other religions. One wonders what the Catholic Popes have accomplished for the happiness of mankind in the here and now? Consider the world in this 21st century still hopelessly split into areas of wealth and poverty where ignorance, hatred, bigotry, and faith in ancient superstitions are still pretty much the traditional enemies of mankind. Poch Suzara

Great Religions

To hate man and to love God characterizes in brief the great religions of the world. From religion we learn to hate this life. We only look forward to a better life to come after death. As if, after death, there will be a next life. Really, if such were true, how come we know nothing of life of another world before we were born? Obviously, if from this world we will proceed to another world, it is only because we all came from a previous world. But we all originated from a world of nothing. Poch Suzara

Saints

The Catholic Church has already canonized more than 10,257 saints. There are saints for all sorts of human needs, illnesses, professions, situations such as for lost items, infertility, pregnancy, dentistry, missionary works and saints for all kinds of diseases and maladies. Moreover, aside from the communion of saints on earth, there is also already the communion of saints in heaven. Today, in the 21st century, no saint, either in heaven or on earth has yet improved the ways of the world; nay, no saint has yet been able to help God improve and make sense of our world still pretty much infested with religious believers who are selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane. Poch Suzara

We Filipinos

We Filipinos are hoping for the Second Coming of Christ to solve our problems. Since that is not yet forthcoming, we are hoping for the government to do the job. Unfortunately, however, government officials themselves are also hoping for Jesus Christ to return to forgive them of their sins against the public and their crimes against the republic. Sadly, however, Jesus Christ Himself is also waiting for God to wake up still sleeping on the job. In the meantime, the survival of the Philippines as a nation will depend on how many Filipinos can escape away from the shackles of childish beliefs that there is a much better world to come only after we are all dead. Poch Suzara

Mindless

We are all born ignorant, not mindless. We are made mindless with the power of indoctrination otherwise popularly known as "education." The results have been devastating. Look at the kind of mindless leaders we have in our country leading us ever more into a future getting more senseless, if not worthless, that even nature herself never intended to be shameless or be needlessly reckless. Poch Suzara

Religious Beliefs

Most people’s religious beliefs are based on, if not derived from, the incompetent figment of an impoverished imagination traditionally supported by silly superstition. Poch Suzara

Read, Read, and Read

I have been told that faith can move mountain. I have yet, however, to see a mountain moved by an inch with the power of faith; especially in this only Christian country in Asia. What I see more clearly is faith supporting the mountain of poverty and misery, filth and squalor, not to mention the mountain of moral and spiritual bankruptcy of our sick society. In fact, today in this already 21st century - it is sick faith that makes us the Sick Man of Asia. Indeed, we do not speak of faith that a square has 4 sides, or that a triangle has 3 sides or that an octagon has 8. We only speak of faith when we do not know, and we only want to sanctify our ignorance in exchange for supernatural tolerance. For my part, I pity the man of faith. He is like a drunkard clinging to a lamppost for support, not illumination. Why should we need more faith since faith has only to do with the unknown? Why not, instead, face the known with intelligence and explore possibilities on how we can yet expand and improve our understanding of what is already known? Look at medical science expanding and improving ways to cure diseases and to make us live longer and healthier. Where has faith taken us as a Christian country in Asia? Today, we Filipinos are involved with nothing but the scramble for money: to satisfy not only our stupid greed; but mostly to amplify in public our silly creed. At any rate, what can we expect of a poor and backward nation where men and women with college education are habitually on their knees praying to a silly God to save their silly souls in the next silly life? And to think that most of these men and women are hoping to migrate to the next country overseas where its citizens are already enjoying a higher standard of living and indeed thinking. What we need in this country is not MORE faith, but more reason for the sake of spiritual growth. It means abandoning outworn beliefs and the welcoming of new and fresh ideas. We need to develop a deeper vision, to be willing to forsake our obsolete and shallow vision. The road to spiritual growth lies in distrusting what we already believe by deliberately challenging the validity of what we have been traditionally taught to hold dear and holy. We must learn to question everything. It is the basis of spiritual growth and intellectual maturity. We must therefore develop the habit of reading avidly and judiciously. I say therefore: read, read, and read. To begin to discover not only the beauty of rationality, but also the harmony of veracity. As we develop the habit of reading, especially books on the scientific way of thinking, we will never, ever again, be the foolish victims of mediocrity, or worse still – be the promoters of a sick society. However the case may be, those of us who refuse to read are no better off than those who can’t read at all. Poch Suzara