I am told that God gifted man with a free will so as not to be like robots, but to be free to choose good away from evil? If this were true, how come the Arabs are free to choose to be Muslims; the Jews are free to choose to be Jewish; and the Americans are free to choose to be Christians; and at the same time, God seems freely proud to see the free Christians and the free Muslims and the free Jews hate and kill each other in His name and for His glory? What kind of a supernatural monster is God? Such a God is not lovable; on the contrary, God is despicable.
In the meantime, consider the 100 Billion human beings that have already lived and died on this earth – all gifted not with good will for each other, but gifted with free will to hated each other. But for Christ’s sake, why create more of the same Adams and Eves in the same image and likeness of the God? Isn’t God interested to make repairs on faulty parts that have made the human being selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane?
But then again, take heed to what Spinoza wrote:
“Men think themselves free because they are conscious of their volitions and desires, but are ignorant of the causes for which they are led to wish and desire.”
Is the Supreme being really that proud to see Filipinos in this only Christian country in Asia – daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly all enjoying the free will to be loving of only God up there but only by hating one another down here?
We are told that faith can move mountain. We have yet, however, to see a mountain moved by an inch with the power of faith. What we see more clearly is faith supporting poverty and misery, promoting filth and squalor, not to mention encouraging moral and spiritual bankruptcy for our sick society. In fact, in the modern world today, it is Christian faith that makes us Filipinos 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 of what we do not know, and we hope to sanctify our stupid ignorance in exchange of 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 what is already known called knowledge? Look at medical science expanding and improving ways to cure diseases and to make us live longer and healthier. In the meantime, the existence of hospitals and doctors prove that prayers are utterly useless.
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 most of its men and women with college education are habitually on their knees praying to a silly God to save their silly souls for the next silly life? And to think that most of these men and women are also hoping to migrate to the next country overseas where its native citizens are already enjoying not only a higher standard of living, not only a higher standard of thinking, but also enjoying themselves as nonbelievers of faith in divine wisdom.
What we need in this country is more power of reason to generate our 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 as it is the only basis for spiritual growth and intellectual maturity.
We must therefore develop the habit of reading critically or judiciously. Indeed, 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 science and 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.
In the final analysis, those who refuse to read are no better off than those who can’t read at all.
Poch Suzara is the chairman of the High School Dropout Association of the Philippines.
- Poch Suzara
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