Kapanalig Sa Wala - Literally, one who also have faith in nothing, is a play on words and wasn't really intended to mean something. It was made in jest to call the atheist camp when I was still actively debating god in one of the demised public forums out there. I think walang pananalig (faithless) would have proven to be more precise but I think the intended humor will be lost.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Independence Day

In my opinion, you don't have the magnitude to imply things like what you belive in, because if there's no God then you wouldn't have a purpose at all in this world even if you control the whole world with your computers.

If you will read "The Purpose Driven Life" and "Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom you'll be enlightened.


Believe you me I got this piece of unsolicited advice from somebody who admitted he got agitated because I wrote a statement of fact: that I don't believe in the concept of god. Based on this mere statement, he was able to write a lot about me. Frankly, I don't know how to react to his post because I don't like to stir the forum with a non-issue. But I think he read too much between the lines, flamed me, but got a blowback instead. Good for him.

I must tell him though, that the people who read The Purpose Driven Life are still in doubt about (a) their purpose, or (b) their life. Seriously though, I haven't read that book myself and I will do so only if somebody will lend me his copy - by all means, let me see if I will be enlightened! Do I need a purpose in life? Naaah. I am happy with what I have and what I am and what I live for. It doesn't sit well with me the idea that there is some cosmic force (farce?) out there that is interested in my life and how I live it, whether I screw up or not.

Happy Independence Day. I hope today your mind is free.

6 comments:

ted pagalanan said...

Hello there, Tony.

I have not read either book. Their titles spell a deductible idea that only those who are heavily armed and burdened with ghostly assumptions are likely to be enlightened in their very sense of the word, or likely to enjoy them, at the least. Indeed, we could judge books by their titles and, much more precisely, by their readers! It’s good for the economy; haste makes waste.

But still, we are unfortunate that the word “enlighten” continuous to exist in the vocabulary of the Enlightened Ones. Buddha would be terribly jealous. Maybe it’s better they have it patented for their exclusive use so that men of reason are spared of the torture of confusion. But if they mean they were enlightened, first with the conversion of their supernatural assumptions to intelligible terms in their reading of the books, then enlightened again, after showing them the objective and consequent why’s, how’s, what’s, when’s, and where’s of those assumptions, then we might consider the reconsidering of our affinity with the cherished ideas of the Enlightenment.

Even the first part of such enlightenment process would do, if they want me to talk shorter and avoid too many commas.

In my opinion, it is still the great Summa Theologica (second to the Bible, of course) that should accompany first the spiritual enlightenment of the Bible believers. The mental calisthenics involved in reading it would at least give them a drop of idea that in defending faith, the best shield is the mind. Then, right after that grueling and taxing introspection and realization, it’s high time to treat each of themselves with two bowls of sundaes each topped with bright red cherries. I mean, grab your "The Purpose Driven Life" and "Five People You Meet in Heaven" for carefree washroom reading, applying the idea of choosing the lesser evil first. Summa being the much lesser.

Your right Tony, read one only when lent one. And my friendly, yet still unsolicited, advice, read them only when it’s Lent, on Friday, when we have all the time, when Friday is Good, and dead is God.

Shouldn’t we have our Independence Day moved to another movable date?

Nevertheless, Happy Independence Day!

TonyB said...

Once I was with friends over lunch. It was somebody's birthday. One friend was gifting the others this particular book about purpose in life. I was thinking why is that book so popular? I never really intend to read it and up to now I don't except if i need it in order to understand and be able talk about it, if need be. You see, I don't share the "meaning" and "purpose" as defined by believers nor do I put a premium on those concepts as much as they do. If god does not exist, then there is really is no meaning or purpose in life except those that we ourselves invent. So in a way, I agree with him that I don't have a purpose. The answer to that inescapable conclusion is that I don't need one! If life is ultimately without purpose, tough luck! Accept the fact and move on.

http://philippineatheists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=175

Tony

jdesperida said...

I have two copies of The Purpose Driven Life, given to me as gifts. And I have to say it's one of the most badly written books I've read in my life. Take it from someone who values literature so much. ~_~

And, oh, Five People You Meet in Heaven is just another fiction book like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Don't rely on it so much. It wasn't even fun to read.

They made so much fuss about Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, it's just unfair that no one's carrying a complaint about The Purpose Driven Life up on international TV.

jdesperida said...

By the way, added you to my links. Sorry for adding you just now. ^^;

Thanks!

ted pagalanan said...

Thanks for the link, Tony.

Let me guess. The book is popular because, among other reasons, of the popularity of faith. Faith is popular. Though not everything written in the interest of it became a box-office hit, those that made a meaningful connection to it, by way of new approaches rekindling the believers’ consciousness (religious/spiritual) when the conventional scriptures and preaching start to lose bite, were instant pop icons.

Men, almost always, do not fail to identify themselves with the multitude, the strong in number and, before we forget, with easy, shortcut, and convenient concepts. They want to hear that they were shaped special creations bound for greatness in a resting place high above the clouds.

They don’t like Que Sera, Sera. But what will be will be, shall be what each of our (free) will chooses to.

I wonder when they will accept the fact and move on.

Euri said...

I tagged you here.