After Holy Week

Somebody commented that Holy Week must be the happiest holidays in Paete. I can only agree with him. It's during this time of year that friends and family alike gather together like that other holiday - Christmas - only better: no pesky ina-anaks. LOLs. The good part of Holy Week is that Christians or more precisely the Catholics and Aglipayans are not supposed to be obviously happy during this time and must pretend that they are grieving, and hence must not be somewhere else having fun like the heathens in Boracay. So your typical Paetenian Catholic family finds itself holed up in a small town of about 20,000 people with nowhere to go but in spite of it are genuinely happier. What I like about this special week is that people are up and down around town on slippers and pambahay endlessly checking the on-going preparation for the evening prusisyon. Most probably I'd bump into somebody I haven't seen for years. This year, I couldn't take a break since I have a more important reason to take my vacation next month. I wish I can take my usual vacation during next year's Lenten season. Until then, belated Happy Holy Week to the Paetenians!

A Matter Of Inconvenience

I am starting to have a reputation in the office regarding my non-belief. I don't know why it had to be so since our company values diversity highly and put it in concrete written policy for everyone else to understand. Every opportunity, the word "diversity" is emphasized. Something that I fully believe to be sincere and effective. I believe religion has no place in our work environment so this incident came as a real surprise for me. Just the other day, A, was talking with R about something related to their project when I passed by them. I had to excuse myself since R was blocking the aisle. Then out of the blue R called on me and ask me: you don't believe in anything do you? I was a bit taken off. It was loud enough for everybody to hear and I can say I was a little bit "embarrassed" by the frankness of the question. I said, of course I believe in something. Please be more specific. In god. R: you don't believe in god do you? No, I don't. A: what? I am sure you must believe in something higher or anything like that. If you define god, I may answer in the affirmative. Now if you'll excuse me. Why did they have to do that? I never discussed my atheism with them. In fact, I don't discuss my atheism at work. Specially at work. It's a non-issue. I work in a company of diverse culture and presumably of belief. But could it be that some people simply assume that this diversity doesn't extend to non-belief in the same sense that many Filipinos simply assume that freedom of religion does not extend to freedom from religion since the constitution clearly states god almighty. Why does atheism seem inconvenient to the average believer? If I don't believe in their god, why is it a big deal? It's not that people of other religions share their belief so why is atheism being singled out?

Rizal No Retracto

I found a gem of a blog. I am sure I will be back for more.

Short Film: Qwerty

In the Pinoy Atheists mailing list, somebody posted a link to a short film by one Paolo Dy. My knee-jerk reaction was that I thought it was lifted from an X-Files episode. Maybe it's just a coincidence but the many similarities cannot be denied. Of course I wish it's really an original by a Pinoy artist but I have to entertain my doubts. Today I have some time so I searched the net to be sure that my initial reaction carried some weight. I found the actual episode titled Conduit and it was first aired in late 1993. A few links will help, here and here, with the latter even have a snapshot of the mosaic of the missing girl, Ruby.

How did it happen?

Maybe some alien civilization had abducted Paolo Dy in his childhood and implanted in his memory this particular episode of the very popular TV series, or maybe there was a time machine and the X-Files script writers saw Dy's short film and used it as a sub-plot to an upcoming episode back in '93. Maybe Dy watched this episode (very likely given the popularity of the TV series) and the memory quickly settled in his subconscious and this short film is some sort of an artistic Freudian slip. Whatever the case may be, and if I find some time, let me try visiting the nearest Tsutaya shop and borrow some old DVDs so I can make a better comparison. For now, all I can say is: the truth is out there.

BTW, the short film itself is not bad, to the credit of Mr. Dy.

Philippine democracy is a farce

If the Filipino masses are intelligent enough to collectively arrive at decisions that are well argued and well thought of, our democracy will be a lot better shape than it is now. With the upcoming election, it's so obvious that our "democracy" is a cosmic farce. It will be proven once again when the votes are cast and counted, the winners announced. This is true at the local level, this is true for the national level. Our criteria and mechanism for choosing our public servants and leaders are irrational and not reliable. It is to the interest of the powers-that-be that the status quo be undisturbed. They need to keep the masses in line in order for them to continue to rule and enrich themselves. Our system is nothing but a public battle ground for families aspiring for power. Some things never change. We still have the ago-go Oreta of the Aquino clan as Exhibit A for this madness. We have old dynasties persisting, and new ones in the making. To my fellow Pinoys: congratulations, you deserve the clowns.

I Make People Sick?

Somebody, told me a few hours ago:

pinoy_atheist2000 (2007/02/15 21:47:56): Your presence makes me sick

[sic]

I guess I can live with that. I don't have time to be bothered by people who have so much time in their hands that even my existence becomes an issue. Get a life, dude! Or better yet, get a girlfriend!

I Was Once An Atheist

I often hear the score: like you "I was once an atheist" but I weighed the evidence and found {Jesus Christ|Allah|Natalie Portman} to be real! While I'd prefer not to doubt their sincerity, the phrase has become too common that it has now almost achieved cliche status. Now I take it as the usual yadda yadda you can skip to arrive at the point he/she is trying to make, and that is: I know the emptiness of your (atheism) argument because I have been there already and it ain't any better. I wasn't really a true believer so I cannot counter with "I was a believer once". All I remember is that I finally accepted "god" is nothing but an excuse not to pursue the big questions any longer. Once you accepted the "god did it" hypothesis as fact, all the important questions fall in the proper places, i.e., under the philosophical rug.

Confrontation or Tolerance?

It's been a long time since this has been last asked. Are you for spreading atheism by openly engaging the religionists in debates or are you for a live-and-let-live approach?

When it comes to religion, I used to think that "live and let live" is a nice approach that avoids direct confrontation with the believers but if the belief is so stupid, I am for the open engagement, or on/about areas where religionist thoughts hold sway. Philippine society is soaked in religion and superstition even now that letting the religionists and superstitionists run the show is not good for our general health as a nation. I hope slowly we can weigh in on the public debate concerning policies that have basis on theism but that affect us all nonetheless.

Delusion & Reality

"One man's delusion is another man's reality."

I heard a creationist tell me once before. Not that I subscribe to it but the die-hard creationists believe their world in as much as we do our own - and so to them, in some aspects of 'reality' with which we don't agree, am delusional, e.g., evolution. Taking this view will make the statement above 'true' based on their own POV. I don't think that my atheistic POV and their theistic POV are part of the same legendary elephant since atheism is the negation of theism - gods cannot exist and not exist (now nor before) at the same time. Although there are only two possible outcomes to the question 'does god exist?', it should be easy to decide which one is true and which one isn't true, right? It doesn't look like so clean given all types of variations of opinion in the spectrum . For me atheism is most probably true that I now take it for granted that it can be false. I'd say atheism is true by default - until theism is proven. (I hear the howls of the theistic defenders in the list now.)

But... I don't think the belief in a being called 'god' in itself is delusional. Delusion is too strong a word for me. But when the believer attaches many attributes and events to this 'god' such as that this 'god' is an active agent in their day to day lives, hhmm.... I believe that there are probably ET life waiting out there to be discovered but I don't think that intelligent ET have invaded our planets abducting humans (most specially American citizens) and experimenting on them.

About two weeks ago we bought this 500-piece jigsaw puzzle and started solving it but not before I took one piece and hid it in the binder on top of my PC table. As the puzzle requires a considerable effort, we only managed to finish 2/3 of it with the 1/3 lying unfinished for a week before it caught the fancy of my 4-yr old daughter again. So then we completed it except for one piece missing. I tried looking for it in the binder but it wasn't there anymore so I gave up. A few days later, my daughter found the missing piece under the rocking chair. When I asked her where she found it (it's a different piece from the one I first hid which I now presume to had been found by my wife earlier and put back into the puzzle box), my daughter said the fairy took it from the binder where she saw me looking days earlier, and the fairy moved it under the rocking chair. I told her that fairies are not real but she insisted so I did not pursue it. Is my daughter delusional? I'd think she has been deceived - that fairies exist - so I am reminding her from time to time that fairies are not real - just stories for kids. God is also just a story or but unlike fairy tales, it's one tale that most of us will be believing well into adulthood. Kids are fine for sometime believing in fairies but as for adults? I'd still say that most have been honestly deceived but if believers say their 'god' started talking to them, say to invade Iraq, that is delusional.

All For A Pack Of Lies

These soldiers died as well as tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, all for a pack of lies.

Pesky Born Again Christians

Once again, in a public forum, I found myself at odds with a born-again Christian who is so "sure" he holds The One Truth(tm). The discussion was for awhile about why the woodcarving industry of Paete has been on the decline while at the same time that of Betis (Pampanga) is slowly taking the title away from Paete. The first post was by a young priest commenting on the quality of religious carving from Paete in particular, based on a recent personal anecdote. Then out of the blue, this born again Christian, like a true disciple of his faith, started preaching on the Catholic "sin" of idolatry supposedly by commissioning graven images. While I would say the born again Christian have some small plus point on this issue (if the god of the bible exists of course) about what the bible say about graven images (of dead people also called saints by the Catholics) even if it's just for "veneration" (what does it really mean anyway), I find it funny only because I think both Catholics and born again Christians are arguing about something, in my view is completely worthless. At least some believers are honest to admit what is essentially very close to agnosticism. For example, one wrote

"sa pagkaka alam ko walang sinuman ang nkaka alam kung sino at saan ang daan para maligtas" [AFAIK, nobody knows who (will be saved) or which way is salvation].

And another replied:

"Base sa likas na kakulangan ng tao, ay totoo ang sinabi mo na walang sinuman na nakakaalam kung sino at kung saan ang “kaligtasan. Itong kaisipang ito ay “pinagtitibay” (?) ng seglar (secularist/humanistic/anthropological/rationalistic) na kabihasnan." [Based on the limitation of humans, what you said is true that nobody knows... This is reinforced by secular (humanistic/anthropological/rationalistic) civilization]

If only they can translate that "nobody knows" into something else altogether and stop arguing about it since if "nobody knows" about the topic, how do we suppose the discussion will be meaningful? You will find the rest of the postings here.

Affable Atheist

Affable atheist.

The Unholy Father Apologizes

Holy Cow! Mr. Pope apologized to the Muslims. It's a good sign or what? This pope guy is not "sinless" or "holy" - whatever those words mean. He is just as human as anybody else, prone to commit mistakes. Haha.

Anger with Pope Benedict XVI had intensified across the Muslim world Saturday, uniting Sunni Islam's leading authority, Malaysia's moderate premier, and Afghanistan's extremist Taliban militia.

Now, that's a potently dangerous mix of nutcases to get angry at the pope, don't you think? Is Mr. Pope afraid of going to heaven now courtesy of a fatwa?

OFWs as Export Commodities

Japan and the Philippines signed a free-trade agreement. Its most important feature is the provisions on the movement of labor. Rather than bringing the jobs home, this fake Arroyo administration sees OFWs like myself as export commodity. When I was to leave for Tokyo last June, the immigration officer held me until I produced a POEA permit. I don't usually get an OCW permit because of lack of time and to avoid the hassles of dealing with the bureaucracy. But if I didn't get the permit, I had to pay for travel tax and terminal fees for me and my family. Last June, I had to pay for three people, but still I had to go back to the POEA because the immigration officer wouldn't let me leave, which I could not afford. At the POEA desk, I had to argue with the guy on the desk because he was not very quick in processing my request, my flight was close to boarding and he was not in a hurry at all pausing to listen to his colleagues gossip. After getting my POEA permit, I went back to the desk where I earlier paid for my travel tax then terminal fees if I could get my money back (1,600 + 550 for three people or about 6,500 pesos). They said I can only get my refund from the main POEA office, which I suppose is the one in EDSA corner Ortigas avenue, and which is like saying: good luck dude. We always have to pay dearly for our government's inefficiencies. After going back to the immigration officer with the permit, she had to give me a lecture about the importance of getting the POEA for my own protection from my employer. I told her I work for a very good company, which is a fact. This company has done me more good than any of our government agencies, save the public school system. (I attended a public elementary school.) She insisted that I was making a mistake by not availing myself of the POEA permit, that if in case problems erupt in the country where I work, I will be helped by OWWA because I am registered. BIG DEAL. The war in Lebanon highlighted what kind of help I shall be expecting if and when that actually happens. The OWWA didn't have the funds nor the muscle for such a situation. Our govenrment is so weak and ineffective when dealing with events outside our country, and yet, one of the main push of this government is to continue to commoditize its citizen, to deploy to all corners of the world. If penguins hire househelps and nannies, we'd be in Antarctica.

Our government negotiated the free trade agreement with Tokyo which includes the provision for the deployment of nurses and caregivers. The pact is about free trade. We get electronics, in exchange, the Japanese gets our nurses among other commodities. Fair trade?

Deja Vu

A few hours ago as I just stepped into the elevator at the train station, I had my book (The World Is Flat by Friedman) ready on this page with my index finger acting as bookmark. I had been reading the book in my commute and it was such a good read I could not close it even as I walk to the turnstiles. Just as I stepped into the lift, I opened the book to continue reading it, I had a deja vu. Not only that I thought it was queer coincidence but a few moments right before the deja vu happened, I thought I predicted that I would be having the deja vu. Afterwards, I kept on thinking how was that even possible? In the end, I thought when I first got hold of the book, I must have casually opened it in that exact page and read a paragraph or two, but which I already put deep in my subconscious for forgetting. Then since I take the elevator quite often, the memories of both events were combined to make the collage that is the deja vu. Plausible? Hhhmmm....

Book on Japanese Occupation in Ilo-ilo

I just finished reading this book by Jose Maria Lacambra, Rising Sun Blinking: A Young Boy's Memoirs Of The Japanese Occupation In The Philippines published by Sinag-Tala Publishers. The copyright says that it's published in 1994. I picked it up in one of those numberless visits to Powerbooks' Filipiniana section but I kept on putting it down after starting to read it a couple of times. A few days ago, I ran out of light and small books to read on my commutes to and from the office so I picked it up again and at last I was able to finish it. I found it a good book overall and at only PHP100.00, it's a steal. Google only managed to give me 2 links to it when I turned to the web to see if it has caught the fancy of somebody else and posted some more info about it or the author online. The book is a light read and is only 250 pages but it did manage to capture some of the characteristics and traits of the Pinoys. I give it a four out of five stars and recommend it to all Pinoys most specially to Ilonggos and Guimaras islanders.

Tommy's Story

This is about the story of Tommy on which I was commenting on in one of the forums I participate in.

-------------------
a wrote:

Dear ----:

I guess the story is really told from the perspective of the instructor, John Powell. And you are correct, there was no direct mention on why Tommy was looking for God. However, Tommy did say the following:

Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks....
Well, it could be worse.
Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies' in life.

But of course! Thanks for pointing it out. Not believing and having no values nor ideals are two separate things. This makes the story suspect because it is associating atheism with *vices* when it's not really necessary. I searched for it in the net. Although Mr. Powell is still alive to confirm the story to be "true", unfortunately Tommy is no longer here to dispute it. For the sake of discussion, let's asume the story is true. But first, we must admit that one can be a believer, be fifty and think that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies' in life. This is so obvious now even as we speak.

As for meaning, one can be a non-believer and still find meaning (think Sartre here). Meaning is not the monopoly of (Christian) believers.

On Kant (so far I have only read his introduction to his philosophy Logic so I may be off the track here. This is how I'd put it using my own understanding.), if there must be an absolute code of morality - The Right Thing (tm) - then even a god must be governed by this absolute code. For example, if murder in any context is absolutely unjustifiable, then even god will have to abide by it. But if god is exempted, i.e., if a god sanctions murder (e.g., god of the Old Testament) and if this is justifiable simply because it's god (I have heard this often enough that even genocide is justified if it's god who is doing/ordering it) then there will be no absolute code of morality because god must be following a separate rule (murder is okay), while humans follow another set (murder is unjustifiable). But.... if there must be just one absolute set of values (e.g., murder is in any time and all cases is absolutely unjustifiable), then this absolute must be above both gods and humans alike. That god must abide by this same absolute code, it then follows that the same absolute code can and must be existing independently of the gods. Therefore you don't need a god in order to have absolute set of values. OTOH, if god is required in order to define this absolute moral code, again morality becomes arbitrary because god can say murder is a virtuous act and because it was god who said so, it becomes absolutely the right thing to do, magically. If, as you say, human minds can grasp these supposed absolute code of morality, why do we *have* cultural relativism? And why is morality evolving? Whereas slavery and race segregation used to be acceptable in the southern states, they are not now? And very recently, the Philippine congress moved to abolish capital punishment whereas it was re-instituted as lately as 1993?.

I personally believe that people do the right thing because they think it's the Right Thing to do given the context or circumstances. Man is capable of weighing the quality and consequences of his actions and act morally. Even if there is indeed an absolute code of morality, it still doesn't follow that there must be a god who put it there (Occam's Razor). It's just there. Now, Tommy could have been a better person than he already was without having to believe. This reminds me of this challenge made by one fundamentalist Christian website on whether turning to atheism could make an ex-believer a better person for example by making him stop beating his wife. The idea being, that there have been atheists who have lead sinful lives but who have stopped beating his wife after turning Christian. The question that should have been asked in the first (Christian) case was pointed out by one visitor is that, why despite being a Christian would one would lead *sinful* ways and want to beat his wife?

I apologize if I seem to be out of context. This being under the inspirational and spiritual. I just think that if a story should inspire us or uplift our "spirits", it must not come at the expense of other religion or in this case, non-belief. Just in case you are wondering, I do have very strong opinion against religion (not on belief itself) and its effects to our society but I put it somewhere else. For me, mere belief and non-belief are not ethical systems by themselves.

Silly Music Videos

I'm an 80s person. The hair, the Molly Ringwald movies, and the silly music videos.



Oh, would if I could go back to the time of less care and worries.

Catholic Education: Good or Evil?

My 3 1/2 year old daughter is attending a Catholic-run yochien since they came back last week. This morning, they had an activity for the Marian Festival. They had to bring flowers and offer them to, I presume to be, a graven image of Mary. My wife told me my daughter was asking her WHY do they have to offer flower to it. I couldn't remember if she told me what answer she gave her. I was alarmed because my daughter is just 3 1/2 years old. Even the coloring materials are pictures of Mary! My wife is Catholic. Because the yochien is near our place it is very convenient for us but I feel uncomfortable about the quick turn of events. My wife thinks it's okay because my daughter can always change her mind later just as *I* changed my mind on the matter. I am not worried about that. What I am worried and against is that why do they have to put the kids at such tender age to such activities centering to what I think is a LIE. I am afraid it's gonna make an impression on her and may confuse her later on. I plan to convince my wife to transfer our daughter to another non-religious yochien next year. It's gonna be a long argument about something that I had been avoiding for the longest time. I had given her many reasons why those activities are bad but since she is herself Catholic and a believer, she is quite irritated by my arguments and wont entertain anymore of it so I usually stop before if I see signs of breaking point. I will continue next opportunity to again argue my case but I would like to ask others who have been in the same situation before what have they done, by experience, given a similar situation and what have been the results.

I have many friends who are of different beliefs but at the same time were also Catholic-school educated since, they say, in their place the Catholic-run schools are simply the best in their country. This is of course debatable given that being religion-run, the world-view and frame of reference itself may exclude the teaching of more "radical" theories because the education policies are being decided by religious orders who have something to protect. This is exactly like in the high school I attended where sciences were deplorable. For example, biology should teach evolution as a science devoid of any references to religion but all I could remember being taught were taxonomy, cells, basic anatomy.

Gloria Should Learn Honesty From Singapore's PM Lee

Letter I sent to INQ7.net just now. Please refer to this link for further reference.

---------------------

Dear Editor,

That the Philippines is truly the basket case of Asia is no longer disputable. Why we are a long way to go in the Asian Politician Honesty survey. Take for example the recent elections in Singapore where PM Lee said:

"What is the opposition's job? It's not to help the PAP do a better job ... because if they help the PAP do a better job, you're going to vote for me again and they're going to be out of a job for a long time. So their job is to make life miserable for me... Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore, I'm going to spend all my time thinking what's the right way to fix them, to *buy my supporters votes*, how can I solve this week's problem and forget about next year's challenges?"

On fixing the votes, it seems that Gloria needs to learn a lesson or two from PM Lee about honesty. Why say "I'm sorry" when you can just brag about it?

Sincerely,


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