Join the Philippine Atheists forum and discuss atheism in the Philippine context. What does it mean to be an atheist in one of the most religious societies in the world? Or if you are the theist who is open to discussion and learn in the process, or just simply to engage in a religious debate with atheists and co-theists alike, come and join us. If you have not joined yet, please click here.
For those who were not able to attend the First Filipino Freethinkers Forum, the videos are now available from the Filipino Freethinkers’ YouTube channel. Enjoy!
Congratulations to the Filipino Freethinkers community for this successful forum!
All systems go for the First Filipino Freethinkers Forum happening on February 28, 2009 at the U-View in Fully Booked in Taguig City. There is limited slots for this event so please reserve now. For details, please checkout the Filipino Freethinkers website.
Taking a hint from an enterprising guy, I have created new accounts in YouTube and FaceBook. If you have accounts on those sites, please join/link with the community there. See you there!
Today we celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. The man most responsible in illuminating us about human origins. Happy birthday Charles!
Below is a picture and caption from Wiki about the first documented sketch of the Tree of Life drawn by Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin’s 1837 sketch, his first diagram of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species (1837) on view at the the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.
There was a meet-up by Filipino Freethinkers limited to 20 people to discuss and plan the First Filipino Freethinkers’ Forum at the end of this month and as earlier announced here and elsewhere. The meet-up was very successful with 26 people attending. You can check out the participant write-ups here (Benj), here (Danny), here (Max), here (Mike), and here (Rence). You can check all the photos in the Filipino Freethinkers web.
Congratulations Red for a wonderful job organizing it!
On February 28th, 2009, Filipino freethinkers will gather for the First Filipino Freethinkers’ Forum. If you are interested and consider yourself a freethinker, please join Pinoy Atheists at Yahoo! groups.
The Mindanao problem cannot be solved by drawing imaginary lines dividing our territory based on what is the majority religion prevalent in the various regions, for example the imaginary homeland called Bangsamoro. That is just emphasizing one of the reason why the conflict exists in the first place - overly emphasized religious differences resulting to skewed public policies favoring the majority - making the minorities feel like outsiders. At the highest level, it boils down to the Catholic Church’s dominance over the religious minority at the national level. If you cede some parts of the country to the Muslims, you are technically betraying the new religious minorities that will be created in the new Muslim-majority territory and the cycle repeats perhaps in a smaller scale. Then what? The Muslims will impose their morality into public policy, e.g., shariah law, on everyone in their new mandate as the Catholics had been doing for centuries already. In my opinion, part of the long-term solution to the problem with the Muslim minority is a road that has not been considered by our very religious Christian/Catholic/Protestant leaders because it’s against their religious beliefs: secularization of the Philippine government. This is mandated by that piece of paper we call the Philippine Constitution, that the separation of church and state should be inviolable. But what does it mean if this principle has not taken root in our society? It’s like anything else in the constitution, really. Ignored. Our government has four branches: the three, executive, legislative, and judicial are supposed to be (in theory) co-equal, while the fourth branch is the non-taxpaying, vast land-holding Catholic Church whose role is to be our governments’ authority on truths and morals and represented by their bishop leaders, and so is more privileged. This is a historical artifact of the officially the same Church and State during the Spanish era. As long as our government keep on consulting the Catholic Church for policies that affect everybody, the motivation to secede will be stronger. Our country should honor the principle of separation as enshrined in the constitution as an element to any peace agreement with the religious minorities.
Case in point, and this was highest in the time of Cory, the president attends Catholic mass in official capacity. Even masses are held in Malacañang from time to time. The president and her government as well as all public officials should practice their religion privately. We can start by issuing rules and policies like official public events should not be started with a Christian prayer, public schools should not build a Catholic or Protestant chapels within its territory, or that the Cult of Mary or the Santo Nino should not be allowed to display their imahens in public offices.
On behalf of the entire Philippine Atheists community, I would like to congratulate Benj Espina of Atheista.net for winning the Philippine Blog Awards 2008 Best Personal Blog category.
Somebody told me this story about a mother who gave birth a hospital at MCU in Caloocan where her baby was delivered. The mother just had her 8th (or 9th) baby and that she just had tubal ligation as recommended to her by the doctor and to which the mother had gladly accepted the procedure. The mother didn’t really want that many babies but didn’t know what her options were until told by the doctor. (I say kudos to that doctor!) The mother was in her early 30s so we can say that at the pace she was delivering souls into this world, she could still deliver four or five more babies if not sterilized. The mother was ignorant about her choices. Also, tubal ligation is a safe procedure and is very effective.
The consolidated reproductive health and population bill (substitute bill to HB 4110 now filed in the current 14th congress) mandates some basic things to be in place, a structure, a program and an assured budget allocation towards promoting choice on reproductive health, for informing our women about their choices and providing the necessary and non-discriminatory access to these choices. This the government cannot do now because it’s not automatic and the Church leaders are opposing these programs each time the national government attempts to put something in place. Only if we have people like Juan Flavier running DOH can get things done even partially effectively and only while it lasts. The Church leaders don’t speak for the belief of its flock but they are the most influential with some bishops even threatening denial of communion (an absurd threat in this time and age except when made to a sagrado Katoliko types) to the lawmakers who support the bill. It’s a relief that we no longer live in the times of Rizal where the church and state is one and the same and where opposing the church/state can lead to a speedy mock trial and an execution.
The Catholic leaders just like many among us are ignorant about many things specially on issues on population. This ignorance is a product of our low-quality educational system which is in turn is a part of our low-quality-educated society. Unfortunately, again the Catholic Church plays a big part in this collective ignorance since there are many “high-quality” private schools run by religious institutions in the country that is short-changing our future by faithfully educating the people with religious BS but at the same time selectively teaching biological sciences to produce a population with collective ignorance of Charles Darwin’s contribution to the sciences. One cannot appreciate the real danger of the world with limited resources on the brink of collapse because the gradual manner that it is happening is hardly noticeable on a day to day basis. What’s worse is ignorance of the accelerating pace of this environmental collapse due to the damage caused by unsustainable population growth helped brought about by irrational policies. This reproductive health bill is one of the things that should help us stem the tide of population growth if enough mothers can be informed of their choices and be able to avail of these choices. Even with a steady population growth with sustainable development has environmental consequences in the form of rising demand on the limited resources the planet could offer.
One major objection by the moralist crusaders about the bill is that it will encourage promiscuity. Hello? They are really in the Dark Ages. They cannot stop what is already there. Many people are already having sex before and outside of marriage and with multiple partners. They no longer need encouragement. In fact, presumably many priests and bishops have presumably had sex at one time or anotheer so I don’t subscribe to the insinuation that they lack the experience on this matter. But if two consenting adults have sex and if all parties involved consented, what possible business do the priests and bishops have in it? Another objection is that the bill will legalize abortion. The latest bill is even more explicit in stating that it will not. Another objection is because of they say, “we don’t own our body”. That is of course a complete religious bullshit.
Catholics should be free to think and come to the conclusion by themselves. The church leaders are just as ignorant and fallible about many things and so don’t have the authority on truth. If history will be the basis, the Catholic hierarchy has even a very poor record on this regard, specially where science is concerned. (For example, the Catholic church has not yet fully acknowledged evolution as true.) The thinking that priests and bishops and popes and pastors know best is a sure ticket to being misled, hopefully without getting your money. This include the truth on reproductive health and population issues that should be debated freely and without coercion (e.g., no threat of any kind like from organized religion) based on empirical facts.
Finally, the non-Catholics should be able to avail of their medical choices without the Catholics refusing them.
