Philippine Atheists

OPEN LETTER TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Our world is wracked with malevolence and embroiled in violence not because of too little, but because of too much religion. Indeed, religion has always been and still is in the business of multiplying hate rather than be with the efforts of dividing peace and love and grace for the human race.

The Christians do not understand their own Bible. The Muslims do not understand their own Koran. In fact, if both believers took the trouble to read and understand each other’s holy book, they would learn that their scriptures are based upon older sources written by primitives who were more at home with horoscope but not the telescope or the microscope. Sacred books should be about dignity of the human community, and not about contrary beliefs that inspires enmity or hostility. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 26% [?]

DEFINITION OF CHRISTIANITY

Christianity: A middle-eastern religion that has its roots deeply entrenched in the doctrines of the Judaism. In the modern context, Christianity, and the role of a Christian, has taken some unconventional definitions.

In his lecture that was presented was delivered at the Battersea Town Hall under the auspices of the South London Branch of the National Secular Society, England, Bertrand Russell (Nobel Prize winner, Mathematician and philosopher) sought to define the boundaries of Christianity and the average Christian.

A Christian, in Russell’s terms, must fulfill a few basic criteria:

1. A Christian believes in God (in a monotheistic sense) and the immortality of the human soul.

2. The belief in Jesus Christ’s divinity, or at the very least, the belief that Jesus is in league with the wisest of men.

3. One is a Christian, in the sense of his/her nationality. E.g: One who lives in a Christian country, e.g a British citizen, is a Christian by virtue of his British citizenship. He continues to add that religion in a geographical sense is impractical, since one can live in a Christian country and not believe in a Christian creed.

Russell also noted that a Christian need not necessarily believe in a hell. Continue Reading »

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If a group of atheists is in a forum, what kind of discussion will they be able to carry? Will they be missing something if they don’t have theists in their midst to remind them that there is supposed to be the “other view”? Well, it seems to me to be so obvious. When atheists agree loosely that god is just make-believe, isn’t it then that everything becomes secular? Okay, maybe some atheists think that there is some inherent value in religious opinion that theists should equally contribute to the discussion. Why would leaving out the theistic viewpoint in the discussion automatically translate to just endless agreements? Continue Reading »

Popularity: 13% [?]

In the Pinoy Atheists forum that has been invaded by Christians, one can see mostly theistic nothingisms now rather than the usual atheism stuffs. Why can’t Pinoy Christians leave the atheists be in the only active forum for Filipino atheists? Haven’t they got enough make-believe already from other lists that they feel they have to invade whatever space is left for the Pinoy non-believers? They now freely talk about their “god” and their beliefs in a forum that’s supposed to be about atheism by and for non-believers! No wonder the Pinoy atheists are nowhere to be found nowadays. I wish the moderators will do something about it before it’s too late.  Continue Reading »

Popularity: 13% [?]

Recently, there has been a huge furore over the use of the word “faith”, in my fledging atheist yahoo group, Atheisthaven. A fellow atheist from Singapore, Hanchen, equated Atheism with faith, stating that an atheist has faith that God does not exist. A war of words ensued, and Hanchen was being accused of being “an agnostic masquerading as an atheist”. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 14% [?]

Abortion is often a subject of controversy amongst various religious and political groups. The reason I wish to bring up this issue, is the amount of bad press this simple medical procedure receives, from Religious Rights conservatives (mostly Christians) and certain right wing politicians (E.g the American Republicans).

The definition of abortion, according to the Oxford’s dictionary: • noun 1 the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. 2 the natural expulsion of a fetus from the womb before it is able to survive independently. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 10% [?]

Disturbing. This was actually written in one placard in the demostration held by Filipino Muslims earlier in Manila today - all because of comic strips. Is this a valid expression of opinion? This reminds me of the Iranian President who in a speech made last year said that Israel should be wiped out off the map or moved to Europe.

Popularity: 22% [?]

(Lyrics by James Blunt Link to video here)

There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
Tears drying on their face.
He has been here.
Brothers lie in shallow graves.
Fathers lost without a trace.
A nation blind to their disgrace,
Since he’s been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
Houses burnt beyond repair.
The smell of death is in the air.
A woman weeping in despair says,
He has been here.
Tracer lighting up the sky.
It’s another families’ turn to die.
A child afraid to even cry out says,
He has been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.
There are children standing here,
Arms outstretched into the sky,
But no one asks the question why,
He has been here.
Old men kneel and accept their fate.
Wives and daughters cut and raped.
A generation drenched in hate.
Yes, he has been here.
And I see no bravery,
No bravery in your eyes anymore.
Only sadness.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Contributed by Zach

its nearly that time of year where gargantuan bouquets of roses would make killerbees happy and all the motels in metro are full…yes, i am referring to valentines day, that one other day in the year where commercialism is at full swing as with christmas day, where hordes of would be gawains throng the lines to buy imported chocolates and gifts (if they’re on a tight budget, a single rose would do and the gurlash would say awwww)…

sad to say that i have never gone out on date on valentines day..either im always at work or im currently boyfriendless… not that i would want to follow trend or tradition. i did get the occasional gargantuan bouquet of roses and the occasional chocolate, but as for dates… naaah a fellow atheist asked me before i was invited to join the group if the question of atheism would pose a problem for me for choosing would be eligible boyfriends..little did he know that i was an atheist back then hahahaha…but i did get my share of the heartbreak, when the question of our religious differences arose. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 12% [?]

As it turned out, it was the 197th anniversary of Darwin’s birth yesterday, February 12th. I would have totally forgotten about it if not for that article on Slashdot about Christians celebrating it as their own. Nothing really wrong or bad about it, but I wish they can be more vocal against their co-theists - the fundamentalists - and help stop the demonization of science in general and this person in particular, who in one fell swoop unified the many but disparate life sciences of his time - biological sciences, social sciences, anthropology, et cetera, and made it fit snugly and in complimentary fashion with the other theories of the non-life sciences of his time by discovering (Alfred Wallace discovered the same theory at about the same time) his theory of Natural Selection as the main driving force of speciation as put forth methodically in his landmark book Origin Of Species first published in 1859. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 48% [?]