Philippine Atheists

The Philippines is Jesus Christ country. Roughly 90% of Filipinos identify themselves to be Christians. That is, if we include those who are so young and innocent to truly be aware of what religion is all about, but who will grow and almost as sure as the sun will rise from the east each day, will take up the religion they were born into: the religion of their parents. Many Pinoys are quite proud of the fact that the Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia (not true anymore, e.g.). You hear this repeated ad nauseum that it’s now to be considered a national self-therapy pastime for those who cannot find any other good thing to say about his country so that he can make himself feel a little nationalistic pride. It shows just how much our people is so desperately in need of consolation that something that at the very least should be a non-issue is turned into an object of pride, like a placebo. It’s like hearing the Japanese say they are proud of the fact that they are the only Kitty-chan nation in Asia. So what? Is that something to be really proud about? Our confused brethren think so. They are proud of something that is on close inspection was just an all too effective instrument used by the Spanish conquistadores to subjugate our ancestors - the uncivilized Indios - for more than three hundred years. Yes, three hundred freaking years! They say, Christianity is a precious gift from our colonizers. That’s how deceived our people are. Our European colonizers used the Catholic religion so effectively side by side with the mighty sword to keep the Pinoys ignorantly in line. So effective is this method that today, more than a century later, our nation is still predominantly Catholic like Spain and remain intellectually subjugated by faith and by the opportunistic bishops and priests and pastors. I long for the day when the Pinoy will finally be free from the shackles of the dogma of religion, of ignorance and superstition. That day will truly be a day of pride.

Popularity: 19% [?]

As if to insult the intelligence of all Pinoys, some Catholic bishops, Catholic groups and individuals are campaigning that the movie The Vinci Code be banned from being shown in the Philippines. The Tom Hanks’ starrer, based on a widely popular book, a work of fiction, by Dan Brown is due to be shown in local theaters starting May 18th. If we are to listen to its adversaries for the reasons why, we are given some pretty amusing reasons, some bordering on idiocy and ignorance. For example, Secretary Ermita who is yet to read the book (I haven’t read the book myself) said the story-line is blasphemous. Yes, a word still in vogue in our country in this time and age when it should have been obsoleted by the spirit of The Enlightenment. But if we are to take INQ7.net’s news story as gospel truth, Secretary Ermita used to be a member of the board of censors during the martial law era, so it is to be understood. According to the Malaya newspaper report on the same item, Secretary Ermita who know so well that DVC is a work of fiction, also said

“the film aims to confuse believers and plant seeds of doubt among those whose faith has no deep mooring.”

This is patently false since the film’s aim is simply financial profit, not to sow confusion among the believers. If Secretary Ermita should ban groups that sow confusion among those whose Catholic faith has no deep mooring, he should start banning the TV and radio programs of ADD and INC. Never mind that part of this Catholic faith is believing that a small piece of tasteless wafer can turn into the Body of Christ (warning : long article on Catholic Encyclopedia about absolute nonsense) after a few grunts from the officiating priest. If you can believe that, you can believe anything including the DVC story-line, hook line and sinker. But the tragedy of this, however absurd it may turn out to be if they will have their way, which I doubt they will anyway (thank goodness to reason) is that a few Catholics are trying to dictate based on the flimsiest of reasons what should be watched, or in this case, not watched, by the whole nation as if they speak for everybody including the non-Catholics and the nominal Catholics who cannot tell the difference between eucharist and eucalyptus but instead have undying faith in Tom Hanks. In this sense, their actions are an affront to the artistic freedom and free speech of the filmmaker, and the right of each citizen to choose which movies he/she will or will not see.

Popularity: 24% [?]

A new Yahoo! group is created for the Pinoy bible debunkers and the bible apologists to engage themselves in debates and discusions about the inerrancy of the bible among others.

Popularity: 15% [?]

From time to time, our theist brethrens have cried foul over the violence that has been pandered by Hollywood and other secular shows. They claim that such movies are an “affront” to their conservative values and morals.

Having said that, their moral aversions are not restricted to religious movies and other shows that harbour a religious overtone. The Passion Of The Christ, for example, had enough BDSM scenes to ensure that a seasoned BDSM practitioner would be able to relate to, if not achieve orgasms several times over. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 10% [?]

Today is Palm Sunday. It marks the beginning of Holy Week as celebrated by Christendom. Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem. I don’t really understand why they call it triumphant because a few days later he was to be arrested and put to death by crucifixion.

This time of week, specially on Thursday and Friday, Metro Manila will be reduced to ghost town as people head to their home provinces to meet friends and relatives and watch the endless reenactment of the life of Jesus Christ. This holiday season culminates to Easter Sunday commemorating the alleged resurrection of Christ. That is, if we believe all the story to be true. The picture above is the poon dead Christ as paraded in the streets like how the Italians did in the Godfather movies. Here is another picture of the same poon taken a few minutes earlier.

Both pictures taken Good Friday of 2003.

Popularity: 26% [?]

In the INQ7.net article Mar 26, 2006, the priest Jerry Orbos in his column Moments : Spread light, not lies started off with telling a lie masquerading as a “good” story.

THE story is told about an atheist couple who had a son. Both parents never told their child anything about God or about Jesus. One night, the couple had a fight where the father shot the mother and then shot himself. It all happened in front of the child. The child was sent to a foster home. One day, in a Sunday School, the teacher held up a picture of Jesus and asked if anyone knew who it was. The child in our story raised his hands and said: “That’s the man who was holding me the night my parents died.

Of course we know that the story is just fiction. When you tell that to the kids, let them know that it’s just a story. Just like Jesus Christ is just a story. In the same article, he wrote:

An example of the absurdities of a liar: It’s Ash Wednesday. A Catholic dines at a restaurant and orders shark, dolphin and whale meat. Told that there was none, he right away orders roast beef, lechon and steak thinking that, at least, he tried to order fish.

Well, the thing is, only shark is a fish. Dolphins and whales are mammals. Talk about spreading lies and half-truths.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Every so often, we read about priests or other religious leaders being accused of sexual crimes against children.

Most of these crimes implicating religious leaders take years to uncover, due to the shroud of secrecy around these monsters in sheep’s clothing, plus the fact that the pious community that supports them tend to invoke harsh censures against those who speak against the religious organization and it’s inherent, means that the whole extent of the damage may never be unraveled.

Imagine, then, the colossal extent of a massive cover-up, involving some 102 pedophilic Irish priests, who have been accused of sexually abusing some 350 children over the cause of some 66 years, stretching back to the good old days of World War II. Continue Reading »

Popularity: 9% [?]