In an opinion titled Theological Clarity about the Catholic Church ‘clarifying’ the concept of Limbo, the Inquirer wrote:
The fact that Filipino Catholics have eagerly made the ITC document an agenda for absorbed conversation should indicate that they not only have potential for theological sophistication, but also have the commitment and devotion to active Christian humanism.
Now ‘potential for theological sophistication’ is a funny phrase. The devoted Pinoy Catholics don’t just have potential for theological sophistication, they are achievers. Trailblazers even. But seriously, why can’t the Catholic Church just admit it and call the concept of limbo what it really is - bullshit?
Despite being very much Jesus Christ country, an honest inspection of the Philippine culture will reveal that behind the overwhelming dominance of Christianity as the main religion most notably the Roman Catholic Church, saying the Philippines is a Christian nation is wrong and a gross misrepresentation of the true nature of our nation’s religious diversity. Aside from the roughly 85% Christian population, about 5% of the population profess the Muslim faith while another 3% are Buddhists, mostly Chinese-Filipinos. Additionally, we have the small minorities of animists like the Aetas, the Sikhs, agnostics, and of course atheists. The constitution of the republic guarantees equal right and protection to these minorities. The Christian majority owe it to the religious minorities not to misrepresent our nation with the misplaced pride that our nation is the only Christian nation in Asia, because it’s not.
The Commission on Elections or COMELEC is reportedly banning campaigning on Christendom’s Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I think the separation of church and state principle ought to be tested in the legal system if we are to understand its intent, to let the courts interpret it for everyone alike - Christian or not. With the current state of affairs, I’d be surprised if the framers of the constitution understood it as well or they were merely suggesting these things they have written in the constitution of the republic. Only few of them have expressed opinion on the matter though an opinion is still much better than no opinion at all. About the election rule in question, the COMELEC official said the ban is “religion-blind.” Who does he think he is fooling? It has Christianity written all over it in big bold red letters! It is very much religion aware and religion-advancing short of establishing Christianity as official religion of the state. Quoting the article, “he said Muslim candidates and all areas where Islam was the only or dominant religion were also covered by the prohibition” which of course implies that there are only two religions in the Philippines. While Thursday and Friday are already official public holidays of religious nature, the government getting out of its way to ban activities of public nature so as not to “offend” the sensibilities of the majority Catholic populace during the holdiays already made for them is, IMO, too much. The least it could do is observe the days as if they are regular days. The government, or the COMELEC in this matter, should be there to promote the public good and not to promote the Catholic public good. Otherwise, let’s just call the COMELEC, CACOMELEC or Catholic Commission on Elections so everybody understands.
God exists, but only as a metaphor. God simply means - I don’t know. In all the years that I have participated in or watched debates, often god boils down to what fills the voids in our knowledge. God is the sum-total of our collective ignorance. Why is there love? Can you explain love? Why is there life? Can you explain love? Why is there something instead of nothing? We all must be wishing we have all the answers. But we are still far from getting the answers unequivocally crisp. We are all blind men describing the proverbial Truth Elephant. The elephant is gigantic and a challenging one indeed.
I believe that reality - the Truth Elephant - is objective and that we perceive this objective world with subjective senses and fallible intellect. The idea of an objective world - subjective perception has been there for more than two thousand years. With this principle as guide, I make the most sense of what the world is to the extent only of my own short life experience. I believe our knowledge of reality is nothing compared to the amount of world-data that our brain has to possess and process in order to be able to synthesize all our ideas and arrive at a complete description of the One Whole Truth. Reality is a continuous unraveling. I think that if ignorance can be quantified, the value will be astounding compared to our current knowledge also quantified. This vast amount of ignorance set against the iota of knowledge we now possess is what makes the god idea thrive after thousands of years of changing shapes and colors. The idea of god feeds on our ignorance. As we discover new knowledge, pieces of the puzzle, a puzzle with infinite number of pieces, fall into place to form rough pictures, and knowledge frontiers pushed outward. It seems that there is an unlimited amount of space and time that the frontiers of knowledge can be pushed outwards such that there will always be an ocean of ignorance that stretches far beyond. This is the ocean of ignorance where god can be found. This is the ocean of ignorance that god represents.
In Jesus Christ country my dear Philippines, being an atheist can be so trying. If you tell people about your atheism up-front, and I am finding myself doing that more and more now than before such that nowadays I make it a point to do that all the time if I think it will clear things out and avoid any surprises, it becomes difficult to strike any meaningful conversation about why people believe what they believe without getting myself into debates that are sure to turn acrimonious. Often, the response is so-so, but sometimes it’s difficult for people to understand that you don’t believe because the concept of god - in all its nonsenseness - is for them self-evident. For most of my adult life, I thought I could sweep under the rug the question of “god”, to reduce it as a non-issue, but events the last five years woke me up from my long slumber to the reality that there are people bent on forcing their faith into shaping public policy that affects everybody believers and non-believers alike. If that be our collective fate, then let us bring the debate into the mainstream consciousness.
Is YouTube censoring atheistic/anti-religion materials? Apparently, it deleted the account of a popular atheist Nick Gisburne when he uploaded a video targeting not Christianity but the religion of peace: Islam. The original video was allegedly deleted by the site after being tagged by other users as having “inappropriate content”. Here is the same video uploaded by another user.
