Back to BRSP Website

Letter to Time Magazine

Gentlemen:

If Jesus Christ sacrificed himself to make amends for the sins of God, indeed, to ask the human race to forgive divine grace, then I would begin to love, worship, and adore Jesus Christ as the greatest and noblest of men who ever lived.
Poch Suzara

Wealth of the Mind

Dear College Professor,

I felt quite moved by your letter. Thank you for writing it. I sympathize much with your plight as a teacher. Indeed, a teacher, like the artist, philosopher, and the man of letters can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner sense of creative discipline.

You are quite right. I hated school as I was eager to learn. However, Instead of a thrill, La Salle for me, was a threat. My questions were always belittled, disparaged, if not turned into a mockery. None of my teachers conveyed, even as a hint, that questions are much more valuable than answers. Indeed questions are more valuable than answers because, in time, answers become obsolete. Except perhaps for the Multiplication Table – the perfect model of truth which is precise, certain, and free from all temporal dross. But notice our college graduates: they are much more at home with obsolete answers than they are equipped to ask intelligent questions: – the whole basis of science and the scientific way of thinking.

Teachers are the guardians of civilization. In the Philippines, however, teachers are the guardians of faith. Sadly, faith is the sacred word we often use to justify our lazy mentality. But look deep at the man of faith. He is like a drunkard who clings to a
lamppost for support; not illumination.

Consider education not as an accumulation of facts and dates, but as an ennobling intimacy with the lives of great men and women. Great individuals who had the power and the courage to put beauty where nature has put only horror. We think of education as the transmission of a certain body of settled knowledge, when it should rather be the development of a scientific habit of mind. Consider education not as a
preparation of the individual “to make a living,” but as the development of every potential capacity in him for the comprehension and appreciation of this life in this world. Education is the reason why we behave like human beings. We are hardly born human; we are born wet, ridiculous and like malodorous animals; we become human, we have humanity thrust upon us not with faith of the unknown, but precisely with the knowable that builds up the power of knowledge.

Ours is not a society of all for the well-being of all. Ours is a society of the Sick Man of Asia. We even praise the Lord for developments in our sick society. We pride ourselves as a people who have faith in God. We are proud to believe that the enemy of our religion is science. As a matter of fact, the enemy of our religion is not science, but other religions. At any rate, what can you expect of a people who, when they were children in school, were taught to believe not only in the power of God, but that same God will provide for them in the future?

Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind. Sadly, we Filipinos have more faith in sacred lies than we are interested to discover the truth. I blame the schools, colleges and universities. Lifetime critical thinking and the joy of habitual reading have yet to take root in our system of education. Thus, freedom of expression, the growth of creative impulse, the enhancement of open-mindedness are treasures that should be the main part in any system of education. The frontiers of knowledge are never closed.

If we were permitted, for example, to reason out our religious beliefs with logic, it is clear we all ought to be not Christians, but Jews because Jesus, our Savior, was born a Jew, lived a Jew, died a Jew, and admitted that he was fulfilling the Jewish religion. Notice the place where Jesus was born. Israel today is not a Christian country, but a Jewish State. In the meantime, thanks to our so-called education, we have more prepared for next life and hardly feel at home with this life in this world. Yes Sacha, just like you and everyone else, I too was born an atheist. No baby is born with a religion. All babies are atheists: Free from theism. No baby is born a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Baptist, or a Catholic. We are all born free and then indoctrinated. A few of us, after having attained the age of intellectual discretion, become, in the real sense of the term: Born-again atheist. Indeed. I gradually became a born-again atheist after much studying and reading the bible. Properly read the bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived by man. I have written a booklet about my biblical findings. If you give me your mailing address, I’d happy to mail you and your associates free copies for your perusal. You might be surprised to learn that theologians now dead knew no more than the theologians still living. Now you might ask: what happens to me after death? Well, It does not bother me to realize that I will be a nothing after I am dead; just as much as it does not bother me to realize that before I was born, I was also a nothing. I do not care for salvation in the next world. I care, however, to leave this world a much better place than how I found it. At least in the humanitarian sense.

What we Filipinos need is not more indoctrination based on faith; but more education based upon the attitude of scientific inquiry. Liberation of creativeness ought to be the principle of reform in our system of education. After all, poverty of the mind is undesirable in any sane society. But how is wealth of the mind possible for our youth when our schools, colleges and universities are under the control, if not owned by bigoted businessmen in cahoots with corrupt politicians who in turn are forgiven daily of their sins by the silly theologians?

In the final analysis, there is nothing tragic about having been raised by ignorant parents or grandparents at home; or educated by ignorant teachers in school; or indoctrinated into one’s faith by ignorant priest in church. What’s truly tragic, however, is if, in later life, under more fear and ignorance, we refuse to learn
anything truthful at all. We just carry on with our children and grandchildren to have faith in the same old religious hypocrisy; to have faith in the same old political stupidity; and to have faith in our insane society. Indeed, in this country, thanks to our education based on faith, we all love God up there, and we do so by hating one another down here.

With all good wishes,
Poch Suzara

IT’S TIME TO GROW UP!

Dear Editor:

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a little town in what is now Israel in the Middle East. Israel is not a Christian country. It is a Jewish State and surrounded by Muslim countries. For countless years religion has inspired hate and bloodshed between these religious believers. Terrorizing and killing each other over who owns what land God gave to whom. Instead of believing that everything is God’s creation, each would rather believe the other is the heretic and therefore worthy of destruction in God’s name.

Now if Jesus, the Son of the Creator of heaven and earth, cannot straighten out the mess in the land of his own birth; if he cannot there establish peace on earth and goodwill among men, what grounds have we Filipinos to hope for Jesus to straighten out the mess too in the Philippines - the only Christian country in Asia today?

Jesus preached: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3). Well, I think we should stop behaving like mindless children. It’s time to grow up. Our grandparents had children and grandchildren. We too have children and grandchildren. They too will have children and grandchildren. I ask: When are we going to enter the kingdom of mature thinking men and responsible thinking women developing a sane society for all Filipinos to enjoy over the years to come right here on this earth?

Growth of a people comes with the elimination of falsehood that corrupts the human mentality inspired by childish theology. Development of a nation comes with the recognition of the truth behind the power of science, the scientific way of thinking, and technology. In the meantime, in this God-forsaken country, we have yet to embrace not the freedom OF religion, but the freedom FROM religion.


Yours Faithfully
POCH SUZARA

God and Health?

by Poch Suzara

During biblical times religion cured diseases like leprosy.
Religion then was good medicine. Notice, however, leprosy has not
been eradicated. Lepers are still in our world today.
If religion were good medicine, why cure diseases only
in retail. Why not wholesale? Genuine science will begin to believe
if religion can make not diseases, but health contagious. What’s the power of prayer for?
Last century, many disease-stricken patients in hospitals
were cured with prayers. But where are those people today if not buried in the cemetery.
In the miracle of longevity, I would leave the task
with science, not religion. In the meantime, isn’t it so obvious
that as soon as we are born, we begin to die? What’s the fuss all
about? But if we must die. let us die sober, and not drunk with
lies. On top of a coffin before my own burial one day, a colorful
banner will read: Today it’s me. Tomorrow it’s you.

Intelligent Design in Nature

The creationists continue to amaze me. Specially those who insists that if there were no Creator, there would be no “intelligent design in nature.” Let’s examine, with a healthy dose of imagination, the creationists’ proposition. I should submit at once that if there were intelligent design in nature, such designs are as intelligent as the hairstyle of the evangelists preaching sacred lies on television.

Let’s briefly explore “intelligent design” in the cosmos. How intelligent is it that everything out there, billions of galaxies are existing too far away from each other and traveling and getting farther every second away from each other? How are we to travel to the other planets and stars? Even nearby Andromeda, the closest galaxy to our Milky Way, is 2.2 million light years away (a light year is about trillion miles). One heck of a long and boring journey.

Our own solar system, while relatively compact, is still a traveler’s nightmare. It takes our fastest probes years to reach the outer planets, and once we get there, we find not angelic nor demonic spacemen, but only find frozen rocks or giant balls of gas. The point is: design implies a designer; but more than that, design implies purpose. It’s hard enough to prove that the universe was designed by a designer. What’s even impossible to prove is that the existence of the universe has a purpose.

The inner planets are almost as inhospitable. Mars is a dead, airless, dry, and frigid planet. One day, however, with scientific intelligence, Mars will probably be terraformed to make it habitable for humans. Venus is caught in an endless loop of a runaway greenhouse effect. Mercury’s surface temperature is over 450 degrees Celsius. Earth is our only home and we have yet to learn to love our home planet earth. But thanks to our conflicting religious beliefs, we only love God in heaven up there by hating one another down here on earth.

Now comes the major premise of intelligent design - that life, specially, human life, is too complex to have just happened. If the creator had power, wisdom, and knowledge, it was shown by his creation of man. Unfortunately, we came not from among the best blueprint. In fact the creator failed to look at His master plan before starting work. Look at the facts.

First, if we admit the desirable aspects of nature as products of design, we must also admit the undesirable aspects of nature as products of design. After Adam and Eve, who was the designer who designed the Talking Serpent who caused the Fall of Adam and Eve? Oh well, let’s leave that behind. Now there’s the problem of sexual reproduction. Requiring two people to make babies is so inefficient, painful and messy. Sexual reproduction breeds not only children, but also contempt. The male contribution to the process of making babies is so insignificant. It is accomplished in just a few seconds. The female then spends the next nine months in discomfort waiting the birth. The male, on the other hand, gets on with his life bragging about his God-given erectability.

Now if the creator were an intelligent designer, Why would he just take a rib off Adam to design an Eve? Now look at babies born into this world. They come out of mother’s womb wet, hungry, crying, and indeed, as unbelievers of the faith. None of the baby boys born have one less rib than the baby girls. Now if circumcision were important to the creator, why did he put that extra foreskin in the boy’s genital to begin with? Sounds unintelligent
to me. But then again, why couldn’t the creator designed the human stomach exactly like that of the Boa Constrictor, ( in order to survive, that snake needs only one full meal a month ). In this way, with a better designed stomach - the 800,000,000 women and children throughout the world need not go to sleep hungry every night.

Next comes the fact that we are bipedal. That means when we are young we fall down a lot. And when we are old we fall down a lot. The other day, my best friend, who is neither young or old, but a devout Christian, fell down from bed and painfully broke his leg. And it wasn’t even his God-fearing wife who was with him in bed.

Man is intelligently designed? How come we can’t breath water? Is that important? Think about it – what creator would make us so we can only breath oxygen, then puts us on a planet which is 78% water? Hello? Anybody home out there? The creator gave us a useless organ like the appendix, but couldn’t afford to throw in fins and gills as part of our physical nature so that we may live deep in the sea as well. All knowing and powerful, indeed.

We are intelligently designed? From caducity to senility, we get sick, grow bald, get fat, lose our sense of hearing, teeth fall out, skin sag, bones become brittle, sexual performance fades, vision fails, arteries clog, senses become dull, memory becomes unreliable. Children are born ignorant in that the priesthood industry takes advantage of the situation by making it even more ignorant for the glory of God in heaven.

Really, how so intelligent a design is the human body? Is it really a sacred temple of God? But the human body is also the happy home of some 2 billion germs, viruses, bacteria and other nasty little monsters trying hard everyday to kill vital human organs always at war against the human immune system. In the long run, however, as in cancer, a group of these little monsters engages in a career of imperialism, and in bringing the rest of the human body to death, these little monsters would decree its own death too.

Most obviously the argument against intelligent design is the fact that we have a free will. We experiment. We observe. We discover. We think. We theorize. We disagree. We quarrel. We extrapolate. We make war against each other. If humans were the result of a master plan, the creator could have made us gifted not with a free will, but only with a good will. In this way, we need not doubt the existence of a creator or doubt the claims of his inspired writers of the bible. We could then learn to live peacefully and intelligently together as one big happy family exploring deeper the wonders in nature of which we not apart, but precisely a part of nature.

In the final analysis, intelligent design is an argument from ignorance. It is equivalent to the “true or false” or “none of the above” test category. Intelligent design is a sophisticated way of admitting “I don’t know.” It is like asking: who designed the “turtle’s shell?” “I don’t know.” “You don’t know.” “Therefore we both know that the creator designed the turtle’s shell.” Indeed, an intellectually honest person, when confronted with something
he knows nothing about, will admit at once that he knows nothing about it. In the meantime, in order to conclude that an object was designed, we must first establish that it was manufactured. Therefore, in order to conclude that the natural universe was designed, we
must first establish that it was manufactured by an intelligent manufacturer.

Nobody is perfect; but however scientifically well-informed many of us have become, the creationists would still insist that we all came from dust and unto dust we shall all return. But really, if the Creator made man in his own image and likeness, it follows that the Creator too is made of dust. Now, isn’t it rather silly to pray to a Creator who is made of dust to save our silly souls that’s made of dust too?

POCH SUZARA is the chairman of the HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES.