Questions For the Theologians

QUESTIONS FOR THE THEOLOGIANS

By: POCH SUZARA

Here are theological questions I asked years ago. Today I am asking more questions and I hope the theologians have already found, for me, the answers. Until then, I will be happy to remain as a proud atheist. After all, like everybody else, I too was born an atheist.

If God created everything, including space and time, where was God located before he created space, and when was it before he created time?

If God had to create light, where did darkness come from to begin with? Wasn't God
existence brilliant enough?

How could Adam and Eve be guilty of the Original Sin since before everything else there was, first of all, the Original Creator?

If sin is defined as the willful omission against the law of God, does it not follow that everyone should keep away from religion so as to avoid committing sin?

If prayer works, how come we have to construct more hospitals for the sick and construct more insane asylum for the politicians in charge of government?

If God were the great Designer of nature, how come He had to design 23,000 different kinds of beetles? What went wrong with the first beetle design?

If God gifted man with a free will and God does not interfere with our choices of good and evil, what is the purpose of our praying to God to “lead us not into temptation?” And why was the devil also gifted with the same free will to make a mockery of our prayers daily?

If God so loved the world, why does he allow the devil to make the believers of one religion hate the believers of another religion? Or even allow the believers of the same religion hate each other?

How spiritually healthy are we if the only way we can make God happy up there is not to enhance our freedom and democracy but to only embrace a theocracy down here?

Theologians say that only God can make a tree. How come the theologians had to wait for science to explain to them the nature of trees and its environmental relationship to human survival on this planet?

If there is power in prayer, how come God does not listen to the prayer of the theologians? And how come even the theologians themselves do not know why God does not even listen to his own mother Mary praying for the sinners who have now grown to be the criminals dominating our sick society?

The theologians continue to assure us that God loves the Filipino. If this were true, how come, in God’s name, we are heartless to each other as a people? Again, we are assured that God loves the Philippines? If this were true, how come we are mindless of each other as a nation and all done in God’s name and for His glory in heaven?

If the theologians were honest investigators of the truth, why are they not truthful enough to admit that the Revealed Truth has yet to be revealed?

Mt final question for the theologians: Why is it that everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die? And if you want to die, why is it an offense against God if you have the free will to desire to take your own life?

As a publicly declared and an openly avowed atheist, why should we not agree with Bertrand Russell. On the question of death, he wrote: “If we must die, let us die sober, and not drunk with lies.”

Incest in the Bible

Dear Bible Lovers:

INCEST IN THE HOLY BIBLE

1. Lot with his elder daughter, Genesis 19:33
2. Lot with his youngest daughter. Genesis 19:35
3. Abraham with his half sister, Genesis 20:12
4. Nahor with his niece, Genesis 11:27, 20
5. Reuben with his father’s concubine, genesis 35:22, 49:4
6. Amram with his aunt, Exodus 6:20
7. Judah with his daughter-in-law, Genesis 38:16-18
8. Amnon with his sister, 2Samuel 13:2, 14
9. Absalom with his father’s 10 concubines. 2 Samuel 15:16;
10. Herod with his sister-in-law, Mark 6:17-18
See also Amos 2:7 and First Corinthians 5:1 and how
about Cain (Genesis 4:17) and Seth (Genesis) 4:26?

FILTH REPEATED IN THE HOLY BIBLE

1. But Rab-sha-ken said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you.
2 Kings 18:27

2. But Rab-sha-ken said unto them, Hath my master sent me
to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? Hath he
not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may
eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?
Isaiah 36:12

The bible is the best seller in any bookstore yearly. It’s also the only book that nobody reads from cover to cover. Indeed, every bible reader takes it for granted that the bible is a book written by inspired authors of God. It is quite sad and unfortunate, however, that the best part of the bible -- the readers -- are not as equally inspired by God. Meantime, there are 37 different version of the bible sold in bookstores today. But during these past thousands of years, there has been only one Multiplication Table and it was not even formulated by inspired mathematicians of God. Indeed, the perfect model of truth is the Multiplication which is precise, certain, and free from divine inspiration.

The 4th commandment says: Honor thy mother and thy father. This is nonsense. Suppose your mother was just one of the wives of a congressman? Or you father is a jobless drunkard screwing around with your sister or your aunt, why should you honor such parents. Copulation requires no special strength of character. Again, the first command says: “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” For heaven’s sake, where did those gods come from? Who created such gods? Do you really believe that an all-Knowing God could write such silly commands?

Revelation is direct communication and cannot be a second–hand information. Why do you believe the Jews like Moses or Matthew or Luke, Mark and John that the truths have been revealed to them? If God means serious business, he should reveal the truths to Filipinos direct such as to you and to me. In this way, the Revealed Truth need not remain exclusively Jewish in character. So the Jews are the chosen people of God? What about the Filipino – are we the forgotten people of God? I do not envy the Eskimo – they are the frozen people of God. Or worst, the Americans must be the brazen people of God!

Best wishes,
Poch Suzara

Published in the Manila Standard Oct, 2003

Love From Jesus Christ

LOVE FROM JESUS CHRIST?

By: POCH SUZARA

Here’s love, peace on earth, and goodwill to all men, women, and children from Jesus Christ – the Prince of Peace – the Son of a Loving God – the loving Savior of Mankind:

Matt. 8:21-22 “And another of His disciple said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury the dead.

Matt. 10:34-35 “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword,” “For I am come to set a
Man at variance against his father, and daughter against her mother.”

Matt. 19:29 “And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

Mark 10:29-30 “There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s. But he shall receive a hundredfold now in time… with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”

Mark 13:12 “Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.”

Luke 12:51-53 :Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five to one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, and the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother…”
Luke 14:26 “ If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, and yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 14:33 “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not that all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

Luke 19:27 “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them for me.”

St John 12:25-25 “He that loveth his life shall lose it; he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal; . . . If any man serve me, him will my father honor.”

No wonder Jesus got crucified on the cross by his own brothers and sisters created in His own image and likeness. But then again, who was crucified on the cross? If it was God, why would God cry out” “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” If it was a man on the cross, what right had he to cry out: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 22:34. Again, Jesus in the bible, prays to: “God, the Father.” Yet, Father and Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the same person according to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. In fact, Jesus admitted that “I and my father are one.” John 10:30. If Jesus could pray to Himself, wasn’t it rather silly that as a God Himself, he could not answer his own prayer? This was 2,000 years ago.

Today in the 21st century, I am told that an ANTI-CHRIST movement is on the rise in Europe. But Christ was not born in Europe, he was born in Israel that today is not a Christian, but a Jewish State. How come the Anti-Christ movement in Israel, the land where Christ was born, has been quite a success?

Poch Suzara is the Chairman of the HIGH-SCHOOL DROPOUT ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES.

Dear Dan Brown

Aug. 29,2004


Dear Dan Brown,

Re: ANGELS and DEMONS and the DA VINCI CODE

I am writing as an atheist. Just like you, and everyone else, I too was born an atheist. Unlike you, however, and billions of others just like you, I do not live in fear or in shame of this simple truth: All babies are atheists - free from theism. No baby is born a Catholic, or a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu. Of course, I was raised and educated as a Catholic; not because of my free will; but because my parents and grandparents were reminded of eternal hell-fire if they did not choose to enroll me in a Catholic school.

You say that science should use its own telescope to look at the heavens and see God. But isn’t God everywhere? I ask: What is God doing way out there anyway? Why is he not down here and running his own government? Do you know Dan, one of the reasons why I am a proud atheist? None of my atheist friends are in Congress pretending to solve daily the problems of the nation by praying for divine intervention.

Why are you asking the scientists: “do you not see God in your science?” Ask the theologians. They too have not seen God in their theology. Otherwise, they would not describe God as only an incomprehensible mystery. But isn’t science, study of something, much more reliable than theology, which is the study of nothing? Indeed, theology is the study of the unknown by means of the more unknown for the sake of the unknowable. At any rate, the existence of an all-powerful God is not compatible with the existence of hate in His name and wars waged for his glory!

You belittle “science looking for answers by probing our unborn fetuses, for rearranging our own DNA – shattering God’s world into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of meaning and all it finds is more questions.” What grounds have you to disparage man’s ability to understand nature, our world? Would you rather that we remain in a state of perpetual ignorance? Sir, the concept of God has been nothing but an asylum of ignorance? Otherwise, why has the power of faith been so often displaced by the power of reason?

You say science textbooks tell us how to make a nuclear reaction, and yet they contain no chapter asking us if it is a good or a bad idea. A good or bad idea for whom? Science is knowledge. The use of knowledge is powerful. Knowledge can be used constructively or destructively. The growth of knowledge itself presents us with the choice as to whether to use it for life or for death. We need our democracy to nourish science and we need science to nourish our democracy. Both are one and the same thing in determining freely what is true and what is false. In the meantime, science together with democracy sees to it that the frontiers of knowledge are always wide open. Knowledge needs to be increased continually in every human mind. The goal should be the greater awareness of the truth of reality for everyone.

You say that “religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed.” You would think that when God incarnated himself as a man, he could have corrected those flaws. Perhaps, instead of free will, the good will would have been more beneficial for everyone. But where is the power of God behind the power of religion to correct those flaws in man in order to defeat evil from the power of Satan? Meanwhile, the theologians continue to insist that our existence is a defect, and in order to win eternal salvation, we need not do reconstruction; no, we must only seek obliteration.

Why do you say that we humans now feel more depressed and defeated than we have at any point in human history. In the Middle Ages, when a pestilence appeared in a country, the theologians advised the people to gather together in churches to pray for deliverance; thus, the infection spread with extraordinary rapidity among the crowded masses of supplicants. The result was death in the millions. Today we have the spread of HIV-AIDS, but where is God to answer the prayer of the millions of victims? Happily, medical science has not given up searching for the cure.

I regret to see you are way off target with the Galileo case and how the church has tried to slow the relentless march of science with benevolent intention. The issue is not whether Galileo was right or wrong. The issue is: Why has the Church found it necessary and desirable to suppress free inquiry with the threat of force? The answer is obvious and revealing. Religion is peddling an inferior product, one that cannot withstand critical investigation. And if, as you implied, there should be no conflict between reason and faith, why then was Galileo, the scientists at the age of 70, searching for the truth with reason and evidence – imprisoned?

True, because of rotten businessmen in cahoots with corrupt politicians, science manufactured weapons of mass destruction. But look at almost every war: It is a religious war: - Northern Ireland, Vietnam, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo, the 30 years War, the Crusades. Religion has not stopped demanding from science ever more deadly weapons. But is there hope? Yes, there is. The competition in science that has resulted in ever improving the technology of international communication and the spread of reliable information may be the only hope for establishing peace on earth and goodwill to all men.

Science has discovered that nature is a part of man just as much as man is a part of nature. In fact, we are all interrelated. It follows that the power greater in us is not some supernatural UFO out there. The greater power is our family, our country, and the whole of mankind. At any rate, if it’s true that the troubles in our world have been due to scientific intelligence, then what is needed is not less, but more scientific intelligence. Even Leonardo Da Vinci himself admitted: “There is no higher or lower knowledge, but only one, flowing out of experimentation.” And I might add: flowing too out of critical lively analysis rather than from mental deadly paralysis.

Finally, in your Da Vinci Code, a great thriller, after all is said and done, what does it really matter to the world still wracked with religious hatred, if Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a daughter named Sarah; or, whether the Catholic Church distorted the true message of Jesus or not? I think what matters the most is that if these were facts, then Jesus with his promise to return, should have already returned sooner considering he had a daughter and her mother waiting for him on this earth. But where is Jesus? Even the theologians do not know his whereabouts!

In the final analysis, I think religion should seriously cease supporting decaying familiarity. Let us instead work together for the growth of mankind with science helping and offering sensible uncharted opportunities for more love, more beauty, more knowledge, and more joys in life in THIS WORLD.

With all good wishes,

Poch Suzara
Bertrand Russell Society, Phil
P.O. Box 3036, Makati City

On Raising Children

ON RAISING CHILDREN

By: POCH SUZARA

Raising children in the Philippines is just like raising pigs, chicken and cows: without regard to moral and intellectual capacity. Despite the increasing complexity of raising children for a happy, creative, and productive life, the task of parenthood remains in the hands of couples quite devoid of parental qualifications. There are colleges courses offered on how to raise pigs, chickens and cows in our universities, but none on how to raise children.

There are millions of malnourished children in the Philippines today. They are abused – physically, emotionally, sexually, and economically. Not to mention poor prenatal and postnatal nutrition adversely have affected the functions of their brains. Let us not forget that our congressmen, senators, and theologians of today were once Filipino children.

I ask: Why should these children honor thy mother and father? Suppose parents are selfish, greedy, stupid, and insane?
Should children honor them? Honor is not something to be given. It must be earned. Parents who wish to be respected must behave so as to elicit respect. But what if parents were weak or degenerate or criminally negligent? Should children honor them?

Copulation requires no especial strength of character. No high intelligence is required for a husband to impregnate his wife or lover. Consider the physical position that a man and woman must assume in order to multiply and replenish the earth. It has got to be one of the most ridiculous positions ever concocted by would-be mothers and would-be fathers. Yet, when children are born and they struggle to survive by living like animals eating garbage off the streets, we believe it a religious duty that they be taught God’s command – honor thy mother and thy father. What kind of childish nonsense is this?

In the meantime, it is hard to believe in the salvation of those who work for the damnation of others: the pro-lifers who condemn hundreds of thousands of unwanted and unloved children to premature death due to hunger and diseases. These religious morons are even insisting that there is no such thing as population growth problem in the Philippines. Indeed, religion is the root of complacency and apathy that plagues our sick society.

We believe it such a terrible sin against God to practice family planning and birth control. We ignore God’s greatest gift to man: - free will. We refuse to accept that babies born in the Philippines today each carry a message from God. The message is that poor and backward countries like the Philippines have shamelessly failed to utilize free will to develop a new set of moral values that should lead to humane social program for population control.

To be entrusted with a large family is a great responsibility. To be entrusted with feeding, clothing, sheltering, educating, and loving a large family is a greater responsibility. But to acknowledge the fact that human overpopulation leads to the extinction of most other species that are needed to maintain the balance of nature is the greatest of responsibilities.

The first law of ecology is that everything is connected to everything else in a delicate and complex web of interrelationships. It is therefore impossible to separate protection of human species from protection of natural ecosystems; they are two aspects of the same fundamental set of resources. With human population explosion we destroy the ecological system. Upon their destruction we will destroy too, eventually, ourselves. All for what? For the Prophets and Bishops of needless Boom?

Sincerely,

POCH SUZARA
Bertrand Russell Society, Phil.
p.o. Box 3036, makati city
email: poch.suzara@lycos.com

God's Luckiest Creature

GOD’s LUCKIEST CREATURE
By: POCH SUZARA

Among God’s creatures only one has turned out to be the luckiest who always had it so fortunate. When he was created eons ago, and presumably in God’s own image and likeness, he never had to worry about the necessities of life – food, clothing, and shelter. He never had to struggle for existence with toil, pain, and sweat. He is quite a success in his own right. And to think that -

He never had to be baptized. Never had to go to confession. Going to mass on Sundays is to him worthless; holy communion meaningless. He does not need bible classes, or attend Wednesday novenas, or Thursday Adorations. He has no need of prayers for the salvation of his soul. The Gospel means nothing to him. In fact, the Gospel was written because of him. To think also that God gifted him with the free will too greater than those of ordinary men’s free will.

He never had any need to learn Christian values and beliefs. Carnal knowledge means nothing to him. He had no need to earn a college diploma to succeed in the world of greed and corruption. A career to earn a living means nothing to him. But he is quite a success with his ambitions, especially on earth. He’s behind governments of most countries. The Philippine government is his favorite. Thanks to his inspiration, Filipinos believed that freedom is the greatest as long as theocracy stays on top of our democracy.

This creature has never been afraid of anything. The Ten Commandments of God means nothing to him. In fact, he sees to it that such commands are always disobeyed, and that the results would be the same either way for the sinner: to be good, specially to be good for nothing.

He has no need of money. He has no bank account. He pays neither rent nor mortgage for his house. He does not even live in a home. But his place of residence was well provided for by God himself. He has no need for a family car. He’s wifeless and childless; in fact, he is sexless. He has no hospital bills to worry about. He has no health problems. He has no worries about burial expenses one day. He is even deathless. No one can destroy him as he enjoys eternal power. He’s free to do anything he wants without fear of punishment. He can create or destroy and is not answerable to any one. More than a hundred billion human beings already lived and died on this earth since Adam and Eve. But this creature is still alive, and kicking, and breathing fire and brimstone.

This creature of God sees to it that “faith” continues to be popular among men because, like “humility,” it makes stupidity a virtue. He loves the believers, the kneelers, and the cringers. They are his kind of people. The famous evangelists around the world are among the greatest of his friends. After all, evangelism sells nothing but wishful thinking and comforting myth to believers at a dear price: the mindless surrender of the self via the mutilation of the intellect. And therefore nothing pleases him more than to see mindless and heartless humans inspired to feel all the time worthless.

Despite his destructive ways, he has the power to reward himself with anything he wants; specially the souls of men. He has the power of a God. The Philippines is one country that he controls totally with the help of the theologians in cahoots with the politicians that he had endowed with power, wealth, and glory. He has the power of a God.

In the meantime, he can perform miracles. He can make people believe in the most idiotic of beliefs; he can even make a whole society sick. In God’s name, this creature has the power to teach brothers to hate brothers, to disintegrate empires, to topple governments, make kings abdicate, and teach nations to declare war on other nations. And most of all, he has the power to perform miracles in remote provinces. Those who enjoy delusions are his special friends. Specially, those who live near the mountain and who are able to hear the voice of God speaking to them.

No, this creature is not a saint, nor the pope, but the devil himself: - the most convenient concept justified by Christianity with theological infallibility. He is also known as Lucifer – the bringer of light. Throughout history – logic, philosophy, free thinking, intelligence, science and technology have always been regarded by the believers as the work of the devil – the most fortunate of all among God’s creatures. A spoiled supernatural brat, you might say. But if you look at your bible: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer to the ground..." - Isaiah 14:12. Then see the last page of the same bible, it reads: "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." -Rev. 22:16. Note that the name Lucifer ( another name for Satan ) means light bearer, or morning star. Therefore, Lucifer is one of the inspired authors of the bible. Is it possible that the Holy trinity is actually the Holy Quadrucity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Devil?

Our teachers in Catechism told us that eons ago, when Satan decided to go against God, no one in heaven, not even the later theologians on earth, considered that supernatural event as the real Fall, the real Original Sin. No, the Fall was reserved for Adam and Eve - innocent and powerless as they both were. Satan then played a vital role in the Fall of Man and yet again he got scot-free. He has remained free and unpunished for ruining the lives of our first parents. Indeed, no one in heaven thought of crucifying on earth Satan on the cross. They thought of a better plan: put the Son of God to die on the cross in order to redeem the sins of man and to destroy the devil.

But what a monumental failure that was. Satan is still alive and doing quite well and happy enjoying the power of his free will. And he sees to it that the sinners keep on praying to God to lead them not into temptation. Of course, Satan knows stupidity comes first, sin follows. And so he sees to it that the power of human stupidity drives the human community ever on perpetually. In fact, Satan’s favorite people are the believers. After all, no one, except the believers believe in the existence of hell. Indeed, believers fear the devil first; fear God only second. What could be more flattering for this God’s luckiest of creatures?

In the final analysis, behind every good is the power of divinity. Behind every evil is the power of deviltry. But in between those two supernatural forces, however, is the power of human stupidity always trying to catch up with the power of infinity.

Poch Suzara
Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines
P.O. Box 3036 Makati City