Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis

I met Jerry Lewis at his home in Beverly Hills, California in l967. He had already heard about me from my sister. Especially about my activism having been primarily responsible for setting up the Philippine branch of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in l964. We were then struggling against the Vietnam War in particular; and, against the concept of war as a way of settling international disputes in general.
Jerry’s greeting words to me: “Hi there, Poch – you poverty-stricken Filipino!” I retorted: “Hi there, Jerry – you rich-stricken Jew!” Jerry looked at my sister, laughingly said: “I like this brother of yours.” Jerry indeed, is a great comedian and, I must add, on and off the stage - a great man.
I salivated with envy as I was particularly impressed with him not because he was such a world famous Hollywood celebrity, but because of his huge personal library of great books. A few he himself had authored.
His son Gary of the Playboys, an equally famous singer and rock drummer (I am a jazz drummer myself) married my sister - Jinky. Sadly, it did not turn out to be a happy matrimony. After three years, it ended in a divorce. Both, however, have an only daughter – Sara. She is married now with two children – the first two great-grandkids of Jerry Lewis
Since 1966, every Labor Day, the Jerry Lewis Telethon has already raised more than a BILLION DOLLARS to fight and to find the cure for Muscular Dystrophy – a disorder of the skeletal muscles characterized by weakness.
Despite the existence of the American Medical Association, and the Food and Drug Administration, and its partner in business – the American Pharmaceutical industry that’s dearly protected by the Federal Trade Commission - there are more cases of Muscular Dystrophy victims in America today than ever before. Hopefully, the cure is just around the corner.
For my part, though I have neither ability nor the popularity to raise billions, I too, nevertheless have been fighting in my own little ways to find a cure of a disease of the worst kind. It continues to infect a great many people worldwide. It is called religion – born of fear and ignorance and superstition. Indeed, religion is what is keeping our world poor spiritually and backward scientifically. In America, a billion dollars can be raised for healing, but trillions of dollars are readily available for killing. Thanks to religion and its ability to spread more fear, ignorance, and superstition everywhere throughout the world.
In the meantime, Jerry Lewis continues his own fight to help financially find the cure for muscular dystrophy in America one day. I ardently wish him more power and success in his humanitarian works and dedication. Poch Suzara

Open Letter to the United Nations

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.

To those of us who have no religion, it is frightening to visualize that the Christians, the Muslims and the Jews can now, with nuclear weapons at their disposal, reduce our planet into a lunar landscape. A civilized way, no doubt, to solve at the same time, the problem of human population explosion with a bigger and wider and higher explosion.

Bertrand Russell wrote: “More than half of the population of the world is under-nourished, not because it need be, but because richer nations prefer killing each other than keeping poorer nations alive and helping them to achieve a higher standard of living.”

I said it before, I say it again: if we were all atheists we could learn to live together in peace with all men. I am myself proud of atheism because in the history of the mankind, there never was a war declared by atheists against other atheists. Indeed, as atheists, we know that humans are no different from the animals, except only by a little. We atheists, however, do not want to throw that little away. We hold on to our sense of common humanity. In the meantime, the preparations for religious war are only making poor people in poor countries become poorer.

It is time for religious believers to stop making a mockery of what human life should be. It is time to stop wasting precious resources against each other in purposeless hate and futile violence. Bertrand Russell said: “There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal, as a human being to human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new paradise; if you cannot, nothing lies before you but universal death.”

Far worthier than the Muslim family or the Christian family or Jewish family or Hindu family or Buddhist family is, in fact, the precious human family whose continued existence is in doubt. It is time to love and appreciate the one and only real purpose to life, and that is, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must leave this world a little better than we found it, at least in the humanitarian sense, or there is little reason for our having lived.

Sincerely,
POCH SUZARA
Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines
poch.suzara@gmail.com
Feb. 25, 2006

Open Letter to Kofi Annan

Nov. 6, 2004
Kofi Annan
Secretary General
UNITED NATIONS
New York

OPEN LETTER TO KOFI ANNAN

Dear Mr. Kofi Annan,

I am most proud of you serving as the Secretary General of the United Nations that just celebrated its 59th year of existence. Congratulations. I sincerely thank you for your leadership and moral integrity through what continues to be a critical era of world history.

Indeed, the United Nations was founded as an instrument of peace, human rights and development. I would like to suggest that in order for the UN to attain its goals: - a world without poverty, without industry for hostility, without crimes against humanity - it should be able to reach out over and above governments and be rightfully supported by ordinary men and women from all over the world. I am suggesting that we all become citizens of the United Nations. The much needed resources for the U.N. can be willingly provided by the citizens of the U.N. I believe the General Assembly can empower you as Secretary General to appoint a small committee to explore this possibility.

In HAS MAN A FUTURE, Bertrand Russell wrote: “Law is a farce unless there is power to enforce it, and power to enforce international law against great states is impossible while each possess vast armaments. Great states have, at present, the privilege of killing members of other States whenever they feel so disposed, though this liberty is disguised as the heroic privilege of dying in defense of what is right and just. Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.”

Imagine 2 billion people supporting the UN with $10.00 each as annual citizenship dues of the UN. This would amount to $20 billion dollars a year. Enough I think for the UN to maintain not only its own Peace-Keeping Force, but to gradually expand to the point where the United Nations is in total control of all major weapons of war. It is hard to see any other way by which the human race can survive the weapons of mass extermination owned by an ever increasing number of countries. In the near future add another 2 billion people to make it 4 billion UN citizens, - $40 billions dollars a year. The UN would become the respected and effective enforcer of international law and an irresistible global force for peace and goodwill to all men and women and children. The protection of our natural world from unsustainable population growth could also be addressed. It is dramatic but true - The future of humankind is at stake.

We are in a new era of global community. We need a United Nations which has both the involvement and support of peoples throughout the world. We can make it come true if we, the ordinary men and women in our respective countries, can be made a legal part of the UN’s ultimate goals. We have sufficient resources to provide our fellow citizens with adequate food, education and health care. We have the will to treat our brothers and sisters with dignity and self-respect. But this cannot be accomplished by, or entrusted to, a small group of nations representing the interests and prejudices of a small percentage of the human race; it can only be achieved by the super citizens of the United Nations functioning as a world government.

Yours Faithfully,

POCH SUZARA
BERTRAND RUSSELL SOCIETY, PHIL.
8 Zipper Street, SLV,
Makati City, Philippines

American Values

In America, under the leadership of George W. Bush, the Ten Commandments of God are far more valuable than the ten amendments of the Constitution. Indeed, for the sake of waging war against other countries such as Iraq, never mind the Bill of Rights. Just enjoy not only the rights but also the insanity of paying your share of the war bills. No doubt, as president of the USA, and his warlike solutions to human problems, George W Bush is a grace to American race; unfortunately, however, to the human race – a disgrace.Poch Suzara

American College Graduates

Most American college graduates believe that Jesus is their personal Lord and Savior. No need therefore to wonder why the Christian Americans have no qualms going to war to get rid of the Muslims for not believing in Jesus as the Son of God. It is really tragic. Jesus is mentioned by name 93 times in the 15 different chapters of the sacred scripture of Islam. Jesus in the Quran is called a prophet, a messenger, a Word from God, the Messiah, and one inspired or aided by the Spirit of God. Poch Suzara

THE WORST KIND OF POVERTY

We are repeatedly told that poverty in the Philippines has nothing to do with the population explosion. It has mostly to do with unequal distribution of wealth due to, if not the result of – corruption.

As a matter of fact, in this country, we all suffer from the worst kind of poverty – the poverty of the mind. Otherwise, if we were blessed with rich minds, we would not find ourselves:

Too poor to solve the problem of our overcrowded barrios, towns, and cities.

Too poor to solve the problem of our overcrowded hospitals and health clinics and cemeteries.

Too poor to solve the problem of our overcrowded schools, colleges, and universities.

Too poor to solve the problem of our overcrowded buses, jeeps, trains, planes, and ships.

Too poor to solve the problem of our overcrowded roads, streets, and highways.

Too poor to solve the problem of our overcrowded slum and squatter areas.

Yes, indeed, we are a corrupt people under a corrupt government blessed by an equally corrupt church. But I what could be more corrupt than men and women irresponsible and insensible enough to bring forth unwanted children into our sick and corrupt society? Meanwhile, ask any of the nation’s children who or what or where their parents are – they do not know. Most of these children do know, however, that their parents are busy working in the baby factory.

Indeed, millions upon millions of our men have far more job openings for unskilled work in the baby factory than job openings for skilled work in the business of nation building.

The fact is, due to population explosion, the Philippine economic pie is getting smaller and smaller. What is getting bigger and bigger however is only the “Pie in the Sky, by and by.” Sadly, not the living, but only the dead, if at all, can partake of this non-existing pie.

Is it such a complicated mathematical equation to figure out that It is more practical to feed, cloth, house, and educate children as they are planned products of planned copulation rather than babies to exist as reckless products of reckless fecundation? We are a people still mired in Third World mentality because millions of our mothers and fathers still believe that God will provide. As a matter of fact, even our high government officials have high hopes for the Philippines but not with or from science education, but only from divine intervention.

In there hope for the Philippines? Yes there is if we can only learn to be more constructive intellectually, more creative culturally, and more productive scientifically - by being less destructive sexually. Poch Suzara

Gospel Writers

And set up over his head his accusation, written,
THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Matt. 27:37

And the superscription of his accusation was written over,
THE KING OF THE JEWS. Mark 15:26

And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek,
and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Luke 23:38

And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. John 19:19

The inspired Gospel writers were either blind with blind faith and could not see clearly, or they just thought that they could be poetic enough as 3 of them reported that Jesus was crucified in Golgotha and the other inspired poet reported that Jesus was crucified in Calvary.

Again, there is a dispute as to whether Jesus was born in Bethlehem or in Nazareth, ( 60 to 100 miles apart) and the date of his birth has been placed anywhere from 4 b.c. to 7 a.d. Matthew says that Jesus was born “in the days of Herod”, while Luke says it was “When Cyrenius was governor of Syria.” Herod died in 4 b.c., while Cyrenius did not become governor of Syria until 7 a.d.. As so song goes. . . . what’s going on?

At any rate, what is most embarrassing for Christianity is that the theologians could easily explain how God could father a Jesus Christ with a virgin Mary, but the same theologians cannot explain how the place where Jesus Christ was born ( Israel ) some 2,000 years ago is today is not a Christian country, but a Jewish State! And to think that ancient Jewish literature have no mention whatsoever of a character named Jesus Christ.

Anyway, all is not lost as there is a difference between an awestruck MORON and a dumbstruck MORON. The awestruck MORON understands the bible but does not read it; the dumbstruck MORON reads the bible but does not understand it. Fortunately, however, both have equal chances to be canonized as saints of God. Poch Suzara

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

Terrorism, Religion, and Superstition

Terrorism, Religion, and Superstition
by Poch Suzara

Think of it: terrorism against the Christians is committed in Allah’s name. Terrorism against the Muslims is committed in God’s name. But we have never heard of terrorism committed anywhere in the devil’s name.

I ask: what can we expect of a world where half of its population believe in God, and the other half believe in Allah? Where people are willing to terrorize and kill each other based upon their beliefs as if they knew anything truthful at all about the existence of such extraterrestrial beings.

Bertrand Russell, In his The Prospect of Industrial Civilization, wrote it quite clearly: “Governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that the love of the truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.”

For so many centuries religion has done mankind so much harm. Religion has made people love supernatural beings, and at the same time, make them misunderstand and kill each other. I say: enough is enough. If we must enjoy peace on earth and goodwill to all men – we must first enjoy not the freedom of religion, but only the freedom from religion.

Look at religion in America in cahoots with rich corporations. Religion has stolen the government away from millions of ordinary American citizens. The separation between Church and State in America is no longer a reality. It is now a fantasy. President George W Bush even admits that he talks to God for advice. The Founding Fathers of America must be turning over in their graves.

Look at religion in the US government? It has wings. It can fly. It’s known as the US Air Force. And if the US government continues to insists to oil-rich countries to sing: "God Bless American Democracy," innocent blood, enough to float the US Navy, will continue to flow as it did in the rivers of Vietnam and now flowing in the rivers of Iraq.

Look at religion in Israel today. It is the place where Christ was allegedly born. Yet Israel today is not a Christian country. It is Jewish State surrounded by hostile Arab countries that hate not only the Jews, but as Muslims, they also hate each other in Allah’s name.

Look at the Catholics and the Protestants of the same Christian religion in Northern Ireland. They have not ceased hating and fighting each other confirming that Christian love and compassion does not exist there.

And how about us Filipinos, look how we pray to God. We pray for the forgiveness of our sins and crimes. But we also pray to God to “lead us not into temptation.” It is surely time to understand prayer for what it simply is: Asking an imaginary being that apparently knows the future to change his mind. Couldn’t we pray to God to convert the devil back to the ways of the Lord? In this way, we will commit no more sins and no more crimes as the devil will no more make a mockery of our daily prayers to God.

Some African tribes worship anthills for being the source of human life, Filipinos worship a biblical supernatural being that made the world in seven days. A visitor from another planet would find it hard to see either as anything other than primitive superstition. Tradition does not make fairy tales real. In fact, tradition practiced by a people says nothing about its veracity, viability, or even its common sensibility. Take, indeed, the tradition of daily prayer. It has yet to decrease insanity, not increase human stupidity that’s generating our sick society.

For my part, I am happy to be an atheist. I do not care to go to heaven to please God; neither do I care to go to paradise to please Allah. I also do not care to go to hell to please the devil. I care only for the human race of which I am a member. If we must believe in anything precious – let us believe in our precious minds and precious hearts. In the meantime, if we must leave this world one day, let us leave it sober and not drunk with lies; let us leave it a much better place than we found it; or there will be no reason at all for neither of us to have lived.

Catholic Bishops

Catholic Bishops
by Poch Suzara

Even though our rapid population growth keeps the Filipino poor as a people, the Catholic Bishops welcome more babies. Millions of them, however, destined to a life of religious attitudes and behaviors that lead to widespread poverty. And to think these babies, many of them born unwanted, are produced yearly in vast quantities by unpaid and unskilled labor who enjoy their work.

The Bishops could not care less about the coming of the Lord to assist the Filipino become healthy, wealthy, and wise as a nation. They say instead that, whilst the Lord has not yet returned, we can all enjoy God’s greatest gift of “free will” by choosing the good away from the evil. In this case, according to the Bishops, we must always choose good pregnancy over the evils of serious family planning and birth control contraceptives. In the meantime, it’s incredible to see how the child-bearers themselves, the women, virtually have no say on the matter. It’s the men, specially the men of the Church, - always deciding for women what not to do. I ask you women: Aside from your minds and hearts already surrendered to the Priesthood Industry, must you also surrender your reproductive system?

In the meantime, where is the free will of the Bishops to choose human dignity for the Filipino? Why choose only more of the same old religious pain, poverty and misery? Why are the bishops keeping our free will not free at all? Look how we must obey the bishops calling for a continued production of unwanted babies for the Filipino who is already quite famous as the poor and Sick Man of Asia?

For my part, as I believe that a “good will” is much more sensible than a “free will,” I say to you Bishops: Shame on you for believing that the population growth of the Philippines is a matter of good sexual morality based upon divine authority. On the contrary, my dear Bishops, the population explosion in the Philippines is an issue of economic perversity, if not social insanity, as inspired by human stupidity.

And to think that God Himself practiced family planning and birth control. He had begotten with a Virgin Mary only one Son, didn’t He?

Religion, US Marines, and Humanity

Dear Sir:

Mankind has suffered much and continues to suffer much from a disease called “religion.” If we want a cure, we should only take the medicine called “humanity.”

Thanks for emailing me a photo of the U.S. Marines fervently praying to God in Iraq. Happily, the bible claims that: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:6. Unhappily, however, the same bible also admits: “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Rom. 3:10.

Abraham was willing to kill his son out of obedience to God. Fighting armies too are willing to obey the word of command without question to their Commander in Chief. The soldier who kills, the bomber pilot that destroys thousands of lives and properties in a minute are indeed heroes due to, if not because of, the principle of unquestioning obedience.

In child sacrifice, the father kills the child for the sake of obedience. In war, however, parents on both sides have an arrangement to kill each other’s sons and daughters for the sake of obedience.

I ask: who benefits from such horrors? Obviously not humanity. Only the church or synagogue or mosque officials in search for more glory on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the homicidal maniacs as heads of government in search for more power. But let’s not exclude the corrupt businessmen in search for more freedom to make more profit. Whatever the case may be, what prevails is not love of humanity, but only more hate and violence and war to please divinity.

Now let’s take a good look at the fighting armies on both side fervently praying to God for victory. The army that is victorious thanks God for the victory. The army that is defeated, however, continues to pray to God for vengeance. Thus, as soon as war is over, we lay the foundation of another. Indeed, there has yet to be a war to end all wars - the war against poverty – especially poverty of the worst kind: - poverty of the human mind and the poverty of the human heart.

Here is Bertrand Russell and I urge you readers to deeply reflect on what this great man simply wrote: “Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly in battle, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.” Meanwhile . . . “Few men seem to realize how many of the evils from which we suffer are wholly unnecessary, and that they could be abolished by a united effort within a few years. If the majority of every civilized country so desired, we could, within twenty years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half the illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace. It is only because men are apathetic that this is not achieved, only because imagination is sluggish, and what always has been is regarded as what always must be. With good-will, generosity, intelligence, these things could be brought about.”

Your Faithfully,
POCH SUZARA
BERTRAND RUSSELL SOCIETY, PHIL.
P.O. BOX 3036, Makati City, Philippines

Dear Fellow-Americans

Oct. 4, 2004

Dear Fellow-Americans,

I am a Filipino-American residing in the Philippines. The U.S. Bill of Rights is precious to me. It has made it possible for me to think freely, to articulate my views, however unpopular or heretical they might be. Indeed to write what follows without fear of suppression or repercussion. I should wish to put on public record my shame of the U.S. government. The central government in Washington has become a source of national malady and international ills rather than the potential for local and global sanity.

More than half the population of the world is under-nourished, not because it need be, but because the U.S. government prefers to be in the business of killing rather than helping poorer countries achieve a higher standard of living. For example, instead of sending to the Philippines materials for human welfare, the U.S. government sends materials for enemy warfare. The result, thus far: - the Filipino is becoming more sophisticated in the business of killing fellow-Filipinos. Meanwhile poverty, hunger, disease, unemployment, and the continuing population explosion continue to be problems for divine intervention, and not attention for Philippine government confrontation.

Yesterday, killings were about the fight against “communists,” in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Today, it is called the fight against “terrorists” in possession of weapons of mass destruction. What’s the difference? In fact, many countries possess “weapons of mass destruction.” Half of the world calls it “faith in God.” The other half calls it “faith in Allah.” And under whichever faith, the faithful believers see nothing immoral to cut each other’s throat, especially since both cannot agree as to what will happen to them after their throats have been cut. Now isn’t it obvious that our enemy is not another human being, but organized conflicting faiths based on sacred barbarism?

Bertrand Russell once asked: “Have we all become savage? Why do we turn, inevitably, towards ferocity in dealing with political opponents – towards maiming or killing or sentencing them to disproportionately long imprisonment? I think it is because we live in an atmosphere of fear bred by political policies. We have been conditioned to accept cruelty, even the threat of extermination, as the sole means of defending a way of life that seems to prove itself, by such result, hardly worth defending.”

The greater crime we face today is the crime of silence. It is time to speak up. I am most proud of Michael Moore. In the film document FAHRENHEIT 9/11, he proved it no longer a theory, but a paradoxical fact that as far as the United States government is concerned, nations of this world can only keep alive by preparing to kill each other. The main economy of the United States continues to be based on revenues not for health and community development, but for war, death and destruction, and the preparation for future wars.

Nothing breeds more hate and terror than the spread of fear based on lies. Our young men and women in military uniform, no doubt, have the courage to die in battle; unfortunately, they do not have the courage to question what it is that they are dying for in Iraq today. Immoral acts breed immoral acts. Must we therefore continue to commit atrocities because we cannot discontinue to believe absurdities?

I appeal to fellow-Americans to support Americans with a conscience everywhere today who give the USA a good name. One such thinking American is Ramsey Clark. He referred George W. Bush, James Baker, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, and others to the International War Crimes Tribunal – a commission of inquiry for evidences of war crimes against Iraq and crimes against humanity.

Let us work and vote for a government of construction and not a government of destruction. In this 21st century, there is no longer any need for American wealth and power to be based upon past wars, present wars, and the preparation for future wars. The power and wealth of America should be founded upon the pursuit of the truth, the spread of liberty, and the advancement of science for peace and goodwill to all men, women, and children throughout the world.

Yours faithfully,
POCH SUZARA
Bertrand Russell Society, Philippines