I notice that when an atheist enters a Christian chat room or if an atheist saw a Christian enter an atheist’s forum, all hell breaks loose and feathers fly. I never really see arguments against the theistic belief, just insult thrown to each other. Well, it is quite entertaining sometimes, yet it’s really counter-productive. Even here in Manila, most of those who profess to be atheists are enjoying themselves affronting Christians about their god belief. I don’t see this as a debate; I see it as plain rudeness.
I conclude there are those who call themselves as “atheist” are not really atheists. These people thought that atheism is a privilege to insult God and the God-fearing Christians. Atheism is not that low. But I can’t even label these gooks as anti-theists. Hmmmm…is there really a difference between the two?
Just like the word non-theistic, anti-theistic also doesn’t necessary mean atheistic. A Non-Theist is a person who doesn’t believe in the theistic definition of a god.
Sounds complicated? Well…not exactly. You see men defines god differently, and so not all definition of a god is under a theistic sense. A theistic god or classical theism as it is also know, believe in a god as a being, very anthropomorphic and has all the omni-powers in the universe. This god is supposed to have a say to all human morality.
Non-theistic god beliefs are those who use the word “god” as a metaphor. Maybe they just can’t think of a better word? I sometimes wonder how you can believe in a god without all those omni things clinging on it. What’s the satisfaction on worshipping something like…let say the Universe or Nature? Maybe these gods are not really into worshipping. I don’t know.
Well back to anti-theism. Most dimwits call atheists as god haters (thanks to these numbskulls who say an atheist is a god hater). How can you hate something that doesn’t exist? Hmmm…maybe we should expand this a little. The best thing to say is “Some atheists are anti-theists but not all anti-theists are atheists.”
Atheism is different from anti-theism. Anti-theists rail against the idea of a certain god or gods. An anti-theist doesn’t disagree with all gods. He/She may criticize the idea of calling a certain god “A God”. You see, most anti-theists have read different “sacred books” (like the Bible for example) and compares them with other sacred literature. Some may find the god or gods written on some of these holy books as an offensive fiend not fit to be worshipped compare to other gods in other religious belief. For them, it’s just a waste of resources or even lives to offer to such a brute as describe by some holy books. For example, some anti-theist may say that the Judeo-Christian god is a cruel, vindictive, often jealous deity not fit of worship compare to a more passionate, loving Bhrama or Krishna.
But anti-theism is not plane hate. There are reasons for the extreme dislike on a certain god-hypothesis. Here in the Philippines, most atheists that I met have some degree of anti-theism in them in connection with the Christian or Islamic deity. But that doesn’t mean they believe in god and hate him (POOF! the idea that “there are no real atheist”). It’s not god, who they don’t like, but the idea and the organization that promotes the idea.
Now what does we can consider as plane hate? In most chat room that I entered, I notice some “non-believers” enter certain Christian chat rooms just to insult and make fun of the Christian belief. Frankly I don’t agree with this because it gives atheism a bad rap.
Anti-theism is really much like a protest. Like those rallies you see in Liwasang Bonifacio and Mendiola. Observe those rallies and you will notice that even if they’re trying to slur the government, well, they never forget to throw in the issues. You’ll never see a rally where they just hold a streamer that says “Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has a big nose!” or that a certain government official is bald.
Entering Christian chat rooms or forums just to fling rudeness are not a work of respected atheists, or anti-theists. Pejorative will never answer issues nor will it be a good way to open discussions. We are there to expose the delusion, and not to become delusional ourselves.
Pinoy Atheist
spiritualityatheismThe conversation leads us to the subject of spirituality. He was surprise to learn that I’m an atheist and keeps asking me why I should label myself as an atheist. Well that will be tackled in another subject. Anyway, he asked me if I believe that everything is all just about the physical reality and if I believe in the realm beyond the physical reality. Such question arises if the person asking the question considers atheism is just mere materialism.
The concept of reality really varies and it’s a matter of personal choice. Reality must be independent with human opinion, that’s the rule, but sometimes human opinion creates reality. If you asked a person who believes in metaphysical mumbo-jumbos about reality, it is obvious for him to explain reality base on the belief system he accepted as true. He will describe a reality which includes parallel universes, invisible territories and palace in the sky. That’s his reality. Some will even say to you that reality is just an illusion. Rationalist will say that reality is what the mind perceives and so on. So it seems “reality” vs. “what is real” is not really one and the same.
This Canadian guy seems not very familiar about the difference between abstract realities vs. concrete realities. Well he still clings with the supernatural so it’s an obvious reaction. He asked me “if everything is physical, what happened to love, emotions, beauty and pain?” He thinks that these are set of realities different and separated with the physical plane. Most people who are into esoteric teachings think that way. Kinda mind over matter stuffs. But abstract ideas are not independent to the material brain. You need a brain in order to perceive love, pain, beauty and emotion. These abstract things will not exist without the material brain and the material humans to interpret them..
He asked me if I derided the word “spirituality” and was surprise on my response. I have my spirituality and spirituality doesn’t require a belief in a god or gods. Hmmmmm…maybe you’re also been bolt from the blue with my answer?
You don’t need to believe in a god to have a spirit. Ep! Ep! Ep! Not so fast! You think that when I speak about spirit, I’m talking about this invisible, disemboweled, supernatural entity that comes out of a person when he died huh? Nope, the word “spirit” has other meaning.
The word spirit can also mean the fundamental emotional and activating principle determining one's character; it’s not just about ghost. One of the best meanings I read so far about the word “spirit” is that the “spirit” is the “I” of the individual. It’s the one that make him unique compare to everyone else.
Spirituality is a very misunderstood term. Most of us believe that the term spirituality means going to church every Sunday or spirituality is only achieve when someone read the Tanack, the Bible or the Quoran. Spirituality is a way of life. The fact that every person is looking for happiness, you are entering the realm of spirituality. You are sitting alone in an empty room listening to your favorite music that is spirituality. As you are looking at your favorite artwork, eating your favorite food, talking to your friends or even doing your favorite house chore that is spirituality.
Spirituality transcends mere religion. It is a question of individual inspiration rather than external practices and rituals. Spirituality is the recognition of your identity as a conscious being. Spirituality doesn’t necessary mean a search for the existence of a god. In the contrary, spirituality is more of searching the “I” on an individual. Spirituality is more of an inner affair. Spirituality is the search of your uniqueness as an individual. Religion tends to make spirituality from outside source. Priests and pastors teaches their adherents that we can get spirituality from reading the Bible, going to church and doing good deeds occasionally. Some even says that spirituality is solely a religious term. Today believers look for “spirituality” at books written by men from the past, outside their time and space. Spirituality is not found on the pages of those books, nor is it found on what the priests or pastors discourse. It is found inside the person who is reading the book or the one who is listening to the priests. Spiritual experience comes from within you. It is your craving for knowledge, your desire for love, your experience and search for happiness. It seems that a person who connects spirituality on his religion is more lost than an atheist who accepts the wonder and beauty of his life.
Carl Sagan once said in his book “The Demon-Hunted World” that even science can be a profound source of spirituality. When we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that souring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is truly spiritual.
Spirituality is not mere faith. Unlike faith, spirituality is not an assurance of something or a hope for something. Spirituality is imbedded to anyone’s consciousness. It’s neither about Descartes’ dualism nor Christian tradition of the separation of mind and body. Years of research have already done away with it. Spirituality is about identity. The Buddhists even treat the subject of spirituality to be rigorously empirical not just a statement of metaphysics.
So now you know why an atheist like me still has a sense of spirituality.
Until next time,
Pinoy Atheist
Most people will say that he will become an atheist. Others will say he will just look for a new religion. These frequent answers are the reason why most people think that atheism is a religion and that all atheists are a bunch of angry, cynical theists who just hate God.
I really don’t think that a person angry with his religion or angry at god is automatically considered as an atheist. There are a lot of ways to handle such anger other than going to non-belief. Heck! This is just a reason a Christian believer would like to happen. You know, angry theists are very easily to be converted or re-converted.
A lot of Christian believers these days claim to be an atheist once. I always encounter such claims. But if you would ask these claimants, what will be reveled is not atheism but a case of being an anti-theist. Most says that the reason they became an atheist is that God didn’t answer their prayers. Is that a good reason to lose your god belief? If so, then atheism must be the fastest growing religion hahahaha!
So you think because your dog died after your girl friend dump you last Friday night is a sufficient reason to become an atheist? There are better causes to be an atheist than unanswered prayers and chains of bad luck. Atheists became atheist because they saw the illogical reasons of god belief. This is not mere hostility towards a lost faith. Most atheists are what we can say as “monoatheist”. Others are polyatheist, now we’re talking about atheists who don’t believe on different god concepts. These atheists don’t believe in a certain god-concept, say they don’t believe in the existence of a personal, theistic god. But that is not mere contempt. They may not believe in this personal, theistic god because they may see it as very irrational.
You see, it’s really hard to be an atheist. First, you feel rejected by majority of society. Second, you gave up all the false hope of being resurrected again after you died. That’s a large thing to put money on. So a mere reason of unanswered prayers and bad lucks are insufficient compare to what you will lose.
So do you still think that this is just about being angry?
Ah Valentines Day, a day where lovers buy roses to love ones, a day where people wear red clothes to heighten the ambiance. Every February 14, restaurants are filled with dating lovers and love stories fill the cinemas. Love songs fill the airwaves in every radio stations you hear as you pass houses going to the market. Lodges are filled to the max by lovers doing their “thing”. Ah this day….really sucks!
You know as I grow tired of this day. I sometimes wonder…why are modern day Filipina becoming soooooo cheap. Yep you heard it right folks…CHEAP! Why? You don’t know why? I’ll tell you why.
If compared long ago, I really appreciate those “babe worshipped” songs in the 80’s. Songs like “Sinasamba Kita” (I Worship You) by Rey Vallera, “Be My Lady” by Martin Nievera, “Kamusta Ka” (How Are You) by Nonoy Zuñiga and a lot of songs composed by Mr. Jose Mari Chan talks about how beautiful a woman can be. Here are songs that place a woman on the pedestal. These songs give credit to a woman’s mystery and seductiveness. They show how a lover adores his beloved, like a real treasure. Let’s talk about movies. In the time of the Sampaguita pictures and LVN, We find Filipina women being courted by their suitors. In those times “pinaghihirapan ng lalaki ang panliligaw sa babae.” Films like Takipsilim, Igorota, and Sa Lumang Simbahan shows love themes where women are not insatiable fish pickers.
Alas! Gone are those great days.
Look at the going thread. This so-called modern lifestyle is not really beneficial. I’m not saying that every modern life style is bad nor am I saying that being a liberated Filipina is cheap. But there is a big difference between being liberated and being down right cheap. Liberated means an independent woman. A woman who can have her own flat, she can raise her status on a male dominated world, and she doesn’t need men to tell her what to do. Now that is being liberated. Now what is down right cheap?
Now a days, those love songs that I said earlier where being re-issued. The difference is that today girls with squeaky voices sing those songs. Now you may say that there is nothing wrong with that. Really? Just try to listen to those songs in their cheap versions. If a girl sings the song it’s like that she is pleading for a guy’s love. OH NO!!!!!!! How desperate can she be? Why is there no other guy interested on her that she has to kneel down and embrace the guy’s legs? Now we hear song that makes a woman sound too anxious on a guy’s affection.
Aside for those songs, there are songs composed to sound like girls admiring a dork. Example, the song Close to You by the Carpenters. Here is a girl singing praises to a guy who she compares to something which angels go down to, like a god. Now I know why Karen starves herself to death. Here in the Philippines…well the only think I can do is to puke.
Now even in movies, WHAAAAAA!!!! The worst. We see girls fighting over a dope. This is very prevalent in Asian telenovelas. So ano yung pinag-aagawan nila? Those “swangays” na mga mukhang kutuhin like those long-haired effeminate Chinese they called F4? Example here in this trash of a TV show called “Meteor Garden”. The girl rented a large sign board to place a sign telling her feelings for the leading creep. Now, why can’t the guy do that for the girl in the first place? Maybe they are too in love with themselves to notice the girl. On the other hand, there are movies, especially western movies, were the leading men, take their desirability because they are great business men, scholarly professors, inventors and the likes that had little time for their wives and female lovers. From these movies, scenes that show these very busy and exceptional men submerged in pressing things like, business growth or radical mathematical equations. Then here comes his better half , girl friend or female lover who does nothing but embrace him from behind and try to entice him to go to bed with her as if that’s the only good thing she could do! What kind of movies are these, showing girls only good for sex, but the male character are exceptional leaders of society? Is this what some women justify as being “liberated”?
Because of these media hype, the Filipina are losing her “magic touch” and are now being replaced by trashy girls who hang around in malls, internet cafes, and sleazy movie theaters. Today, just to be noticed, modern day Filipinas tend to be noisy, talkative with their squeaky voice, rivaling the screaming faggots, to flirt around their crushes. NGIIIEEE!!!
Just thinking of it, makes me puke!
Today, men collect girls, cheaper by the dozen. Gone are the days of women where being courted and respected. Now you can pull them by the hair to the nearest motel, use them and discard them like candy wrappers. Another lust satisfied, and then calls it a day. I had friends, showing off how many women did they conquered. I don’t find it amusing.
I’ve heard news, about the famous dolls Barbie and Ken; after a long separation, Ken is trying to win Barbie back. Mabuti pa yung mga manikang iyan. At least here we see a man, trying to win back a woman’s heart. But here in the Philippines, women are just being collected like lifeless dolls. And as I notice, Filipina women seem to agree with the situation. Oh MY PAPAYA!!! Have they gone insane? Have they loosed their sense of pride and self respect?!?
I still believe that somewhere in the nooks and crannies of this decadent Philippine society, a woman with pride and dignity just like the old days, still exist. I just hope that whoever she is, dumami pa sana ang katulad niya…
…At twing umuulan ay kapiling ka….
Pinoy Atheist
Do you know that faith can be use to justify positive atheism? What? You don’t? Faith is one of the best tools to justify the non-existence of the Christian god concept.
In a recent debate that I have in Luneta, a “Born-Again” pastor has the guts to engage me on this tautology about the existence of his god. Well…if you asked me personally, I’m getting sick and tired of the issue since even if it took us all night till morning on the squabble, there will still be no fruitful proof this pastor can show me. Anyway, in the length of our debate, the pastor told me that “faith” is required to confirm the existence of God.
Asked any Christian on the definition of “faith” and he will gladly state the verses found on Hebrew 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. They interpret this verse (just like always) that to have faith is confirmation on an invisible God. Unfortunately, the word “faith” in this verse is more of a disproof on the existence of God and these unwilling clowns haven’t cared to notice it. Remember that the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. The word faith is translated as “pistis” which means “reliance” or “trust”. A guarantee of something hoped for ( Grk: elpizo - Expect and wish. Something you are wishing in the near future.) WHAT!!!!???? Wait a minute there? If God already exists, then why are you still hoping about it? You said that this god already exist and you firmly believe that this god is already here, watching me typing and defying its existence, if so, why are you sounding like you are still hoping that someday in the near future, this god might exist?
That’s what the problem with faith. The word justify that today this god concept doesn’t really exist and believers are still in the dark…hoping that someday this god might come into being. Now, if we use faith as a proof about god, then we are just telling the non-believers that “Hey there brother, my God doesn’t exist today but maybe tomorrow (and I’m hoping that this day will come true…*crossing his fingers and wishing on shooting stars.) That I will personally bring Him here and then both of you will debate about His existence.” Now isn’t that proof a baloney?
Now back on the debate. The pastor tried to retaliate by saying that God is so far away (Uhum…) and that they are “hoping” that he will come. HAHAHAHAHA! Now is that an excuse or what? Are we talking about a man in a red cape flying somewhere out there in the wide blue yonder? What happened with God is everywhere?
So I recommend to my Christian friends…never use “faith” in justifying your stand on the existence of your god concept. Remember, any person that tried to use faith as evidence on the existence of God has tacitly admitted that his god concept doesn’t exist.
Ta-Ta!
Pinoy Atheist
Critique of 60 Minutes from my wifeLetter to the editor: Negative Campaigning
And when I say short...