(if) There is a God!

To whom this may concern – Chapter 4/5

Foreword

I deeply apologize for another yet long hiatus; this will be the last hiatus… I promise! I’ve been busy with moving to a new apartment, studies and also working on my first book-projects (and perhaps a pinch of depression as well) that I haven’t found much room for finishing the final pieces, and I wanted to put as much vital insights as possible on all my pieces so I don’t feel like I’ve left out anything (some chapters will be updated with additional add-ons later on) because this topic is epically thick and almost never-ending. Making them compact like I’m doing so that generally everyone can understand is quite the hard work.

And this time I vow to finish off and post the final chapter this week as well so there’s no need to wait long again and so that I can finally cross this topic off to move on with one less thing on my plate.

I guess there’s no need for me to put any more emphasis in the foreword about the topic since I believe you’ve caught my drift after the first three chapters. Otherwise if you’ve just opened this up and missed or haven’t read any of the previous chapters I suggest you go check up on them before reading this chapter.

Congratulations! …now what?!

Imagine you’re doing whatever it is you might be doing on any given day; Working. At school. Cleaning the house. Mowing the lawn. Plowing the fields. Planting at the rice-field. Traveling. Reading a book at the park. Attending a funeral. Giving birth. Having supper with your family. On a date at the cinemas. Rocking in your chair and looking at old family photo-albums. Robbing a bank or a store. Plotting a terrorist attack. Operating on a patient. Milking the cows. Praying at a church/mosque/temple. At your sports/martial-arts practice. Drowning your depression at the pub. Standing on the edge of a cliff/building/bridge or on the train tracks to top yourself… and et cetera et cetera.

The list could go on and on for there are so many people; coming from such vast varieties of background, choices and mindsets with even vaster varieties of activities in this world. Then out of the sudden blue you hear word; probably from the breaking-news public announcement from the radio/television, calls or text messages from friends/family, or read about it on people’s Facebook status or twits on Twitter, people running out of their homes and take into the streets as if in total disarraying chaos because of the news they’ve come across… of that God, It’s almighty self, finally showed Itself to the World!

[Pause for heavy reflections]


How about that… wouldn’t that be the greatest thing of all time?

A religious person would undoubtedly praise the moment as the greatest, for they finally can be assured that there is a higher being. Even an atheist would attest to it being so. And an agnostic would finally have mind’s clarity about the decision to believe in a higher being.

The whole world would celebrate this easing moment; fireworks, confetti, trumpets, cheers and cries of joy… whatever it is that we do to celebrate, picture that picture… in all the faces of this planet that is populated. It’s like what those cinematic Hollywood and Disney happy-endings have always depicted.

Finally, we can all live happily ever after.

Or… can/will we?


i) Why God Won’t Show Itself To Us Just Yet

Given the situation that God does show Itself (let’s assume that it is one being and not several gods that appear), how will people generally respond to the appearance and what life-altering things are at stake? We cannot just assume that it will all be fade-to-black with a fairy-tale happy ending; what comes at an end must be followed by a new beginning.

Even if we’d all be happy that a higher being showed itself, we all won’t be all that too happy; for all our questions that have been lingering in our minds unanswered will now resurface and take a demanding tone to be answered; now we finally know we have someone who can answer them.

Why didn’t You answer my prayers? How come was I an orphan and not blessed with the gift of family like everyone I know? How come did You allow some people to be blind/deaf? Why didn’t You stop Your creations from killing each other through cruelties such as wars? Can You bring back my lost loved ones so I may spend time with them once again? Are we alone in this universe? Is there such a thing as parallel universes? Does Heaven and Hell exist? Did You create mankind just as experiments? What’s Our PURPOSE? What’s Your PLAN for mankind, if You even have one? Are You the only god or are there more of You “people”?

The list of questions and prayers can be a thousand per person (an approximate estimation), and with a world population of nearly 7 billion… 7 billion simultaneous questions is tough enough to handle for a single person, imagine a thousand times more will be flung at you, but if a higher being can handle them is still and forever will be a mystery which we can only hypothesize about. If the higher being can handle to answer all questions and answer peoples’ prayers then It is an omnipotent (all-powerful) and omniscient (all-knowing) being. But even if God is omnipotent and omniscient, there will still be disappointments and misery among people just like before the stated God-revealed-Itself scenario; for we’d then have to struggle against understanding and coping with It’s PLAN or in other words God’s Divine Plan… whether or not the plan is convenient for us all, just a few of us or none at all.

Then again, another issue we’d have to think about is which God does appear; will it be the Catholic, the Christian, the Muslim or the Jewish god? Or will it be a collection of several gods that will appear such as the Hindu, the Ancient Greeks with Zeus as overlord and dozens of sub-gods, Ancient Egyptian with Ra, the Norse with such gods as Thor and Odin, Joseph Smith of the Mormons, Xenu of the Scientologists, Buddha, Shiva, Ganesh… or perhaps a collective presentation of all the gods that ever came to mankind’s religious understanding, wouldn’t that be great then… having ALL gods present at the same time (such as the aforementioned lot)? Everyone can be slightly content then of not having chosen the wrong god/religion.

For the issue that will cause global depression of having a god showing itself would be that of having picked the wrong religion; the ones who happened to have chosen correctly will run the tempting risk of gloating or boasting their superiority over the majority that weren’t in the same religious god, and that majority will then chose to either convert to the proper religion or not; leading to a high risk of mass suicides all over the world due to disappointment and depression over unawarely believing strongly in nothing all their lives.

And the segregation will be even clearer, if not stronger, than before God decided to show Itself.


ii) Prayers versus the Divine Plan

There are many paradoxes, contradictions and dilemmas within religion (in general), but the one practical thing that I’ve found to be one of the most vague and oblivious to people’s logic is the collaboration of prayers alongside believing in a divine plan; just like dancing at a party wearing a sneaker on one foot and a fancy high-heel on the other… it doesn’t make sense outside of the party for it’ll make people think you’re either stupid or blind or both, but it’ll work at the party anyways because it’s a party and at parties people become oblivious to the obvious when intoxicated, and you’ll get to see other intoxicated people do or wear things that don’t make sense either. But they take the party wherever they go and are constantly intoxicated; ergo most people are still oblivious to the obvious, even the ones who are not religious and don’t denounce the influence of a divine plan at the same time as occasionally pray due to an intuition or a feeling.

Has anyone even begun to think of the thick red line between prayers and God’s plan?

With the use of God’s Plan there are no needs for prayers; because everything that occurs, occurred and will occur already is according to the Divine Plan… making prayers an unauthorized method like trying to put a Betamax tape into a Blu-Ray disc player.

If prayers were allowed to interfere with God’s Plan it’d be truly annoying to be God not catching any break because people keep messing up The Plan (for a modern practical example and experience of this, go play The Sims and take on the role as god).

And as for prayers, how can one be so certain they work? It’s a nice and comforting feeling when something you’ve prayed for went your way but it cannot be viable for everyone because it worked for you. A person who’s not religious in any way and doesn’t pray can do equally well at an exam as someone who is religious and prayed to do well at that exam.

One other thing about the collaboration of God’s Plan and prayers among people is the instant automatic switch between the two; for example, people praying for the salvation of a person’s life (either they know of them in person or not) who’s health is hovering between life and death after a horrible accident.

-Scenario A: Despite the intense prayers from that person’s close loved ones, the doctors weren’t able to keep that person from bleeding to death. A life lost is always hard to take for the loved ones, but nevertheless they must come to terms and accept it sooner or later. They might even reflect that they didn’t pray hard enough and blame themselves, and later on they wave it off as God had other plans and that it was his/her time. Perhaps blame the doctors as well for being incompetent and not thinking about how much critical time they had to work on the patient from the moment that person got injured to getting rushed to the hospital (circumstances play a major role for life-savers such as doctors).

-Scenario B: The doctors were able to save the person’s life and the loved ones are thankful to God for hearing their prayers, instead of putting all the thankful praises to the doctors for being the heroes.

To become a doctor or even be in the medical field takes a whole lot of work, dedication and patience… added with the pile of years of hard work and studies one must endure just to be entitled Doctor, not even forgetting the amount of social life and free-time they must sacrifice to get to where they want to be. And all of that swiped aside instantly in favor of a higher being’s plan or hearing of prayers… ain’t that a tad bit insensitive for the doctors, if not a figurative slap in their faces?

We have a longing to let out our utmost gratitude when we ourselves or a loved one survived a life-changing happening; for instance during the time my step-father was still alive he was rushed to the hospital on several occasions because he had strokes, when the doctors told us later that he was fine I was more than happy because I loved him dearly and he was the only father-figure I had other than my grandfather, losing him would make my world collapse somewhat. I really wanted to thank heaven for keeping him alive and intuitively that’s what I did, even if I didn’t know if there were people up there in heaven that heard my prayers. Either way, the first and immediate reflex I had was to thank any higher being who saved my step-father.

The other period in my life where I felt most gratitude to have been kept alive was when I was just a small boy and was in a drowning incident with two others. My body was totally filled with water and I’ve been down under water for a long period of time but was fortunately saved by a neighbor along with the other younger kid. I was considered dead on the spot, now imagine an alternative life-story where you’ve never met me (I’ll write about this episode some time soon after the topic of religion because it’s a long story on its own).

A prayer is like a scratch-lottery ticket: a million people can buy the tickets but the mega-big prizes are only distributed to a few tickets whereas there are so many minor-prizes which will make you feel great that you’ve won something; either the equivalent to the same amount of prayer you’ve given or double that, maybe even triple… but still you’ll keep on wanting more in the end. In this given logic there is no such thing as an omnipotent God, for then God would be able to cure all people whom have a piece or several pieces of body parts missing like a leg, an arm or others, and have those missing parts re-grown back.

The hypothetical God is either selective of the people It chooses to save, making The Plan for us others who are not according to The Plan obsolete, or perhaps God’s not omnipotent.

For those who say “God works in mysterious ways” or that “It’s a faith thing”, I will continue in a short moment about that.

So simply, either you believe in Prayers or in God’s Plan… or neither.

Here’s a very humorous clip from the late George Carlin at his very best on one of my favorite verbal tirades about religion (skip to 6:13 - 7:18 for his rant about the Prayer vs Divine Plan logic)


CHALLENGE

Reflect for yourself and pick which tool of faith to continue with, affective immediately: Prayer or the Divine Plan… you may only choose one.

If still unsure, go and try one week having the policy and philosophy of Prayer and then another week using the policy and philosophy of God’s Plan.

In the end, you must choose only one of them and continue your life with that choice.

(The bailout option is: neither of them.)


iii) What’s God Got to Do, Got to Do With It?


“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able, and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God.”

-Epicurus


I bet the thing that’s been on some of your minds all throughout this chapter has been “The logic of God is different from our logic.” Now, I cannot vouch for God, I don’t even know anyone can… other than claiming it’s a faith thing.

This is the final resort of anybody who cannot respond to all the illogical, hypocritical, paradoxical and misleading logic of religion (especially organized religion).

A physically baseless clinging to faith as the ultimate backup point is not helpful, by any means even useful, if not advocating arrogance and laziness of accepting the truth. Although we all claim that we one way or another have faith, all that really is is mere intuition, simple as that. We do not know, period!

For some reversal changes it’d be humorous to see or hear star athletes gladly thank their god for losing important games, or landmine victims praising their god for now being limbless all of their lives.

How can one even begin to have faith in an omniscient and omnipotent God when you go to a third world country (or see images from there) and see with your own eyes the miseries of people who live in the worst of conditions … and also find that they are the ones praying the most and intensively? How about the third world nations who have the highest rates of religious followers but are the ones consistently being helplessly punished by Mother Nature’s wrath?

In the given logic, they should be the ones getting front-row seats to God’s prayers-come-true policy… and even get a boost with their economy and development, if not being the leading powerful nations in the world.

For people who still believe in the biblical beginning of the world and existence, the first books of the bible already denounces the omniscience and omnipotence of God, for Adam and Eve were tricked by the snake (the devil in disguise) into breaking God’s rule of not eating anything from the Tree of Knowledge. All the while when Adam and Eve were biting off the fruit from the forbidden tree and the discussion that led to it, where was God all along? Had God been omniscient and omnipotent God would’ve already have known all about what would happen before, during and after thus preventing the devil-snake from talking to Adam and Eve thus prevented them from biting off the fruit of the forbidden tree… unless, God wanted them to. This just advocates that the Divine Plan is being used, but that God, whom in this logic is not all-knowing and all-powerful, had intended for mankind to be miserable in the first place… and there’s nothing you nor I could do but to accept of this so-called Divine Plan.

We have been doing fine without God revealing Itself so far, there’s clearly a gargantuan room for improvements in the way we run the world… but if there is a god who won’t show itself due to this logic then that god has only allowed mankind the gift of freedom of choice, that is if God exists and is also able and willing.

All we simply need is to be nicer to each other and treat each other with respect. Religion is not obliged to claim dibs on morality and virtues. We’re all simply afraid of death, but we shouldn’t give in to stories or myths about the afterlife that comes from other people’s delusions or hallucinations.

I’m not going as far as to claiming that there is no god, but if there was a god who allowed all of the horrible things mankind had to go through… one thing’s certain though, you can cross off Omniscient and Omnipotent off God’s Curriculum Vitae.

One final point that’s probably scratching the surface of your head and wanting to ask me is: What if you’re wrong?

I stand for myself by boomeranging that same question back at you: what if YOU are wrong… and also, will it matter much? If I am wrong then so be it, I’ll accept a wrongdoing. If I burn in hell as well then so be it, hell might be an unpleasant place but I’ll worry about that when I get there… if that place even exists, but for now I am more concerned about what’s real and beautiful in this world and also what’s really happening in front of my eyes thus what impact I can make to this world while I still can. Deciding whether or not there is a god and insuring one’s own spot in heaven should be the last peas on our plates when we see people being collateral damage or casualties of war, dying from famine and affected by natural disasters. It is time we open our eyes to what’s real now, not to what we feel is real.

Live your life to the fullest and allow others to have that very same freedom, not prevent them by claiming you’ll burn in hell or that you are an infidel for doing certain things that might not be acceptable in the social or chosen religious norm. We are simple learning beings, beings that all through our lives learn from mistakes by seeing patterns and determining the best actions and outcome; and even if we make another mistake by that choice we just made poorly… we’ll still learn from it afterwards. A curios child who never knew that touching burning firewood is very painful will learn not to do so again. Some lessons though are clearly more vital and hard learned than others.

The purpose of religion is, in my deepest opinion and reflection, a big lesson in life we must learn from, sooner rather than later. Not for the attesting of God’s existence, but for the mistakes man is driven to by it.


“Wherever there are facts of any kind to be known, one thing is certain; not all people will discover them at the same time or understand them equally well…
…Wherever there are right and wrong answers to important questions, there will be better or worse ways to get those answers, and better or worse ways to put them to use.” –from Sam Harris’ “The End of Faith” (p.145)

Not Without My Faith

To Whom This May Concern (chapter 2/5)

Foreword

Continuing from the last piece, I will keep on laying forth certain things I find crucial and vital to the topic of religion. Ones I honestly believe (no pun intended) should be considered taken seriously and I hope (once again, no pun intended) that my friends and loved ones will understand; not just my choice of conviction but also the points I'm trying to get through and that they too will grow a consciousness to this, if they haven't had it already.
These chapters are written and partly dedicated to EVERYBODY in the community (CFC-FFL... and whatever it's called and divided into nowadays). I would like this to come out to the leaders and heads of all units in the community and to as far as possible; not just here in Sweden but everywhere... even, and most especially, the Philippines).
And to my muslim brothers and sisters, what will concern you in this piece is only my humble understanding of what I know so far... please do not blow things out of proportion if you find anything I write "wrong" in according to what you know and understand of your faith. Let me know what things I should know, shed light into my growing knowledge and understanding of your faith... I will be most glad to do so. The more we know and learn from each other, the better we can get along.

Press PAUSE

i. Pause it now!
If Religion were a CD record on play, it would've definitely been set on Repeat or Loop all this time. Always the same sound; to some ears it's harmless, to some it's purely inspirational, to some it's non-sense but amusing, to some it's looked upon with an alarming frown and a waving finger sensing the potential damages and dangers this can bring, and to some it's instantly thrown into the garbage or returned to the seller and demand a refund.
From the beginning I found it to be harmless; coming from my earlier years and growing up in a family and culture that has religion and its ethics as standing point and common ground. I never questioned it for I just took it in as fact.
Then later on in my adolescent years I went and spent a chunk of my so-far life devoted to the cause of an organization and community trying to inspire youths and others in my age to keep hands clean off drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, adolescent misdemeanours and things like that. I found it a great cause and activity, I found immensely great friends and got to see different places and met with youths like me. The only hitch was that it was doing so through religion. At first I didn't mind it. I even got inspired and motivated by it at times and wanted to share it with others, which I did. I was moved, so to speak, at times when the only reasonal answers to the questions I needed and on how things fit in life was found through religion.
At this point in life I was deeply active within the CFC community and was also altar servant at church on Sundays, even from time to time serving at masses held by bishops and arch-bishops. People grew more aware of me and the kind person that I was. I met my first love through this community. I found balance in life through this way of living, I was in harmony and wondered how come more cannot have this experience... this drove me even more to keep doing missions and serving.

But in the middle of it I grew more and more in questioning the foundations and beliefs that religion was based upon and what the followers are boasting about. I tried to go back to the source of it and dug through books and history, I didn't quite find anything to fall back upon for support after digging through history. The only fall-back I had was what the scriptures and bible wrote... and so I got down and went through the bible with a critical mind of reason. I left the old testament unfinished for it was unpleasant to read and had a lot of holes left open. I read it for what it was, a fictional book of lores and myths, but didn't feel spiritually enhanced by it... I was rather fearful of the supposed Creator it proposed and found it a waste of time trying to look for answers from there (but I will keep on reading through it). And so the answers to life I was looking for wasn't answered by the old testament, so I tried the new testament which I've read quite fondly of when I was in my pre-adolescent years and had received a children's bible.
But re-reading the new testament in a new light (and in a more mature version) was a great improvement compared to the old testament, with its questionably mythical figures. I like Jesus, I believe he was a real guy that did exist.
I found the morals and teachings of Jesus to be pleasant and really worth taking into consideration, his messages and philosophies were beyond his time and I would've believed him in an instant. There's only one unpleasant disconcertion about him that I cannot avoid to lash about: his supposed miracles, the supernatural abilities he supposedly possessed and all other miscellaneous extraordinary events that supposedly occurred in his life. The mythical Jesus.

This is the part where I crossed to looking at the Religion CD as non-sense but amusing to gradually sensing the potential damages and dangers the CD can bring while I hold the album and check for the label of warning of context, and this was just after listening to the Christianity-track...
And then I came down to the realization that the gospels are still an argument of chronology; when they were written down and by whom. To find the mythical Jesus to be non-fiction it would've at least been anticipated to have reliable and viable sources, the gospels have yet to determine its accuracy. The earliest theoretical proof from the Christian apologists of any of the gospels been written was circa 40 years after the death of Jesus. And even that's a very long time to remember information, it even exceeds the life-time of Jesus himself.
In theoretical realization it is highly likely that the gospels were results of hearsays after hearsays, that the stories spread around about Jesus were mashed with other stories added on by others... rumours, in other words, taking in other stories of other religious ideologies and beliefs of ancient times and pre-christian figures and adding it on to make Jesus a grander person; in my considered opinion, to raise his status among the theists having more miracles than the other prophets who were seeking audiences at the same time. Popularity in audience back then can be looked at like TV-ratings in our time. It is also believed that Jesus was one of many prophets and public speakers during his later years, he wasn't the only one.
And I still haven't mentioned yet the impact of Constantine the Great and the Council of Nicaea had on Christendom, Christianity and history...
(for more insights on Christian history, search and read more into the pair of aforementioned bolded nouns.)

CHALLENGE: Social Experiment

Here's my challenge on this particular topic.
1. Gather twelve (12) friends or just people who'd like to try out a social experiment (anyone will be interested as long as you mention the words social experiment). Alternatively, you could also do this with just 9 participators. But don't mention to them what it's about, just guide them through the points. Sort them into 3 groups.
2. First just take the first group of 4 (alt.3) people and seclude them from the rest. To the first group you'll tell them a short story with details of a protagonist of your choice, you can add names and places as well to add more information.
3. Once you're done, instruct group 1 to share with the people in group 2, not as a group but person per person, every person shares the story to another person and once the people in group 2 has finished hearing from group 1, they then do the same with the people in group 3 as in step 2.
4. At the end give all participants each a pen and a piece of paper to write down what they remember of the story; either the entire story as they told it or what points they remembered.
5. Finally have them go play around while you collect and analyze the results. Check if some had uncertainty in their sharing of stories (the "I think it was..."-uncertainties)
[alternatively: after each group gets to hear the story have them walk around and do some activities for 10 minutes and then return to share the story they remember to the next group]

It was never intended to make the experiment model look like a cross, humorous though. But all fun aside, mind that this is just starting with a handfull of people over an experimental time of an hour, if not less than that; imagine what the model and results would look like after weeks, months, years, decades and centuries.


Without the miracles and extraordinary events in Jesus' life he'd be considered in the same ranks and in our perceptions as just another great and insightful influential such as Plato, Socrates and Aristotle.... just a mere human with great humane insights and philosophies; a free-thinker, liberator and moralist.
To me, that is the true Jesus. Nothing more, nothing less.

ii. Obsession, Control and Double Standards
To continue from chapter 1, where I left gaps on certain issues.
Why we choose to believe, has been already covered by one of my dearest treasures in life, Nicole, on her well-put reply to the previous chapter when she simply put; "...we are, at an early age, not given the "choice" to choose... not only one's religion but if we WANT to believe in God. "
This is simply how we are as beings, with this special conscience and ability to take in everything that we possibly can and also that we are highly proactive beings we have more privilege than all the other creatures and beings on this planet. Even with our closest evolutionary cousins, the chimpanzees, highly advanced would be an understatement; it would take at least hundreds of centuries for chimpanzees to even come up with the idea of building a copy of a simple house that we've put on display for them next to the full set and added extra materials we've provided for them needed to build the replica. Having them build an actual replica will take at least tenfold the first hundreds of centuries afterwards. But this is just pure virtual theory in its humblest form, it'd probably take way way longer than that.
We are highly fortunate to be where and how we are. But we also have with this the responsibility to be what we are.
And this is where I'll put a bookmark on the understanding of people's motives, for this is the point where people will bring forth their philosophies. Everyone has their own version, everyone. And this is where the obsession of god comes in.
We would like to believe that there is, some go to greater lengths to find it than others. Some would claim that they feel it.
And it is entirely respectable that they do, but it should just end there... entirely with and to themselves. Not shared delusions to others or as a collective delusion. With and to themselves. If feeling is what makes a person believe in religion, then it's not a viable reason that religion is correct; for feelings can go out of control and we still yet cannot distinguish the differences in our feelings.

I won't breathe so much air about control because it's already widely known that religion has been used to control people; if this hasn't come yet to revelation then please go and read history books and get a broader understanding on the situation from other places on this world who sadly don't have equal rights as we fortunates do; certain of these places are sadly backed up by religious foundations and ideals. Take for instance the muslim world, I'll have my say on Saudi Arabia because I have lived there for some time. They are not evil people, they are one of the kindest and smartest I've crossed paths with. Ever since the tragic events during September 11, 2001 the picture of muslims and arabs have sadly grayed off to grotesque anti-western trolls. I know fully well that not every person of this or that culture is evil/good. But my picture of arabs are still the same as I remember them. Though it's true that they've set laws based upon their religious documents; limiting certain things that seem bad or filthy or even deeper... anything that might bring filthy thoughts.
The islamic belief urges that to be truly worthy you must understand the qur'an and believe it, and for those that don't understand the qur'an due to language barriers can try to understand it through the translated version of the qur'an... but then again it is proclaimed still unworthy to think one has understood the qur'an through the translated version, therefor the truly worthy way is by learning arabic.
Of course it is understandable that to understand something you must have understood it from its true shape, but this example and use of excuse in effort to convert more people is an example of practicing arrogance by religious excuses. In other words it's a practice of religious exclusivity (the "we'll get to heaven, not you... unless you're willing to change/sacrifice"-tactic).
Even in the small speck of religious community that is CFC, they too have done some minor but unpleasant tactics.

Where and When CFC went too far

When the new batch of Mission Volunteers were to pass MV-training and their last requirement was to sacrifice their current relationships. This was four-five years back, fortunately I wasn't part of it... but my former girlfriend was. I knew of other youths who went MV and were in relationships which they broke for this requirement.
Now, I have not much knowledge about the requirement and as to why it was proclaimed as one. But no one needs any knowledge whatsoever to sacrifice relationships for that cause (which was, so that other youth members won't get "influenced wrongly by their elder leaders").
This infuriated me, it still does, not just the requirement itself but also the lack of common sense and arguments that weren't put forward by the MV's.
The heads of YFC-CFC that came up with this idea and other unit heads/leaders that supported this should be ashamed of themselves for making youths go through this torment... and for what cause, on a grand scale? Who are they to require this requirement from these innocent youths who have already devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the community? The youths can decide for themselves what things are appropriate or not! I understand that they need guidance, but this is over the edge of what is not just reasonably allowed but also irrational for them to go through. It is downright wrong playing god, and this is a practical example of just that. Progress is limited by preventing people from thinking for themselves.
I am not on a witch-hunt here, I am only demanding more reason taught to the youths.
Those who were involved with this requirement might have arguments covering the requirement, I'll be ready to listen... but I sure hope they'll listen, take in and understand completely what those arguments are themselves.

Then again, it is not the religion or people to blame... it is the people's understanding that needs to be tweaked to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the rules and laws, religion aside. The only ones that can change our minds are ourselves.
I wish for the islamic leaders to finally come to a realization that women get equal rights and that one cannot forbid anyone from thinking bad thoughts; doing so with the use of religious foundations as psychological fear-tactic is, frankly, inhumane. It is not about pointing fingers to who is most faithful or who's most immoral, but it's about how much you can do and help out in the progress of mankind during the fortunate life-time you're on this planet. (either chapter 4 or 5 will be dedicated to this delicate topic).
And for all the other religious leaders, however big or small in responsibilities... you still have a responsibility to guide people and provide a better outcome for the coming generations. Though I say the religious practices and methods need to be revised and updated to make it understandable for the people that live in the now. Split moral teachings and facts from fictional jargon.
Spirituality is something that we all won't understand, just feel, and it's best left at that. All attempts to trying to answer it have resulted in social division and, worst of all, deaths and wars in the name of it. Enough should've been enough a long time ago. But mankind has still been persistent to relying on each of their own convictions, fighting for it. This is not just unhealthy, it is slowing down mankind's progress in discovering more about what's at hand.

Just a little humorous "what if" I found on the internet

Try to read reports from Amnesty International, it might not be the easiest information to swallow but it sadly reports the world we currently live in... don't turn a blind eye, help out in the best way you possibly can! (Me bringing awareness of these topics is the least of my efforts to help out.)
Now, this last sentence about not turning a blind eye and helping out is also what the ideologies of certain religious missionaries have in mind and motivation when they travel to places to try to give help the best way that they can. It is courageous of them and they deserve all the encouragement and respect they deserve to go on their missions.
But is it really neccessary to bring religion with you to those missions when all they need is just education, food, shelter and compassion? Let me rephrase that: is being motivated by spreading the word of selected god to others weighed more as motivation for those missions than just simply helping the needy and providing comfort, shelter and etc?
In the simplest way I can lay forward about double-standards obtained by religious practitioners or just simple naive believers (I meant naive in the politest way possible), people get whiffs of righteousness with the help of religion; they search to be righteous and try to reflect that on themselves and show it to others, in the worst case it's used as superior power.
This part is my aim of critic against church heads and churchgoers everywhere that run their business in the manner to be exampled. An example would be from the Philippines where I went to visit a church with friends who wanted to walk around and sightsee. At the entrance of the church was a sign and notice showing that visitors are forbidden to wear slippers (tsinelas), shorts, skirts and revealing attires. I'd find it understandable at first but then I started to think about the less fortunate people who don't have the proper attire to get into the church but seek solace at the church in hopes of that they'll get closer to god and in hopes of being saved from their destitution.
It's truly a sad thought to be in their position and still be neglected from the very place that teaches people to help one another. Where else can they turn to? I am aware that churchgoers might feel intimidated or uneasy when they see destituted people there, but then it is the churches' responsibility to show the compassion needed and not to shut them out. Do as you preach.
And take for another example the Sunday masses or just church on any given day, many would attest to going there to hear the word of god and also to find god. It's supposed to be a place for everyone but it fosters subconscious prejudice with the help of this whiff of righteousness from people who have, for instance, been a part of that church for a long time (and i'm not talking about the priests). I will not go more into this because this differs from person to person. But a humorous insight I'll share is a quote from the late but great insightful comedian George Carlin, in one of his stand-ups he talked about religion and when he tried sun-worshipping for a change he perfectly put it to words:

"Sun-worship is fairly simple; there's no mystery, no miracles, no one asks for money, there are no songs to learn and we don't have a special building where we all gather once a week to compare clothing."

Quite frankly, morality can also exist without the fear of selected-god's wrath.
So stop being nice because it's what your religion tells you to, just be nice because you are a nice person.
And for those that are thinking of asking deeply philosophical questions to me such as "where does morality come from?" or "who then created morality if not god?" please refrain from doing so, questions like that will not just be left unanswered by me but it also won't make any difference if I did answer because it is a question that even the highest religious leaders are unable to answer without refering to their back-up foundations.
(There will be a continuation on chapter 3 about critical thinking and relying on wishful thinking)

iii. In the hands of irrational people:
I wouldn't want to be called a radical or fundamental, in others' eyes I might be, but that's their perception. But for this matter if I'll be considered one of those adjectives, then so be it. But let me get this perfectly clear: I am motivated to enlighten in the name of life and our existence' sake!
Some would raise their hands after the last statement saying that they're doing the exact same thing, and doing so in the name-/with the help- of Jesus, Allah and so forth so forth.
Of course it's respectable that you are doing so and you probably have goodness in mind whenever you spread the teachings and words of your prophets/lords. But keep in mind that certain people may have warped mentalities and understanding when it comes to trying to understand what it is they're reading in their precious books, without taken into considerations the circumstances those books were written in (i.e. time they wrote those stories, who wrote them and aimed for which public), like what I mentioned in chapter 1: To Believe Or Not To Believe.
Now, when you have those people with the warped mentalities and misunderstandings teaching to others it'll foster more people with warped mentalities and misunderstandings. In religion over time, this has sadly been the case and it still is.
Due to this mankind has had more deaths in the name of something holy than anything else except, perhaps, natural and accidental deaths. This is counting not just the modern times with our three largest monotheistic religions but also the past eras and epochs with religious ideals that seem ancient to us.
If we say religion is the cause of 2/5 of the deaths and killings in the world and history, even without religion people would still kill people; but at least without irrational and illogical religious motives it'd be one less motivation to kill and you'd be left with the 3/5 of the cake in which the only deaths are accidental and natural but also not ruling out killings just because of the motive of killing.
In the words of the Nobel laureate in Physics, Steven Weinberg:

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion. "

Knowledge is a responsibility to share around, but it is also a responsibility what kind of knowledge you choose to share and for the receivers of knowledge the responsibility to be critical of what knowledge you take in.
I am not going to discuss here whether or not the events in, for example, the bible, are historically accurate for that will take away the time discussing what's really important about the subject. All I'm going to insert on this is that everyone, especially believers, should distinguish their beliefs between the moral teachings from the biblical* attempts on responding to questions regarding spirituality through fables.

(*selected "sacred" book)



If Religion were a CD record on play, it should be Paused at the moment while we focus on doing our homeworks and doing something progressive with our time.