“My Bliss is KNOWLEDGE, yours is IGNORANCE,” is a quote I made that, despite having struck my friends – whether they’re online or in person -  is one they respect. For several years it has been like this. As I was seeking for answers and looking for truths regarding life, I was disappointed and dismayed. I learned that truths are only illusions. I learned that each and everyone of us has truths of their own, one which if anyone dares to question, would surely make for long and exhaustive arguments. We have different perspective regarding things. Yes of course, for we are all different individuals, and yet we must not forget we belong to what we call the rational animals. However, some of us never use that ability.  Instead, we just nod and follow what other rational beings are telling us. Most of us are afraid to ask the WHY and the WHAT question: Why are we supposed to follow what others are telling us? What’s the purpose?

In this case, what we call rational beings are like puppets controlled by those people who are self-centered, and deceptive rational people. Those who are only concerned for one thing: to satisfy their greed for power.

Some people do think in the context What and the Why, but they forget to rationalize and evaluate. Instead, they jump from one thought to another without weighing things using their critical thinking.  Or did they have the ability to do so to begin with? So what exactly am I pointing out here, you may ask.

Let me just tell you that there is a kind of philosophical view-point about how people should think or the way people should think. This view is called freethinking, which holds that “opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, or dogma.” It is a way of thinking distanced from any bias and prejudice, especially those of religious beliefs. It is a cognitive application of free thought.

Sadly, we Filipinos lack this kind of thinking, for our minds have been tuned to follow what our elders and our forefathers say without question. We accept things we never tried evaluating for ourselves. It is the result of hundreds of years in the hands of these self-centered and closed-minded people, who brainwashed our forefathers. Until now we’re in bondage to this blurred form of thinking, yet, we do have people who fight against this. Much like what our national hero did before, we dreamed of a country free from religious bigots and political tyrants.

We hope for a country of freethinking people, regardless of beliefs. Like what Gautama Buddha said:

Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumour; nor upon what is in scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another’s seeming ability; nor upon the consideration…

Do not accept anything by mere tradition… Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures… Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your preconceived notions.. But when you know for yourselves–these things are moral, these things are blameless, these things are praised by the wise, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to well-being and happiness– then do you live accordingly.

This is what freethinking is about, but most of us Filipinos misunderstand it.

I would like to share a short poem I made.

New Beginning

Will you have the courage of going out of your comfort zone?

Or die with your ignorance?

Great things happen because you made them happen

Life is too short, so live it the way you want it

You may not cross again the paths you’ve walked on, so

Create memories with your loved ones, and cherish every moment

Only you have the power to control your life

Nothing else matters anyway

Say whatever you want to say, shout if you want to

Unleash the True YOU, don’t hold back

After all, YOU and only YOU can make yourself HAPPY and CONTENTED and

No One Else.

I am not really into gaming [PC games in particular], but I’ve tried playing Defense Of The Ancient aka DOTA Allstar… and then I realized how this game is similar to religion or the different faiths’ battle for supremacy. I mean no offense to believers who play this kind of game but that’s how I see it, so allow me just write about its similarities with religion…

First, let me state how the game is played: each player has to select a hero from his/her respective clan [the sentinel or the scourge] and train it on basic survival skills against waves of creeps (monsters) that are distributed through each lane. The key objective is to destroy the Frozen Throne/Tree of Life of the opposing town. Killing another player is just a sub-objective in order to slow the enemies from strengthening themselves while leveling yourself up and receiving bounty which can then be used for strengthening your own Hero with better items.

Now I would like to continue to my real intention of writing this article…

As for the objective of the game, I can relate it to the believers of religion [or believers of god/s]: The Frozen Throne/The Tree of Life is the religion/god of each clan for which the heroes are ready to die. Players equip their characters with items to strengthen them so they will not be killed by the enemy. Just like the preachers of religion, they arm themselves with the word of “god” so they can never be shaken by the other religions’ doctrines…

Heroes of DOTA gain gold by killing creeps and opponents and by destroying enemy structures. Religions/preachers of religion make money from people so they can equip themselves and their churches…

The more items the heroes of DOTA acquire, the more difficult they are to kill. In religion, the more people and resources they gather, the more dangerous and cunning they become, making it easier for them to vanquish the weaker faith of people from other religions…

What would Jesus do

in

this troublesome

time?

In Iraq, USA, Israel

and Palestine?

What would Jesus do

when

calamity comes?

to people who are unfortunate,

it seems to them the sun

won’t shine.

What would Jesus do

to

physically and mentally challenged men?

to amputees, mongoloids, the deaf, mute and

the blind?

What would Jesus do?

If people will realize,

that it’s foolishness to believe

in a

Jesus divine…

As I was seeking for answers and looking for truths regarding life, I was disappointed and dismayed when I learned that some ‘truths’ are only illusions. I learned that each and every one of us has his/her own ‘truths’ which, if anyone dares to argue with, it would be a long and tiring argument for sure.

So let me tell you my story on why I became an atheist. This is my JOURNEY TO PARADISE.

I was born in a Christian family, in an environment among what they call the ‘righteous’ and the ‘chosen ones’. But I am an individual, unique, and I have my own thoughts to follow. I realized that I don’t have to follow my family’s traditions and beliefs.

For 12 years I was in a Catholic environment because my family is a devotee of Catholicism. But by the time I was able to understand this religion and belief thing, I started questioning every little detail on why people follow such traditions like the rituals done during Holy Week, the baptism of babies, the signing of the cross, the feast of the patron saints, etc., which are actually prohibited in the Bible, as far as I know.

But instead of answering my questions they just ignored me, so I started seeking for answers. A friend of mine in high school told me that if I wanted to seek for answers to my questions regarding religion and belief, I must read the Bible. And so I did. But instead of giving me answers it created more questions, until one day a neighbor came and preached about the gospel and the “Word of God” to me. She earnestly answered each and every question I had, and although I was a little skeptical of her answers, I accepted them. And because of my eagerness to really have the answers, I decided to become a born again Christian and to study more about the Word of God.

For two years I studied and adopted the beliefs of this sect I was in. I became “The Bible Man” in my family. Sometimes I argued with my mom with regards to what the Bible says about those who don’t follow what God had commanded. But that was until I realized that I was being a freak of this Jesus and his teachings.

I could no longer accept some of the lessons in science, sociology, and philosophy that I encountered in school because of this “have faith and never doubt” thing that I learned in the Bible. Fortunately, I realized I was being illogical and unreasonable at times. I realized that “truth is never told but realized”. And so I renounced my Christian faith and beliefs to grasp freethought for me to gain the real knowledge of life and the most logical and reasonable position that man can ever be.

Christianity had been my hindrance to progress and to knowing the reality and every answer to my questions. I may not know everything in life yet but what I know for sure is that there will be answers in the future. For everything here is explainable by science and logic – maybe not yet now but sooner or later we’ll have every answer that we longed to know and waited for so long. I may no longer be alive at that time, but I’m living right now for that future to come.

I no longer believe in any deity or supernatural things now that I have realized that it’s absurd to believe in such things that have no proofs of their existence. I live my life the way I want it, free from falsehood and absurdities.

But It doesn’t mean that I live a life of nothingness just because I don’t believe in a Sky-Daddy and didn’t follow what my family has taught me. I have my own thoughts and views regarding things, so no one can say I am a lifeless being. Every individual is as unique as his/her beliefs and so we can’t just say to anyone that he/she is wrong for what he/she believes, for we don’t know yet what is true.

And so if I say that God does not exist, you can’t say I am wrong just because you have things that “prove” your claim that God exists. No, God’s existence has been the long time argument of theists and atheists and yet no one has ever proven anything of it’s existence or non-existence. So I may be an agnostic as far as my position is concerned because I don’t know anything yet. But if God exists or not, I don’t care. At the least I know what I’m doing and what I’m supposed to do.

I am an Atheist. It has been one heck of a journey for me indeed. I may not have written all of it here, but this is the best thing that happened in my journey. And though my journey is not yet over, I’ll live for it now, to finish what I started, on this Journey to Paradise.