In my previous post about the HIV summit, I wrote about my unanswered question (What should the DOH do about the CBCP problem?) and the elephant in the room (Bishop Yniguez, public affairs director of the CBCP). The guys in the faith-based table (particularly the Catholic priest) probably told the bishop about my question, so I was a bit hesitant to do what I did next.

I interviewed the elephant. After some media representatives interviewed him, I thought I’d take advantage of inertia and cut in right after with my trusty camcorder. It paid off. He took a look at my ID and asked about my surname. I told him my grandfather was Turkish. If that’s what he asked me, he must have missed “Filipino Free Thinkers” written below my name.

Anyway, are some highlights:

He was vague about condom use being a mortal sin. Last I checked it still is a mortal sin. But instead of using those words, he said it was a grave matter, which is the same thing.

He said that the Catholic statements against the effectiveness of condoms were supported by scientific surveys and facts.

He said that even if condom use were proven to be effective (by the CBCP “scientists”), if it was opposed to the principles of the Catholic Church, it would still be wrong. Which will always be the case, since condoms are intrinsically evil. (I was surprised he had to think twice about whether this was the case.)

He said that condom use would be OK between a married couple and only if one of the spouses had HIV or AIDS. Now here he is going against the official Catholic stance that condom use is intrinsically evil. Maybe there is hope. (Jail the Pope? Sorry.)

He said that half-Catholics, those who disagree with the Church’s position on matters such as condom use, “are not Catholics.” Though this would probably be bad for publicity, and as public affairs director, he knew better. So…

He said that Catholics who do not agree with the Church can still call themselves Catholic. But they would be erring Catholics.

I didn’t get to prepare, so now I have a lot of tougher questions I wish I’d asked. But I guess it’s good enough when you get a bishop to say, “Nadali mo ako dun a.”

I asked the titular question at this morning’s HIV Summit hosted by the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC). The event started with several speakers discussing the state of HIV and AIDS in the country; and the measures that must be taken by the people in attendance — mostly leaders from different sectors of society who share HIV/AIDS as an advocacy.

After the talks the participants were allowed to ask questions and make comments. Several participants had their say, some raising issues not mentioned in the talks. These issues were addressed, often at length, sometimes by more than one person.

Yet with the hundreds in attendance, in none of the talks, questions, and comments did anyone raise the CBCP issue. The CBCP is and has been the strongest political opponent of the DOH or any other sexual health advocacy group since Ever. The recent death of the RH Bill is almost entirely thanks to them. More recently, Secretary Cabral, PNAC Chairperson and Secretary of Health, has received harsh criticism and has even been pressured to resign from her post.

The CBCP Problem was the elephant in the room, and I couldn’t wait to cry elephant.

I got my chance toward the end of the open forum. I’ve embedded the video below. (It’s not in the video, but I asked the question using the microphone at the table assigned for members of faith-based groups, which was only a few meters away from mine.)

In case you’re wondering what the answer to my question was, there was none. The reason for this could have been the lack of time (we were about to have lunch) or the lack of an answer. But I realized later why they had their tongues tied.

Shortly after I asked the question, at the faith-based table sat an elephant — Bishop Yniguez, CBCP public affairs director. Ceremoniously, the event host acknowledged the presence of His Eminence. And the participants, leaders in the fight against HIV and AIDS, advocates of artificial family planning and comprehensive sexual health education, applauded.

This was the scene last year in the Capitol of Washington State. Personally i applaud the handful of atheists who launched a counter-rally against the Christians, risking their security in the face of a literal mob of angry fundies.

Here’s Ryan giving a Solidarity Statement from the Filipino Freethinkers at Gay Pride 2009.

Thanks to Carlo Ople, Benj, Tania, and I had an enlightening evening with Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel. It was enlightening for this skeptic to see that there was still a flicker of hope in our government.

Here is a politician who recognizes the rights of minorities — including freethinkers — respects our secular Constitution, and is not afraid to talk about it — even at the risk of displeasing the CBCP.

We were given a chance to ask her questions and I got to the point: What does she think about the CBCP’s political meddling, especially on the RH Bill? And what can supporters of secularism do to stop Church politicking?

She answers all this and more in the two-part interview above.

Intelligent conversation, delicious food — it was a wonderful evening. Until I read about what the Comelec did to Ang Ladlad. Oh well. Disgusting, I know. At least we know we have one representative who feels the same way.

Thanks to Stephanie for pointing out this cool video from The Thinking Atheist. Gave me goosebumps. =)

If you live inside Facebook, I’m pretty sure you’ve already seen someone posting this video, (or maybe you’ve posted it yourself to perpetuate the chain). However, on several occasions I’ve pointed out that the alleged account of a classroom encounter between young Albert Einstein and an atheist professor is FICTION. The exchanges never took place, and Albert Einstein, whom many deem the most intelligent person who ever lived, is not a Christian.

Moreover, we know it’s not true because Einstein, the most famous scientist of the 20th century responsible for the famous E=mc2 equation, was a careful thinker who would never have put forward the specious logic attributed to him.

Read the full story

OK, so I was supposed to write this post about last Sunday’s, uh, adventures, but I haven’t finished it yet. I will soon, but in the meantime, here’s a short video of some of the FF peeps last Sunday at Barangay Tañong helping the UP people distribute relief packs.

Here are the videos (playlist) and much anticipated group picture of the Filipino Freethinkers Forum 2 (FFF2) held last Saturday:

Thanks to:

• Tin and Tania — Fantastic Free Food
• Igme — Competent Cameraman with Incompetent Tripod
• Teddy — Free Books. Farewell! We’ll miss you! (Teddy’s going to Australia.)
• Team Irate and Team Agent — for being good sports. Rematch?
• Thysz — for inspiring the team names
• Ateneo — for the nice, cool venue.
• And to all the participants (in body and in spirit). See you on the next one!

Last Sunday, Carl Camper (not the prank-pulling Carl) woke up excited. The day he had been waiting for had finally arrived. And then he looked at the calendar — it was March 1.

March 1? March 1! But the First Filipino Freethinkers Forum is on February 28 . . . and February 28 was — Yesterday!

He spent the whole Sunday depressed about his bad luck, with only the promise of videos to be uploaded soon as consolation.

So a week later, in our first meetup after the FFFF, I wasn’t surprised when the early bird award went to none other than Carl.

The previous early bird champion, Igme, had a seminar at work. Others were similarly preoccupied — some had office work, some had school work, some would rather lurk.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I took attendance that the headcount reached 10 (yes, I did take attendance, you can ask Monk).

I’m sure there would have been more, had it not been International Women’s day. (To all the women of the world, hope you had a good one!)

To begin the meetup, as all first-timers have, Carl sat on the hotseat and shared with us his journey to reason. In spite of our incessant interruptions, Carl concluded and we moved on to the agenda.

First, we talked about what we could have done to make the FFFF better. We agreed it was a success, but some of us had regrets — missing the chance to ask certain questions or argue with certain speakers or bring certain people to the parking lot.

Next, we discussed the Second Filipino Freethinkers Forum (SFFF) or Filipino Freethinkers Forum 2 (FFF2). (Haven’t decided yet. Any suggestions?)

I assured Danny, one of our hard-working committee leaders, that the FFF2 (I think that sounds nicer) won’t be as grand as the first one, and will take a lot less work.

There won’t be fancy food or merchandise, so expenses will be less (but donations are always welcome). The duration will be shorter — 2 hours at most — but the forum will focus on one narrow theme, to allow for more in-depth discussion.

A committee lead by Pecier will try to book us a venue at UP Diliman, former home of the UP Atheists’ Circle (UPAC). I haven’t heard from him lately, but I’m sure he can get the job done, especially with a lot of guys from UP offering to help.

And as a small informal group, we’ll need all the help we can get. Which is why we’ve been talking about setting up a more formal group that will be more accountable for responsibilities assigned to them, hopefully ensuring that forums such as this will be prepared and executed in a more efficient and effective manner, consistently.

At first there was some hesitance to being part of a more formal group. But after I explained the group’s goals and methods, all ten members in attendance joined in and expressed their willingness to support its objectives.

With this, the FFF2 is now on the horizon, and will be held somewhere in UP Diliman on March 28. Freethinkers, please mark your calendars.

After this we took the mandatory group picture (which I forgot at the forum!) then called it a day at around 5 PM.

Some had to go home but Carl, who came all the way from the south, wanted to make the most of his long trip with an after-meetup party. So the six of us who remained drove to my place, five of us in my car, Carl excitedly tailing us in his motorcycle.

And then Carl’s bad luck returned. When we arrive at my place he discovered that he’d left his driver’s license all the way back at Shangri-la (an irrational parking policy, I know).

He wanted to immediately go back, completely wasting his trip, but we convinced him to stay for a while. He made the most of this by playing Rock Band 2 and Let’s Tap wildly, winning the most games. His luck continued when he got home without being caught by the MMDA licenseless.

But I think there’s only one way Carl can really turn his luck around: Attend the FFF2 on March 28, a SATURDAY. Or maybe he can wear an agimat or anting-anting.

You can now view all 16 FFFF videos on this playlist or on the embedded player below. Enjoy!

Parts 01-02: Introduction and Freethinkers Game
Parts 03-05: John Paraiso on Grassroots Freethinking
Parts 06-07: Geri Villas on Secular Humanism
Parts 08-11: Maria Isabel Garcia on Science and Freethinking
Parts 12-15: Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio on the RH Bill
Part 16: Benjamin Espina on Freethought Online

EDIT: I’ve changed the individual video into a playlist, so you can navigate to the other parts by clicking its thumbnail or on the Next and Previous Arrows on the edges of the video window.