A behavior one can observe is how the Anti-RHB groups have actually attempted to dehumanize their opponents. One can easily see it in the headlines as Bishops accuse Pro-RH people of immorality in public online discussions. The readiness of the Anti-RHB to never understand a side that understands them all too well is apparent. It flies in the face of common sense when the Anti-RHB assume that these former Catholics or Christians or Pro-RH Christians do not understand their faith. Opposition having come from their own ranks, it never occurs to them that they already know or that they did not understand the teachings enough. This arrogant and distorted view has led to many clashes and polarized the discussion.

It does not help that the Anti-RHB people do not even provide adequate scientific backing to their arguments. Practically all of these arguments, and I’m not generalizing, are very poorly constructed. Most of the time there are no links or sources cited. Most of the arguments are anecdotal and follow poor logic, falling into logical fallacies like argumentum vericundum, negative premise, fallacy of illicit process, and a lot of self-reliant fallacies. One of the “strongest” evidences posted fail miserably in the fact checking. As an example, look at the  medical primer for the RHB by Dr. Angelita Miguel-Aguirre.

Fallacy of illicit process: Julian Simmons and Professor Gary Becke talk about overpopulation with respect to WORLD capacity, not the nation’s economic capacity. Their books and abstractions can be found in this link . It would be only fair for their views to be clarified if they really pertain to allowing families to grow sustainably in an emerging and poor market like the Philippines, especially since the Nobel prize they were awarded dealt with an entirely separate issue from Reproductive Health.

Quote-mining and fallacy of illicit process: regarding Edward C. Green’s research on the condom use in Uganda.

Obsolete and Debunked Studies: Barbara Seaman: the Pill and I 40 Years on the Relationship and the latest technology regarding contraceptive pills.

Because they have wasted people’s time with really poor and invalid evidence and continue to provoke and harass the Pro-RHB people, the credibility of such people have come to a point that they are no longer seen as worthy of proper attention or respect. Wasting people’s time, provoking them,  continuously giving the same poorly constructed arguments, and ignoring well constructed counter-arguments are actions that can only be interpreted negatively.

What is compounding the damage is the language that assumes that their opponents don’t understand anything Christian, theological, moral or ethical, that these people who are of their same faith know nothing about these things and that only they are the sole source of authority to be worth listening to.

As their actions have crossed the line to many of the Pro-RHB people and pointed out with the negative language that best describes those that act in that method, a vicious cycle is created. Their ability to selectively choose information, also known as confirmation bias, makes them think their provocation is justified and they continue to pursue a strategy of repetition. The very repetition is already a symptom of severe mental tunnel vision, being unable to act dynamically to the individual circumstances of a given situation. Cut off from rationality, they will continue to repeat this strategy until they grow tired of having severely damaged all credibility of their cause for lack of a more diplomatic solution.

Today’s top ten offer some new perspectives on religion.  Is it me or is secularism gaining ground? Check out the analysis on UK’s Equality Bill and Gordon Brown’s secularist government. Because the majority of MPs are not politically aligned with any church, sex ed bills and equal rights for homosexuals were passed, and no church has major influence on legislation.  Amazing, isn’t it?

“The unique feature of Gordon Brown’s government is not its economic incompetence. Rather, it is doctrinaire secularism. For the first time in British history, no one sitting around the Cabinet table holds traditional Christian views that defy the liberal consensus on social issues or sexual morality.”

Send your stories via The News Thread or the comments.  Theme suggestions are also welcome.

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Gay church blessings and a crisis of faith (via The Telegraph) link – Brilliant analysis of secularism in the UK and how it has allowed for certain bills to pass

3D BIBLE MOVIE IN THE WORKS!!! (via Deadline New York, Gawker) link

Pope’s brother: sexual abuse at choir school not discussed (via inquirer.net) link

“Koran says – you’re free in your religion” – Muslim cleric (via RT) link – Cleric issues fatwa against terrorism; insists ‘fatwa’ was mistranslated and does not mean ‘holy war’

Which came first – religion or the brain? (via Eurekalert) link – Press release on new book proposing that the brain needs religion; here is a good interview of the author by Mcleans link

Pope’s path to sainthood delayed by miracle doubts (via The Telegraph) link – Pope John Paul II is not a faith healer after all!

Funeral flap: religion and free speech rights (via wired.com) link - Apparently some bigots want the government to uphold their (alleged) free-speech right to disrespect funerals of homosexuals

Violence in Nigeria – food not faith (via The Guardian) link - Analysis on the murders in Jos

6 questions for an atheist undercover in an evangelical church (via The Huffington Post) link

Oregon faith healers get 16 months for son’s death (via AP) link – Faith healing could lead to negligent homicide!

Today is International Women’s Day! In addition to the usual, today’s top links were chosen because they discuss women and religion, women in science (at least for a day), and reproductive health.  I would also highly recommend the piece by Peter Hitchens and the expose on Scientology, which I know a lot of you are fascinated with.   Submit your links in The News Thread or the comments.  Theme suggestions are also welcome.

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Four Women and a Prophet – women fighting to reform their religion (via Times of India) link

Women will be staffing CERN on International Women’s Day (via Indiana University) link

Tamar Abrams: This International Women’s Day, let’s aim to end maternal deaths (via Huffington Post) link

Bishops want to debate Cabral on condoms (submitted by Justin Aquino, via gmanews.tv) link

(As a Catholic) Noynoy flip flops on RH Bill (submitted by Justin Aquino, via inquirer.net) link

Peter Hitchens: How I found peace with my atheist brother (via Daily Mail) link

On Christopher: “He often assumes that moral truths are self-evident, attributing purpose to the universe and swerving dangerously round the problem of conscience – which surely cannot be conscience if he is right since the idea of conscience depends on it being implanted by God. If there is no God then your moral qualms might just as easily be the result of indigestion.”

Breaking with Scientology (via nytimes.com) link

Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution (via AP) link

Today’s news links seem par for the course – we’ve all discussed this before, right? Nevertheless, there is some comfort in knowing that some things can be relied on in this effed up world of ours.  Submit your links in The News Thread or the comments.

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Bishops endorse the JC de los Reyes (via gmanews.tv) link

Bishops’ endorsement of a presidential bet cause colleagues’ concern (via gmanews.tv) link

Catholic school in Colorado boots student with gay parents (via AP) link

Jews, Muslims worry body scanners violate their religion (via The Salt Lake Tribune) link

Films with faith-based themes big at Oscars in 2010 (via Foxnews.com) link

Atheists, agnostics put ads in buses in Detroit (via freep.com) link

Darwin foes add global warming to targets (via nytimes.com) link

Learning from the Sin of Sodom (special mention to World Vision) (via nytimes.com) link

Papal aide linked to Vatican gay prostitution ring (submitted by Lawrence Salmingo and The Skyline Bugoy, via Irish Times) link

‘Idol’ finalist Jermaine Sellers: “It wasn’t in God’s will” (via USA Today) link

Let’s make this a daily feature!  Submit your recent news links in the forums (The News Thread) and we will post the new/interesting ones here daily.

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Bibles-for-porn stunt draws crowd at UTSA (submitted by Twin-skies, via Friendly Atheist, My SA News)  link

Catholic Church seeks ban on condom ads (submitted by innerminds, via Inquirer.net) link

Higher IQ linked to liberalism, atheism (via UPI.com) link

Bishop to CBCP: Issue SOS for rain (via abs-cbnnews.com) link

Anti-gay pastor Uganda shows evils of homosexuality…by broadcasting hardcore gay porn in church (submitted by Twin-skies, via Box Turtle Bulletin) link

New Zealand Church Fined for Jamming Cell Phones (submitted by Ixidor, via switched.com) link

Atheists Invited to Vatican Outreach Initiative (submitted by Twin-skies, via Pharyngula, EWTN)  link

False Gay Marriage Rumor Sparks Kenyan Riots (submitted by Twin-skies, via Gay City News)  link

Shame and Abuse: Inside Germany’s Catholic Sexual Abuse Scandal (submitted by Twin-skies, via Der Spiegel) link

Should US Foreign Policy Get Religion? (via Washington Post) link

The RH bill is dead.  Many of us hope that the next year is our year.  Many of us blame the Church for killing it, and we may be partially right.  However, I that I think we have failed to acknowledge the fact that ultimately, the RH bill is about sex, and it is our attitudes about sex, particularly, the role of sex in a woman’s life, that is really what’s in the way of getting this bill passed.

How does society view women and sex?  The Philippines is one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to equal employment of women; however, we still view sex and women in a very limited way.  Our very traditional society treats women as innocent fragile creatures that need to be cared for and protected, or as old maternal figures that need to be respected.  This is great to some extent, because women get first dibs on MRT seats; doors get opened; also, women are generally accepted as leaders in the workplace.  However, these traditional images do not really allow for a lot of sex.  The innocent, fragile archetype is expected to pray a lot, be good, and be a virgin until marriage.  The maternal figures is, well, a mother.   Sex is viewed in the limited context of these two archetypes – a newlywed virgin making babies; a married woman wanting more babies.  Outside of these two scenarios, the imagination goes to the Katrina Halilis, Carrie Bradshaws or fun, fearless females of Cosmo – irresponsible, slutty single women who are asking for it.   There is no room in between.  Sex is only viewed as either a baby-making activity or the sinful hobby of whorish women.  I need to state the obvious, I guess – it is not.

This limited definition of sex and its role in a woman’s life is at the root of most, if not all opposition against the RH bill.  A lot of us have debated about what is or what is not an abortifacent when the true opposition is not to the tools of contraception but to the act of having baby-free sex.  It implies the absence of consequences for a perceived sin.  It is feared that if women have sex freely, immorality will destroy the very fiber of society; that somehow, if women had free rein to satisfy their libido, we will be the next Sodom and Gomorrah (I mean, who cares what men do, right?).  What Will the Whores Do? (WWWD ™)

Of course, this also relates to the new favorite anti-RH discussion about financing birth control and sex ed in this country.  It makes the opposition look like fiscal conservatives while hiding their true sexist nature.  In truth, the same people questioning funding for reproductive health services will likely not question funding for cancer research or for respiratory illnesses or for pediatrics.  Somehow, they have viewed reproductive health as frivolous, probably like cosmetic surgery.  At the root is the view that sex is a luxury; childbirth is easy.  Let’s forget the fact that babies are born every minute out of human vaginas.  It seems like we will be funding the sluts of this country, giving them the tools to be irresponsible and even healing them afterwards.  Abstinence is the answer, right?  We don’t need to fund abstinence.

This article is not just a reproach to opposition but also an invitation for everyone to examine your own views about sex in society. What do you really mean when you say you’re pro-RH? Do you think there is such a thing as sex without consequences?  What do you mean when you say you’re pro-RH but anti-abortion?  How can you be pro-RH when you’re anti-RH bill?  What do you really mean when you’re qualifying what you think should be allowed and what is not?

Lastly, I leave you with this: the birth control pill has changed society and has expanded the realm of what’s possible for women around the world.  The pill has allowed women the freedom to work and to achieve fulfillment outside the family.   It has doubled household incomes.  More women are educated now than they ever were before.  The collective contribution of the recent generations of women to the wellness and development of the world is astounding, all because they were free to have sex when they choose without having to give birth, allowing them to plan for education and jobs and eventually, families.  The true meaning of choice – having a say in your own destiny and choosing to have sex without being imprisoned by the body you live in –is overwhelming.  Just ask any of the women looking for so-called abortifacents in Quiapo.  Do you think that quibbling over the science of zygotes or the fiscal implications of this bill is worth the lives of millions of Filipino women robbed of this choice?

I haven’t been to the past hearings and technical working groups for the anti-discrimination bill. All I know of them is that Rep. Abante (dist 6, Manila) and other conservatives told horrible, horrible lies and stereotypes about us gays. The usual stuff. These mean prudes claim that we’re intrinsically evil, and thus immoral, dangerous to children, destructive to families, yada yada yada. And that passing the bill would only empower us to destroy society itself! Of course they’re dead wrong. We are not intrinsically evil. They are just hateful, irrational, and mean people who are afraid of liberal change and the different.

Back then, this guy Abante was super strong and managed to shoot down the bill. Now, he still is, but not too strong to block its passing to the working group stage. I attended the very last of these working groups, sessions dedicated to deliberating what to change, add or remove from the draft anti-discrimination bill. This one went relatively calm, with brief but infuriating interludes from the resident Filipino and foreign catholic bigots. Previous ones were much more animated because Abante was there to be the loud and uber angry conservative congressman.

Last week’s enemies of liberty was the effeminate, maybe closet gay attorney from the CBCP and that white Republican spokesperson from ALFI—a person whom I think should be deported along with other foreign agents of bigoted beliefs. The police and the military reps were not enemies of liberty during the session. Sure, they were a bit homophobic, espoused a don’t ask, don’t tell-ish policy, but at least they overtly showed willingness to work on passing the bill with minimal changes. Very much unlike the bigots who were only there to make sure the bill gets severely weakened.

The guy from the CBCP said things becoming of an attorney for Catholic Bishops. Homosexuality is something internal, he says. But when someone acts on it, society will frown on it because of “conscientious objection”. That phrase right there can be restated as “objection based on religious grounds”. Opting to use the word conscientious makes it seem that their religious morality is the one true morality, thus making their decisions super right and everyone else wrong. From that belief, the Catholic Church thinks it has the right to be against this bill, code for “No way are we gonna let this pass! Cuz you know, we have faith that God hates gay sex”.

The gentle attorney also retardedly suggested that people and institutions be exempt from the punitive aspects of the bill if the discriminatory acts they did were committed in obeisance to religious beliefs. In obeisance to my beliefs, I rebutted that asinine statement saying that adding such clause to the bill would defeat the purpose of the bill itself. I made it very clear–like some bigshot, in front of that attorney, amidst the reps during the session itself–that the clause would enable people to circumvent justice, even after discriminating gays, as long as they say they did it out of their religion. That little performance earned me praise from none other than Risa herself. *clapping to myself, thankyoubow*

White American bigot, like many Republicans back in the US, was acti’n way evils. He said that passing the bill will: endanger children (because we’re more likely to be pedophiles – WTF!), promote public sex (this guy is insane) and criminalize human relations a. k a. being a practicing bigot. He said these f’d up things with such conviction that even the military and the police joined Risa, Jonas and me in taking this guy down a peg. Long story short, white bigot was a total loser in this session, even the police and military guys think he’s absurd.

I am of a disposition to assassinate guys like white bigot and Abante, because frankly, the world would be much better without them. But I shouldn’t. Because if I do pull it off, it might put gays in a worse light and muddle efforts for gay equality. Anyway, us libs came off that session as victors. It is a wonderful sign that the military and the police are cooperative in the further formulation of the bill. I just hope that they remain that way all throughout the process of passing it. Abante et al can be defeated as long as us libs gain stronger mass support. It’s because guys like him operate on the assumption that gays and their supporters are of such a small number that they can be pushed around. We libs, through more appeals to the masses, just have to prove him wrong. Or maybe we could just challenge them to a series of public debates and pwn their asses.

Mulat Pinoy is a project by the Philippine Center for Population and Development (PCPD) and the Probe Media Foundation, Inc (PMFI) to spread awareness of population issues. They launched the site last Dec 19, and FF were actually invited to attend the launch event (thanks to an RH Bill related article in our site). Unfortunately, it coincided with the Winter Solstice party which is obviously more important than any population issue. Seriously though, we were invited the night before the event, so it was a bit too late to change the FF schedule.

And now, FF is invited to the Mulat Pinoy Kapihan Series. They’ve provided us the schedule and topics for the next 3 months:

2-4pm, Bo’s Coffee, Glorietta 5, Makati City

January 16 – Population and Environment
January 23 – Government Resources and Population Dynamics
January 30 – Population and Housing
February 13 – Population and Food Supply
February 27 – Population and Education
March 13 – Population and Health
March 27 – Urbanization/Migration
April 10 – Mulat Pinoy Synthesis

I was informed that presidential candidates Nick Perlas and JC Delos Reyes & his VP Dominador Chipeco will be attending this Saturday’s Kapihan Session on Population and Environment. If you’re scratching your head, wondering who they are (as I did), click on the links.

Thanks to Liwliwa Malabed for inviting the group!

Here’s what the presidentiables think about the RH bill.