My friend is not a very religious person, but he prays before every meal and goes to mass every Sunday with his family. He is aware of and has great respect for my lack of faith, and we occasionally find ourselves discussing and debating on religion. Some of our discussions revolve around our contrasting views of Jesus Christ – he firmly believes in him and his preachings, while I take him to be nothing more than a compelling historical figure. Other discussions are about our similar negative views on the overly-structural methods of the Catholic Church in propagating their faith. Sometimes, our minds repel, while in other times, they are in sync. He is always open to the thought-provoking ideas I lay on the table and tries to judge them without bias.

During one of these discussions, he narrated to me a story about his grandfather. This story had a great impact on him, and he admits himself that it has strongly solidified his belief in God. He told me that a long time ago, his grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. He has consulted with several doctors, all of which were consistent with the cancer diagnosis. He was told to have surgery. On the day of the surgery, he managed to escape from the hospital to go to a nearby church to pray. Eventually, he was found by his family and/or hospital personnel and was brought back to the hospital. After a series of medical tests, they found his cancer to have completely vanished. So he never had that surgery and went home cancer free.

My friend told me that he sometimes thinks his grandfather to be overly-religious, but softens his judgment because he knows what his grandfather had been through. That reminded me of my overly-religious mother, who initially was not a very religious person. But there was a time when she was going through a difficult crisis, and with the help of Opus Dei and its teachings, she was able to cope with it and actually managed to resolve the crisis. It may not be as life-changing as the cure of cancer, but it was very significant for her. Now, she is a devout Catholic, and a supernumerary in Opus Dei. These two individuals have had significant experiences in their lives which they attribute to their faith. We cannot just easily tell them that they must resort to reason, that their belief in God is wrong, when their lives are changed by it.

I am in no position to confirm or disprove the validity of my friend’s story. I did suggest certain other possibilities such as: a non-threatening easily curable disease that mimics the signs and symptoms of that specific cancer but cannot be easily detected by medical practitioners of that time and may have been cured medically by some chemical component of the medicines he was taking or cured naturally by his immune system sometime within the duration after his last medical test prior to his escape and the time he was tested after he was found. Yes, that was a very long sentence. The point is, it may just be a coincidence. However, it was a pretty compelling coincidence that I, myself, could not fault his grandfather, who is by all means a normal human being with human thoughts and emotions, to immediately assume it as some divine miracle.

For whatever the scientific explanation behind it, one can still argue that the timing of its occurrence may be the decision of God. Another example would be the parting of the Red Sea. Even if it may have been caused by some natural phenomenon like shifting tectonic plates or unstable magnetic fields, the fact is, it happened at the moment when Moses raised his staff and the Israelites needed an escape route. By their knowledge of seas (they just don’t part) or staffs (they don’t cause seas to part) how else could the Israelites have interpreted it other than as a miracle of God? Whether by lack of knowledge or lack of mental health (let’s say they may have all taken hallucinogenic herbs and may have hallucinated the whole ordeal), the fact is, they believed it to have happened that way, was not presented with enough explanations that disproves that belief, and was greatly and personally affected by its occurrence, and most especially, its timing. The natural phenomenon could have happened on any normal day, but the fact that it happened at that specific time could easily (though not necessarily correctly) be assumed as the will of God. Disclaimer: I do not know if the parting of the Red Sea actually happened. It’s just an example.

My friend believed the story of his grandfather to be true, to have been caused by God, whether miracle or explainable. And he says that I am too mistrusting and over-skeptical to be so vehement in disproving it to the point of trying to come up with some weird disease. Eventually, our discussion ended without any joint conclusion. He stands firm in his belief in God and this so-called miracle, and I still maintain that it may be caused by the weird disease.. or other explainable thing. And then we ate pizza and went to videoke with friends.

According to Philippine tradition, bad luck happens when we displease the gods. It is really an ancient belief. People suffer bad luck when they anger the gods. Therefore, in order for you to rid yourself of bad luck, you have to offer prayers and some food (or even liquor) to the gods to mollify them.

When the Spaniards came to Philippine shores and introduced Christianity, the tradition never ceased. The gods where changed into saints, Jesus and Mother Mary, yet the same belief in luck prevailed. In fact, the Spaniards used this to their advantage. In order to scare the natives, the Spanish friars used the concept of bad luck so the hapless Filipinos gave their lands freely to the Catholic Church. Food offerings were changed to indulgences. Bad luck is changed into hell and eternal damnation. Until the 21st Century, Filipinos still believe in the concept of bad luck. Some even evolved into permanent superstitions in some Philippine traditions. Until now, a lot of Filipinos believe that wearing your wedding gown before the wedding is bad luck. Some still believe that breaking a glass dish will give you 7 years of bad luck.

Jose Rizal blamed the Church – influenced belief as the cause of lethargy in the Filipino. In Rizal’s book “The Indolence of the Filipino”, he said that the belief in bad luck has caused Filipino to tolerate laziness. This laziness was the cause of vices such as gambling, which became prevalent in his time. It seems people just rely on luck to change their lives.

However, Christianity and Catholicism are not the only religious beliefs that influenced the Filipinos in believing bad luck. Indian beliefs also found their way into the Philippines and one of the prevailing beliefs is “karma”. The concept of karma became quite simple in the Filipino version. If you did something bad to other people “makakarma ka”. Unlike the Hindu concept of karma, the Philippine version is immediate. You do not have to wait for an afterlife to feel the karmic effect. It seems to imply that the wheel of karma is about instant justice.

Oh and did I forget about the Chinese influence. Many wealthy people are investing a lot of money to make their houses bad luck free. Chinese feng sui experts are employed to make your house free from some cosmic mishaps just because you placed your furniture in the wrong side of your house. Gosh, as if the universe cares if you will become rich or not.

However, is there really such thing as luck?

Is what is happening in the Philippines right now a punishment of god? Should I blame this god for not giving the Filipinos the good things? Are we having this rice crisis, this energy crisis and this gas crisis because we angered god and now he is just giving us less blessings – more “mala” instead of “oro” and “plata”?

How about global warming and depleted ozone layer? Are we not giving enough animal sacrifices to please the gods?

If the concept of karma is right, then we have an efficient judicial system! However, based on what we see in reality, it seems justice here in the Philippines is quite hard to achieve. Belief in karma offers no real justice. Many cases of human rights violation and inhuman crimes happened here in the Philippines since the time of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos and until now, the victims and their families have not been compensated for their loss. If a rich “sonofabitch” or someone with a high position in government committed the offense, it seems impartiality is in the sticks. So what has karma done so far? Well until now, high government officials who shawl the Philippine coffers still live in fancy homes, dine in expensive places, travel around this world in luxury as the poor Juan dela Cruz eats only one meal of rice and dried fish. Just like other religions, the concept of karma merely proffers a placebo or a reassurance to those who seek fairness in their lives.

You cannot solve the problem if you will deny the problem in the first place. Maybe instead of blaming invisible beings we should concentrate more on finding the real cause of our troubles so we can think of a better and effective solution.

I remember a dialogue from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. While watching Luke Skywaker deflect the training orb’s laser blasts using his light saber while wearing a blast shield, Ben Obi Wan Kenobi complimented Luke that he can do it even if he cannot see the training orb. Han Solo responded that it is just luck. Ben Kenobi answered, “In my experience there is no such thing as luck.” Maybe the old Jedi was right, there is no such thing as luck.

You can forward my message below to both believers and non-believers alike.

There are many kind hearted people, some are educated some aren’t, or they do not care they are living with rational people. Belief in a great many mysteries and things is good but now that I try to think about it, oftentimes I feel most enlightened overall. Of course to them (rationalists) I become foolish and irrational for believing and for being defensive of religion. When I began it (faith), it comes as revelations to me in matters of hopes concerning the true religion. We ask why believe it? Must you ask religion to not be at all special? Of course one must be very polite to likely impart a reason since, this is faith. Perhaps because non-believers think most believing people, of course including us Bible readers, were not well taught in logic, and that we indoctrinated and convinced as many innocent children we’d found. To believe and not ask any question about the matters of God, of our heavenly faith. You and I are brothers. Can’t religion triumph? Prevent it not. Myself included, we’re from this moment questioning not faith, my personal revelations, beliefs, nor God. Every moment is time well spent, I think, to reflect on God, on his mercy. My skepticism’s now past. Returning to religious status, my convictions have changed. I now solemnly arrive to serve at God’s feet. The one true conclusion is such that of mine. A loving, forgiving, personal, and merciful God the almighty, is certainly not absurd.

Or is it?

I’ve had thoughts such as this one for quite some time now, specifically for few years now. What baffles me is how a lot of our countrymen (and women of course) who are homosexuals seem to let themselves be persecuted by their religion for being such. Of course by religion here I’m referring to Catholicism and Islam, and their denominations. The dilemma, I think, arises when they seek acknowledgment in their respective religions, whereas their religion’s holy scriptures explicitly denounce them outright.

The Bible is littered with verses explicitly condemning homosexuals, even grouping them with thieves, extortioners, and so on:

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” – Leviticus 20:13

And so many more.

sources:

• Your very own Bible
• http://bible.org/article/homosexuality-christian-perspective
• http://www.bible-knowledge.com/Homosexuality-and-the-Bible.html

The Qur’an is not so explicit with homosexuality and how homosexuals should be treated, as the passages below quickly glance over the topic:

Sura 7:80-84: “And Lot, when he said to his people, ‘Do ye approach an abomination which no one in all the world ever anticipated you in? Verily, ye approach men with lust rather than women- nay, ye are a people who exceed.’

27:55 Must ye needs lust after men instead of women ? Nay, but ye are folk who act senselessly.

sources:

• Your local copy of the Qur’an
  
• http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/27/index.htm
• http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_isla1.htm

Of course, the fact that the Qur’an is quite mum about homosexuality does not mean homosexuals aren’t being mistreated. Au contraire, homosexuals are quite persecuted, based on their sexuality, amidst the more tolerant take of the Qur’an on homosexuals, relative to the Bible (see 3rd source above).

In fact, I could probably go so far as to say that a significant number of homosexuals in the country are quite religious, even fanatical. They appeal to their local churches to be able to take part in fiestas and such. How I wish that they’d reconsider and rethink their position regarding their belief. If only they’d realize that non-belief offers a serenity in mind, heart, and so on regarding their sexuality, which the Bible, the Qur’an, nor their followers can barely provide. One would think that non-believers would immediately acquire the support of a significant number of the homosexual population, given that both 1) were/are being persecuted by a largely religious society 2) holy scriptures both group them together as sinners. Unfortunately that isn’t the case, I’m thinking. It would be a pleasant surprise though if I were proven wrong.

Finally, one could also say that these things happen to homosexual believers, since apart from their sexuality, they’re no different from the average joe who believes in Creation and a stalker god in the sky. If that is so, then all the more reason to let them realize they have a better option or alternative.