Poe’s Law and the Movement To Stop Filipino Freethinkers

Last week there was this short-lived but hilarious Facebook phenomenon called the Movement To Stop Filipino Freethinkers. It was a fan page announcing that the Filipino Freethinkers, while claiming to promote reason, are actually attacking Christianity.

For some reason a lot of FF members jumped in to become fans and quickly dominated and hijacked the page, quoting disagreeable Bible verses and posting status messages using extreme fundie talk. Not surprisingly, some people actually thought they were serious, and the comments ranged from “Thank you sir, let us continue to spread Christianity” to “You are stupid and ignorant people. There is no evidence of your god”. And I guess that proves Poe’s Law, which states:

Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.

It was crazy, with freethinkers besting each other’s satire. But I guess all good things must come to an end, and after about two days, the page was removed. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Whoever was behind the Movement certainly did not expect this to happen. I’m sure they had noble intentions of doing God’s work in saving lost souls. However, they were dead wrong in their strategy, because religion only works when information is controlled by those in authority, where valid questions are conveniently silenced by “our minds are too finite to grasp God’s infinite wisdom”.

But once a religious group challenges freethinkers, it must be prepared to make arguments based on reason and science because dogma and doctrine are not recognized as authority.

Now some theists might say that freethinkers also appeal to authority like Wikipedia as if it was an infallible doctrine. But the truth is, scientific authority differs from religious authority in the sense that it is “willing to be challenged, although normally we would not go around challenging every one all the time. It is the willingness to be challenged that is important”. Moreover, Wikipedia gives sufficient notice when an article lacks citations or references, meaning its content might be questionable.

Are the religious authorities willing to be challenged as well, or will they be reverting to “we are not in a position to question God” when confronted with contradictions between certain Bible passages and reality and even between Bible passages themselves?

Long-held scientific theories are quickly discarded like yesterday’s paper as soon as contradicting evidence is found. However, the same cannot be said about religious ‘truths’ (remember Galileo?).

As such, any attempt to proselytize the Filipino Freethinkers will only be a waste of time, which would be better spent praying for divine enlightenment.  If there is an omnipotent deity, he doesn’t need second-rate evangelists spewing out pseudo-reason in order for humanity to hear and accept his word. But to the theist who truly attempts to embrace reason, you are very much welcome to discuss with us. We respect your right to your dogma-based belief for as long as you don’t try to shove it down our throats. And if you are willing to play by the rules of logic, we shall answer your questions as truthfully as we can. Try us, and it will be a great learning experience if what you are seeking for is the truth. 🙂