A Wageworker’s View on Humanity

Let me start things off by giving you a brief background on this penman. I won’t be too fancy in elaborating all of the things that I went through but let me do it comfortably casual. I’ll cut it to the chase: I finished up college in the city of the Durian fruit as they call it – Davao City, Philippines. I took up computer science and plodded through it a trimester longer than ideal. I had never been the computer geek that I was supposed to be. Instead, I’ve been akin to a frustrated philosopher/scientist who has got a computer-related bachelor’s degree. I’m currently working – well, probably the most common job in the country today – as a customer service associate. You might be wondering why I am talking about all these trifle details on my life. This is to give you an image of what I want to portray in my essay: a working-class dork that’s not too highbrow and not too lowbrow for you to relate to.

As a young child, I had always wondered on a variety of topics that people have been zealous with. It always puzzled me when grown-ups have distinctive opinions on a certain subject or idea. Moreover, I felt the conundrum of how a supreme being or plainly a God would have existed. I thought of how he foresaw all of the carnal and routine activities that we do. Despite being befogged, I chose to believe at the time.

As I grew more maturely as a Filipino citizen and essentially as a thinking human being, my thoughts had been more definite and rational rather than juvenile and undecided. I had been into what I call “a series of enlightenment” out of young adulthood’s distress – which actually helped me in the long run – to realize the ultimate reality. I’ve seen all these unsightly and troublesome issues on the world like genocide, famine, malnutrition, disease, disorder and so forth that dispelled the hugger-mugger out of me and dope out – are all of these mess permitted by an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-caring god?

I used to think that people who are religious enough to drive through a church every Sunday are dim (which I really kept to myself since my kinfolks are of that sort). Well, at least not all of them—they might just be going through the motions out of fear of eternal damnation. Yes, it’s true that a number of noticeably intelligent individuals believe in the teachings of Christianity and other organized religions – as their moral backbone but most of them haven’t really read all of the texts that would be relevant for their emancipation– taking into account that they are indeed intelligent.

Since I ought to opine on my views on humanity, here’s how I see it – it’s far more sophisticated than following some outdated guidelines on an outmoded book of moral codes and stories. In fact, what might have worked ages ago wouldn’t be applicable nowadays – albeit, there might be a legion of successful people who are religious but the truth is, it’s not the holy scriptures that made them who they are, it’s their work ethics, drive and a bit of luck that made them opulent in life and wealth – howsoever, this is the age of technological explosion, the age of over-the-top knowledge and we just don’t just go through the days without being bold enough to innovate and discover new ideas on our own – without some existing paradigm (as that principle applies to the heroes of science and technology).

There isn’t a sane human who would look down on the achievements of science, wouldn’t you agree? At the end of the day, like it or not, humanity will be better not by following some antiquated beliefs and practices but on the universal pragmatism brought by secular science and philosophy.

You might have noticed that I was alluding, generally to religious people here throughout this sound off on humanity. Utterly, those who are purged from their affiliations like what I’ve been through likely know most if not all of what I’ve been talking about – but you might as well want to know more, right? However, the genuinely religious are those who try so foolhardily to follow a life that leads them to the biblical gates one day. Otherwise, we can classify the group into two, the hypocritically believing and the truthfully faithful. Unfortunately in reality, only a few – if existent, are genuinely faithful. I mean, read through the verses of Judeo-Christianity books like the Bible and tell me – who among them followed all or at least most of the teachings? Even among the church leaders, friars, theologians and bible scholars can’t follow a Christ-like character as what they idealize to and they are obliged to according the books’ imperative commands. We don’t require them to and no one will since it’s natural for them to disobey that book – just like every one of us to commit their so-called sins and that’s what makes us human – doing the things that are normal to people since they’re not really “sins” if they didn’t label them that way – pride, greed, lust, anger, etc. – come on, are those innate feelings unnatural? Think it over.

Taking into account all of these facts on life – do we really adhere to the religious side or the secular stance? As a caveat, let me state that I’m not favorable to any radical religious liberalism of some sort. You may just divert head-on into humanism for humanity’s cause – but wait:

Let’s chew over the present news that the current pope in Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI, had made a crucial comment on a subject that they’ve been erstwhile antagonistic to. His comments that condom use would be acceptable on certain cases created a contestation among the media, the pro and anti-contraceptive groups and significantly among secularists and religious circles. Does this action by the pontiff insinuate to an eventual liberalism or revolution of the Catholic Church? Be it or not, what had transpired gave me that impression. I don’t see any coherent argument that changes can be made to their rather stifled dogma that’s been adhered to for presumably thousands of years.

Here’s what I can suggest, why don’t these people who gave the pontiff credits for his remitment on a hitherto forbidden act reckon on having a new religion – if they’re really into being a part of a religious assembly – like Unitarian Universalism where they can still have their innate spiritual selves without being guilty of disaffiliating themselves in terms of belief. Hence, they don’t need to have a revolutionary Catholic religion by then, thinking that this just might be one of the popish leader’s tactics to gain more votaries to his flock. As posted on a New York Times page, an artwork that portrays – know your scumbags.

De novo let me tell you – like it or not, the truth is withstanding comprehensively against the religious (especially now, the Catholics). Apparently, I’m not here to proselytize the faithful if you really are, I’m here sounding off what is relevant to all of us and that is knowing that humanity’s progress is stalling on what was supposed to be on a breeze of betterment: AIDS research, population control for poverty’s sake, stem cell research and a ton more unspoken nuances on humanity’s advancement. These were all hindered by the world leaders’ half-hearted respect toward the preachers of antediluvian knowledge.

It’s a popular knowledge that of all the religions of the world – that’s having a huge impact on the political spectrum – it’s the Catholic Church that’s doing most of the damage. That’s an understatement, especially here in our native country where a particular congressional bill is currently pending to be acted upon smoothly because of the church’s influence on the government. When you come to think of this circumstance logically and rationally, it’s obviously ludicrous. Personally, I can’t fathom how long this senseless actuality would last. Will this kind of fatuity go on forever? Nevertheless, I smell something fishy here; do these priests impertinently object the Reproductive Health Bill to keep the population growing – selfishly, for them to double their already gigantic Catholic multitude? More church-goers means more profit for them, doesn’t it?

Unless if the masses stop on being feeble and subservient to the preachers of death – only a lucky few, not even a majority, will prosper. All we need to do is to make a stand. You may label yourself as a god-believer, a religious Christian, a non-religious Christian or otherwise but we all need to make a stand. You may be an avowed atheist or a freethinker or possibly even a Catholic but a closet non-conformist to the current political and religious system; you owe to make a stand. Folks, as long as we live, we’re all part of this gargantuan species that we call “humanity”. We are all making a stand for humanity, not just a certain congregation.