Thoughts and Comments on the movie “God’s Not Dead”

For centuries, it’s been a problem among Christians to prove the existence of God. To do this, they need philosophy. But, we all know that the works of the great Greek and Roman philosophers was lost during the darkest days of what we called Middle Ages in Europe. Fortunately, the Arabs preserved many of the works of the Hellenistic world and will eventually circulate again in Europe during what some historians called “the Renaissance of the 12^th century.” Many theologians became philosophers and they attempted to make a philosophical basis for the Christian faith (that is now famously known as Catholicism). The most brilliant of these theologian-philosophers was St. Thomas Aquinas.

What Aquinas did is that he reconciled Christianity and philosophy, particularly Aristotelian philosophy. As opposed to what Richard Dawkins and some atheists say, Aquinas said that faith and reason could go in harmony. His system of philosophy is so complex that even an intelligent reader could feel stupid (of course, this is an exaggeration) if he tries to read his works even with a supplementary material. His greatest work, Summa Theologica, though remained unfinished prior to his death, continue to fascinate philosophers until today. (And I bet the atheist Richard Dawkins is largely ignorant of this work.)

Since Catholicism is the only known true Christian church before the Reformation, Christian ideology is respected by various Renaissance sceptics because of the complexity of Catholic philosophy. But everything changed and all the brilliant works of the Catholic theologian-philosophers were killed when the Reformation took place and the Apostate Protestant churches where formed. These Apostates, of course, shifted from Catholic philosophy and made a more stupid treatment of Christian ideology. These Protestants became the ancestors of Christians who are opposed to the Theory of Evolution and Big Bang Theory. This trait was now the stereotype used by atheists to describe Christians.

But not all Christians are anti-reason. There are open-minded Christians who also believe in evolution and Big Bang, like His Holiness, Pope Francis, who said that “God is not a wizard with a magic wand. Christianity and the scientific theories about the origins of the world are compatible. I accept the theory of evolution and the big bang theory. People with hate in their hearts mock God, for they don’t understand that God is nothing else than LOVE.” As a result many atheists in the 9gag (9gagger here!) loved him and described him as “the best pope.”    

The movie “God is Not Dead” had a portion where a theist student argues with is atheist professor. At first, the atheist professor forced the whole class to write “God is Dead” on a piece of paper with a signature. Everyone followed except a student named Josh. The prof then make Josh defend his belief that God exists, otherwise Josh will fail his subject. At first, I was excited about what will Josh tell, until the actual debate came out. I was disappointed that Josh only proved that the atheists have holes in their logics, but did not prove the existence of God. This is one of the reasons why atheists see Christians as idiot arguers. If you’re just gonna make an argument could you please make it intelligent?!

 One of the elements in the movie that agitated me is the element where Christians are portrayed as proud followers of Christ—going to “Christian rock band” concerts and texting “God’s not dead” to everyone. Don’t they know that Jesus Christ himself taught us to worship God in private and be humble and not make a show of you worshiping God! (See Matthew 6:5-6).  

(No need for a useless conclusion. Brevity is best.)       

Walang Forever!

                                          Walang Forever! (Image source: UST Files).

"May forever ba?"—isa to sa mga pinakanakakairitang tanong na wala naman kwenta. At para matapos na ang lahat, kinunsulta ko ang mga dakilang philosophers at scientists tungkol dito:

Heraclitus: "Everything flows, NOTHING STAYS."

First law of thermodynamics: "Energy CANNOT stay within a system FOREVER."

Mayan Philosophy: "NOTHING IS PERMANENT, except change."

Shakespeare: "Kaya ko pinatay si Romeo at Juliet kasi walang poreber qaqo!"

Einstein: "Ayon sa Special Theory of Relativity, walang poreber, landi mo!"

Jesus Christ: "Lahat ng bagay ay may katapusan at darating ang araw na ang Anak ng Tao at tatapusin ang kasamaan sa mundo." (Nakalimutan ko kung anong verse. Not exact words.)

Sa madaling salita: T@#%&*A, WALANG POREBER!

Marcos is the new cool

Somewhere in our popular culture, when you’re different, you’re ‘cool,’ because being too ‘in’ makes you look ‘baduy.’ For example, we no longer see wearing a Never-Give-Up shirts cool, because this shirt was used by almost 90% of the Filipino population. As if it was the national clothing.

         Sicat’s biography of the Marcos finance manager Cesar Virata. Source: uppress.wordpress.com

          The same happens in politics. During the reign of Ferdinand Marcos, being ‘pro-Aquino’ was ‘cool’ since almost everyone in those days is pro-Marcos, to the point that it was a trend among women to wear clothes like Imelda Marcos; Imeldific as they called it.

          Suddenly, people became dissatisfied to the Marcoses and everyone turned out to be pro-Aquinos.

          Today, we now see the Marcoses as devil motherfuckers and see the Aquinos as a family of heroes, saints, and opinionadas, making us look like, as Rigoberto Tiglao coined, a Yellow Cult.

          But this cult was being challenged by the so-called Neo-pro-Marcoses (I just invented this term). These Neo-pro-Marcoses see contemporary politics the other way around. They see the Marcos reign as an era of economic progress despite the harsh dictatorship, and see the intervention of the Aquinos as the ultimate end of an economic golden age. And they are everywhere on social media. They even share pro-Marcos videos, pictures and articles with comments like “nung panahon ni Marcos, lahat may disiplina dahil may stict na curfew…nung panahon ni Marcos may tiger economy ang Pilipinas…” And then you will see it was liked by a poser account of the former president Marcos with matching reply, “please, support Bongbong Marcos.” These Neo-pro-Marcoses are mostly adolescents that are virtually ignorant about the Marcos reign. And since they were adolescents, they tend to support what was ‘cool’ these days; since almost everyone is a supporter of the Aquinos, being pro-Marcos is the new cool.

          One of the reasons why the pro-Marcos thought was getting revived was because some former Marcos officials don’t want to burn in hell yet. They are still on earth, spreading the words of Satan to the Filipino people. One of them was the kurakot na sikat na sikat, Gerardo Sicat.

          Gerardo Sicat, a Marcos technocrat, just launched a book last August 22. The book was a biography of the Marcos finance manager and Prime Minister Cesar Virata and a history of the Marcos reign deodorized with a cheap sachet of Rexona.

          Sicat intentionally used Virata’s life, instead of Marco’s, in writing an account of the Marcos reign, to avoid the mentioning of the tortures and persecutions during those times. And since Virata was Marcos’s finance manager, Sikat could brag about what he called ‘economic progresses’ during the Marcos era.

          In the book, entitled ‘Cesar Virata: Life and Times through four decades of Philippine economic history,’ Lucifer, I mean Sicat, wrote:

          “Economic reforms suddenly became possible under martial law. The powerful opponents of reform were silenced and the organized opposition was also quilted. In the past it took enormous wrangling and preliminary stage-managing of political forces before a piece of economic reform legislation could even pass through congress. Now it was possible to have the needed changes undertaken through presidential decree. Marcos wanted to deliver major changes in an economic policy that the government had tried to propose earlier.”

          But Sicat and his book is bullshit. Pure bullshit. 100%. The Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao pointed out that since Sicat’s book is pro-Marcos, the Marcos technocrat did not mention the debt crisis of 1983 and in those days, Sicat himself headed the National Economic and Development Authority.

          Sicat even proudly said that he was unbothered with Marcos’s corruption since, as he said, such leaders need financial assistance “for the purpose of advancing political motives.” Well, congratulations for being a true and proud follower of Satan!

          Sicat’s history reminds me of George Orwell’s dystopic society in the novel 1984 where history was revised to make it suit to Big Brother’s political propaganda.

          These are just some of the facts that the ignorant pro-Marcoses did not know. They didn’t know that being pro-Marcos is actually not cool.

This article is also available in The Philwomenian, the official student publication of The Philippine Women’s University.                    

Ang aking trauma sa mga barbero

Mejo naiinggit ako sa ibang mga dude kasi pag nagpapagupit sila lalo silang pumopogi. Nagigigng astig sila kaya almost every week sila nagpapagupit. Pero parang kabaliktaran saken. Parang every time nalang na nagpapagupit ako lalo akong pumapanget. Panget na nga ako papangitin pa lalo ng gupit ko.

          Every haircut ko nga eh nagpapalit ako ng barbershop o salon dahil every time na nagpapagupit ako panget ang kinakalabasan. Para bang pag nagpaplano ako magpagupit nagmemeeting lahat ng barbershop at salon at pinaplanong pangitan ang gupit ko.

          “O, alam nyo na ah, pag nagpagupit yang taong yan pangitan nyo ah. Siguraduhin nyong di sya magkaka-girlfriend at magiging virgin sya habang buhay.”

          Kahit na sabihin ko sa barbero na yung gupit ko sana ay bagay saken, ang kinakalabasan parin ay isang gupit na magiging sentro ng katatawanan sa PWU. Yung feeling na pinagtitinginan ka sa jeep kasi parang pinageksperimentuhan ka ng barbero.

          May time pa nga na pinagmuka akong cartoon character nung barber. Yung gupit na pantay lahat. Geometer siguro yung barbero kaya pinagmuka niyang perfect circle yung ulo ko. Yun talaga yung time na naging sentro ako ng atraksyon sa room. Yung time na yun basta may tumawa lang, kahit di saken natatawa, maiinis ako. Nung binalikan ko yung barbero, sinabihan ako nung may-ari na tinanggal na daw yung putanginang yun dahil malakas daw talaga yun mantrip ng buhok ng kostumer.

          Kaya ayaw na ayaw kong humahaba ang buhok ko dahil isang traumatic experience ang magpagupit para saken. Every time na nagpapagupit na ako lagi kong binubulong sa utak ko, “please, don’t suck… please, don’t suck…” … and it will still suck. 

Note: yung Shasha Grey pampapukaw lang ng attention.

A Contemplation upon Vitruvius

I just had this meditation when I was reading Vitruvius’s treatise De architectura. (For those who did not know Vitruvius, he was a Roman architect and engineer who lived during the time of Emperor Augustus of Rome.) I was about to read the Book IX of the monumental architectural tract when the introduction of the said book suddenly absorbed my thought. The introduction was a little digression on intellectualism versus athleticism.  

Vitruvius presenting his treatise to Emperor Augustus. An engraving by Sebastian Le Clerc (1684). Taken from Wikipedia.org.

        In the digression, Vitruvius takes note of the ancestors of the Greeks who give more honours to “famous athletes who are victorious in the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games”* than “authors whose boundless services are performed for all times and for all nations.” He notes that the victorious athletes “are not only greeted with applause as they stand with palm and crown at the meeting itself, but even on returning to their several states in the triumph of victory, they ride into their cities and to their fathers’ houses in four-horse chariots, and enjoy fixed revenues for life at the public expense.”

          But Vitruvius did not live long enough to know that the same happens today. Most Valuable Players or MVP’s are more famous and idolized than writers and intellectuals like Lourd de Veyra and Lualhati Bautista. Varsity students are even granted allowances, free daily load, condominiums and cars than scholar students.

          It was even our mentality that the member schools of the UAAP and NCAA are the “higher schools.” I was quite irritated by this. Just because your school is a member of the UAAP or NCAA doesn’t mean your school is higher than those who are non-members. I mean, come one, the UAAP or NCAA was just a part of a school’s extracurricular activities. In fact, there are some non-UAAP and non-NCAA schools that are academically higher than some UAAP and NCAA schools, like, for example, the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro.

A caricature of intellectualism versus athleticism by German cartoonist Thomas Nast. Taken from Wikipedia.org.   

          I’m not here to hate the UAAP or NCAA or any athlete. I just want to remind people that these athletic associations are not the basis on how high a school is. I also want to emphasize here that intellectual powers are far more superior to physical strength. Vitruvius explained this when he described intellectual men as “men whose researches are an everlasting possession, not only for the improvement of character but also for general utility,” and the fame of the athletes as a thing that “declines with their bodily powers.”

*passages are from Morris Hicky Morgan’s English translation of the treatise De architectura by Vitruvius.