Month: August 2016

My Facebook feed is an interesting place. You can read about some of my friends who quote Bible verses and ask for prayers, and you can also see atheist posts questioning the sanity of grown-ups who still have imaginary friends. In the political arena, you can also see many posts praising the efforts of current president Rodrigo Duterte, and perhaps just as many posts tearing him down.

People ask me why I do not unfriend or unfollow those whose posts are strongly opposed to mine, to the point of offense, and I like to respond with this gem from Frank A. Clark, “We find comfort among those who agree with us — growth among those who don’t.”

To be fair though, a good number of posts contain sweeping generalizations, hateful and sarcastic remarks, faulty logic, or erroneous statements — from either side and those I can safely ignore. There are a few of my contacts though, who are not that way, and although I do not fully agree with what they say, I still listen and reflect on their words. We must never be so blinded by our own biases that we fail to truly consider or pre-judge what the other side has to say.

I recently came across such a piece by one of my contacts from Manila, Jorrel Vincent Valdez, and have obtained his permission to reprint his words in full and without commentary from me. As I told Jorrel, it is a piece that deserves to be read:

***

A friend and colleague of mine asked why I hate Duterte so much. Just to be clear, I categorically do NOT hate Duterte. I did not vote for him, yet I accept that he is still our President for the next six years. Contrary to what Duterturds (yes, THAT particular distinction has to be made) may think, I do not oppose Duterte out of spite since my preferred presidential candidate lost. So what drives my incessant criticism of his actions over the past few weeks? Why does it seem that I only count the misses and ignore the hits?

It’s simple. I HATE the effect Duterte’s brand of governance has on our people.

In their years under Duterte’s leadership, the people of Davao turned their city into a model of development and order that the rest of the nation looks up to. Yet sadly, under the few months of Duterte’s candidacy and presidency, supporters from all over the nation have instead turned into a vicious and hypocritical mob that bullies critics into silence. I can’t help but think that maybe, the rest of the Philippines outside Davao isn’t really ready for a Duterte presidency.

I hold on to the notion that a significant proportion of the 16M who voted for Duterte are decent, morally upright, and hardworking people who have merely grown increasingly frustrated with the ineptitude and lethargy of previous administrations. I cherish the thought that most of these Filipinos made their decision rationally, after weighing the pros and cons of each candidate. I want to believe that most voted for him to have a strong partner and advocate for genuine reform, a true servant leader.

But social media tells a different story.

I’ve always been skeptical of mainstream Filipino media – but not skeptical enough since I’ve admittedly been misled by inadequate news reports about the alleged DOH budget cut. By the way, I own up to that mistake, and hope that it serves as a lesson for vigilance to me. Fortunately, an alternative exists – social media. The great equalizer, the platform where all voices are heard, not just those of the powerful and educated.

Unsurprisingly, the story social media tells is horrifying.

Is it fair for me to criticize a leader for the actions of his supporters? I don’t know, is it fair for me to criticize Hitler for the wickedness of the Nazis? Is that comparison unfair? Deliberately or inadvertently, the government has channeled the pent-up hopelessness and despair of the long-suffering masses into something despicable. Instead of directing this collective pain into a genuine sense of civic responsibility, the leadership has allowed the formation of a blind, vindictive underclass of fanatics who view Duterte as their Messiah. Fundamentalists who believe that our President is a destined Great Leader, a god-king who can do no wrong, who celebrate in the death and destruction of alleged criminals without due process, who view human rights as impediments to the reign of their king.

Am I sowing division, by encouraging an “us versus them mentality”? Am I speaking from a position of privilege, by virtue of my education and profession? Maybe. I am not so blind as to discount that possibility. But I cannot stay silent while I witness more and more people turning a blind eye to the cost of this war, abandoning all their rationality and sensibility in exchange for a blind faith to a fallible leadership.

Six years ago, people elevated the son of Ninoy into something he’s not. And his mistakes cost us dearly. Yet here we are poised to do the same thing again. Have we learned nothing?

So yes, President Duterte. We give you leeway. We know that you are a product of your time, and it’s too late for you to move beyond your machismo and idiosyncrasies. We also know that you have the nation’s best interests at heart, and your sincerity shines through your ruthlessness. We also come to accept, painfully, begrudgingly, that your way of doing things is not the way of Justin Trudaeu or Lee Kuan Yew. But we reserve the right to remain critical. You need a genuine opposition, not the spineless sycophants you cowed into submission in the House. You must learn to respect your critics, not to throw tantrums when they dare to challenge you. Be the bigger man your followers already think you are. Set the example for your supporters to follow.

Your noisy and insufferable online critics will always be here, President Duterte. Supporting the good, calling out the bad, and doing our own small share in making this nation a better place. We intend to enjoy our hard-won freedom to be sarcastic dicks, unless of course you decide otherwise. Just like the guy you’re giving a hero’s burial.

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

They say that Duterte has created a “culture of impunity” with his statements for police and even civilians to go after and kill criminals. They blame him for the recent spate of cardboard killings regardless of whether he actually ordered the hits, or if they were really “extrajudicial killings” in the first place. It doesn’t matter, they say, because his words have enabled people to think that murder is justifiable. Those who are riding the bandwagon can do so because he created the environment for them to do so.

Well, maybe so. But remember that his “shoot them” or “kill them” statements are always prefaced with “if they resist arrest or fight back.” Now you may argue that these words are just for show but I can counter-argue that that is merely your opinion. I mean, the instruction cannot be any clearer than that. I have several friends who own guns but I don’t see any of them going trigger-happy or rushing to buy rolls of duct tape or reams of cardboard.

But let me share my perspective on this so-called culture of impunity. I will not argue that there is none. On the contrary, I will argue that it has long been there.

I lived in Metro Manila for around 15 years of my life. These are some of my experiences there:

***

My then-girlfriend-now-wife made a U-turn on a street. A policeman came out from behind a tree and motioned for her to pull over. He said, “You can’t make a U-turn there.”

My wife then argued, “But there’s no sign that says you can’t make a U-turn.”

“Well,” said the policeman, “there’s no sign that says you’re allowed to make one either.”

***

I was driving along Sta. Mesa near SM Centerpoint. At the intersection of V. Mapa, I took the middle lane and went straight ahead. A bunch of policemen were waiting at the other side and motioned for me to stop.

“Sir, you went straight on a mandatory left-turn lane,” they said.

Say what? I have yet to see a traffic rule book that says the center lane is a mandatory left-turn lane and that one has to take the rightmost lane in order to go straight. This was clearly another attempt to fleece motorists of their money.

***

At one time, I was going to fetch a friend from the airport. Since I arrived quite early, I parked at one of the sidestreets to wait for the plane to arrive. A few minutes later, a couple of airport policemen drove by and got down. One of them approached me and asked me for my license saying I was parked at a no-parking zone. I said, “There’s no sign or marking here that says ‘No Parking.’” Then the guy walks over to his older companion, who then approaches me. I make the same objection, and he says, “No parking nga dito. Gago lang hindi alam na hindi pwede mag-parking dito.” (Only stupid people don’t know that you can’t park here). I was incensed and asked for his name, but he refused to give it to me.

Later on, after fetching my friend from the airport, I was still fuming mad so I went to the airport police station to report the incident. I got to talk to the police chief and told him my story. He said, well, that’s really a no-parking zone and I said, never mind about that if it is, but your officer treated me with disrespect.

Then I noticed that the guy was there at the other desk, his back turned, typing on a computer. So I told the chief and he confronted the man who took one look at me and said, “Oh him, he tried to bribe my partner with a P500 bill.” His companion suddenly appeared from an adjoining cubicle and chimed in, drowning my protests to the chief. My companion whispered to me and said, “Let’s go. We won’t get anywhere here. It seems they’re all in this together.”

So I told the chief as I went away, “You know, you think about this. Do you think I would have the gall to come here and complain to you if I had knowingly tried to bribe them?”

He mumbled something about reassigning the old guy to another department but I really didn’t care anymore.

***

You talk about a culture of impunity? How about policemen who disregard traffic lights? Who make left-turns in front of a huge no-left-turn sign? Who ride motorcycles without helmets? Who collect bribes and protection money? How about rich kids and influential people who can get away with almost anything because of their connections? How about government officials thinking of one scheme or the other to victimize innocent people? Laglag-bala anyone?

It was only when I came back to live in Davao when I saw the huge disparity between here and there. Here, I am not afraid of being stopped by policemen for trumped-up charges. Here, policemen follow traffic rules and they wear helmets. Here, even the mayor’s son or daughter was ticketed for breaking the speed limit. Even the mayor was ticketed for not wearing a helmet.

No, I do not agree with Duterte’s every move and action, but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because of the results I see in my city, where law and order are more obviously followed than elsewhere in the country.

Duterte did not bring a culture of impunity. It has been there all along, but it has always favored the rich and powerful so they have kept quiet about it. Now that their cages are being rattled, they are feeling fear, perhaps for the very first time.

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

Click here to read part 1.

Last week, I discussed how the word “atheist” can mean different things to different people. It could refer to degrees of unbelief like strong or weak atheists. It could refer to one’s activity — like an anti-theist who actively promotes atheism and puts down theism, and so on. The point here being that someone calling himself an atheist may mean one thing while other people who hear the pronouncement may have another idea in their heads of what an atheist is.

The same can be said for the word “God” which can also mean different things for different people.

Many of the ancients believed in a pantheon of Gods. There was a God or Goddess for different kinds of phenomena or domain. Hence we read of a God of Thunder, a Goddess of Beauty, a Goddess of War, or a God of Death.

For Christians, Muslims, Jews or almost any monotheistic religion, God is the Creator, the Supreme Being. He is perfect, eternal, omnipresent and omniscient. They also believe that God intervenes in worldly affairs. Prayers can move him to act in certain ways, and he acts as the final judge and arbiter of one’s fate when one dies.

For some such as pantheists, God is not separate at all from creation but lives in and through every being. Everyone and everything is a different surface in the infinitely-faceted gem called God.

For others, God is simply a state of being, an attainment of perfection or what buddhists call Nirvana. It is as if a drop returns to the ocean or a part once again becoming whole.

Now I consider myself an atheist if God were defined according to the first two descriptions I outlined above. While I do not say that I am sure there is no God (of that sort), I live my life as if there were none. I do not depend on prayers. I recognize that bad things happen even to good people, and that’s just how life is. You work hard and strive hard, and sometimes you get lucky and win the jackpot of life.

I don’t believe there’s a guy up there keeping a scorecard or a record of your deeds, then giving you a pass or fail mark at the end of your life. Yes, with respect to that, you can call me an atheist.

However, of the latter definitions of God, I cannot really say anything against them. Perhaps because they render the point of belief moot. If I am a facet of God, what would it matter if I believed in God? And if God were a mystery, what is the point of striving to understand? The more important thing would be to live a life worth living, because, well, what else can you do?

I believe that if there were a God, then he, she or it would be a mystery too deep to be fathomed by our minds. Any attempts to describe or define him fall short. It is like using a thermometer to measure what shade of red a wall is. It is like trying to describe to someone what a rose smells like, or trying to describe what a green mango tastes like. Yes, it’s sour, but is it sour like vinegar? Nope. Is it sour like a lemon? Not that too. We simply do not have the proper instrument nor words to adequately express the experience.

So saying that I am an atheist who believes in God is a way of nudging the reader into looking past the obvious paradox and thinking about what the words really mean, to fight the initial impulse to consider it nonsense (although many still will do that), and to do your own reflection.

Some eastern mystics describe the dynamic between God and creation as dancer and dance. When you look at the dance, you are also looking at the dancer. They are forever intertwined. When the dancer stops, there is no dance to speak of.

I don’t know why but this is an image of God that I find endearing.

 

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

A few weeks ago I mentioned Frank Schaeffer’s book,Why I Am An Atheist Who Believes In God, and quite a few people wondered how he could hold such contradictory notions in his head, or how I, who claim to be a lover of logic and reason, support such a statement.

I will not speak for Schaeffer though. If you want to know his ideas, I suggest you read his book yourself. This article will explore how and why I think it is possible for an atheist to believe in God.

It’s not easy being an atheist these days, just as it is not easy being a Christian. Two thousand years ago, one would just say “I’m a Christian” and that’s that. Although I suspect that there were already arguments back then whether you were a Christian in the tradition of Peter or Paul or Apollos (which Paul wrote strongly against in 1 Corinthians). These days, being a Christian is even more confusing as various sects and denominations lay their own claims to the name. Some are inclusivist (accept other sects as Christian) while others are exclusivist (only they have the right to the name and only theirs is the true way).

You have Roman Catholicism, Catholic Universalism, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Seventh Day Adventists, Latter Day Saints, and even homegrown groups such as the Aglipayan Church, El Shaddai, Iglesia ni Cristo and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the Name Above Every Name, and many more.

In a similar fashion, many atheists find themselves trying to explain their atheism in one way or another. Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion, identifies seven stages in the spectrum of belief. Three stages pertain to theism (stages 1, 2, 3), one pertains to strict neutrality (stage 4), and the other three pertain to degrees of atheism (stages 5, 6, 7).

There is the weak atheist (stage 5) who “leans towards atheism.” This type of person says “I do not know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be skeptical. I am more likely to doubt than to believe.” (Incidentally, the word “weak” should not be taken as a criticism of character but only a descriptor of the degree of unbelief. The same goes for the word “strong” below.)

There is the de facto atheist (stage 6). This type of person thinks there is a very low probability that God exists although he cannot say for sure. But he lives his life on a very naturalistic level. This person says, “I cannot be certain whether or not God exists but it seems very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that there is none.”

Then there is the strong atheist (stage 7) who says, “I KNOW for sure (100%) that there is no God and I reject any notions of god or gods.”

He further goes on to mention in recorded interviews that most atheists would only go as far as identifying themselves in stage 6 as there is no way they can really know for sure of any god’s non-existence, although as far as degrees go, he puts himself at 6.9 or very close to 7.

But Dawkins is not the only one who makes these distinctions. Christopher Silver and Thomas Coleman from the University of Tennessee conducted 59 in-depth interviews and derived 6 types of unbelievers: Intellectual; Activist; Seeker; Anti-Theist; Non-Theist; and the Ritual Atheist.

Luke Muehlhauser, who runs the website Common Sense Atheism, goes several steps further by defining 17 types of Atheism, with each type not necessarily exclusive to another. So one can fit into types 1, 5, 10 and 13, for example, which can result in thousands of combinations depending on what suits you.

So when one claims to be an “atheist,” what is he really saying? Even the simplest definition of the word is the subject of debate. Some would say that the prefix “a” simply means “a lack of” and since “theism” pertains to a belief in god or gods, then a-theism would mean a lack of belief in a god or gods. This would then mean that babies and little children and even dogs and cats are, by default, atheists.

Others however, take the word in a more active sense as the “rejection of belief in god or gods” or as the secondary definition of Merriam Webster puts it, “the doctrine that there is no god.”

This lays the groundwork of part 2, which I will discuss next week.

Originally published in Sunstar Davao.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.