When discussing Christians and other god believers, there is a common reply that I always took notice of.
I once had an argument with a Christian. Well…the argument was about his so-called proof that his Christian god exist. From the time when this Christian fellow has almost out of ammunitions that he could throw, he retorted by saying that we are entitled to believe or not to believe and he chooses to believe. Well maybe he thinks it’s a best way to end the argument.
But does “believing in something” the best solution? Does “choosing to believe” answer everything?
The media is one powerful tool to rouse people’s belief. I saw this T.V. program…I think it’s 700 Club Asia…It has shown this feature about certain people having this evil power to kill a person just by dropping an egg. Nobody bothered to look into this installment if the story was true…Nevermind…the program’s purpose is to prove that evil literally exist and that’s what they want their Christian viewers to believe. There’s nothing wrong with that…you may think. Have you also notice how local tabloids create their front page? Forget those large, colored pictures of sexy girls wearing very skimpy bikinis. I’m talking about those large bold letters in the front page. People tend to pay no attention to the news and lean to notice the big picture. You buy those local tabloids thinking that that large headline is really the news bulletin yet you get disappointed when you started reading the report article. Tabloids are good in misleading their readers. But that’s the point of making sensationalized news…to win buyers. The more people believe, the more income you gain.
Yet not all T.V. programs here in the Philippines are created to mislead the public. I would recommend GMA’s “Investigador”. Mike Enriquez’s program sure did a good job of exposing cons pretending to be faith healers in his T.V. program. There were episodes uncovering so-called ghost reports, ghost photographs and U.F.O. sightings. Hmmm I wonder if there will be more “Investigador” in Philippine prime time.
In that ghost episode, sociologists says that Filipino tend to believe every stories about the supernatural. Even if the common Filipinos are already familiar with new technologies available to manipulate pictures they still believe on ghost photography. In a certain experiment, they created a ghost picture using Adobe Photoshop™. Then they showed the picture and asked passers-by what they think. Only few people say that it was a Photoshop™ edited picture. A lot of people interviewed consider it’s the real thing! Some even said that they have certain psychic powers and the “dead man” in the picture is even trying to communicate to them. Gosh!!!! So you choose to believe even if you started to look rather stupid?
Not only does large letters and sensationalized news stir the Filipino imagination to strengthen his belief system. Flamboyant program hosts also contribute to influence the belief of the public viewers. That’s why if you will notice, most Christian evangelists and T.V. preachers yell, cuss and always utilize finger pointing, condemning televiewers from sinning to God. There’s even this bozo who loves to use bad languages to slam other religions and other Christian sects, reproving them of being fools and stupid. Well that’s because he considers himself as the sole authority when it comes to Bible exposition and hermeneutics. Who will argue to his claim anyway, most of his constituents don’t even read the Bible before joining his razzmatazz. So you may say that there is nothing wrong with that. Joining Christian Fundies will not harm anyone. Well let me strike a chord. Have you forgotten what happened with the Bakers and the PTL Club? Still not convince? Do the names Waco, Texas and Jim Jones ring a bell?
In a lay man’s term, belief is a vague idea in which some confidence is placed, and a lot of people believe in different stuff…yep even atheists. That is because belief is the name given to the survival tool of the brain. Yes, belief is a survival tool to help us to the unfamiliar. Oh and one more thing, when we talk about belief, it may be about “how we want to picture the world” or “how the world is.”
We tend to believe because our brain wants us to believe. You see, one of our brain’s jobs is to protect us, whether physically or mentally. Belief is there to expand the range of our senses so we can better detect danger and improve our chance of survival as we more into unfamiliar territories.
So what’s wrong in believing on something?
When a person believes, then he acts. Now that’s where snags steps in. Well you may say that believing on something like a God is a harmless act, but is it? So ok…ok, you need this big, fat, Kahunna in the Sky…Big deal! There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you started to believe that you have to impose your God’s commandments to everyone else and that you have this heavenly duty to save all lost souls…then we’re in trouble.
You may think this is a yarn. O.K. laugh if you want…but sometimes these things get out of hand. What do you think is the reason of all those “holy war” that happened huh? Oh and those nasty terrorist acts that were done in the name of God? These extremist think that killing infidels and non-believers is a key to enter Paradise. Do you still think it’s a harmless belief? The belief justifies the killing. We sometimes become too inhuman because of our own belief. A lot of lives were lost because of these religious “belief”. Oh and don’t tell me that Christianity is an exception. Even Christian church fathers and philosophers are as guilty as the average dolt. People like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. So do you still think that it’s just a harmless thought?
Now why do God-fearing believers kill just because they believe in the existence of a certain god? First, believers kill other human beings because they believe that their God wants them to do it. Islamic terrorism is a good example of this sort of behavior. Second, far greater numbers of people fall into conflict with one another because they define their moral community on the basis of their religious affiliation.
Now just imagine if a person will believe to take Luke 19:27 literally?
But that are extreme cases.
Beliefs sometimes justify sexism and bigotry. The Hindus believe in the caste system and look what it brought them. A lot of Indians were discriminated because someone labeled them as “untouchables” – the lowest level of the caste system. Some women in Middle East countries are discriminated because of the belief that men are created higher than women. A lot of homosexuals were treated badly because people believe that homosexuality is a sin. AIDS is believed to be a punishment from God that is why some self-righteous bastard may discriminate a person that is HIV positive. Black people are discriminated by white people because they believe that the Aryan race (white race) is superior. Western (like some Americans) discriminate Asians and so on…Yep the wonder of what belief can do to your world.
Rural folks in the Philippines believe in the powers of herb doctors (albulario) and witch doctors… even in this information age, a lot of Filipinos still rely on supernatural treatments. Again you may say there is nothing wrong with that. But do you know that there are some people in our barrios today that believe cancer will be cure just by rubbing coconut oil and saliva on a certain part of the body. That “pagtatawas” can detect certain body ailments and that epilepsy is cause by goblins and “lamang-lupa”. Good grief! Because of lack of proper treatment, these patients suffer to more complications instead of being cured.
So before you tell me your right to believe and that you “choose to believe” something, may I suggest that a little investigation will not hurt.
Until next time,
Ciao!
John the Atheist
