A cheerful poverty is an honorable state - Epicurus
When you’re rich and an atheist, most Christians will say that you’ve become an atheist because money is your God. You will be accused of forgetting Jesus because you spend more time making money than praying or going to church. People here in Manila stereotyped atheists as filthy rich, collage kids or intellectual snobs who seem to be too pompous of himself, that’s why he deny the existence of God.
But how about if you’re in a state of poverty yet you’re an atheist?
Not everyone here in the Philippines is financially stable. A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet. Our government’s promise of an economic boom is still quite unattainable, even though our president keeps on bragging about her so-called rise in Philippine economy. I’m not blaming everything in the Philippine government. I’m just saying that here in the Philippines, the gap between the rich and the poor is very wide.
Unfortunately for me, I’m in the other side of the pole. I’m not really in a very worst state of desolation. I can still afford paying 3 to 5 hours Internet time. Seriously...I still eat 3 times a day, I can still pay my electricity and water bill on time, etc. That means I still have time to ponder on issues concerning belief and non-belief. Living one day at the time gives you moments to reflect on these issues.
I once had a debate with a member (I think he is the president) of a certain Roman Catholic society from Quaipo. Before the debate started, he informs the listeners that he knows where I reside. On that time my family was renting this small house in this “god-forsaken” neighborhood and I was quite surprised why this guy would have to announce that he knew where I live. Hmmm so the guy knows where I live...big deal. What does it have to do with the debate about the existence of a god? Does living in a small house a dead giveaway why I’m an atheist? Well, his ploy in no way worked, he didn’t prove the existence of his god and was crushed in the debate.
So when a person is poor, there is a good reason why he doesn’t believe in the existence of god...that’s according to Christian believers. He doesn’t believe in god because he is angry at God. Because he’s poor...Is that it? So you think a pitiable atheist doesn’t believe in a god because since he blames god? That’s not atheism.
Frankly, as an atheist, being financially deficient is a hindrance. First, you really lack the resources to buy books. Books are really an indispensable tool in an atheist’s arsenal. Unfortunately most atheists’ books (or May I say “all”) are foreign made. Geewizz! Foreign books are too costly! Thank Darwin that I have a photographic memory when reading books. There is this book store here in Manila, yep Power Books, that’s the name of the shop. Luckily for me, this book store allows shoppers to read the books off their shelves.
Another problem is that there are very few books about atheism available in the Philippines. There are even no books about biblical errancy, criticism in Christianity and a very few books about the theory of evolution. In order to have them...you have to buy it on Amazon.com or eBay...AND IT COST DOLLARS! Woah! $1.00 is equal to 41.00 Philippine pesos! Give me a break!
Luckily I have some books and a computer...tools that I used on facing religious superstition and ignorance and I would like to show appreciations to friends and relatives who gave me copies of these precious literatures.
Your financial status is not an obstacle in knowing the truths about the meaninglessness of theology and god-belief. You may lack certain tools like books, computer or money to splurge on posh coffee houses to chitchat about philosophy, but that doesn’t make your rational mind inactive. There are other ways.
Before I have my own PC and some of my books and before I had my own blog, I used to hang out on forums. Forums are good place to start. I started with Yahoo groups.
I’m not really good at typing so I have to write down questions from forums in a piece of yellow paper, and file them for further used. Then I go libraries around Metro Manila area to do research. Libraries are the best place to start looking for the answers. There was no Wikipedia on that time. My salary is enough for our monthly family budgets and for small leisure expenses, so I can’t afford staying for 4 hours renting Internets on computer café. So...I have to write it down on papers. I used to store copy-paste articles on floppy disks...but they have a very short shelf life.
There are good libraries here in Manila. You only need to pay P50.00 for a library ID at the National Library (that’s near Rizal Park) and you can use their books. Well...unlike those libraries in the United State, public libraries in the Philippines do have few collections, but I think they don’t have the latest books available. I enjoyed doing research in the Thomas Jefferson Library inside the U.S.Embassy. They have a copy of a Jewish encyclopedia there. In subjects like the occult and eastern religion, I go to the Theosophical Society in España (It’s in Dapitan St. in Manila). They have a small library inside the building. I don’t have any problems when I making inquiries about Christianity and the Bible, the Bread of Life Christian church in Quezon City have a nice library. I also borrow books from friends.
There are also libraries from certain campuses where you can use. The University of the Philippines library for example charges P50.00 and they sure have a good collection of books, especially their Filipiniana section. You can also go to the library of the University of Santo Tomas, La Salle and at Ateneo de Manila, yet I think they will charge you P200.00.
If only Filipino atheists and non-believers will unite and create a small library...You know...like bringing together their different collections of books, audio/video tapes and magazines and letting other atheists have access to it (*sigh*). If only there will be an atheist’s organization here in the Philippines, I think that will be the first project they should do. A lot of atheists here in Manila, especially the underprivileged ones, are still in the dark in the issues of atheistic philosophy and science.
Today, Internet is quite common here in the Philippines and it become cheaper. There are even some computer cafes here in Caloocan that charges P10.00/hour Internet use. Younger Filipino non-believers are luckier. At least they can now surf the Net...as they say here in the Philippines, “If you’re looking for something, I-Goggle mo.” There are even more atheist sites in the World Wide Web compare to...lat say 5 years ago.
Yet it doesn’t replace hard-earned research.
I do not believe all “Filipino non-believers” out there today are privileged to own books nor do they have any computer. Sad to say I cannot reach out for their needs. I’m also in need, yet happily, friends help me. But not everyone is fortunate to have buddies like mine. That’s why I created this blog and my Yahoo and Friendster group...to get in touch with other Filipino non-believers out there. It’s my “message in the bottle”, a seed of hope that someday, maybe someday, Filipino atheists will unite their resources and help each other. A single voice will never be heard yet a multitude of voices will bring change.
I’m not losing hope. The tip of the scale is now on the atheist’s side. In the United State for example, we now have books from Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and a lot more. Atheists’ ideas are passing from one place to another and the questions are now being asked. People like that of the Rational Response Squad are now challenging the tradition of religions. It won’t be a surprise to find religious skepticism in the Philippine shores. Sooner or later, Filipino non-believers will be holding hand and hand with one other to pass the torch, whether you are a poor atheist or a rich one.
Who said an atheist doesn’t dream?
Until next time,
Ciao!
John the Atheist
