Questions of Faith

Last Saturday night, I was able to watch Bottomline of Mr. Boy Abunda. It has been one of the few shows I am so eager to watch every weekend night if I’m home. And their guest is Mr. Red Tani, founder of the Filipino freethinkers. An atheist. The moment I heard of the guest and his background, with brows raised, I thought to myself that I won’t sleep til I hear the conversation. I knew it would be an interesting one. More interesting to hear what a person who do not believe in the existence of God has in his mind, how he would answer, etc. At first, I expected a monster-like human being who knows nothing about God and kindness. But on the contrary, he was actually friendly and objective. I got his point at the middle of the show. It took me a while to assess where he is coming from. Isn’t he afraid to die and be buried in hell? As he said, he do not believe in any supernatural being. “God is us.” No God help people but people help each other. That’s his point. I can say that I was impressed with the way he handled questions. Moreover, I wonder how he ‘s able to handle judgments every day of his life? He seems nice and even said that his belief is somehow provisional and will change soon as he sees evidences of God’s existence. My impression? A very brave and smart man who knows himself, what he wants and how to stand up for what he chooses to believe in.

Very ironically, after a few hours of sleep that night, I decided to watch “Bayaning 3^rd World” as I woke up the next morning. This has been my long time plan of watching that CD which keeps on littering our dvd stand for months, forgive me for having less or no time to watch movies, at all. “Bayaning 3^rd World” is good, I was entertained and informed of a lot of things. The making of a prospective movie but don’t know where and how to start. They even tackle and “question” Rizal’s retraction if he really indeed signed a retraction to marry Josephine Bracken. Asper catholic History accounted by friars that time, Rizal decided to reconcile with the church. Josephine Bracken also claimed the same convincing everyone that she became rizal’s wife the day before his execution. But what’s the proof? J. Bracken didn’t sign any marriage contract due to time constraint. Isn’t that too complicated?

The question of whether our national hero retracted or he stayed mason until his death will be an unending battle of historians, debators and even ordinary blogger like me. J

I don’t know why but I saw some connection between what I watched last Saturday at the Bottomline (interview with Red Tani, an atheist) and study of retraction of our national hero (Dr. Jose Rizal). They shared a common sentiment. A skeptical thinking leading them to the thought that “to see is to believe” and a strong disposition of beliveing in the power of human being.

Philippines is a democratic country. A free-thinking nation. Absolute rule in our constitution is the right to choose any religion. But whatever actions we do regarding our own belief is never absolute. We are being regarded with our actions. So, does that make any sense in them saying that we, the people are the God of our own world? We help each other; we reach out together; and in the end we will all die along with other people....

I guess our beliefs define us. Not our doings per se, but what we are as an individual. We are the sole responsible of our actions and whether we have our God or we choose to rely on ourselves is a question of faith that will be answered not only by words, but more by our deeds.

Observing these two co-related stories, I must say that having an imaginative and whimsical mind gives one a lot of room for questions. Leading me to thinking that maybe, just maybe the mere reason why the apple(forbidden fruit) at the garden of Eden is that fruit called “knowledge”.