All-Out War (Blog war, that is)

There is an argument that says knowledge of whether God exists can only be found in a metaphysical (meaning beyond the physical) world. Hence, to proclaim that God exists is arrogant because you can never get proof of that. It is ironic however that the same argument can be used against atheists. Proof that God DOESN’T exist also lies in the metaphysical world.

And since I am talking about ironies, another is my present and high-school views on atheism, or at least, atheists in UP.

During my highschool days, I proclaimed myself an atheist, adoring them for courageously standing up against those who arrogantly claim to have gone to the metaphysical world, to those who impose values on us, and worst of all, those who live lives in contradiction to the values they impose and espouse.

Now, I find organized atheism a big joke. The nearest comparison I can make to them (should I even name names?) is pre-Gabriela feminism. Ok, now you can work the same oppressive hours and wages as the men. Happy? only it is Ok, God is dead. Now get back to work.

Some atheists I know are more humanistic than some “believers”. Being an atheist doesn’t mean disavowing such basic values as loving your fellow man (and woman). But the way I see organized atheism in the University makes me think that the atheist-bashers may have a point. Or at least I wouldn’t blame them if their examples were those people.

I often wonder why these atheists don’t seem to expand (or actively seek to expand) in terms of membership, scope and public exposure. One reason could be the fact that the majority of people cannot relate with atheism. It has no bearing on the daily rat race. People simply cannot relate atheism to their daily lives of hardship. In short, hindi lapat sa lupa.

Another could be the ivory tower mentality. Since the atheism fanbase is still limited to the rich, bored and exploratory, they would probably shrug their shoulders and say “Who needs the ignorant anyway?” The polar opposite of mula sa masa, tungo sa masa.

Atheism, if it converts humanity to its fold, is not the end-all of history and society. We would still be struggling with the same long working hours, same low wages, same boring and oppressive educational systems etc. The positive thing about atheism is that it would help some (if not most) people think out of the box. The less people believe about pre-destination as the Iglesia preaches, or the activism in little ways as the YFC preaches, the more would our people be open to finally taking the course of history in our own hands. Genuine social change for the better, by any means, would not be so far away then.

It is simply disgusting that atheists proclaim freedom of thought on one hand and then badmouth a movement that is at the forefront of changing society, or at the very least, threaten the present status quo (as proven by Oplan Bantay Laya and such). Shouldn’t your “freedom of thought” respect all ideologies? Even those from whom you feel threatened? Natdem, socialist, leftist, activist, communist or whatever, regardless of the title they should respect all lest they fall into the same hypocritical multi-perspectivism as preached by Alyansa. The challenge for all atheists is to incorporate their belief into a larger school of thought that is geared towards practice. And not just any practice: the practice of changing society for the better. Failure to do so will put them in the same company as the anarchists, in the dustbin of history.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2006 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.