Planet Atheism » T-Jay Bautista

How much do we respect Theist and Religion?

T-Jay Bautista — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Just throwing it out there, one of the most common stereotype with atheist is that we don't respect religion and there belief to a point that we look like anti-religion and its like us against them.

Just like to hear your thoughts.

Atheist Morality (Yes we do have one!!!)

T-Jay Bautista — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Depending on the definition, i always treat being an atheist gives me more freedom to do things. My action isn't bound by any morality base on some book or tradition. Does that mean i don't have any morality?

One of the most common misconception about Atheist is that they don't have morals. They don't even know how to love:

God = Love
Atheist = No God
Atheist = No Love

Holy Book or Holy Tradition = Basis of Morality
Atheist = No (Holy Book or Holy Tradition)
Atheist = No (Basis of Morality)

Atheist having no morality is a myth, a myth like people picturing us having horns in our head. On the contrary, i believe that Atheist has the most purest moral not dictated by any other thing besides empathy.

What is empathy? It is purely base on feelings, all animal has it and it has help them survive. We also have it, we determine what is right and what is wrong base on how we feel it. How do we feel if this is done to us. Will it hurt us? then it must be wrong. This aspect of being an Atheist is what made me very interested in evolutionary psychology. Which attempts to explain our mental and psychological traits and that our current state is the result of our adaptation to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments.

Anyway, this just means that each Atheist have there own morality system. That's why most religious people hates us because they think we treat ourselves higher than there God because we determine by ourselves what is right and wrong and not base on His word.

When we want to know what is morally right, we just ask ourselves what if it was us?

Is killing morally right? No, because i don't want people killing me.

Is raping someone morally right? ~~Yes, if t is a sexy girl~~ No, because i dont want other people doing it to me or worse to the people i love.

Is desecrating the church morally right? No, because i don't want people desecrating anything that is a source of my inspiration (which is what most people think of it)

So if anyone tell you that we don't have any morals, Just tell them that we do have one even though it is different with every Atheist.

Death, The thing im most afraid off

T-Jay Bautista — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:39:00 +0000

I just came from the wake of my co-workers father. There are so many people there because it is the last day and there is a service. I didnt even get a chance to go inside the room.

While i stay there, i cry a little inside. 20-30 years from now or sooner i maybe in the same situation. As an Atheist you know when someone dies, they just die. They will not be in heaven or hell or stuck on this earth roaming around because of unfinish business. You dont believe that somewhere along the line on another life you will see each other again. Even if that would be very nice.

Nice that there will be some sort of cycle and when it is your turn again that i will still have my same dad, mom, sister and brother. But you know its not. When someone dies you'll lost them for the rest of your life. You will never be able to talk, laugh and cry with them. Share secrets and ask advice. Go to the beach or any other beautiful places.

Right now, the only thing i can do to lessen the sadness of this inevetible experience is to enjoy every moment with them thinking everyday is a day closer to the inevetible. Try to gather as much memory as i can with them, so that even if they are long gone there memory will stay with me. If i miss them ill think of these memories and it will make smile. Because i know we enjoy whatever we had together, no regrets.

I know life after death does not exist, but if there will be something that will make someone live on in my heart till i die it will be my memories with them and for me that will be a lot better.

Happy Mother’s Day (Belated?)

T-Jay Bautista — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:01:00 +0000

I know this post will be a little delayed but i would like to greet everyone belated Happy Mother's Day!

I just like to share you guys this story that made me cry:

My mom only had one eye. I hated her... She was such an embarrassment. She cooked for students and teaches to support the family. There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I was so embarrassed.

How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, "EEEE, your mom only has one eye!"

I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day and said, " If you're only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don't you just die?"

My mom did not respond... I didn't even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings.

I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her. So I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study.

Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts. Then one day, my Mother came to visit me. She hadn't seen me in years and she didn't even meet her grandchildren.

When she stood by the door, my children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over uninvited..

I screamed at her, "How dare you come to my house and scare my children! "GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!"

And to this, my mother quietly answered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared out of sight.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. So I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip.

After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity.

My neighbors said that she died. I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that she had wanted me to have.

"My dearest son,

I think of you all the time. I'm sorry that I came to your house and scared your children.

I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I'm sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up.

You see........when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with one eye. So I gave you mine.

I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. With all my love to you,

Your mother"

Always tell someone that you love them because you never know what day will be their last, or your own.

I hope you guys like this story! Happy Mother's Day!

(OFF-TOPIC) I forgot how i fell in love with this song =(

T-Jay Bautista — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Just like to share you guys one of my most favorite song:

Enjoy!!

Some Jesus Christ Alternative

T-Jay Bautista — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:47:00 +0000

If for some ungodly reason (pun intended) you just got tired of Jesus Christ being your God and Saviour, I have some good alternatives for you. Don't worry they all have many similarities with Jesus Christ you wont even know the difference. Birthday, Virgin Birth, Baptism, Ministry at the age of 30 and even miracles performed you name it, they have it.

Now the list:

1. Attis of Phrygia
2. Buddha
3. Dionysus/Bacchus
4. Hercules/Heracles
5. Horus/Osiris of Egypt
6. Krishna
7. Mithra
8. Prometheus
9. Quetzalcoatl
10. Serapis
11. Zoroaster

Compilation Source:
"The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold"

On a side note, early Christian Apologists explained to us that this pagan Gods are the Devil's way to confuse us into thinking that Jesus Christ isn't the real Son of God. The Devil created all this pagan God anticipating Jesus Christ life on Earth (Wow! the Devil must have been very clever!).

PS:

After linking the Gods from Wiki the information about the birthday and virgin birth of some where not mention. Im pretty sure that Krishna was documented to be born on December 25 and not between July 19-21, even Indian's celebrate her birthday on December 25. Weird!

OUT Campaign!

T-Jay Bautista — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:26:00 +0000

Atheist be heard!

Come OUT! Reach OUT! Speak OUT! Keep OUT! Stand OUT!

Want to learn how? Click on the scarlet letter below:

You are not alone! Don't be afraid, and let your example be the inspiration of others coming OUT!

Thank you Atheist Blogroll!

T-Jay Bautista — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:14:00 +0000

I would like to thank Mojoey for including me in the Atheist Blogroll.

For those who are interested in joining, please click on the banner below:

Please make sure that you have satisfied the minimum requirement before joining!

Enjoy! ^_^

Philippines Rice Shortage, Church vs. Government

T-Jay Bautista — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:41:00 +0000

As i watch the news about rice shortage here in the Philippines, i can't help but cry seeing how hard it is living in our country if your are class D to lower C. When i saw a woman who has been in line for 4 hours just to get 2 kilos of rice begging and crying to the seller (to no avail) to give her an extra kilo because they are a family of 8, i really can't stop the tears slowly flowing from my eyes.

News about who's to blame on this crisis have become rampant:
Church urged not to interfere in population policy
Catholic Church reiterates stand vs artificial birth control
Palace not discouraging artificial birth control - Apostol
Church urged to rethink stand on population

I know rapid growth of our population is to blame in this crisis. But whose to blame about the population control? Government or Church?

Here are my rant on both sides because im tired of them pointing fingers at each other.

GOVERNMENT

As i browse the the population and family planning laws here in the Philippines, all of the laws about family planning are laws about educating people about it. How about some sort punishment or new laws? Let me give you some of the things that i can suggest:

1. Additional taxes to family exceeding 3 children - Lets help the poor to not add any more expenses.

2. Imprisonment of underage pregnancy (both the mother and father) - Underage pregnancy rate in the Philippines is really alarming.

Or something extreme like:

1. Legalization of Abortion - Very controversial, but i can add the following rules like "only before the second trimester", only when the mother is raped and can only be done once or twice.

2. Promoting Male Castration - Maybe for sex offenders or people who really can help themselves.

If only politicians are not afraid or blinded by the church. Which brings us to the other side.

CHURCH

“And God blessed them (the male and female humankind), and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it …” - Genesis 1:28

Do i still need to state my case? Anyway, I hate it when the church are taking this verse out of context! God told them this because there are only few people in the Earth that time.

Now people are confuse, the government have been teaching us about family planning and the church is teaching us the opposite. Now let me give you a scenario:

1. Who will you side with, The President who has power over the country or God who has power over us all?

2. Do want to have guiltless sex or not?

3. Heaven (Pro-Life) or Hell (Birth Control)?

Well thats very easy to answer right?

Man! Talk about separation of State and Religion!

Im just afraid that finger pointing will continue and no real solution will be found for this problem and our poor fellow Filipino brothers will suffer.

Atheism is not A-Theism its Athe-ism

T-Jay Bautista — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:12:00 +0000

In our Atheist Mail Group there has been a thread asking the question "What is Atheism?".

One thing that does not sit well on me is, there are many Atheist who have accepted that Atheism's Etymology is A-Theism.

What i hate about this is because it means "Negation of Theism". With this etymology people will view Atheism as something that is totally dependent on Theism. You should take in to consideration that some of the strong atheist have made it there point to disprove God and beliefs related to them. Now what happens if they are successful (ofcourse this is a longshot) and finally Theism does not exists, will there still be Atheism?

Now lets go to the correct etymology of atheism which is Athe-ism. With this etymology, Atheism means Godless Belief. As you can see with this etymology, Atheism itself is not dependent with Theism. To stress it further, it doesn't care about Theism.It simply means i have all this belief and god has no relevance in it.

Now what do you like more, A-Theism or Athe-ism?

Bruce and Evan Almighty, some Atheist pun!

T-Jay Bautista — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:14:00 +0000

This week i am so bored i decided watch a feel good movie. As i browse my collections of DVD i stumbled upon these two:

1. Bruce Almighty
2. Evan Almighty

And boy it made my week!

This will be the first time im gonna watch this movie again since i became an atheist and the movie was a lot more hilarious.

These are the things that made me laugh:

1. God is black. This reminds me of our very own invisble pink unicorn, yes Ms. IPU herself!

2. God is funny, i never recall in the bible that god is funny. I only thing I recall is that he is very hot tempered specially in the old testament as stated in the following:

a. As describe by Nahum
b. When the Israelites where complaining because of hardship. Or maybe that was a joke?
c. How about Uzzah? Man what ever that ark is, i aint gonna go anywhere near it!

Wanna see how funny god is in the 2 movie? (from www.imdb.com)

_________________________________________________________
Bruce: [being overwhelmed with hearing prayers] Give me a break!
[Bruce is instantly transported to meet with God]
God: Really something, isn't it?
Bruce: Is this heaven?
God: No, this is Mount Everest. You should flip on the Discovery Channel from time to time. But I guess you can't now, being dead and all.
[pause]
Bruce: I'm *dead*?
God: Naw, I'm just messing with ya.
Bruce: That's not funny, Man! That is *not* funny.
_________________________________________________________

[referring to the seven fingers on Bruce's right hand]
God: I did the same thing to Gandhi, he didn't eat for three weeks.
_________________________________________________________

Bruce: Lord, feed the hungry, and bring peace to all of mankind. How's that?
God: Great... If you wanna be Miss America.
_________________________________________________________

God: I now issue a new commandment: Thou shalt do the dance.
_________________________________________________________

3. God likes to play tricks with us as evident of Evan's ever growing hair.

4. God can be any person around us as evident on when God is following Evan around, convincing him to make the Ark.

5. God takes vacation!

Well aside from all those things, I found some interesting quotes from God in the movie that i would like to share to all of you guys:

People want me to do everything for them. What they don't realize is that they have the power. You want to see a miracle? Be the miracle.

No matter how filthy something gets, you can always clean it right up.

Parting a soup is not a miracle, Bruce. It's a magic trick. A single mom who's working two jobs, and still finds time to take her son to soccer practice, that's a miracle. A teenager who says "no" to drugs and "yes" to an education, that's a miracle. People want me to do everything for them. What they don't realize is *they* have the power. You want to see a miracle, son? Be the miracle.

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Well thats all for now! Love both movie!

Rating:

Bruce Almighty - 4 out 5 Stars
Evan Almighty - 3.7 out of 5 Stars

Atheist Debate , It Sucks!

T-Jay Bautista — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:09:00 +0000

The purpose of Atheism and Debate is very counter productive to each other.

Debate:

"A formal contest of argumentation in which two opposing teams defend and attack a given proposition."

Atheism:

"Atheism is the absence of theism; by itself, it isn't even a belief, much less a belief system, and as such cannot be any of those things."

The debate about the existance of god has gone on for ages. It has always been the same old stories of faith vs. logical facts.

As i have searched YouTube about any interesting debates that atheist have engage in i have been welcomed with this result:

“atheist debate” video results 101 - 120 of about 2,190

And as i scrolled through each pages i am very saddened that the intellectual quality of the videos sucks that it doesn't even present anything new. The only any relevant video that i can share and be proud of is this:

This is what its like to be an atheist!

As you can see, Atheism for me will always be the constant search for knowledge that will strengthen my argument about god non-existent. This process of self actualization is something that one must achieve on its own.

In my opinion engaging in this type of debate has this purposes:

1. Intention of converting an atheist to theist or vice versa.
2. Proving how dumb each other's belief is to one another.

I know some of you will add to this list "Educate". But you can educate people by simply engaging in a discussion and not debate.

Remember that the argument that you will use is something that you yourself have formulated using raw facts that you have collected over the period of time and that the interpretations and/or logical values of these facts maybe differ from other atheist, thus proving that atheism is not a belief system in it self.

Which brings me to my point why it sucks, it is because you are carrying the atheist name and presenting an argument that people may perceive as a unified belief! Yes the very same dogmatic thing we despise with organize religion.

So if any atheist is trying to join a debate, be careful. You might not notice, but we can also be guilty of the very same thing we despise.