What Makes an Atheist?

While trying to fathom what turns one to become an atheist, I found the following anecdotes in the internet about Steve Jobs.
EXCERPT 1:
Even though they were not fervent about their faith, Jobs’s parents wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to the Lutheran church most Sundays. That came to an end when he was thirteen. In July 1968 “Life” magazine published a shocking cover showing a pair of starving children in Biafra. Jobs took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor. “If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?
The pastor answered, “Yes, God knows everything.”
Jobs then pulled out the “Life” cover and asked, “Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?” “Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that.”
Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church.

---

 It is really curious how atheists, especially famous philanthropists, turn to be atheists. Do they believe that amassing wealth, or possessing the ingenuity to amass such make them above any god? If somebody was able to answer Jobs that question he had posed, answer in a logical manner, and follow up to prove the love of God, could things have been different? How could you prove that when you're shown pictures of starving children in Biafra or elsewhere? Maybe, he should have been asked to sit down with the pastor, if the pastor really knew how to answer beyond simply saying "yes, God knows everything." This coupled with unceasing prayers, who knows, Jobs could have turned his life around.
EXCERPT 2:
"[One afternoon we] were sitting in his backyard ... and he was not in the best of health at the time. ... He said, 'You know, I'm kind of 50/50 on believing in God. But I want to believe that something endures, that your wisdom that you accumulate, that the knowledge that you have somehow is able to endure after you die.'
"And then he pauses, and he says, 'Maybe that's just wishful thinking. Maybe that's just like an on-off switch.' And he goes, 'Click, you're off. You're gone. It's over.' And then he paused for a moment and he said, 'Maybe that's why I didn't like to put on-off switches on Apple devices.' "
Doubt could be the beginning of conversion. But no one reached out to him for the Light. Sad.

SHARING

• SHARE-- that now ubiquitous word touted about as one with noble sentiment, is really such an all-embracing word. It denotes giving and taking. We take part in the game of life and we demand that we get a fair share of what we put in terms of money, time, effort, or whatever resources we contribute to whatever communal endeavor we have chosen to participate in. A piece of a whole, a fragment, an allotment dispensed to all participants in a shared undertaking. In the whole spectrum of life, one asks for his/her share within the context of freedom, fairness and justice. One may share, in a spirit of generosity and unselfishness, one's plate of food, one's talent, one's resources. The capitalist shares the profits of the day with his workers: that's only fair and just. And in an imitation of Christ who shares the kingdom of God with the whole of the human race, the prophets and the faithful work to spread the Word that is meant to be shared by all.

• What we may want to share can be an infinity of stuff, from the material to the abstract, from the emotional to the spiritual. from the traditions to our lasting values, from the rational to the, alas, the irrational. For we can have the good and the bad in our human nature, and in casting out our demons, we share consciously or unconsciously, our despair, our bitterness, failings, our pains--all that darkness of the soul. A.y-y, there's the rub. Who wants to even listen to all that, much less share? How many times has one heard the listener say "I don't want to hear about that," when trying to unburden himself to another, ? Or, "I have enough problems of my own"? Was it Anton Chekhov or Leo Tolstoy who wrote in his stories about the apathy of some people in the face of tragedy in another? I can't remember now the title, but there is this story of a cab driver telling his passenger about his son who just died and the passenger impatiently just tells him to hurry in his driving. How sad! We watch or read Shakespearean tragedies, the Greek plays and other plays or novels of tragedies. Who among us does not experience catharsis?

• Isn't it more tragic than the tragedy being viewed when the viewer cannot feel a cathartic purging of emotions, of spirit? The truth is that it is in our sharing the pains of others that we develop our sense of compassion. It is in our ability to commiserate that we ennoble our own sense of humanness. How empty is the soul without anything good to share. How utterly impoverished is one unwilling to give of himself to others or unwilling to give up something for others. We, after all, are kins to one another. We are humanity: peoples chained together in a cadena de amor, as it should be.

• It is in the spirit of sharing that this blog will be. For in putting into words my thoughts and feelings, perhaps, some readers will find kinship that can be nurtured into something positive, and some of it pursued for an enrichment of life and on to more productive ends of lasting values. My thoughts may not be welcomed by some, they may clash with other readers' opinions, beliefs, values, even faith. That's how we all are: different from one another; each with differing personality, each a product of a different culture, family, influence, education: each is indeed unique... But share we will, nevertheless, through stories, poetry, narration, be it of the profound, the tragic, the mundane or the comic side of life.

• Each has a life story to tell, opinions, knowledge, information, feelings, thoughts, ideas... Share your story, we are urged; share your values, your beliefs, your faith. This last, especially, is not one meant to be just for oneself. You don't light a candle and keep it under a bushel.You let it shine for others, too. So, let us begin while the mind is teeming with ideas still and the soul burning with love. Let us dust old publications from the cobwebs of antiquity. For life is brief and the candle might snuff out anytime. #

 Blanca Datuin (c) 2010

1. WHAT MY FILIPINO HERITAGE MEANS TO ME
2. Growing old in a country one had not known as a child can be fraught with a lot of ambivalence. If one is still active upon migration to a strange land, there is the excitement of adventure; but there are also the challenges of surviving and adjusting in an environment that may be totally different from the milieu one had been accustomed to. One may get a good job, grow on it, accumulate assets, and succeed beyond what he/she had dreamed of. Or, one might get lost in the maze of kaleidoscopic hustles and bustles of life and end up in the gutter. For those who succeed in blending into the mainstream, there is the likelihood of becoming so complaisant that they risk losing the soul--that principle of being that defines the very essence of our humanness. Loneliness may set in. And this can turn into depression that can gnaw at one like a rodent slowly and painfully eating up the very core of one’s being. Unless one believes firmly in something he/she can fall back on--something that can wake one up into a realization of his/her true identity that he/she can take pride in, gain confidence from, and be energized by, in order to rise and be whole again.
3. To me, this thing I need to fall back on every time I falter in my decision-making, every time I stumble into error, and every time I slip into stupor is also the very thing that pricks me into an awakening, that forces me to rise again, urges me to face my indecision head-on, and to follow the path set forth by my forefathers: a path, thorny it may have been, but embedded in bravery, generosity, pride, beauty and continued growth. This is my Filipino heritage that encompasses my Catholic upbringing and spiritual growth: what I constantly remind myself of as defining my true self no matter where I am; no matter what kind of environment I am submerged in; no matter what other kind of culture and language I may be immersed in; and, no matter who I must face in the great battles encountered daily in this foreign land. I am, after all, the product of my cultural heritage: its history, its values, its traditions, its customs, its music and dances, its literature, its myths, its rituals, and its ideals.
4. Thus family bonding is to me adhering to our traditional family gatherings in observance of our noche buena and domingo de pascua. These help me to re-live the faith of my childhood as strengthened by the tradition of the yearly La Naval de Manila, the cenaculo and the via crucis during the semana santa. The rites and festivals--sources of every town’s history--each has a story to tell. The rites of the canao, of the tadtarin, the Moriones, the ati-atihan, the turumba, and the fandango before Santa Clara—these are, to me, dances of life. The Santacruzan (ah, such vision of vestal beauties!), the misa de gallo for Christmas and the salubong for Easter—these are my people’s most profound traditions of faith. There seems to be no end, in fact, to the breadth of the Filipino culture that speaks of the colorful lives of my people.
5. From their first encounter with the colonizers on March 16, 1521, my forefathers had already established their character as peace-loving people who, in their inherent sense of hospitality, welcomed visitors in their land with warmth and generosity. Giving out the best--as demonstrated by their gifting their guests with gold and huge porcelain jars filled with rice grain--speaks of unselfishness and magnanimity practiced only by the civilized. This, to me, is a defining character, a legacy practiced to this day by a true Filipino: that of being human and humane.
6. But the generosity of our ancestors, if and when taken advantage of, can turn into the ferocity of a lion. Witness the anger of Lapu-lapu who, with his band of warriors, slew the conquistadores headed by Magellan. This is a reminder to me that to fight the exploitative and the greedy is a consequence of being victimized. We are not aggressors, but we know how to assert ourselves as our Filipino heroes Lapulapu, Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio, and so many others, had shown. Though we cherish peace and are inherently patient, we know how to fight back, because the love for justice runs in our blood.
7. No matter what other culture I may have been exposed to, it is my Filipino heritage that commands my daily behavior: the po and opo will always be music to my ears; the elderly will always be regarded with reverence, and parents taken care of in their old age. In the tradition of constancy and modesty, a spouse is part of oneself to love and be loyal to, the body a temple of God to be respected and not abused, and life as a whole to be cherished, enriched and refined to one’s best potential.
8. In sharing what my Filipino heritage means to me, is it too much to hope that others of the same roots as mine—and that include my children and the succeeding generation—cherish it as well? In the tradition of our ancestors who emerged into a Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Claro Recto, Nick Joaquin, Wilfrido Nolledo, and many others, may they all evolve into the human beings they are destined to become--the best of what they can be: unique, beautiful, integrated into an ever growing whole as they embraced their dynamic Filipino heritage. So, to them, I say: unfold like the butterfly and soar to heights of splendor, but be distinctly Filipino!
9. Distinctly Filipino, yet first and foremost a human being. For when you come down to it, the qualities of being a Filipino are the very qualities that define us all as human beings: After all, my Filipino heritage is my birthright to my integrated self, cultured to the best of what I can possibly be as a human being, polished by the complex of shared beliefs and patterns of learned behavior governed by honor and dignity. To be Filipino is first to be human, to be endowed with the qualities of being human.
10. Is it any wonder then when some Filipino grandparents in shock upon seeing and listening to their tattooed third generation youngsters in plunging necklines, G-string panties, and other outrageous outfit, and their teenage boys in baggy pants, and uttering irreverent phrases, or behaving atrociously, would ask, "Are you Filipino?" #

1. OUR KINSHIP WITH OUR CREATOR
2. an excerpt from “The Nature of Man” by
3. Blanca Datuin, (c) 1990 (from a college paper)
4. The story of creation in the Bible tells of God saying, after creating the earth and the firmament and all kinds of living things, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground." In the second story of the creation, again, man's beginning is told but it focuses on another aspect of his being: "...the Lord formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being." .........
5. There are two things in the biblical narration that this researcher observes to be very significant in explaining human nature. First is the medium out of which God made man. The second is God's breathing into his nostrils to give him life and thus, making man "in our image." "And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." (Genesis, 2, 7)
6. Slime or clay is that fine-grained earth that, mixed with the right amount of water, can be formed into any shape the sculptor or potter wishes. It is dull, without luster, until polished to a gloss. It is soft enough for shaping purposes but hard as a rock once it is kilned to a degree. Unlike rock, however, the finished product, because made of clay, remains fragile. It can break into pieces if not handled properly. The same qualities are manifested in a human being: from being newly-born up to a certain young age, he is pliant and can be shaped into the desired form, before he gets hardened in the furnace of life He is earthy and corruptible in his basic instincts; dull of mind until honed to perfection in a process of education and re-education and as an ever-evolving person. He is also fragile and vulnerable until his coping mechanism is strengthened in a nurturing environment.
7. Whether taken literally or figuratively, man's body having been formed out of clay, will always infer the above-mentioned qualities of human nature. Clay is the perfect medium for an artist to whom God, in His act of creation, is likened. Clay is also that solid matter that explains the materiality of the human body. In the Christian way of thinking, however, the body is like a temple of God as it is where the soul resides. It should thus be treated with respect: it should not be abused, defiled or tainted the way a drug-dependent, for instance, or a sex maniac abuses his own as well as those of others.
8. The second significant point in the biblical narration is the statement about God's having blown into man's nostrils the breath of life. This is the infusion of a part of God's perfection, a part of His own nature as a spiritual being: the breath of life that animates. This is the principle of life--the soul that is capable of rising to heights of splendor an All-Good God is said to have wanted man to rise to . His potentialities abound beyond imagination even as his efforts to sift the good from the bad is fraught with much faltering, trepidation and pain.
9. God's breath is the external force, the efficient cause described by St. Thomas in his Summa Theologica discussed earlier in this paper. Even if taken merely as a metaphor, the act would still symbolize the privileged position of man among all His other creations. For man alone is the one breathed into by God; thus, he alone has had that kind of personal contact with God, which explains what most theologians describe as an intimate relationship between God and man. It is an act of perfect love from God that no rational person can deny. For how can one's giving of himself to another be anything else? In infusing man a part of His own perfection, God made him in His own likeness: endowed with spirit like Himself and a creator himself in many ways: a giver of life in the regenerative process of life, a poet, an artist, a lover, an engineer, an author, and in various other ways.
10. As can be deduced from the Story of Creation alone, man is of dual nature. Whether to be taken literally or metaphorically (as has been debated constantly between believers and non-believers), the implication remains the same, that man is made of matter and form—matter, which the body is made of, and form--the soul, which, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, has for its end the natural longing to be united back to its Creator. Thus, man has the bodily nature whose laws and needs must be obeyed if the body is to be healthy and not deteriorate to the utter failure of its vital functions: it must be fed, it must be nourished properly, cared for and not abused, etc. Then there is the spiritual nature whose laws must also be obeyed if the soul will fulfill its function of directing its will to its proper end of being united to its Creator: nourish it with all the possible ways at man’s disposal; let it grow to the height it is meant for by its Creator. The union of body and soul implies their interacting together in a symbiotic way.
11. It is not within the realm of this paper to elaborate on those possible ways the Creator gave for man to use, but suffice it to say that He gave man a very potent tool he can use in directing his way to the right route towards his end. That tool is free will, the power to choose whether to harness or squander all the Creator’s gifts to mankind. Man has the power to choose whether to rise to the sublime and above the level of the brute, above the appetitive and sentient level of life or to go down and crawl like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
12. The power to reason, a principle of activity basic to man’s nature, is a dynamic term connoting certain laws of nature which are within his reasonable intellect to observe, apprehend, analyze and act upon accordingly. Fully developed, this power urges him to seek truth and justice and pushes him to realms of grandeur and beauty. An impairment of this rationality, of course, or a refusal to exercise it in the accomplishment of a life harmonious to both his bodily and spiritual nature is an imperfection that may be traced to some physical defects (brain damage, for instance), cognitive flaws or societal ills, topics not, however, within the realm of this discussion.
13. Rationality, in the final analysis, is man’s greatest asset, his redeeming instrument in what is, more often than not, a tumultuous life journey. #

Second JKO letter

This is JKO's reaction to Wilfrido's two chapters of Sangria, Tomorrow, a novel that won the Grand Prize in the 1986 Palanca Memorial Literary Contest. He was then in the process of doing some rewrites, so he  sent only the first two chapters.

PASALUBONG (take-home goodies from trip)

I was cleaning up my clogged emails when I found this response of mine to a distinguished fellow Kapampangan from an egroup wayback in 2006. Knowing I had just returned from Manila, he teased me about my  pasalubongs customarily brought home by returning travelers and visiting ones, for that matter, to their hosts.

Strange how when I go back to the Philippines and retrieve all kinds of memories--some of joy, some of pain from experience of injustice--I leave with a nagging sense of sadness over the dismal state of affairs in my home country: more corruption, more injustice (though this actually abounds in all parts of the world), more movie actors turned government officials (which would be okay if they educate themselves), increasing disparity between the poor and the rich, etc. So, I wrote back to this fellow member the following, not without a mixture of sadness and joy. Yes, there is always joy in homecoming, that is, wherever your children are. There's always so much to thank God for.
___________
On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 11:49:01 -0700 bnolledo@juno.com writes:
>
> On Fri, 07 Jul 2006 18:08:18 +0000 ernieturla@comcast.net writes:
> > > Welcome back from the Philippines, by the way. Any pasalubong
> for your fellow seafarers?


Blanca's answer:
Yes, Ernie--plenty, plenty, if you care to partake of them: insights
 galore, travail of helping others, culture trauma...
 My trip to the Philippines was not to have a good time, not to live
 as a tourist usually does, not to go shopping in the many plush
 malls (actually bigger than some of those in America). My trip
 consisted of bonding again with my sick and aging brothers, doing some survey
 among the poorest of our population, and sadly realizing that the gap between
the poor and the rich is widening even more than the last time I had visited. Then helping buy tools for the needy for use in their occupational trade--giving them the means to fish rather than just giving fish. Others: meeting for the first time the publisher of my husband's posthumous book, Cadena de Amor; sorting archived family papers, documents, and memorabilia in our former home, but most of all
 re-bonding with brothers (we talked until the wee hours of the morning), nephews, and niece; and finally, picking up at the Univ of Santo Tomas, our alma mater, some posthumous awards for my late husband. 
One week certainly was not enough, but I have to go back
to teaching the very next day of my return. So, take your pick.
Which one do you want me to share with you that will not bore you to
tears?

One thing about leaving home once in a while: realizing how
wonderful children can be. My two sons (living independenly with
 their own households) did a real good job of house-sitting: they
cleaned up my house, pick up my mail, cleaned the fridge and filled
 it with fresh, new stocks, ran my car's engine every other day,
 watered my plants, prepare a surprise welcome party. Ah, they must
 have missed me afterall. And I was gone barely twelve days!

Song of the Migrant Workers

 Just saw this posted on somebody's blog online. This was actually printed on cards  (bookmarks) in 2007, so Fr. Joselito Salvador, SVD, had written me from Taipei, where it somehow found its way. He had the poem printed and distributed to some 2,000 migrant workers during the Migrant Workers Day celebration there in September of that year. On the other side of the bookmark is a translation of the poem in Kapampangan by Poet Tony M. Pena. Fr. Joselito had emailed me that the Kapampangan version was part of his wanting to inspire the OFWs there and his campaign to promote and preserve our language.  I wrote the poem in 2007 in answer to the Filipino OFWs having been denigrated in a newspaper column to the chagrin of thousands of readers.  A certain Malu wrote as foreword "This is really for my father who has been a migrant worker for years," or something to that effect. But in that blog, the blogger omitted the rest of the intro and it appears the poem's author is the Malu whose father was "a migrant worker..."  To all other bloggers reprinting my poems without permission, please, please, do not parse wrongly.  

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

SONG OF THE MIGRANT WORKERS
by Blanca Datuin

We are figures hunched from morn till sunset.
Crowned with broad-brimmed hats and
silhouetted against the blazing sun,
we pick the prize of the earth that
feeds humanity.

The dawn breaks, we break the dawn, 
we stay bent till the dark falls to shroud us. 
Never mind the pain on our back, fingers 
turned purple, creamed with soil and swelling
with the richness of terra firma.

Never mind the knees that tremble, summer sweat
that drips aplenty to bathe the body ready to crawl
to a bed cushioned with dreams of a rising bird;
never mind winter that numbs ears, hands and fingers.

We look only to the feel of green in our palm
to send our folks back home: they who thirst
for fathers and mothers gone to a strange land,
to bring them back the fruits of a teeming graceland.

To you whom the scourge and agony of labor is alien,
please do not draw the curtains of darkness on us;
our bodies, though worn-out, are still warm like yours;
you feed on us; we feed on you. We're bound together.
                                                       (c) 2007

"The Restless Heart"

Blanca Datuin

Monica and I just saw the movie, "Restless Heart," based on the "Confessions of St. Augustine." Great movie adaptation, spectacular cinematography. powerful acting, but most of all, a touching story of a brilliant mind gone wayward in his search for truth until truth finally glares at him like a bolt of lightning. A must-see movie. All tickets sold-out. And know what? Now the theater would like to charge the sponsors twice for a second showing. Ah, they realize that religious movies can be box-office hit after all! I hope groups from your community will sponsor its showing.

Like · · Share · Promote · 2 hours ago ·

NBC Show

Why is it that these nonbelievers always choose to desecrate, blaspheme, and mock Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother Mary and the Catholic Church? And allowed to do it with impunity at that?  They never do this about Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, the Jews and other characters of other religions, do they? They're afraid, right? If you do it about the Jewish religion, you will be accused of antisemitism. If you do it with Islamism, you know the result, right? Your head will be cut off.  Kmart, Sears and JCPenney sponsor violent and gory mocking of Jesus. http://action.afa.net/Detail.aspx?id=2147532531 Why? Do non-believers have no respect because Jesus Christ is known as a loving and forgiving God (not at all the violent God NBC portrays Him to be in a mocking way)? Isn't that the highest form of abuse of one's generosity?
Well, now is the time to make a stand, protest and boycott entities promoting such blasphemy and most offensive untruths of One they should kneel down to .

“Djesus Uncrossed”: NBC’s Blasphemy Against Jesus Christ

February 23, 2013 By Beginning and End 4 Comments

By portraying Jesus Christ as a murderer, NBC has sunk to a new low in mocking the Christian faith.

As Hollywood continues to blaspheme and disrespect Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, NBC network’s Saturday Night Live show took the attacks to a new low with a skit depicting Jesus Christ as a violent murderer. The skit, called “Djesus Uncrossed”, a spoof on the slave revenge film, Django Unchained, was just another example of the blatant mockery of the Christian faith being promoted in pop culture today.