For the past few Saturdays, we have been visited by a fellow Pinoy who is a pastor from some Christian church. He drops by our humble abode just to bother us with something he calls “Bible Study.” The pastor, whom I have no idea where he comes from and what religion he represents, is welcomed by my wife, for I am busy with the laundry (Yes, my extravagant lifestyle has come to this). I do not blame my wife for inviting him in, for she is just being hospitable and friendly to a fellow pinoy. She and I agreed beforehand that we would not convert to whatever religion this pastor is trying to lure us into.
Now, for thirty some odd minutes, after a lengthy conversation of God-knows-what, he begins to share his bible to us and start preaching. The Bible is a good book, people treat it with much respect and consider it holy. For me, it is just like any other book. I’m just not sure where to categorize it, for I believe it is a work of both fiction and non-fiction. This poor pastor probably does not know the origins of the bible. If he had the time to search the net in wikipedia or some site about religious history, about the book’s origin and its relationship with the “Council of Nicea,” then I bet he would think twice of studying the Bible. I think there is no problem studying it, but the way they do it is to pick verses from different parts of the book from different authors, put them together to present an idea or message, which he obviously concocted and practiced for years. Why do that? Why can’t they read the bible just like an ordinary book, from beginning to end? Why flip from page to page, reading excerpt from excerpt, just to put an idea together? That doesn’t make any sense. The authors of those books of the bible are probably laughing at us for jumbling excerpts together to make a halo-halo special. Jesus! That only means, I can come up with something weird to preach, let say for example, “Humans are pests of the Earth” and find verses in the bible that can relate to that idea, and then convince other gullible people to believe it because it is the word of God.
Anyway, we let the pastor do his work, and we being polite, go along with it. And whatever he said about those excerpts, I just smiled and displayed a face of affirmation. But inside my thoughts, he reminded me of those poor souls who do a good business of bothersome preaching inside buses or jeepneys in between routes in Manila, asking for donations to their church and their beliefs.
The pastor knows we are Catholics and we go to church every Sunday. I was born a Catholic and even though I no longer believe in any form of organized religion, I still go along with the religious hullabaloo just for the sake of my family, especially my growing daughter. I think religion can instill good values to kids when growing up, just like making a kid behave or the “boogeyman will come and get ya!” But if you’re all grown up, it isn’t appealing if you still believe in some mythical deity up in the heavens, or should I say “some boogeyman in white robes.” In the kind of primitive immature society we have today, I believe religion does good to kids or people who need it so they don’t do any harm unto others. But other than that, religion is also a farce belief system, a mind-controlling system, a gargantuan con job, a big business that is outdated with the science and technology we have already achieved in this world. If I was Einstein and I believed in God, I would have put a bullet inside my head. If spirituality is a religion, then I would rather choose it than believe in something that is obviously been created by other human beings thousands of years ago.
So this pastor makes a remark about there being only a one true faith, as he takes it out from an excerpt in the bible. He is obviously insinuating that his “faith” or religion is the true one because he wouldn’t if he wasn’t sure if his religion now is the “true faith.” So it is also obvious that he is slowly trying to convince us to join whatever “true faith” church he is into. Which is too bad, for he is just wasting his time. I would rather kill myself than to become a primitive troll that believes in an imaginary supreme being.
So then he talks about redemption and the usual stuff because judgement day is soon and sure to come. In one of his sermons, he knew about the blooper of which Harold Camping caused, which makes me wonder, why can’t he realize that Armageddon in the bible is a fairytale and the real World’s end is actual physical obliteration of the Earth and humankind because of global warming, the magnetic fields of our dying Sun or nuclear war? There is no scientific fact or basis to prove that a supreme being will return to earth and take our souls and throw the non-believers into the bottomless pit of the Inferno. It’s absolute bullshit. Maybe the supreme being is the alien Annunaki, like what Zechariah Sitchin is trying to theorize, but waitaminute, we are beings of a primitive society using a primitive system… there’s no way aliens would want to befriend or socialize with us if we can’t even evolve and elevate to their plane of thought. To them, we are barbarians, because most of us still believe literally in stupid fairy tales from a book that has been edited and edited for centuries by people who want to get other people to join their true faith.
So after the time wasted of talking about the verses in the bible and putting “his own” meaning of those verses into light. He bade us farewell and left, hoping to see us and waste our time on another Saturday. This is what my wife and I will have to go through for the next few weeks. Ultimately, he will try to convince us to visit his so called “church” and be a part of it and maybe contribute to it financially. Because that is how religions work. Because a religion without money in a society that uses a monetary system cannot survive. And if there is a religion that has no need or use for money, then I praise the Lord Jesus Motherfucking Christ! Alien!
Too bad we will have to turn him down on any offer of converting to his “true faith” and be sorry for having wasted his time and effort. But at least we let him do his job.
Alien!