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PRO-Life Philippines and the Reproductive Health Bill August 25, 2008

Posted by Martin in : General Rants, Relevant Reading, Religion/Atheism , 3comments

Apparently, stupidity proliferates much more freely than I anticipated.

Read this, and its related links.

It’s fascinating how the writer(s) of the article claim to be rationally destroying the bill using some frankly bullshit, sorry excuses for arguments. Notice how they abuse the powers of capitalization, and how they insult the opposition, sometimes relentlessly.

“To the unscientific and statistically ignorant…”

“HB3773 is a TOTALITARIAN / DRACONIAN IMPOSITION of CONTRACEPTIVE IDEOLOGY”

” Amend the bill and keep its CORE LIES.”

So, here are the purported Pro-Life counter-arguments, minus the exessive virtual shouting. (edit) Taking out the shouting is too cumbersome of a job. Nvm.

Very rational, see.

No.

Argument one fails on account of assuming that the bill requires people to undergo such procedures, and that abortion will be legalized. The bill seeks to give widespread freedom to Filipinos in their efforts to advance family planning; sadly, abortion will not be legalized. Also, the assertion that all such procedures are inherently dangerous is patently false. Arguably, under medically controlled conditions, such procedures are both generally accepted and perfectly safe. The only reason why post-abortion complications are so rampant in the Philippines is the unsafe environment in which it is done, since it is illegal.

Argument two fails on account of assuming that the usable, habitable land area of the Philippines is equal to or greater than that of similarly-sized Asian countries such as Japan. The concept of overpopulation extends beyond the simple equation of number of people divided by total land area. One needs to determine how much of the land area is usable, habitable, and conducive to modern life, which includes job opportunities. Indeed, would you have the population of the Philippines equally distributed throughout its various mountains, crop fields, and jungles? No.

Argument three fails on account of assuming that the uncontrollable breeding of Filipinos is actually an assumption of the bill. It’s not, really. The bill seeks to address continued population growth that the economy and our resources simply cannot sustain. And where the hell did that graph come from, anyway?

Argument four fails similarly by assuming that the stupidity of Filipinos is an assumption. The bill seeks to spread correct information concerning contraceptive methods and reproductive health; it seeks to correct disinformation spread by various nefarious authorities such as the Catholic Church, which once spread the blatant lie that condoms had small holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass through. Again, the bill does not make the assumption that a lowered birth rate would equal instant riches. It seeks to address the problem of sustainable growth and development. At present, there are already too many people, with the state having not enough resources to effectively cater to them all. One way to help the state is to lessen the influx of more people by generally acceptable and moral means, i.e. not abortion. Thus, this buys the state some time to regroup and consolidate its resources in the interest of the entire nation.

Well, at least they weren’t religious counter-arguments, but they were as self-righteous and dogmatic nonetheless.

Lulz at NSTP Processing Session #1 August 15, 2008

Posted by Martin in : General Rants, Religion/Atheism , add a comment

Our very first NSTP processing session took place last Wednesday at a variety of venues, since no room was officially reserved for us. Adventurous, no?

For those who don’t know, NSTP stands for National Service Training Program; this was formulated to apparently stimulate a more holistic development of civilian nationalism that the ROTC program was only partly successful in instilling.

Now, the lulz. The facilitator mandated that opening and closing prayers be led by randomly chosen students every session. Sure, no problem there. The Ateneo, after all, is a Catholic institution. But then she blurts out that:

sana naman walang atheist dito, diba?

I lol’d.

She’s in for a surprise.

Theology Class June 21, 2008

Posted by Martin in : General Rants, Religion/Atheism , 1 comment so far

A few high school classmates of mine were talking about their respective theology classes one day, and one of their stories rather piqued my interest.

He asked the professor if the existence of god can be proven, and if possible, how. The professor was then taken aback for a moment, but s/he managed to muster the powerful argument from grades.

If you haven’t figured that out by the end of the semester, you’ll fail this class.

Talk about motivation. My curriculum dictates that theology be deferred for one semester in favor of a Philosophy 100 class, so I haven’t had the luxury of being so exquisitely threatened. I’m looking forward to theology class. Intellectual sparring, ho!

The Ivory Tower February 27, 2008

Posted by Martin in : General Rants, Philosophy, Weird Crap , 8comments

Something amusing happened today.

As Kaks and I were working our way through our afternoon Literature 14/101/whatever class, our professor asked a classmate of ours – who, for the purposes of privacy, we will call ‘Vanessa’ – to deliver a rather short speech concerning her research paper on malls in the Philippines.

As she was delivering her oration, it occurred to me that the Triumvirate rarely, if ever, tackles topics concerning culture, art, and general social living, which of course encompasses “Vanessa”’s aforementioned research paper. Not that this is not the first time I took notice of it, but this is the first time that I actually ‘talked’ to someone about it. Unfortunately, the said someone did not know of the concept beforehand. The following index card shall show how I enlightened the said someone.

Resistance is Futile.

Subtitle: We will ponder on the nature and existence of god. Your malls are not relevant.

Of course, if you want a more concise definition, you can always check for it here.

They say that being called an inhabitant of the Ivory Tower is an insult, to which I respond by saying: “If you say so, commoner.” XD Shit. XD

And ‘Vanessa’, if you ever read this, no offense, lol.

That’s about it. XD

Valentine’s: Imperial Position February 17, 2008

Posted by Martin in : General Rants, Philosophy , add a comment

An interesting trend has been found:

Those who have no interest in Valentine’s day or those who do but perhaps lack the capacity or the necessary prerequisites to express the said interest readiliy diss Valentine’s day as an arbitrary human construct, a socially-driven mandate that ultimately has no objective meaning.

Sure, no quarrel there. It is arbitrary. It is meaningless.

Just like any other fucking day.

But I wonder, then, if such people just hate celebrating arbitrary days, why do they still celebrate other holidays, e.g. Christmas, Lent, New Year, Chinese New Year, Thanksgiving, fucking EDSA? If the reason for dissing Valentine’s is indeed rooted in the arbitrary nature of it, then if one is to be intellectually honest, one should equally diss other such holidays which people quite enthusiastically celebrate.

Just be honest with your reasons for dissing Valentine’s. Jeez. It’s psuedointellectualism at its crappiest.