The New Religion?

There are many things I appreciate about our Filipino Culture and I am equally proud as I am grateful for this aspect of our culture that openly declares faith in God. In many offices, both public and private, in homes, commercial centers we always have these symbols of our Catholic faith displayed openly and unabashed. Despite of the so called “separation of Church and State”, it does seem that we Filipinos can happily mixed religion with our public life. Indeed it can be interpreted that separation of Church and State does not necessarily mean that the state forbids the display of religion but rather the state will not fund religious activities in order to ensure that the freedom of religion is guaranteed. But the state under this principle of separation does not mean that religion should not be promoted. The state should indeed promote the practice of religion because every religion promotes moral living and therefore directly promotes good citizenship. But sometimes it saddens me when I see that in other countries particularly in some western countries that the open display of faith is forbidden in public but atheism and agnosticism is promoted openly under the guise of civil liberty. I don’t know where they got the idea that civil liberty is equivalent to atheism or agnosticism. Or this is this simply a regime of secularism espousing atheism and agnosticism as its religion?

In relation to this there is a very interesting news item I came across yahoo news. Let me quote a portion of this news. You can visit their website if you wish to read the whole story.

"I was just about to board and there it was staring me in the face, my first reaction was shock horror," driver Ron Heather told BBC radio. "I felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they haven't got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did," he said. [Emphasis Supplied]

The story was about a bus driver in London who was about to drive his bus but found that there was this advertisement that proclaims – THERES PROBABLY NO GOD: Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy your life. Indeed this bus driver should be commended for showing his indignation for this abuse. In a free society everyone has a right to express, but this public expression is not absolute. Public expression should not insult or spite the beliefs of others. For just as we want to exercise our right it should not infringe on the rights of others. Indeed I am worried when people begin to say that there is no God. For indeed when humans become a god to themselves, there is tyranny and pride.

The simple implication for us Filipinos is that we should preserve our innate tendency to trust in the Lord. For indeed why should we follow this line of thinking. Why should secularism enter our consciousness? I hope and pray that our society will not come to this point where there are people who will openly declare their defiance of God. This is the sin that cries out to heaven. God is a good God but He too is just and will not allow unbelief passed by unpunished if not repented by the sinner.