*From the collection of philosophical essays “Meaning: Lost & Found” by Danny C. Sillada

Apologia: I am a Christian and I will remain as a Christian (Roman Catholic). I still believe in God and in Humanity, and I will always believe as a believer. But I also believe that a Just Society is attainable, that Heaven is here, not somewhere, and that Peace, Unity and Harmony is just an inch away from the palm of our hands if only human beings direct their thoughts and actions toward the Highest Good of the entire humanity and the planet earth that we live and inhabit.(DC Sillada) 
 
 
“Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.”
--Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity

Perhaps, the greatest oppressor in our time is not only the external forces or powerful people or nation who has power to dominate and manipulate other nations, but the system of our religious belief that has become static in our dynamic society.

Instead of liberating the believers from ignorance and decadence, it represses our thoughts and actions to reconcile with others, within ourselves and with the God, whom we believe as the symbol of peace, justice and harmony.

The teachings of religions are supposed to bring us closer to God and not alienate us from HIM and from fellow human beings or worse yet, make a savage out of us. And the most despicable thing that a religion could do to its believers is to sow hatred and make them murderers out of an irrational belief that one can go directly to heaven in the name of God.

Often, the myopic religious teachings stunted the growth of our consciousness to embrace the Truth and the possibility that we can live in peace and harmony as one people and nation on this planet.

So far, within the linear movement of religious history, none of these religious systems and beliefs has liberated yet the misery of humanity; instead, it creates divisions and divisiveness among the believers.

THE MONOPOLY OF SALVATION
 
Most preachers intimidate their followers by preaching the ugliness of hell rather than the beauty of every human being living on this earth. They chastise and reproach the innocent believers and after instilling fear and anguish in their consciousness, they collect money for the sustenance of their lofty churches and their supposed religious activities.

How noble and enterprising!

The truth is every religion is born with "arrogance", self-centered and self-righteous. Each one claims to have the monopoly of "salvation" and anyone who is not part of the flock (ex cathedra) is doomed to suffer in hell. They use magical words such as “baptism”, “highest state of being” or the most commonly used or abused words “acceptance of Jesus as your personal savior” among other persuasive and absurd assertions that one could ever imagine.

One religious teaching, for instance, is the Christian belief that anyone who does not believe and accept Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior will not be saved. Will the Islam or Buddhist believers agree to this claim? What about the still born children, the primitive people or the ethnic tribes living in the mountains who worship different gods, needless to mention the hard-core atheists and agnostics, are they deprived of salvation?

It is a pity that only few believers can go to heaven and the rest go to hell!

What does it tell us? It teaches us that, in the first place, “heaven” is a lonely place for the few believers while “hell” is a busy place for everyone who likes to party day and night amid the bonfire of searing heat and blazing furnace. Separation of family members, friends and relatives is most likely to happen in heaven than in hell. For that matter, there will be more reunions and gatherings of non-believers and sinners alike in hell than in heaven; thus, making everyone contained and happier in the mountains and valleys of inferno than in the celestial comfort of heaven.

Whatever! Religion has always taught us this way as if heaven or hell is a material world to be experienced by the human senses after death. If heaven or hell is an immaterial state other than this world, which is made of matter, then our senses could no longer feel either the torments of hell or the ecstasies of heaven.

As we advance in our consciousness in this technological era the more that religion receded to its own obsolete doctrines. Believers continue to live in divisiveness and conflict because of religious plurality and arrogance. Instead of making this world a beautiful place to live, religion creates an illusory world, which is beyond the grasp of human experience. Most of these teachings are geared toward an incorporeal world, instead of embracing our own real world as an attainable heaven for everyone to live.
 
Is religion relevant or irrelevant in our time, or is it just an emotional and psychological refuge to make our miserable world bearable to live?

THE GOOD NEWS

The “good news” in religion, however, is the intrinsic benefit of its teaching on the believers. It teaches us good moral values, how to live a righteous life by loving and caring our fellow human beings. It teaches us how to be a religious masochist (enjoyment of suffering) because, after all, the humiliation and the torments that we suffer on earth will be rewarded in heaven after death. For God's sake, why can't we just reap the reward now while we are still capable of experiencing it through our senses?

Religion as the primitive invention of humanity has played a very important role in shaping the history of civilization. It is also, where the history and the adventure of ideas took shape and rebelled against its tyrannical interpretation of the concept of anthropomorphic Supreme Being. In time, religion has become the law that whosoever rebels against it, is considered pagan, heretic, and barbaric. However, religion, a human invention that is, committed several crimes and inconsistencies within its fallible system begetting another religious denominations and from there, proliferate again into several forms, which are more aggressive and confusing than the previous ones.

Religion in our time is indispensable as it was in the past. The psychological effect of religion to humanity is to make our despicable lives livable by giving us hope to aspire for something that we could not attain in this world. It has become the sanctuary of the weak, the sinners, and the wounded, a refuge for every individual, whose fallible life is conditioned to live in misery and defeat.

In all its weaknesses and strengths, religion has become the epitome of hope for the hopeless, a sublime symbol of promise to all kinds of broken promises, an oasis amid the wilderness of human existence. 

As believers, we believe, based on our religious belief, that somehow, somewhere there is a perfect place, a place where there is no more suffering nor hunger or sorrow; a distant place where all the believers converge to live in eternal bliss and happiness. That place is called heaven, and wherever that is; only heaven knows!

THE BAD NEWS

The “bad news” is that, religion, as a business enterprise, has been dissolved into different corporate entities rather than merging into a single proprietorship. The real Chairman of the Board (God) has been sabotaged to resign from the post, and every CEO of religious entities wanted to implement his or her own principles and style of religious management. God, as the former Chairman of the Board, has, in turn, become a mere Puppet, and whatever the CEO of any religious institution says, in honesty or deceit, is what God says.

In the final analysis, despite all the divisions and divisiveness, religious CEOs are always on a win-win situation, as their popularity grows in moderate proportion, so does their bank accounts.

The believers of every religious enterprise, on the other hand, are confused, as they begin to question the veracity of their faith and belief. They suffered from delusional and decisional exhaustion on what religion to follow. They, in turn, become enterprising believers searching which religion possesses a high stake in heaven, and, which one is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Is this the kind of religion we want to follow or the kind of followers we want to spiritualize?

HIGHEST GOOD VS. RELIGION
                       
In essence, to be righteous has nothing to do with one's belief whether he or she is a believer or non-believer because it is inherent, based on natural law, for every person to seek what is morally right or wrong by directing his or her action toward the “Summum Bonum” or the Highest Good.

What the hell is “Summum Bonum” all about and what, in heaven's name, it could bring us?

The basic concept of “Summum Bonum” from Latin, which literally means “highest good”, is derived on the Thomistic principle (Aristotelian in nature) of faith and reason in attaining moral and social justice in our society, and the highest good is God Himself.

My idea of Summum Bonum, however, is not metaphysical or spiritual, but based on the natural law, which is inherent in all living and non-living things on this particular planet to preserve and to seek for the highest good. Instead of focusing ourselves on the abstract idea of God, we should focus on the concrete attainable Highest Good, that is, the Common Good of humanity.

As a substitute to the idea of God, the concept of Summum Bonum is a dialectical transformation from a represented idea to the concrete attainable concept within the grasp of human consciousness. Consequently, the idea of God as the symbol of Highest Good transcends from its abstract concept to a concrete symbolic meaning in the context of positive (moral precepts) and natural laws.

I am not dismissing totally the symbolic meaning of God because it is inherent in every person to think of a Higher or Supreme Being who must have created life and this world that we inhabit.

On the contrary, the meaning of “Summum Bonum” is a dialectical transformation of the Agent of the Highest Good, which is the God, from abstract to concrete “attainable good” which is also called “Common Good”. It is also a term being used in defining social and distributive justice, which in turn, employed by Liberation Theology in Latin America and the third world countries in the 1980s.

The “Common Good”, whichever it is used, is the generic principle of communal sharing and responsibility toward the members of society. Similarly, it is the same principle being employed by Socialism or Communism and other forms of political systems to establish communal sharing and participative involvement of every member in a particular society.

Religion, per se, is based on the concept of Summum Bonum, but it uses the metaphysical symbol, which is God, rather than defining the human thoughts and actions toward the concrete Highest Good within a particular society or community. It is inherent in every individual to aspire for the Highest Good, that is, to be responsible for the common good of humanity and all the living and non-living things on this earth.

The Summum Bonum that is based on natural law is empowering the person to be responsible of his or her thoughts and actions toward a shared goal and concern of humanity and the world in general. It brings us to our individual self by discovering our potentialities as human being and embracing our humanity despite its imperfection.

Responsibility and accountability are the key words to the Highest Good, and while religion teaches moral righteousness based on the biblical precepts, the former teaches moral and social responsibility within the concrete human condition.
 
Religion, on the other hand, strips us of our own moral consciousness and our own will and power to become because everything is attributed to God's power. In other words, religion teaches that we are nothing and helpless without God. Religion, in this manner, is creating an irrational void within our belief and action - a malignant condition of helplessness and insecurities resulting in spiritual vacuity - and this vacuum become our own neurosis from which we constantly seek healing and remedy from a sickly system of religious beliefs and teachings.

In the end, we are nothing, void of any individual identity within the cloak of our religious belief unless we start believing in our capability to harness our power and make our society a better place to live. It is a concrete society where everyone, regardless of cultural and political differences, is united for a common goal and shared concern toward the highest good of humanity.

THE PRINCIPLE OF STEWARDSHIP

One of the basic principles of natural law is the principle of "Stewardship" where we, as human beings, believers or non-believers, are morally responsible toward each other and to the world that we inhabit and toil. Our existence on this planet is co-existent with all the natural elements and resources that compose the earth. Mismanagement of our natural resources or irresponsible dealings with other human beings is tantamount to the betrayal of humanity and to our own dignity as person.

The golden rule, for example, which can also be found in the Bible and in Oriental Philosophy and Religion, says, “Do not do unto others what you do not want others will do unto you”. We cannot just kill anyone because our religious belief dictates us to do so or mercilessly cut all the trees because of personal greed and profit or just kill animals without any justifiable reason.

The principle of Stewardship is derived from a natural instinct to preserve human and natural life as co-existent of this world. Human life evolves and revolves around the natural law, and human beings respond to it relative to the Highest Good of all living and non-living things on this earth.

BUILDING A JUST SOCIETY

Is it possible to build a just society in the absence of religion? Yes, we can build a just society, if not a perfect one, in our respective communities or in the whole world at large because our thoughts and actions, contrary to the teachings of religion, are intrinsically and inherently programmed to seek for the “Highest Good” as an instinctive response to the natural and positive laws.

Here, it is a matter of destroying the illusion or the idea of God as a provider and as a punisher of humanity. I am not suggesting here to eradicate the symbol and meaning of God totally as a divine being, but to demythologize the romantic concept of God as the cause or the panacea of human sufferings.

After destroying the illusion on the concept of God, human beings must stop being dependent on God, instead, must strive to direct his or her act toward the common good in a particular society where he or she belongs. It is here where the moral responsibility and the principle of social justice are applied.

All human actions must be directed to the highest or common good, that is, the good of the family, society and the world in general. Human action starts from within and the intention from the beginning must be free from malicious thoughts and selfish motives. Moral actions begin from the awareness of social and moral responsibility toward our fellowmen in a world where we shape our dreams and life in peace and harmony.

Every nation is responsible and accountable to the other nation and that responsibility and accountability is geared toward the Summum Bonum, the highest good of the entire civilizations on this earth. Every member of the society is responsible and accountable to the other member to achieve social justice, equality, harmony, and eventually - a just society.

Contrary to the religious teaching of Heaven, which is intangible, a just society in Summum Bonum is here and now, an attainable heaven among humankind living in this beautiful planet.
 
FAITH IN OUR TIME

Although, I still believe on the intrinsic benefit of religion, but most often, its teachings are losing relevance in our pluralistic society. Ironically, religion as an agent of unity and reconciliation has become the cause of divisions even among family members, friends, and people living within the same culture and society. The divisiveness of religion is creating a psychological vacuum on its believers because of the subjective interpretations of the Law and the Bible.

The concepts of “sin”, “hell” and “heaven”, on the other hand, are so horrible that every believer ended up paranoid either disturbed on the thought of a burning inferno or fantasizing their anthropomorphic concept of heaven. When this paranoia seethes in our consciousness, as the causal effect of religious belief, it slowly eats our psychological balance until nothing is left but our desiccated self-esteem wallowing in anguish and desolation.

The more we think of our mistake and sinful acts, the more we entertain the notion that we are wicked and that our reward of heaven is nil or no longer attainable - a distant and elusive dream to achieve as an erring believer.

THAT IS A BIG LIE!

“Heaven” is here in this world, “sin” is the symbol of our imperfection as human beings and “hell” is the personification of the disease from which religion created and embedded in our naive and susceptible consciousness.

Conversely, to commit error or the horror of "sin" in our moral choice and action is not unusual because we are all imperfect human beings in the process of perfecting our thoughts and actions. The most noble and important thing is that we rise every time we fall; we make amends within ourselves and with our  fellowmen by accepting our weaknesses in humility, love and justice. And that is more sublime than listening to our pride or justifying our own mistakes under the cloak of our religious belief.

In similar manner, our faith (religious or non-religious) is not static or encrypted by the canons of the church or the teachings of the prophets or the murmurings of powerful leaders in the world. Our faith, here and now, is a dynamic faith that lives in its own reason and time; it is an expectant faith that wishes to live in a world of peace and harmony in relation to the Highest Good of the entire humanity.

To sum, the dynamism of our faith is moving inward and converging toward the “Summum Bonum” and the real “Summum Bonum” is humanity and humanity is the most beautiful “Summum Bonum” that ever happened on this earth, if not in the universe.

In the end, who cares if one is “saved” or not, if there is heaven or hell, will this liberate the anguish that religious beliefs created in our troubled society?

© Danny C. Sillada

*Also published at The Existentialist.

Poet-painter-philosopher-critic-performance artist from Mindanao; obtained BA Philo., STB and Pastoral Theology at UST, Manila; left the seminary before ordination to priesthood; pursued MBA at Ateneo Graduate School of Business, Makati; resigned from promising career in the corporate world to become full-time artist and literary writer.