Facebook and Foul Language

[hill roberts]

First of all, I'd like to thank Joe for reposting my comment. I appreciate it and I hope comments from co-English Forum members would be forthcoming. No holds-barred please, for the benefit of a good discussion.
In recent days, my Facebook friends and I have continued discussing the goings on in Philippine politics, up to the run-up to the May national elections. These last three months, I have been sending "threads" to some of my fb friends to discuss what they think about a particular article. The last article I sent was about the Hacienda Luisita massacre, which happened many years ago and which GMA network--surprise, surprise--republished. I must also add what a great investigative reporting it was. The "thread" was very long and I doubt if my fb friends bothered to finish reading it. Frankly, it made uncomfortable reading since the protagonists were all relatives of the Cojuangcos and the Aquinos. Not making light of this "thread", the first one to discuss it quickly branded it a "Black propaganda". Hmm, of course this man is a die-hard fan of the Aquinos so what did I expect, a cold Sanmig from him? He rattled off why it was black propaganda, emphasising that he was an insider and knew everything what really happened there. "I was there!" he insisted, time and time again. Fine. The following day, when I opened the "thread", he enumerated a list of political luminaries with their academic titles! What has that got to do with the "thread"? I asked myself. Sure, the list and their titles were impressive, but still, he wasn't answering the crucial points of the "thread"--by way of stating that he was an insider, he had to brag about these people. I shot back and said,

[hill roberts]

Last night, I made it official and told my fb friends, and those friends reading my page, that I do not believe in God. I have resisted the temptation long enough to tell what was gnawing me for years, especially when I went to visit the Vatican twice in a week, in 2006. I was christened a Protestant, although I brought myself up in two religions, mainly because when I was growing up, I had to accompany my grandmother regularly to her local church, at five in the morning, for years, from age 7-8. I was too young then, but because I went regularly to two local churches, on the same day,Catholic, then Protestant, to join the Sunday school, I'd say I grew up quickly emotionally than many kids  in my neighbourhood. Whether that was a good or bad thing is another matter. At least, my confession is out. It's off my chest and for this reason, I feel humbled. I believe that God never existed; that it was man-made and imaginary---cleverly thought-out by powerful people who poked fun at the weakness of their constituents. Where promiscuity, paedophilia, rape, incest abound. Where crimes were committed and these people were never put to book. Yes, they got away with it for centuries, and to this day, they are still getting away with the same. In recent months, we have seen the fall of the moral authority at the Vatican, the sham and shameless scandals which didn't inhibit priests from doing heinous acts of perversion, rape, and heaven knows what else, behind the magnificent cloisters of the church--the inner sanctum of spiritualism, which was also used with wanton abandonment for their own sexual desires. (Part 2 follows)

[hill roberts]

I am not taking this confession lightly. Precisely why it has taken me years until today, to say so, to tell what I have been feeling. I feel fine, I'm OK, above all, I feel no guilt saying so, or having said so last night. If anything, it was a relief. :)I have atheist fb friends and they have given me some "comfort" that I wasn't alone after all: Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Jodie Foster, Jack Nicolson, Brad Pitt and Angelina Joelie are in the list of non-believers. Frankly, I had no idea that these people were also non-believers. 8)I'm sure my own eldest sister, who converted into Catholicism in the mid-60's would be baffled but not surprised. I come from a dysfunctional family---I can say this word now, ha ha ha, since I am a lot older, and my nieces and nephews are adults with their own respective families, too. Ours was and will never be a perfect family, but who wants a perfect family? I can safely say that they --my own immediate family members are open-minded and will be hard put to even judge others, or me for that matter, since I have never judged my own sisters and brothers. We accepted each other, got angry with each other, swore at each other, but that love was always there. Why? The acceptance of our faults, our frailty, our own misdemeanors, our own veiled guilt-- this has helped us rise above the family friction and faction. We have remained strong together, as a nuclear family, and I have to thank that word, "dysfunctional"--if we weren't, imagine the quarrels/fights we would have had; or the parting of ways, so to speak. It is good not to have a "perfect" family: we can all remain civil to one another. Still, we are close to being better family members than before. (end of Part 2, nothing follows)