It is quite rich that the venerable Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) would so pompously issue a list of Websites Carrying False or Unverified Contents [sic]. This is coming from a clique of renowned Filipino “thought leaders” who endorse medieval ideas like creationism and, as a matter of policy, apply only circular logic in the manner with which they process information and disseminate it.
So here we go… circular logic versus the Scientific Method. Fasten your seatbelts…
The CBCP and the broader Roman Catholic mafia to which it belongs isn’t exactly renowned for bodies of work open to scrutiny and challenge. In fact, much of what it purports to be “true” about the world was the starting point for a vast “knowledgebase” of backward-engineered “theology”. The Catholic Church’s most revered “thought leader”, medieval philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (the father of “theology”), wrote out volumes of convoluted reasoning that he attempted to shoehorn through the narrow channel of orthodoxy that Christendom allows of the “thinkers” it endorses. Tragic. Countless Filipino parents likely took out second mortgages to have their kids educated on this so-called “theology” at chi-chi private Catholic schools like the Ateneo de Manila University.
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Contrast the Catholic approach to “thinking” with that seminal breakthrough in human enlightenment, the scientific method. Working with the scientific method, theories are formulated from the bottom up (not from a top-down divinely-mandated belief framework). Scientific theories are crystallised from “first principles” that rely on zero human (or divine) bias. An example of such first principles are the building blocks of geometry — e.g., a line is formed by plotting the shortest distance between two points in space, a surface is a cross-section of space that traces the wake of a line moving through it, etc. Self-evident non-reducible axioms and postulates like these form the building blocks of every scientific and mathematical theory that we take for granted today. Without the scientific method, the very devices we use to publish lists of “fake news” sites today would not exist.
Indeed, in the scientific method, human beings finally found the intellectual tools to take on the Church’s “fake ideas” (credit to Mr. Oscar Franklin Tan for the term) head-on. The fake ideas peddled — and defended by the Church at the cost of millions of human lives — are things that even first grade kids would consider to be moronic today. Early scientists, for example, battled the idea that the sun (and, for that matter, the whole universe) revolved around the Earth. It took centuries to win that battle. Even today, 100 million Filipinos are held hostage by the Roman Catholic Church’s fake ideas — the idea that using contraceptives will lead to eternal damnation and the idea that a marriage can only be ended by an “annulment”. The battle rages on between the forces of enlightenment and Catholic dogma in the Philippines of the 21st Century, much the same way that it did in Europe in the 15th to 17th Centuries.
So the short of it is quite straightforward. The thing at work in the way Filipinos have turned the CBCP “fake news” list into a today’s pre-eminent talking point is the very same intellectual disease at work in the spread of “fake news”. We latch on to such lists and the propagator of such lists (in this case, the CBCP) for the very same reason people share “fake news” on their social media timelines. See the irony here? The CBCP said so, so Imma Gonna Retweet It or click on the “Share” button. Doing things that way, of course, is easier than applying the scientific method before you click on “Retweet” or “Share”.
The worst sort of “fake news” is peddled via kids’ school books.
What escapes many here is that the CBCP who they regard as an authority figure that legitimises this “fake news” list is, itself, a propagator of fake ideas that kept humanity in the Dark Ages for centuries (and continues that tradition of breeding ignoramuses in the Philippines today).
You wonder then, is “fake news” really that bad? When considering that question, think of how Yellowtard propaganda was baked into Filipino school kids’ textbooks by 30 years of “liberal” governments beholden to the Aquino-Cojuangco “Laban” narrative. I wrote about a particularly creepy case of this a while back. You’d think cases such as this and this recent “fake news” circus launched by the CBCP would by now motivate supposedly “freedom-loving” Filipinos to pause and reflect on how trustworthy their sources of information are.
At least “FilipiKnows” and “PinoyTrendingNews” content land on our social media feeds where each of us have the option to ignore them. The real outrage is around the way “trusted” organisations abuse supposedly sacred channels — Sunday masses and pastoral letters, kids’ schoolbooks, and mainstream news outlets — to peddle fake ideas that ordinary Filipinos cannot ignore.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
What I could only remember was that the “truth” from the Holy Book has never been thought in the pulpit with intensity compared with those who “protested” and regularly use the Holy Bible in their teaching. It was more of rituals and pageantries of saints and idols. Who, therefore, curtailed the truth? But, things are changing and now worthy to consider that Church has now encouraged and enlightened the opening of the truth. As to the question of credibility of the Church to issue what is fake and authentic news, they should have refrained from doing this as it only shows their traditional bias and being prejudgment of something that does not appease them or their dogmas. Anything that is in the ambit of politics, they should not test that water, and their actions could only be justified by them not really understanding or deliberately defying the principle of the separation of the State and the Church. Not being the largest denomination, of course, would fall into this category, but include other denominations as well. The irony is that the “others” have not shown the same defiance as the Catholic Church, and perhaps due to their traditional role in the society, as inherited during the colonial rules, they are acting as if they still have that “right” in the political life of the nation.
The Catholic Church is the most corrupt organization in The Failippines. In addition, any reasoning person knows that there is no such thing as a god and therefore every word spoken by the church is a flat out lie. The “fake news” is every word of the fiction book called the bible.
@Jerry Lynch To assert that ” a reasoning person knows that there is no god” is inviting unreason and violence to reign in the discussion.
What is your definition of a “reasoning person” in the first place ? Is your definition universally acceptable by ” all reasoning person” ?
I am neither a theist or an atheist. I am an apatheist by choice. I am tolerant of people’s religious or non-religious beliefs as long as their beliefs is practiced following the universal Rule of Conduct which is not doing unto others what we do not want others di unto us, otherwise known as the negative form of the Golden Rule.
Ngek,
“….. practiced following the universal rle of conduct which is not doing unto others what we do not want others do unto us, otherwise known as the negative form of the golden rule.”
Pls be more specific. What is it that I cannot do to you bec you feel offended or insulted? Should it be my problem that you FEEL offended or insulted? Maybe its about time you raise your ‘pain’ levels.
Your rule of conduct is nowhere mentioned as a law (in my country).
Furthermore, I really dont know and dont understand the entire idea behind the ‘golden rule’ (the positive and negative version). Is it to protect those who cant cope with criticism?
It is like what Hyden always is saying here “I respect your opinion but at the same time he loaths your/my/our opinion”
The fundamental questions that must be answer in the issue of fake news is what is truth? Are we absoluteLy certain that what we believe as truth is the truth ?
What are the criteria of truth?
or there is no criterion of truth only a scientific criteria in the search for truth ?
What are facts? a one to one correspondence with reality?
Religious beliefs or dogmas affect our perception of reality. Thus when organized religion which is founded on the idea of an absolutely eternal truth clashes with the secular belief of the State, a power struggle is bound to happen. The power of the State to demand obedience from its citizens and the power of organized religion demanding same obedience from its faithful.
There is no win-win situation here, the leaders of the organized religion or the leaders of the State will necessary lose their influence on its flock or its citizens.
The problem with the Catholic Church is its long history of being associated with politics, right from the day it allied with Roman emperor Constantine, through the Holy Roman Empire and establishment of the Vatican as an independent country. It’s the same in the Philippines, with members of the clergy even involved in business, holding stocks in major businesses owned by oligarchs. The Philippine Chuch has long maintained its alliance of power with the oligarchs and politicians, and is not willing to give that up. You can see the church’s influence in the 1986 Constitution. It’s not the religious but the political side of the equation that leads to the corruption of the church’s actions.
The great Astronomer Galileo, was nearly burned on stake during the Roman Catholic Church Inquisition, by telling people: “the world is round”…the Church subscribed to the idea that the world is flat. Anybody believing the world is round, must be burned on stake…
Organized Religions have been our problem for many centuries. They do not promote the teachings of God…instead, they controlled governments and people with their dogmas. They do not preach the gospels of their religions. They forced their religious dogmas, with threat of “eternal damnation”, if their followers will not follow their teachings.
Organized religions have been the causes of : Inquisition, Jihad, Religious Wars, Bigotry, Colonialism, Imperialism, abuses of women and non believers, Fake News, Fake Teachings, etc…
The Aquino Cojuangco political axis used the Roman Catholic Church, together with the U.S./C.I.A., to grab power. They supported the Feudal oligarchs rise to power…
To pretend that these organized religions are the authorities on the Truth, is like going back to the Middle Ages; where organized religions were in control of governments.
I have no quarrel, whatever your belief is; but religion and government must not be mixed…
@Robert Haighton:
If I say : “I respect your opinion, I mean it…” However, if I loath, does not like, or consider your opinion as ” trash or garbage”… It is my own prerogative…so, let us respect each other’s opinion…whatever you think of me, is your own business…whatever, I think of you is my own business…
Read the Bible, leave the Roman Catholic Church, and join the LUTHERAN CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES.
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
why are all these priest spreading fake news in the holy bible? who’ll believe adam and eve, the virgin mary, one son of adam and eve found a bride, etc. those are all one fake news.
I read the list. How dare those priests brand get real as ‘fake news’? this is commentary/opinion website. why not include PDI,Silent no more and other pro-yellow media that spread malicious content too?
Just part of the Philippine Circus: showbiz personalities run for Govt office, politicians parade their “epal” pictures like celebrities, church leaders assume power as if they’re media analysts, human rights focusing more in protecting on criminals, etc.