Here is 
how grim it was in Mexico City last Sunday:
Soldiers in surgical masks shooed away the faithful at the cathedral, … Inside, Cardinal Norberto Rivera delivered a sermon to nearly empty pews, his pleas for divine intervention relayed over television and radio.
“Grant us the prudence and serenity to act with responsibility and to avoid being infected or to infect others,” he appealed to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint. “Give help to health workers, keep vigil for the recovery of the sick and console those in mourning.”
For the first time in 300 years, the cathedral also removed from storage an icon of the Lord of Health, which was placed on the principal altar by a procession of worshippers, Mexico’s government news agency Notimex reported.
The Rev. Cuauhtemoc Islas said the icon would remain on the Altar of Forgiveness until the medical emergency is over.
This only goes to show how Religion and Superstition can be harmful to the cause of public health.
If the Swine Flu epidemic hits the Philippines, most likely the Catholic Bishops will do as the Mexicans have done, and enlist their own curious flotilla of wooden idols of various provenances and powers against the influenza virus that has brought Mexico to a virtual standstill.
One notes with some chagrin that “a procession of clergymen” brought the Mexican wooden idol, El Senor de la Salud (Our Lord of Health) to the Altar of Forgiveness, and that the Cardinal, in praying against infection, appealed to the Virgin of Guadalupe, another famous object of idolatrous veneration. We have as many, if not more of these powerful alleged deities, or concentrators of divine power all over the Philippine Archipelago — just waiting to be pressed into service as Guardians of Public Sanitation.
But not of public sanity!
Perhaps in the gathering storm of the coming global public health emergency, we ought to review our understanding of the relationship between Science and Religion, and between the Church and the State because I have a feeling that an hypothesis I have heen propounding is gaining immediate urgency:
I believe that human success, if not survival in the face of evolving global environmental and medical threats depends crucially on the adoption of effective public policies, strategies and tactics in dealing with potentially catastrophic situations involving natural and biological forces, issues and novel developments. Humanity can ill-afford the usual futile and naive nostrums of the religious authorities and fanatics. Thus the importance of promoting widespread concensus about who we should be listening to and relying upon for information and action cannot be underestimated.
Superstition, fanaticism and religious wishful thinking are the last thing the world needs if we are indeed on the brink of a worldwide influenza pandemic such as we saw in 1918, on top of the worst economic crisis in living memory.
I like monitoring several sources of information on the swine flu pandemic:
The World Health Organization website.
The Health and Medicine Page of PHYSORG.
The US Center for Disease Control.
The Health and Science Page of PHYSORG
Popularity: 3% [?]
"This only goes to show how Religion and Superstition can be harmful to the cause of public health." – ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY! <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/coldpassion/wav.gif">
Send the faith healers, the healing priests, and all the pathetic dumbells kneeling pathetically – see if they can treat the swine flu – or die of it due to their "faith".
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/coldpassion/devil.gif">
pray to your "science", djb, or your spaghetti monster and let's see if the global epidemic can be contained and the stricken people can be saved.
you DO NOT PRAY to science – you USE SCIENCE to contain the epidemic.
kahit pa anong dasal mo, if your child has hydrocephalus and you don't USE SCIENCE to address the problem – mamamatay na lang anak mo, may hydrocephalus pa rin, even if you shove a baseball bat right up your arse while kneeling like a pathetic dumbell to please your imaginary friend.
it used to be that AIDS was a death sentence – guess what, NOT ANYMORE – that's by the effort of SCIENCE and NOT by the followers of imaginary superfriends.
so, if you know what's good for you, magturok ka ng cyanide – then see how your prayer will save you. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/coldpassion/face002.gif">
Bencard, the epidemic will be contained. The stricken people will be saved EXCEPT, of course, the dead. If you hear from me that means the teks message God sent you was bogus.
If Prayer be your recourse, Bencard, that is your choice.
Catholics are no better than the Pastafarians, and worse for being so humorless and serious about their theological mumbo-jumbo. I mean, does not the Cardinal of Mexico pose a ludicrous figure? He promotes the dangerous luxury of a religious, idolatrous procession in the middle of an highly contagious flu epidemic in Mexico that WHO says is about to go global and indeed already has. Then he installs his Wooden Idol The Lord of Health (El Senor de la Salud) in the City's Altar of Forgiveness, vowing to leave it there until the scourge of the Swine Flu is defeated.
Thank you for the blog, DJB. Satan brought you to earth to educate people that prayer to God doesn't work. IT WORKED DURING THE MEDIEVAL TIMES BECAUSE AT THAT TIME COCAINE WAS LEGAL. One British expert on Medieval Era says that there were plenty of Coca residues in Mosques and Temples and Churches. He also alluded that what Moses saw as burning bush was actually a drug-addled mind. Oh, by the way, this British is still wealthy and sane and hob-nob with the scientific world. God believers would say, well, let's see where god place him after death. If he dies before our eyes, they'd say, see? That was the punishment … what a sorry state of excuse
Satan is God. God is Satan.
If believers are wealthy they thank god as his blessings = materialism
If we want materials, they say it's because of Satan
Ewan ko … anong klaseng logic yan.
Let us remember, dudes and dudette, that it was Satan who brought us here thru his Apple tree.
Let me also educate you that it was Adam and Eve who were evicted from Paradise while Satan lived with God and lived happily ever after … I KNOW YOU FOLKS WILL HAVE ANOTHER TAKE ON THIS …. HA!HA!HA!
ENOUGH ALREADY …. Cover your mouth. Don't speak to no one. Don't handshake, keep away from pigs and swine so we can escape God's punishment HA!HA!HA!HA!
gago ka talaga. ,magturok ng cyanide. ulol!
c'mon bencard – dasal bilis. remember to take your cyanide before praying. heto, iturok mo ang crucifix right up your arse.
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/coldpassion/rotfl.gif">
Bencard, please refrain cursing on this blog while wearing that shirt & tie and blazeer. It doesn't look good. Please have the decency to change into t-shirt when cursing. This way you'd look authentic. Bero lang ha!
"This only goes to show how Religion and Superstition can be harmful to the cause of public health."
Again, DJB, have you been recently hit with selective amnesia?
You, and your acolytes, conveniently forgot that the 'chic' practicers of Un-religion and modern citizens of the U.S. of A, New Zealand, Israel, etc. are now also victims of the pig flu.
As Mastercard would have it:
Atheist, prideful. Faithful, priceless.
Phil:
magpaturok ng SARS, and pray, don't get vaccinated.
in religious Mexico City, 150 swine flu victims are DEAD.
Prayers, Useless.
in atheistic USA, the swine flu victims are ALIVE and DOING WELL.
Vaccination, Priceless.
hahaha! LOL!
Tell the truth Phil Manila,
Would you attend a Sto Nino procession (and throw your towel up to the caruaje to be wiped on the face of that Wooden Idol and returned to you) the day after they announce that Swine Flu has arrived in the Every Loyal and Faithful City of Manila?
Heeeey, DJB! Magaba-an ka, uroy, ni Senyor Santo Ninyo! Hala! kalang!
Our Department of Health is rready to issue Towelette immersed in mahal-na-tubig and wiped on the face of Wooden idol to take away the sins of the world and SWINE FLU!
This is much cheaper than innoculation. Epektibo pa! HA!HA!HA!HA!
Wala-wala ang Amerikano ini!
My son, who was 8 years old then, was throwing up severly. My ex-wife brought him to the procession and his fits were gone. In the middle of the night his fever shoot up to 90. My ex brought him to the hospital. He will be 15 years old this June …. PRICELESS
Oh, I forgot, we have full medical coverage, money in the bank, yet, the dumb stupid religious mother of my ex had me climb a guava tree to pluck guava leaves instead of bringing him to the hospital. USELESS!
Dear Vaccinator, If Bencard comes for Swine Flu vaccination, please, refuse him. Just give him Rosary, Mahal na Bibliya and bendesyon of mahal na tubig. He should be OK. :)
http://jfb.biblecommenter.com/leviticus/11.htm
Guys,
Please stop ganging up on my Manoy Bencard! He can take any of you one at a time, but all of you ganging up on him is not fair.
Bert, simple lang ang tanong ko kay Bencard. Anong nagawa ni Hesu Kristo sa FlipLand kung toto-o man siya? Ba't pina-asenso n'ya ang mga bansang puti pero ang mga bansang itim atsaka brown-skin pinabaya-an niya. Hindi ba ang mga bansang puti yoon ang mga anti-religion?
Pero tayo mga gung-gong Flippino brown-skin punked nose atsaka itim na lunod-patay sa juice na pangino-on pinabaya-an. Siguro mali ang ini-adore natin.
Has anyoone noticed in freewheeling blogsites and forum like FV and Philippinebeat atheists always has the upperhand? and the religious scampers away licking their wounds then migrate to some friendly like-minded sites?
That goes to show religion only flourishes in militaristic and fear-mongering rule …
only in your mind and those of your ilk's, dum dum! it's more like the backhand against your faces from hell.
We live in reality. Religious lives in fantasy.
What's funny about religious is they pray so our country becomes progressive. When God fails, THEY ATTACK MY GOVERNMENT. Ewan, Ko!
They should protest at EDSA to force God to fulfill our prayers as he promised.
But our corrupt government is much betterer than God. Because our government has better batting average in fulfilling our "prayers" than God.
but god is an evolutionist. so where's the problem?
but <UNPROVEN ASSUMPTION POSITED AS TRUTH> is an evolutionist.
so where's the problem? <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/coldpassion/drunk.gif">
Yup, they're sprucing up the Sto Nino de Bernas and various Filipino Wooden Idols to get ready for the Pandemic (now at alert stage 5). that is our main response to the WHO!