All my friends—the Devil, Socrates, Lucifer are dead

“Man's enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.”

—Lao Tzu

By Alex P. Vidal

I BELIEVE in God, but I had three friends in the Philippines who had been “arguing” with me against the existence of the Divine Providence.

And they have all died. No one was buried in the cemetery.

“If I die, I want to be burned,” Lucifer, who was 95 when he passed away at 11 o’clock in the evening on June 29, 2022 in Iloilo, told me many years ago in Amigo Terrace Hotel. 

His wish was granted. Lucifer, a musician during the World War II, was cremated the following day (June 30). His family had requested Lucifer’s death “shouldn’t be made public—especially in the social media.”

My two other atheist friends, The Devil and Socrates “went to hell” ahead of Lucifer. 

The Devil, 58, died in 2020 while Socrates, 85, went to the kingdom come in 2019.

They, too, were burned as they had wished. 

Of the three, Socrates, like the ancient Greek philosopher, was the moderate. 

“God, I think, is only an imagination,” he once told me. “But I was intrigued when Voltaire exclaimed that ‘if God didn’t exist, it was necessary to invent Him.’”

-o0o-

But The Devil, who died of diabetes, was the worst agnostic. 

“God is sonnovitch,” he hollered in the sidewalk of Jaro Plaza without any apparent provocation from any religious group or individual. “The priests, bishops, nuns, and all the clergy in general are b_llshits.”

One night at around past 11 o’clock sometime in 1998, The Devil missed a trip to the Jaro PNP jail by the skin of the teeth when cooler heads pulled him away from the vicinity of the Jaro Archdiocese just in time before the cops arrived.

The Devil, heavily intoxicated, had thrown an empty beer bottle at the gates of the Jaro Archdiocese while shouting and demanding from Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo to “open your goddam refrigerators and let the poor and the street children get inside to eat the abundant food.” 

“If God exists, there would be no suffering,” insisted The Devil, whose favorite book is The American Caesar written by William Manchester. “The street children would not die of hunger and neglect.” 

Lucifer, who played piano for Hitler’s generals, admitted he never believed in God “ever since.”

-o0o-

“God is a joke,” Lucifer sighed while holding a goblet full of Dansk Klapojster Mjod, his favorite red wine. “I laughed when I saw that several churches in Europe were now empty. People were now beginning to realize that God is a big joke.”

At one time, I managed to gather the three: The Devil, Socrates, Lucifer.

It was difficult to arrange the “satanic” meeting since The Devil slept in the morning, while Socrates needed to be in Guimbal, Iloilo before six o’clock in the evening.

Lucifer was easy to summon since he lived in a subdivision in La Paz district, City Proper.

The three freethinkers finally met in a coffee shop inside a big mall in the corner of Mabini and Ledesma Streets, City Proper one afternoon sometime in 2001.

As expected, the session was a blockbuster, raucous, explosive!

They started the “demonic” assembly each pretending as nerds. 

It was the timid-looking but sharp-minded Socrates who broke the ice when he blurted, “It’s good that all of Alex’s friends are freethinkers (laugh).”

“Let’s put it this way,” volunteered Lucifer. “He believes in God while some of us don’t probably. But it’s okay because he is our host (laugh).”

The Devil maintained his silence and listened while Socrates and Lucifer began slandering and lambasting the ecclesiastical hierarchy like Russian bombs wreaking havoc on the Ukraine cities.

“Epicurus (a Greek philosopher who founded Epicureanism) was an early philosopher to dispute many religious beliefs, including the existence of an afterlife or a personal deity,” blasted Socrates.

Lucifer postdated his spiel: “That’s ancient. Let’s go to Spinoza. I forgot his first name. He had this provocative idea that God is not the creator of the world, but that the world is part of God.”

“Baruch…Baruch Spinoza,” Socrates interrupted.

After emptying three bottles of beer, The Devil joined the fray. 

And in a rowdy manner and loud voice, he brought the House down—and sent everyone scampering by yelling, as usual, and cursing (in expletives) Lagdameo, the priests, the nuns, and all religious groups.

“It’s time to go home,” Socrates, who doesn’t drink, suggested. 

“This man (The Devil) has no manners,” boomed Lucifer who turned his back and walked away. 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed) 

   

 

Why Iloilo should be proud of its past leaders

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
--Buddha

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- THIS is a tribute to the late Ilonggo philosopher-lawyer Ernesto “Ernie” Dayot, 86, popularly known as “the Socrates of Iloilo”, a dyed-in-the-wool follower of Ayn Rand’s “Objectivist” philosophy and was a one-time a deist like his most favorite philosopher, Voltaire.
If it were Salvador “Doy” Laurel, instead of Mrs. Corazon “Cory” Aquino, who became president via EDSA Revolution in 1986, Ilonggo lawyer Ernesto “Ernie” Justiniani Dayot would have been appointed as chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
“Or, panyero Ernie would have been given an ambassadorial position,” the late lawyer Joselito “JT” Barrera once told a group of journalists, while hosting then visiting senatorial candidate Frank Chavez.
Barrera was one of the few Ilonggos privy to Dayot’s closeness with the late former Vice President Laurel, the fifth Prime Minister of the Philippines until his position was abolished.
Barrera said Laurel was most impressed with Dayot in one of the Nacionalista Party (NP) events they both had attended because of the latter’s intellect and photographic memory especially when narrating historical events.
When Laurel was secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs from March 1986 to February 1987, he would invite Dayot and other Ilonggo NP leaders to a private dinner.
“Politics was mentioned occasionally during the private dinner, but we talked mostly about our girlfriends,” lawyer Pascual Espinosa Jr., founder of the Save Our Nation Movement, said in jest.
Dayot always believed in the power of the Ilonggos to excel in arts, science, academics, sports and politics.

SUPREMACY

“The Ilonggos have always strove to regain their economic supremacy like in the past when the port of Iloilo was at its busiest and that time Iloilo City was dubbed the ‘Queen City of the South,’” Dayot averred.
Dayot, a native of Dingle, Iloilo but resided in Brgy. Nanga, Guimbal, Iloilo until his death, had identified “a major stumbling block” in the Filipino politicians’ propensity to engage in patronage politics.
Delays in implementation of big projects were blamed for the snail pace of Iloilo’s development in the past.
“Delayed construction of the infrastructure like roads and bridges has taken a heavy toll with the viability of other economic projects government or private that could set high the gear of production for the ultimate progress of Iloilo,” he lamented.
Because of this, Dayot stressed that the economic growth of the province and city had to depend on the management of the powers-that-be.
He pointed out that there is the linkage of the economic growth and the political power, a kind of partnership most common and prevalent in developing countries.
“Like horse and carriage, they are complimentary,” Dayot said.
Like many Ilonggos, Dayot believes that there are more positive and great things to be proud of in the city and province of Iloilo, which boast of intellectual and political landmarks.

ILONGGOS

He cited the following achievements of Ilonggos:
-Molo was called “the Athens of the Philippines” as it produced senators and jurists in the land and abroad;
-Chief Justices Victoriano Mapa and Ramon Avancena graced the Supreme Court of the Philippines;
-Raymundo Melliza sat in the Cuban court;
-Delfin Jaranilla was appointed after the war in the international tribunal that tried war criminals;
-the three senators produced by Molo district, Iloilo City were Rodolfo Ganzon, Esteban de La Rama, Jose C. Zulueta;
-other Ilonggo senators were Fernando Lopez, who became vice president; Oscar Ledesma, Ruperto Montinola, Tomas Confesor, who became a famous guerrilla fighter as governor of Panay and Romblon in the darkest hours of the occupation;
-Governor Confesor’s letter of reply for an offer of surrender to the Japanese Imperial Army was a classic defiance of the might of the enemy, and a great display of valor that reverberated in the Halls of the U.S. Congress;
-in the revolution against Spain in 1896, the patriotic fervor of the Ilonggos was never wanting as it was tried and tested in the battlefields;
-the Ilonggo resistance was led by Gen. Martin Delgado of Sta. Barbara, Iloilo and ably assisted by Gen. Adriano Dayot Hernandez of Dingle, Iloilo and hosts of other generals and officers in command;

WORLD WAR

-in World War I, Sergeant Ramon Sobejano of New Lucena, Iloilo was a recipient of the most decorated soldier fighting in Europe;
-in World War II, Captain Jose Calugas of Leon, Iloilo received the most coveted and highest medal of honor in the U.S. Army, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
“As ideas make history,” sighed Dayot, “Iloilo had its height of intellectual activities; it was a beehive of several local and national daily newspapers that projected the burning issues of the day.”
Dayot said from the rank and file editors and writers, came the names of Flavio Zarragoza Cano, the “Ilonggo Cervantes” whom Senator Claro M. Recto had the profound admiration and respect.
He also cited Ezequil Villalobos of Manila Bulletin; Rex Drilon, a political scientist and writer and the first Filipino president of the Central Philippine University (CPU); Stevan Javellana, whose book, “Without Seeing the Dawn,” was translated to several languages. It’s about a story of the Japanese Occupation in the country.
“The Ilonggos today, wherever we are, can look back with great pride of our legacy of greatness,” concluded Dayot.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Atty. Dayot ‘wasn’t scared’ of death

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”
— FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

By Alex P. Vidal
ONE of the most important messages the late lawyer-philosopher Ernesto “Ernie” Dayot, 86, had reiterated after his wife died in 2013 was, “death doesn’t scare me, at all!”
“When we have accepted that there is a higher God, nothing can scare us–not even death; we will soon realize nothing is permanent here on earth,” Dayot waxed poetic during our luncheon philosophical binge that year when I was in the Philippines.
He, too, believed that what makes us all human is not entirely our intellect or our brain.
Although he was an avid objectivist, he agreed that there are things that have no relation with the physical brain or man’s intelligence.
They are an expression of the spirit inside us, he explained.
Dayot believed that humanity lies in our power to experience many different facets of life, for example our sense of justice, our ability to love, our ability to understand free will and the responsibility that comes with it, to appreciate beauty, and to develop art and culture.
If we are convinced we will live beyond death, we will be much more aware of the responsibility that we bear both for ourselves and towards others within creation, Dayot whose body was cremated on May 22, 2019 and was brought to his hometown in Dingle, Iloilo.

-o0o-

We understand that our present life and the way we live it is closely connected with our continued existence after passing over, then we will have reason to fear the consequences of every single wrong and harmful deed we had committed.
We are still likely to suffer the consequences even if we no longer live on earth.
What Friedrich Nietzsche meant when he wrote that “God is dead” was not literally the physical death of God, Dayot reiterated.
Shakespeare did not say “To be, or not to be.” He wrote it, but Hamlet says it. Neither did Nietzsche say “God is dead”; a “madman” does. While it is true that Nietzsche himself went mad at 45, there is still a difference between life and literature, even when the latter is called philosophy, according to biographer Mike Macrone.
Not that there are “unbelievers” in the world, for that was always true; nor simply that God does not exist. For is “God is dead,” then He must have once been alive; but this is paradoxical, since if God were ever alive, He, being eternal, could never die.
The madman speaks not of the believer’s God, who always was and always will be, but rather of what God represented and meant to his culture.This God was a “shared belief” in God, and it is such belief that was expiring in 19th century Europe.

-o0o-

“Where once God stood–at the center of knowledge and meaning–there is now a void. Science and philosophy alike treat God as irrelevant, and once again man has become the measure of all things,”according to Macrone.
Westerners have “killed” the God of their ancestors in turning over more toward nature and away from the supernatural. The believers in Nietzsche’s tale think seeking God is rather funny; only the madman realizes the terrible gravity of God’s death.
“Not that he laments it; in fact, he calls it a ‘great deed,’ but a deed likely too great for us, the murderers, to bear,” added Macrone.
A religion such as Christianity, despite the teachings of Jesus, perpetuates intolerance and conformity, which Nietzsche found especially repugnant. Whatever is old, habitual, normative, or dogmatic, he thought, is contrary to life and to dignity; it manifests what he called a “slave mentality.” In a sense, for a man and a woman to live, he or she must “kill” God–must overcome dogma, conformity, superstition, and fear.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)