Tricycle Drivers In Tagbilaran, Bohol Are Being Forced To Put Bible Verses On Their Cars

In the form of an ordinance, tricycle drivers in the city of Tagbilaran in Bohol are being required by the city government to put verses from the Bible on their cars. And if they refuse to do so? They will either be fined or their license will be revoked. This is a classic case of Christians trying to muscle everyone else to believe what they believe. They want to force Jesus Christ down everybody's throats. What's even more saddening about it is the fact that it's the government that's doing it for them.

This is the very definition of Christian fascism. The people who came up with the ordinance are forcing their Christian agenda on everyone. And because it's a state-supported ordinance, the tricycle drivers have no choice but adhere to it or else they lose their license to ply the streets of Tagbilaran and earn a living.

Now, I'm sure there will be people who will be saying, "Bohol has a population that's composed mostly of Christians so it's okay for them to do so." But here's the thing: the Philippines is a secular country, at least it's supposed to be. Just because the majority believes in the Christian God doesn't mean laws and ordinances will be established based on their beliefs at the same time alienating the minority groups.

There's this thing called "separation of church and state". Needless to say, whoever came up with the ordinance requiring tricycle drivers to put Bible verses on their machines clearly don't understand this. Or they understand it but they think they can break it and escape with it. The Philippine Constitution clearly states that the state should not endorse a religious group. And it's mind-blowing to think that this ordinance has reportedly been around for over 20 years.

Let's say the tricycle drivers love putting the Bible verses on their cars. And Tagbilaran's population loves reading the verses while they commute. There doesn't seem to be any harm being done, right? Everybody's happy! Wrong. This is a secular country. The ordinance is violating the Constitution. And most important of all, there are people in the city who are not Christians. These people who are outside of the Christian faith, no matter how minuscule they are, are being alienated. Just because they aren't speaking out to criticize the ordinance doesn't mean they aren't there.

Screengrab from a video by the Christian Broadcasting Network.

This ordinance in Tagbilaran came to my attention after reading an article from the website of the Christian Broadcasting Network. The article carried the title "Mandatory Verses Have City Driving For Jesus". The tone of the article is of course celebratory because it's a Christian website for a Christian audience. And of course, the article didn't mention the fact that the ordinance is violating the law of the land and is infringing on the rights of others.

And it's scary how passive the article was in mentioning that those who don't follow the ordinance will be fined or have their license revoked as if fining a person for not adhering to the whims of a religion is the most common thing in the world. The article is bathed in perceived theistic privilege.

Imagine if a city in Southern Mindanao (the population of which is hypothetically composed mostly of Muslims) put out an ordinance requiring drivers to print Koran quotes on their cars or else they'll be fined or have their licenses revoked. What would the Christian minority think?

The Christian Broadcasting Network also made a video about the ordinance. You can watch it here.
Lucille Lagunay, a councilor in the city was featured in the segment and this is what she had to say, "With the biblical message at the back of the units, commuters get to see the message everyday and then it helps in a way preserve the peace of our city. Everyday, commuters get to see the biblical message in the tricycles and who would think of crime when they see biblical passages everywhere."

Also, according to the report, the ordinance has resulted to lower crime rates, stronger families, and a relatively peaceful city. This could be just the Christian reporter talking but if Lagunay or anyone from the city hall fed him the information, it would be nice if Lagunay could provide proof or statistics showing that the ordinance did result to such improvements.

Lagunay is basically making the claim that people who read the Bible are less likely to commit crimes than those who don't. However, facts don't support such a claim. The Philippines which is considered to be a very religious country has a much higher crime rate compared to less religious countries like Denmark, Japan, South Korea, etc. Some of these countries don't even believe in the Christian God. How come they live in much better conditions than the Philippines?

As to the verses being put on the tricycles, I'm sure whoever is providing the verses are cherry-picking them. Imagine reading this while in a tricycle, "Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!" This is from the book of Psalm, chapter 137, verse 9.

Filipino Christian Evangelist Eli Soriano Claims That The Bible Is Scientific And Evolution Is Impossible

Eliseo Soriano, the Christian evangelist who is currently the presiding minister of the Christian organization Members Church of God International, has written an article titled Possibilities and Impossibilities in the Bible: Time-Bound and Foreordained which was published on his official website. The gist of Soriano's article is his claim that the Christian Bible is scientific. To try to drive his point deeper, Soriano shared his article on his Facebook and Twitter accounts with the hashtag #TheBiblicalScience. He also encouraged his thousands of social media followers to spread the article with the same hashtag. The message that the Ang Dating Daan host is trying to impart is loud and clear - the Bible is supported by science or the Bible withstands the scrutiny of science.

Unfortunately, Soriano's claim is a claim that has no teeth. In his article, Soriano defended the Genesis account of creation wherein God created light before he created the sun and the moon. Science tells us that light on earth is provided by the sun during the day and reflected by the moon from the sun during the night. How can there be light on earth when its source (the sun and the moon) haven't been created yet. The account in Genesis is akin to saying a manufacturer manufactured light before manufacturing the flashlight. It just doesn't make sense and Soriano sort of admits this quandary by writing that the Genesis account is "very easily dismissed by the enemies of the Bible as something stupid and unscientific!"

So what is Soriano's supporting evidence to the Genesis creation account which suggests that light on earth can exist without the sun and the moon? Soriano tried to support this with a list of possibilities and impossibilities. Listed among the possibilities is "The appearance of light from utter darkness." So Soriano basically just repeated what the book of Genesis said. It boils down to the reasoning that it was recorded on the Bible therefore it's true and infallible. Soriano has got to do better than this if he wants atheists and agnostics to get back to the Christian fold.

In the same article, Soriano also bashed almost the entirety of the scientific community with his list of impossibilities. Soriano says that the universe is not expanding. This is an insult to astronomers and astrophysicists whose extensive researches and studies provide evidence that the universe is indeed expanding.

Soriano says that it's impossible "to produce humans from animals". This is obviously a jab at the theory of evolution but it only shows that Soriano still doesn't understand even the basics of evolution. He's still clinging to the misconception that evolution entails a monkey-to-man process. Needless to say, this jab is an insult to biology, evolutionary biology in particular and a plethora of other related sciences.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Soriano also says that it's impossible "for the universe not to be in perfect order". Unfortunately, Soriano didn't tell us what he meant by "perfect order". As far as we know, the universe is a pot of explosions and collisions. Stars are exploding. Galaxies are colliding. Meteors are crashing into planets. This is not order at all.

In conclusion, what Soriano wrote in his most recent article boils down to this - the Bible is scientific, real science is not. This is of course preposterous. If evolution will ever be disproved, it will be in a laboratory by scientists, not in a blog post by a Christian evangelist.