Ateneo de Manila University

Theology 121 July 17, 2014

Payawal, Oscar Joseph, A. Section: L

Dary E. Dacanay

Prejudice to the nonbeliever

Prejudice is the unfair perspective of many different topics that separates society. This could be race, religion, gender etc. What this paper talks about though is the inborn prejudice that is found within young adults towards the Christian faith. What makes this paper so interesting is the fact that it relates to those young adults in a way that it realizes the flaws of the system. It points out how Christians, since birth, have had God forced upon them by their caretakers and guardians. The author made it sound so natural to have this sort of attitude towards the faith so it seems to open up to the readers of the article.

The points made in each of part of the article had sufficient logic behind it. Right after the talk about how we were all forcibly born into the Christian faith, the author goes on to talk about how we should maintain an open mind. I have my own understanding to what the definition of what an open mind means but to bring it in terms of the Christian faith is somewhat difficult for me to comprehend. I am not the strongest believer in this religion, I lean towards those who are unknowing about God so for the article, who talks about having an open mind about everything, to tell me to how to achieve this sense of understanding and to “have my own relationship with God” confuses me. To remain unprejudiced and open to God, someone who I have more than enough knowledge about since my birth, is a difficult for me to follow. In all His essence, it’s hard for me to comprehend his existence even if I do try to remain open.

It was then stated by the author about the types of Christians that we often see around our society. We see a lot of those who are half into their faith but also half not believing. In the rituals of their Church, they are halfhearted in whatever they did. He says that these people are confused and do not know how to recognize God as a being. I too find myself in this situation although, I do not consider myself confused. In my opinion, it is just a choice whether or not to acknowledge God’s existence or not.

The author then brings up a logical analogy based on solving problems. He tries to compare us with the thought processing of a robot and an ape. The robot who is perfect but cannot go beyond the basic commands or algorithm that the programmer limited it to. The ape who’s purely influenced by its instincts therefore, is not hindered by the thought to do what it wants. Humans, on the other hand, are inherently flawed/blessed with the power of morals, giving, art etc. He states that because of this, we, humans, are usually unsure of the answers to the questions we often ask therefore, the problems we try to solve cannot always be solved.