PH 103 Notes on Belief and Disbelief
doing drugs?
September 18, 2017
Is there a correlation between Drugs and
Religion?
- Yes, there is.
Definition of Terms
Religious
- Naniniwala sa Diyos at pumupunta
sa mga church services
Spiritual
- Believes in a higher power
- However, does not practice any
religion
Unsure
- Does not know what to believe
about God
Agnostic
- Has a philosophical position
- Eventually, it is the most
philosophical position
- Assumes that no one can know God
- How can anyone know that God
exists?
Atheist
- Has beliefs like religious
- Believes that there is no God
- Kapag atheist ka, adik ka
According to the studies mentioned by Sir,
there is a correlation. It begs to ask if there
is a correlation between belief and non-
belief with drug use. It says that the more
you dont believe, the more prone you are
to drug use.
We need to distinguish the difference
between risk factor and protective factor.
Questions to be Asked
- Are you at risk to do drugs?
- Is there anything stopping you from
What is the correlation between belief and
unbelief with peace?
- According to the study in America,
those who are non-religious are
most opposed to torture.
- If you are religious, they are more
tolerable of torture.
- People with no religious preference
are less supportive of the death
penalty.
- Among the non-religious, they say
more that the invasion of Iraq was a
mistake.
- Among the American Christians, hey
would tend to say that the United
States is superior.
- Among Protestants, more people
endorse corporal punishment or the
physical abuse of children.
- In the peace index, top 10 of the
most peaceful nations on earth are
the least God-fearing.
Conclusions about Correlations
- If youre a religious person, you are
less likely to smoke pot.
- Although if you are religious, you are
also more prone to violence.
o Protestants endorse corporal
punishment because its in
the Bible
- Non-believers are more prone to
drug addiction
- But they are also more peaceful
- They are progressivists.
o More progre`ssive in thinking
o Included in this is pacificism
or being for peace.
- Those who are believers are against
progressivism.
 - Believers are militarists.
- These are consistent with being
violent and drug use.
The two issues of peace and drug addiction
have a correlation with religious position.
Therefore, the two issues are not only
moral issues but are religious issues as
well.
Atheism is non-belief. But there are different
types of atheism.
1. Humanism
o Belief that the most
important and highest value
is the calls of the human
being
o You are a humanist if you
believe that the highest
value is the calls of the
human being
o In the history of people,
humanists are
progressivists.
o We say this because the first
position or default position
of people is that God is the
highest value.
- Progressivism is impossible without
liberalism because liberalisms all
about individualism.
- For liberalism, the truth is
something that the individual
discovers on his own.
- However, liberalism, in the history
of people, have growth mentality.
Growth Mentality
- I always have to get better.
- This is in the realm of education.
That is why there are grades. Grades
instill growth mentality.
- The full liberal education purpose is
to instill the growth mentality. It is
always about improvement. The
whole point is development.
So that the growth mentality can be
instilled, there needs to be grades.
What is the philosophical position on
grades?
- The growth mentality is exclusionary
since not everyone can get an A.
- That is part of growth mentality,
there is exclusion.
Relation of Inequality and Growth
- Inequality and growth mentality go
together.
- For the economy to grow, someone
needs to be on top.
- There needs to be a competition.
- Not all are the same in income.
- If economy needs to grow, there
needs to be some in the bottom and
some on top. That is exclusion.
- Exclusion is violence.
- What is driving the inequality is the
growth mentality.
We need this so we can know who is
included and who isnt.
Every progressive age leads to greater
growth.
Greater growth leads to greater inequality.
What is the first position for growth?
- The main ingredient for growth is
that you need to want it.
- That is freedom.
Growth and Freedom
 - If there is no freedom, there will be
no growth.
- You cant improve by force.
- You need to make growth your goal.
- The most important ingredient of
growth is freedom.
- Freedom always leads to exclusion.
Freedom and Exclusion
- If you want to improve, you need to
make a choice.
- Once you make a choice, you have
already excluded other possibilities.
- We are too scared to make choices
because when you do make that
choice, then you are closing your
door to other possibilities.
- The use of freedom is towards
growth but it has an unintended
consequence.
- Every use of freedom has a
consequence. It is usually an
unintended consequence.
- For example, when you want to go
to law school, you need to take an
exam.
- Every use of freedom has exclusion.
September 22, 2017
- Atheism happened in the 19th
century. It was coincidental with
liberalism.
- Liberalism is a hot topic everywhere
so we should clear this up.
Liberalism
- It came from the English and
Americans.
- Reaction to monarchism
- The liberals were thinking, is it right
that there are absolute leaders?
- Is it right that power is absolute?
- There is limitation and definition.
- Most important feature: sees that
absolutism isnt logical
- Power is with the people.
Absolutism
- It is the executive, judiciary and
legislative is with one person alone.
- Is it right that the one who executes
is the one who judges and makes
the law?
- It was wrong.
If the power isnt absolute, it is limited. The
power should be constituted. It should be
defined.
The power of a king comes from a
constitution. The question is, where is the
true power? It is in the people.
Every political philosophy influences the
economic theory. It has a consequent
economic theory. With that, there is:
Neo-liberalism
- People are the most important
- Economy should be left to be run by
itself
- Laissez-faire economics
- The most important property is
ownership.
What is laissez-faire economics for?
- It is for progress.
 - The economy is not in private
ownership, but is towards the
growth of the economy.
- In monarchism, the goal of the king
is to hold his power or to conserve
his power.
- Monarchism doesnt go towards
progress.
Liberalism and neo-liberalism are about
growth, progress and development.
Monarchism is all about power, and not
growth.
Growth requires liberalism.
What is our answer and what is liberalisms
connection to religion?
- If that is the meaning of liberalism,
where does true power?
- What does freedom mean?
- To be liberal is to be generous.
- What is the logic of freedom?
- Where is the true power if its not
with the king? Its with constitution.
- Liberalism asks what is TRUE
freedom?
This is an ancient problem of what freedom
is.
To be free, what do you feel?
- Why do we feel scared and not
excited?
- Why do we have a suspicion over
our own freedom?
- In reality, what is freedom?
Freedom
- Our capacity to say yes or no
- I can to say yes or no to someone
else
- I can say yes or no to my duty
- I can say yes or no to God
- I have the spaces to make choices
Who cant make choices?
- A kid
o They want everything
o If you cant decide, you are a
kid
o When we get older, we
realize that we cant have
everything.
Growth mentality requires freedom.
- If we want to grow, we need to want
to grow.
- If we want to be a part of the
growth mentality, we need to
mature our minds.
- We must change the way we think
and act.
- You should choose growth as your
goal.
- True growth has requirements.
o You set your own goals.
- Even though growth is possible and
everywhere, if you dont make it
your goal, it wont happen to you.
True decision making is when you decide. It
is either a yes or a no.
- Every decision you make, you are
letting go of something.
- Every yes means that you are saying
no to something as well.
- Every decision made has exclusion.
- Thats why we are scared of making
decisions.
In the Christian tradition, it is saying yes.
In an existential perspective, it is saying no.
What is common in both?
- Both are answers.
- They are responses.
- It is not just a decision. It means that
I am answering and responding.
 - I am responding to the face. (re:
Levinas)

Responding to the face

- When we decide, we are not just
deciding, we are answering and
responding.
- When you are just shouting and
commanding, you are not talking to
the face.
- In absolutism, you are not
responding to the face.
- When you cant see the face, it
makes it easier to kill someone.
- If you are looking at a face, I see
someone who is talking even though
they are not really talking.

Using freedom is responding to what I hear.

It is responding to the face.

What does it mean to be an individual?

- It is to speak.

If we resent our freedom and the freedom

of others, we are exercising absolutism.
Fascism is rejecting other peoples freedom.
Freedom is responding.