Natalis Invicti: Good without God in Payatas

This Sunday, December 18, 2011, a group of atheist volunteers went to the Payatas Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) for Personal Disabilities to bring joy and abundance to special children. Our young volunteers assured that what they brought to these less fortunate children will always be a good exemplar of common moral decencies cherished by each and every one in the world.

PATAS volunteers went to Payatas by private van from Quezon Memorial Circle. Arriving in the activity area they began at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Children were already gathering inside the classroom for the programs. With them are toys, confectioneries, and learning materials.

As they are waiting for the food, volunteers conducted story telling presenting the value of cooperation and creativity. Those who remember well the story are given toys and books as prices.

After the story telling they held parlor games and show of talents. Children who stand in front were told to sing and dance. Their performances were warmly received by big rounds of claps and shouts. Parents and guardians are not exempted to this activity, as they guide their children in this yuletide season event.

With us is a group of senior atheists who’ve gathered up themselves years before PATAS was created gave their support to this cause. In discussion with them, atheists agree that this activity have two points of agreement. First, atheist volunteers do not proselytize atheism to those who are not. What we only point out is that within the ranks of religious institutions there are atheists in hiding that conceals their disbelief for the sake of family loyalty or to avoid ostracism. Second, atheists are good without God. We people can be good without having someone to command us to do what is good or suffer damnation. There are good and bad atheists, as well as good and bad Christians or Muslims in the Philippines. We atheists value our choices, our responsibilities, and individuality, as well as those of others.

Food arrived after the program proper. There is pancit and bread for the main course. Around two hundred children were fed, as well as given gifts such as toys, clothing and children’s books. There is not enough food for the volunteers, but were well fed with empathy to those they serve.

They left the premises with memorable goodbyes to the children and their parents/guardians. From Payatas they commuted back to Novaliches, and treat themselves cold beer, in the presence of the karaoke, for a job well done.

Interacting with special children is a very special experience, for it gives us directly the message of who we atheists are. Or, more specific, the message of what we are as humans. Like other collective animals, we are designed naturally to live and care for our fellow human beings. There will always be a choice to despise humans as a result of our prejudices or our lack of attention trying something different, but this cannot change the fact that we live responsibly with our fellow beings for their well-being, as well as ours.

Atheists are not simply eugenics endorsers for the termination of special children. Like us they have a very special place in life, and we could not just prejudice them quickly as incapacitated nuisances.

Like the musician priest Antonio Vivaldi who empowered disabled and disfigured children in his Ospedale dela Pieta music school, we of the Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society support special care and treatment of special children – firm in our hope that, like normal human beings, they can uplift the lives of their fellow special children and contribute for the good of our society; most especially, for the public understanding of Science and Reason.