On Christian faith: Quo vadis Philippines?

My quest for an informative ACLE came to an end when I entered the Church of the Risen Lord and listened to the lecture of Mahar Mangahas of the Social Weather Station regarding the current state of religiosity in the Philippines.

The lecture started with an overview of what the survey was all about and why it was conducted every ten years. While I was listening to the lecture, the idea of religion and religiosity crossed my mind as well as the discussions in Philo10 regarding the existence of God. I began thinking of how the people in the other parts of the world accept the idea of God and how they integrate these beliefs into their way of living.

Statistics say that the Philippines is composed of about 80% of Catholics with the remaining percentage belonging to the other Christian denominations as well as the non-Christian groups such as the Muslims. There was no question raised then for these figures are really evident. The contention started when Mr. Mangahas presented the different answers to the different questions pertaining to the existence of God. It was found out that there was a higher percentage in the Non-Christian group who believes in the existence of a higher being. Why is this so? A lot of people raised this question and this query was further intensified when the other statistical figures were revealed.

With the questions such as ‘do you believe in heaven/hell?’ and “is pre-marital sex a sin?’, it was clear that more Christians answered yes than the non-christians. But, this was not the issue. When the graph comparing the Catholics and the non-Catholics were presented, it was found out that the Non-Catholics’ average percentage of saying yes to those kinds of questions were relatively higher than the Catholics. Moreover, it was revealed that in comparison to the other catholic countries such as Spain and Italy, the US has a higher percentage of people who readily says yes whenever asked if they believe in God. Again, why is this so?

A group asked Mr. Mangahas what are the parameters they used in conducting the survey and he elaborated the steps they used in getting the figures. The survey was really convincing and at the same time intriguing for it brings up the question of what is really the level of the Christians’ belief in a ‘god’? A lot of people say yes, they believe in an existing god, yet their answers to practical questions refute their answers in that trivial question. The survey by the SWS was so comprehensive that it incorporated questions from the basic concepts in the Christian doctrine such as the idea of heaven and hell, the good and the bad, what is a sin, and even sex out of marriage.

If deducted by logic, one can see the contrast among their answers which reflects how unstable the faith and beliefs of the people are. If this is the case then does it mean that people believe just for the sake of believing? Or that they say they believe just for having a belief? Do they just try to believe in something just because this something has been the belief since the birth of the ages? This again boils down to what a belief should be like or rather what is really a belief in the first place? Does it need to be something you would forever hold on to? But beliefs also change just as people do. These questions may not give a definite answer, yet these will widen horizons and expand human understanding. This is why there’s a need to ask the hard questions, such as why? what now? and quo vadis? for it is only through these tough queries that we start to philosophize, to defy the conventions and eventually understand more.