Idols of Paul

by Paul John Depra

 

Every single being has different uniqueness and sometimes we cannot understand why those people behave like this, why people behave like that and why do I behave like this also. As I learned about the idols of Francis Bacon, I was able to understand why those events happened and specially each one of us have different idols but some was not able to understand those things. I am blessed because in the lecture about the idols of Francis Bacon, I was able to know myself more especially which of the four idols that I will work out more and sometimes we are not aware that we committing the idol of the tribe, idol of the cave, idol of the theater, and idol of the market place.. These are some of my experiences regarding with the four idols of Francis Bacon.

Idols of the cave

When I was in my childhood years, I really believe that Estancia is the only place who compose the world but as the time goes along and as I learned about the Iloilo, the Philippines, the Asia, the world and the universe, that time I knew that the world is too wide for me to explore. I studied in one of the private school in our town and during that time I thought that I was so bright in all my contemporary children in our barangay which I discuss so many things to them that they do not knew. I was so confident with myself that already knew a lot things that my contemporary children do not knew especially those children who does not go to school. As I grew up I already explore our town and some of the towns near to us and I always tell to myself that estancia is the best town compare to others towns like Carles, Balasan, and Batad. Wherever I go, I am always proud that I am from Estancia and if there are some discussion regarding with towns, I always insist our town about the infrastructure, the port, the fish and a lot things.

Idols of the theater

One of my qualities when I was in high school is being an athletic person and not to lift up myself I am one of the best player in our school (NIPSC) in term of volleyball. I was scouted by the couch of the Estancia National High School to play to their school for the district meet and to represent our town in 5^th CDSA meet. I was convinced by my teammates and through the advice of my P.E teacher to accept the opportunity given to me. Every day I practiced in Estancia National High School and some of my teammates are very strong in terms in spiking compare to me. When we have our practice, I always do a lot of movements to show other students who are watching us that I am a best player like their players. I spike the ball as strong as I can to show those girls that I am a good spiker and some of them cheer for me. Every time we jog, I always do a good posture in able to show to them that I am well fit player and to empress them. I always show myself that I am especially when there are girls looking around and it worked because there a lot of girl link and liked me.

Idols of the market place

I still remember the picture that my lola gave to when I was 3 years old that she was holding me in her place in the market. Before, my grandparents was selling vegetables and fruits and if my mother will say, I often times in the market together with my lola. One of my experience is this, when I was in Cavite City having my vacation there almost 6 years ago, I have encounter a good girl friend there who is a Dating Daan. I meet here in the birthday of my cousin and as I stay there we always have a discussion about our religion. Being a member of the church in our parish I have some idea regarding with our faith and about other religion because of some recollection I attended and listening the discussion of my older brothers in the choir. I always insisted what I know and sometimes my good girl friend was not able to answer me especially when I asked about the founder of their church, and tell her some the teachings of the catholic church. During those days, I just talked and talked to her even though I don’t know if are all words came to are true because my only intention is to convince her that the teaching of the Catholic Church is the right one. I already used some falicies to defend my stand although I don’t know those things. In the end, I convinced here that I am right.

Idols of the tribe

I was in my elementary years specifically in grade three when my brother suffered a very high fever in the middle of the night. It was timely happen that our parents was not around and only my first cousin who is the one supervised us. My cousin instruct me to pick up our grandmother lola Soling who is an quack doctor or a faith healer. Lola Soling’s house was so far that you need to cross one mountain and walk for one hour in able to get there. Beause of my fear that my brother might die, I immediately followed my cousin’s command. As I walk, there are so many things comes in my mind like aswangs, tianak, manananggal, kapre, and some scary images that I might encounter as I walk alone. I tried to strengthen myself that I am not afraid of them but when I was climbing the mountain, I heard a very load sound that grasp in my back so immediately I ran very fast and as fast I can. I reached my grandmother’s house full of sweat, in tears, a very fast heartbeat because of my belief that an aswang tried to get me.

Human Idols

by Dionnie Boy Salanatin

 

Idol of the Tribe

I am now on my late 20’s, however, until now I can still remember the beliefs and practices handed over to us by our parents and other older members of our family which were handed over to them by their parents and ancestors, thus, became part of our traditions. Superstitious beliefs or those beliefs which do not have any scientific basis.

In my family both table manners and respect matter. I cannot forget until now how I was oftentimes corrected to scoop rice from the rice cooker by making first the sign of the cross on the rice and then to make sure that the rice is evenly distributed inside the bowl.

Also, no one is allowed to sing nor cry on the table otherwise the food will keep itself away from you. Be mindful of your ways when eating to avoid spilling of food especially rice and whenever some grains of rice fell to the floor, instead of sweeping them all, one must pick each grain with bare hands and I do not know why. However, I tend to follow these things without knowing or asking why because I was afraid to be cursed by God as they say.

I remember one time the store vendor refused to sell a needle to me which I was supposed to use for my project. I was not able to buy salt one night for it is considered bad luck and I do not know why, so as a consequence we cooked our food without salt. We were never even allowed to pass neither food nor money through the window.  For an adult, it is an insult to the family of someone who died if you wear red, however, infants must wear red shirt or dress so that the spirit of the dead will not come back to take them or come near them. That is why somebody should pull ones ear whenever he or she yawns in front of the dead for it is believed that whenever this happens the spirit is inviting the person to go with the spirit of the dead. Family members are not allowed to take a bath, to wash clothes, to sweep the floor nor to comb ones hair whenever a loved one dies. I often ask myself why things get difficult in times they have to mourn over the dead when supposed to be the family must employ all things necessary for convenience in difficult moments like this.

I followed without knowing why, until these became part of my life. Unconsciously, I observe these things until I grow up thinking that if I fail to do so, then, I might get cursed. This attitude I came to question later on as I learn. I consider myself belonging to the virtual generation or the age of new technology. As I continue to study and became more conscious I began asking myself, “Why?” What is the reason behind these things? Will I still continue to believe without knowing why I must? Nobody could provide reason for these things, until now some of us continue to observe these simply because they were told to do so.  That is why today whenever I encounter a particular belief or practice that have been long observed by my family I hesitated to follow and believe those things they cannot explain to me logically or scientifically, save God and our Catholic faith.

It seems that our superstitious attitude is more of a burden oftentimes than of help. My point of contention is not that I am absolutely against these beliefs, I do appreciate and value the things we inherit from our ancestors, only that we should be reasonable enough and be open to other possibilities in as much as we would like to treasure these gifts.

Idol of the Cave

“UPriority Complex”, according to one of my professors from which I finished my degree in Economics, is  a sort of feeling that develops within us  the moment one studies in that University. It is the feeling of superiority over the others who came from other schools or universities. Superior, more intelligent and even more hard working than others, this is how people consider us graduates of that University and I could not even deny the fact that I also feel this way before. The opinion of others, somehow, created the same feeling within me that, because I came from the said University, indeed I have greater advantage in all things and I can perform better than others.

This belief gives us the confidence and the certainty that we can handle anything or any responsibility that is handed to us. And, as the one coming from this University I had to oftentimes work hard and come up with people’s expectations. I had this feeling that I have to always be at my best, to be strict and perfect as much as possible because I could not turn down their expectations.

We have this sort of prejudices in our minds that whenever we encounter somebody from this University we consider them the best and everyone coming from other universities are inferior to us. This may not sound fair to individuals who did not have this privilege to enter the State University because they are not qualified. This, however, started only from a mere opinion of some that later on became part of our culture since this is what usually people observe.

Later on as I became professional I realized that this is not true and oftentimes I feel ashamed whenever I hear compliment and comments like this. For me, there is nothing really to be proud of.

The real battle does not happen within the four corners of the campus. Everyone, still, may have the opportunity to prove himself or herself later on in the real world- the outside world, wherein there are no longer walls nor fences to protect or tolerate us.

The person is no longer contained within the limits of the caves- its walls that may protect one’s own ego from outside forces that may evade and destroy it. The self-centeredness of the person now gets threatened for as prior to going out from the cave wherein one believes that  he or she is superior, the most intelligent and skillful and is introduced into a much bigger reality that the world actually does not revolve around him or her. And, that there is somebody much higher and even greater than he, who in spite of everything remained simple and humble at all times.

Idol of the Market Place

 

Marketing strategy, as we call it in my previous work, wherein we study and learn multiple ways in dealing with our customers and these strategies are a must to a fast food restaurant, because for us every transaction counts today and for the future days to keep our business successful.

As the store manager I often keep track of my marketing crews’ performance to increase daily sales. Thus, it is also my duty to check whether or not their strategies are effective, especially their verbal communication skills to attract and entice the customers to buy more of our products and to come back the next day.

To ensure that they do things the way I would like them to do I even demonstrate to them the proper ways to convince the customers, and in a layman’s term we call that sales talk. We influenced the customers and make them believe that our products are worth buying. Say like the facial expression when approaching the customers, choice of words and their sincerity. We used words like “This is our latest product”, “It is much cheaper or you can save more if you order this”, “This is our best seller and most customers order this”. This way the customers were enticed and find it difficult to refuse. It is challenge for us, however, to change our techniques oftentimes. We had to even plan out ahead of time and even observe others’ strategies and modify them so we could come up with something new.

The situation can be likened to that of the market. Vendors must be competitive in a strict sense so they could earn more. They have to manipulate buyers by means of verbally persuading and make them believe by talking to them sincerely and convince them in the end that what they are selling are truly worth the spending.

We influence customers to sell our products, however, as we noticed that some of them would complaint to us that we fall short to their expectations I realized that we are actually giving a negative image to the company and as a result I was aware that if we continue this sort of manipulation we would encounter problems such as customers will neither come back nor trust the company anymore. As a remedy I instructed everybody not to exaggerate things and I want them to be honest with our customers as much as possible. Honest in a sense that whenever customers would inquire regarding a particular product we tell them honestly what we perceive about this product based after tasting or checking it. In the end the customers were the ones to decide whether or not they would purchase.

Idol of the theater

 

Now that I am a seminarian I cannot avoid to feel that, somehow, I am in the state of dilemma. How should I act in front of other? What should I do if I am with people whom I know could endanger my vocation at times?

People may not avoid to think that, as a seminarian, I must be good, should not get my self-involved with idol talks and that I should always lead the prayer in any occasion. That I must act this way and not otherwise. I have this experience last month when I joined our family reunion in manila. My cousins used to call me “Father” and they enjoy that. They feel awkward the moment they saw me holding a bottle of beer as if I might get burn the moment I drink, and that I had to explain to them that it is alright as long as I do not let myself get drunk.

I had to lead the prayer before we eat. On our way to Tagaytay they asked me again to lead the prayer to keep our travel safe from any sort of danger. Oftentimes they ask for blessings as if I am already a priest. They also enjoy asking for forgiveness as if I am capable of giving absolution. I cannot blame them acting this way, they enjoy doing so and I on the-other-hand also feel happy seeing them smile. I do not even bother asking them why because even before I entered the seminary I already have the same feeling and prejudices in mind. That is why I do not ask because I already understand. I let them and I do not bother to explain unless someone asks.

I know that I am not the only who feels this way. Every day and oftentimes everyone has to deal with this kind of dilemma. The secret, for me is in our ability to adjust ourselves to this kind of situation. It may be difficult, but, the best way is one should learn how to move away from these idols we have.

Experience of Intellectual Fallacies

by Raymond Pasco

 

Experience teaches us a lot of things. Experience is the best teacher, they say. However, if we allow these experiences or dogmatisms to cloud our judgment, our judgment may fall short, may be unreasonable and unintelligent. Francis Bacon introduced four intellectual fallacies which he called idols; idols of the Tribe, idols of the Cave, idols of the Marketplace and idols of the Theater. We are not exempted from these. Others have had these before but, probably have outgrown them, while others still have them until now. I myself have my own experiences of these idols.

Idols of the Tribe are superstitious or deceptive beliefs or generalizations coming from exaggerations, distortions, and disproportions of the things around us. In my case, I used to believe in Karmas; that whenever I do something wrong, especially to somebody, some creature, or thing, I will soon experience a misfortune as somewhat a sort of return for the mistake I did. Whenever something bad happens to me, I would usually trace it back to something bad I did before. Then and there I would make a conclusion that it was because of the wrong thing I just did. This made me fail to see the essential causes of the things happening to me. This belief made me pessimistic, worried, and anxious most of the time after I do something bad. I would even overthink, consciously wait or anticipate something bad to happen to me. In the end, I would be preoccupied and not focused on the essential things happening around me. Fortunately, I came to realize that this was a wrong and illogical belief. If a misfortune happens to me, it is not because of a mistake or wrongdoing I did. I have many bad things happening in my life even if I did nothing wrong prior to that. If ever something bad happens to me after doing something wrong, it might just be a mere coincidence because they don’t happen every time. The two, my wrongdoing and my misfortune, are not connected. It simply doesn’t follow that if I do bad, bad things or misfortunes will happen to me. Looking on the bright side, this Karma motivated me to do good and avoid evil. However, it made me irrational.

Idols of the Cave are thoughts or beliefs modified or formed by education, habit, or environment where one is simply constrained or fixated to the point that he interprets things according to these beliefs. I once used to have this philosophical idea that I got interested with. Eventually, it turned out to be one of the Caves where I got fixated and trapped in. I used this philosophical idea to discuss with other people. I accepted it, really got into it and believed in it strongly. Sometimes when a topic is somehow related to this philosophical idea, I would immediately try to push through to make this idea fitting to the topic; interpreting the topic in view of this philosophical idea. In time, I realized that I used to end up with the wrong conclusions and applications of this philosophical idea. Then and there I finally realized that no single philosophical idea or claim could be applied to all situations or aspects in life. A philosophical idea could be applicable to this but not to that and that. We just have to see which is applicable to a certain topic and use that, don’t just get stuck or fixated in one philosophical idea, be open and versatile. With these realizations, I was, eventually, able to overcome this idol.

Idols of the marketplace are fallacies or errors coming from false significance bestowed upon words. The idea is, using words to make people believe you (especially with the use of the capacity to argue). One common example is a very convincing vendor. I myself have been a victim of this. I don’t usually buy things which I don’t need. But at times, I find myself buying things that I later would realize was something impractical to have. I used to play RAN Online when I was in elementary and I have this classmate before who played the same game with me. I was also practical with the things or items I buy in this game. There was a time when my character had a considerable amount of money, knowing this my classmate immediately offered me an item to buy. That money was supposed to be saved for a certain item I was looking forward to buy, however I just need more money, so I had to save it for a while. I really didn’t need that item he was offering. But then he was very convincing when he talked to me to the point that I lost my focus and eventually forgot my plans for the item I was looking forward to. I knew it from the start that I didn’t need that item but, what he was telling me seemed to be true and convincing; he really sounded reasonable. I remember him telling me; “If you’d buy his item, you could have it and make use of it right now (your character would look great) while on the other hand, the item you were looking forward to was still way too far and you would still have to wait for a while and make your character look the same and boring for a long time. Anyway, you could still start earning and saving money again, so just buy it, it’s very reasonable.” Then without any hesitation I bought the item. After some time, I realized what a fool I’ve been. I would have to start over again and start saving money. I didn’t get angry with my classmate I, instead, laughed at myself for being such a fool and told him he was a trickster and was always one step ahead of me.

Idols of the Theater are coming from false learnings and are learned by a group of people. They seem to be undebatable anymore (others don’t have an idea of the matter) therefore, people will no longer question. The idea is, influencing people with the stage you set. I myself have set a stage before. A friend of mine, since she knew I studied Latin in the seminary, asked me to translate a sentence she spoke into a Latin sentence. In order not to be embarrassed in front of our friends and also to impress and, somehow, show off, I gave her a translation even though it wasn’t the correct translation; the translation I gave wasn’t an accurate translation and was wrong. But since they don’t know anything about Latin, I took advantage of it to set up a show. They cannot question me since they don’t know anything about it. Without any question or doubt, they nodded in agreement and believed it to be true. They didn’t know anything about it, so I had control of the situation and eventually managed to put on a show in favor of me.

These idols or intellectual fallacies could, at times, be used in order to gain advantage of others. But generally, these idols always cloud one’s reasoning and, as a result, make him/her illogical. We have to identify and take away these idols in order to be scientific and logical. Without knowing these, we might be victims of those who use these idols for their advantage or we may be victims of ourselves as our reasoning and judgments our clouded by these idols. Take a look at your own idols and overcome them. Take a look at other’s as well, knowing and identifying their idols can help you avoid being a victim and can help you to understand these people, from where they are coming from, and why they are like that. Eventually, knowing your idols and overcoming them is a sort of growing up and being matured as well.