The Deism of Rizal

The selection was about Rizal and his slight rupture with the Catholic Church. He went to
the University Central de Madrid to pursue his studies in medicine, and what he learned first was
academic freedom, with Morayta as one of his professors. On the course of Morayta’s lecture, he
questioned the computation of the age of the universe on the basis of biblical sources. Spanish
ecclesiastical authorities excommunicated Morayta for his unorthodoxy. This event served a
great impact on Rizal, as he believed in academic freedom, together with other students that
protested to show their support toward Morayta.

Throughout the selection, it has clearly shown that Rizal has somehow drifted away from
the Catholic teaching. As quoted, he said that “the dogmas if the church contain obscurities
which are glorified by calling them mysteries.” Also, he had mentioned that the Sacred Scripture
is purely by human authorship, which is inevitable with errors and inconsistencies. With this,
Rizal believed that the only true revelation is nature itself, which everyone could understand.
However, Rizal still believed that there is a Creative Being—that everyone creates their own
God in their own image and likeness, and that we should view God in nature, rather than in
gospels. He had stated that we would know the existence of a supreme being through nature’s
order—the succession of nights and days, in the periodic change of the seasons, the interrupted
flow of the rivers and many more.

Rizal believed in the new theology known as the “deism” which has revealed the theory
of natural revelation. This new theology contained the principles each human being ought to live
by for salvation, which would be free from all religious strife. However, the author of the
selection seem to have a conflict with what Rizal believed which he had explained in his short
critique at the end of the reading. The author had three points in criticism of Rizal’s deism. His
first point was that Rizal’s view of nature was one-sided. Rizal supposed that the existence of
God is in nature itself, ignoring all the tragic facts of floods, plagues, earthquakes, and other
natural disasters. His second point was that Rizal’s preference for the “open book of nature”
suggests that the study of nature is an easy one, which everyone would agree on, and ignoring
the facts of nature’s complexity. But in actual fact, the study of nature contains many conflicting
scientific theories which would require mental effort, and which is not equally accorded to all.
And finally, the author’s last point was that the “revelation of nature” is not a true revelation. If
we look at nature without the explanation of its process, hence, nothing is really revealed.
Absolute freedom is not the attribute of this Absolute Person, as the author had stated.

However, it has been held that Rizal’s split with the Catholic Church was not complete.
Rizal had indicated in his diaries that he still went to mass, and that the Catholic faith always
held a strong attraction for him.