WHY I AM AN ATHEIST

Nature is my staff                  

The Universe my rod

I find religion’s  notion

Of what God is

To be odd

 

The first Gods were creations

By people who could see

That there are things far greater

Than them, or you, or me

 

These Gods – they represented

The “spirits” all around

The thunder, lightning, rainfall

Trees, fish, the sacred ground

 

The Aboriginal people

Thought these – and more – “divine”

Respected all their power

And took them as a sign

 

And somewhere in antiquity

Someone with big ideas

Thought if these engendered awe

They’d then engender fears

 

And so it came to pass

That someone else built on that plan

And shifted awe of nature

To awe of some “sky man”

 

No longer were the spirits

Of mountains and of trees

Revered as sacred beings

That brought men to their knees

 

Instead the temple priests

Who figured out the game

Co-opted all that well-placed fear

And misplaced it in “His” name

 

To them it stood to reason

That man held all dominion

And nature was ours to be used

In their learned opinion

 

And people could be pushed and pulled

As long as they “believe”

And from that moment it was truly

Easy to deceive

 

And so they wrote a Bible

And in it they averred

That God created everything

And it was made “the word”

 

And people having little

Education in that day

Were told that this is how “it” is

And “it” was underway

 

And Judeo-Christians learned that God

Made all in six long days

A mere ten thousand years ago

Well, God does  have his ways

 

And yea, He did all that about

Ten thousand years ago

(Science shows we’re thirteen

Billion years of age or so)

 

But science cannot be believed

In matters of creation

Reason holds no sway

Over fiery conflagration

 

(This alone should be the hint

That God is mere device

To keep the thoughtless scared to death

Scared not  to sacrifice)

 

Anyway –

 

At the same time God created Adam

And – as the story goes

Woman came from Adam’s rib –

And that was that – case closed

 

And verily, and yea we say

Thou shall not question why

Or think, or challenge any word

Of Him up in the sky

 

And he who lies with another he

And she who lies with she

Must be then all put to death

Leviticus two-oh-one-three

 

And owning slaves is okay ‘cause

The Good Book finds no fault

And Jonah lived inside a whale

And Lot’s wife turned to salt

 

And Bible folk say these tales are

Apocryphal – truth hidden

So gay folks needn’t worry

Fundamentalists are just kiddin’

 

And war? And murder? And man’s

Inhumanity to man?

These things are none of God’s affair

Have faith – He has a plan

 

Anyway –

 

So nature was by then a thing

Disposable to shape

To take from and despoil

To pillage and to rape

 

And yet I’ve never heard that “word”

Mine eyes have never seen

That glory – but I have seen lightning,

Mountains, grasses green

 

I’ve heard the ocean’s mighty roar

Seen the stars we spin amidst

Seen photos of our tiny planet

By the sun been kissed

 

I’ve seen the majestic elephant

The shark, the whale, the bee

Seen waterfalls and tiny buds

Walked deserts, dove the sea

 

I know each snowflake will be different

Throughout eternity

And within each grain of sand

A googolplex of mystery

 

There’s proof that I am made from

The big bang long ago

Those atoms that have never left

This universe we know

 

And when I need to speak with

Or worship the divine

I stand on holy Mother Earth

And look up at my shrine

 

(In this matter Barking in the Dark in no way wishes to diminish anyone else’s belief system. I am merely stating my own.)

 

 

© tony powers and Barking in the Dark, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to tony powers and Barking in the Dark with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.