–griz

Thank you for the poem. It’s very powerful … I can see how it would fit into a novel called “The Godless Years.” The problem of evil being so powerful and ever-present in a world supposedly created and ruled by an infinitely good, infinitely powerful being is what started me questioning my fundamentalist indoctrination in my teens … I finally decided the story, as it had been taught to me, just didn’t hang together.

For many years I threw out the concept of HIM entirely, then finally reached the point of realizing that just because people made up illogical stories about some super-powered human-like being running the show didn’t mean the universe was a dead, meaningless machine … it just meant that the people making up stories had & have no clue as to what’s really going on, what patterns in the larger reality translate into intelligence, organization, and underlying meaning (not that the larger reality can ever be carved up and made to fit in limited, static human concepts).

So I agree with your line, “I think HE never was” … because HE’s defined by a human story, created by fallible human beings and limited to concepts humans can understand and deal with … but that doesn’t mean there’s no spiritual well from which we may drink, it just means we have to find it ourselves, not through some story created to control and soothe frightened children.

Glad you dropped by … I sort of know what you think about religion, enough to know that you feel like a kindred spirit to me. Feels good to be able to share my views with you.

As you may have figured out from this post, I think the so-called “proofs” of fundamentalist religions are similar the same kind of reasoning as is in my post, basically “it’s true because we say it’s true, and we say it’s true because it’s true” … based on what I call “reality-free loops” of reasoning, reality-free because at no point is what they say testable or verifiable in our here-and-now reality.

I think fundamentalist religions serve several purposes … organize people into long-lived groups, groups with much power because members will die for them and dedicate their lives to them … and help members feel like they belong, like they know the truth, believe they have an infinitely powerful being watching over them, believe they are superior to others who don’t believe what they believe, and believe that they don’t have to fear death because the being watching over them will transfer their memories and sense of identity into another body in another, happier place. The price is surrendering their own freedom of thought and action to the church … apparently a lot of people think it’s a worthwhile trade.

Spirituality, in my opinion, is something entirely different, an opening to life and the intelligence and beauty of life, without having to put a human face on it or fit it into a human-centered story. The universe is intelligent … we are part of that intelligence, but no more aware of the greater organism than a neuron is aware of the human of which it is a part, or of the greater web of which the human is a part, endless patterns endlessly repeating, all (probably) to some degree alive. At least that’s a good enough story for me, though mostly I don’t worry about turning life into a story … working on just being here, now, and getting away from the old stories I’ve been taught.

Peace, my Brother.

He wasn’t there.

I was too scared
and didn’t do a thing
when they took him away.
I heart the screams
and saw the beatings
and as they put him
on the train
I looked around
looked everywhere.
But no,
HE wasn’t there.

In that cold day
of November
when they forced me
to watch
the hanging of my friends
I hoped… until
it was too late
that HE will come
I looked around
looked everywhere
But…. no,
HE wasn’t there.

Oh, I remember
that ungodly silence
the day when mother died
and how the beast just
walked away, and smiled.
Oh, I did prayed,
and search for HIM, I did
looked everywhere
But HE
Like every time before
HE wasn’t there

It’s quite some time
since I renounced to
even look around.
HE’s never there
and you know what?
I think HE never was.

Pierre

Blessings, griz … I’m glad you’re here.

Beautiful.

–griz