Poetry – I WANNA BELIEVE

Posted on by Opher

I WANNA BELIEVE

I wanna believe

I wanna believe

You have to believe

I wanna believe

I see the mystery

I feel the awe

I wanna believe

Show me what it’s all for

Give me a break

Give me a sign

I just wanna believe

It’ll all work out fine

So the universe is big

Life is so complex

Time lasts forever

And mystery comes next

I wanna believe

I wanna believe

You have to believe

I wanna believe

There must be a reason

There must be a why

Looking up at this wonder

You could fall into the sky

I’ve got this mind

I feel and I breathe

I look through two peepholes

To a reality I perceive

I wanna believe

I wanna believe

You have to believe

I wanna believe

It’s hard to imagine

 it could exist without me

Does a tree really fall

With nobody to see?

Still it doesn’t make sense

All this wonder and awe

Believing in afterlives

Does not explain what it’s for

Heaven’s so crowded

Everything nice for eternity

So pleasant and twee

Bored to death by perpetual ecstasy

I’ve trouble with this purpose

Your God’s eternity

It doesn’t make any sense to me

You see

When my brain gets no blood

There won’t be a me

I wanna believe

I wanna believe

You have to believe

I wanna believe

It’d be nice to think

That there would

But wishing it so

Does not mean that it could

Our thoughts are so profound

Our consciousness great

Our galaxy spins

In an infinite state

It’s amazing and impossible

So we can’t comprehend

But with no greater purpose

One day it will end

It can make you feel good

To think of other stars

But the purpose we need

Is to do better with ours

I wanna believe

I wanna believe

You have to believe

I wanna believe

But I’m afraid I cannot

Books written by men

Do not thrill me a lot

Paradise invented for power

To put despots

In their ivory tower

And religions created

By the hour

I do believe

There is no

No heaven or hell

I do believe

There’s no sea

In this shell.

OPHER 20.9.96

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a purpose to life and we all toodle off to paradise for eternity, meet up with the rellies and friends and live happily ever after?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a paradise somewhere where everything was wonderful?

Wouldn’t it be nice if all the different religious sacred books were right (at least the nice bits) and there was a God?

Unfortunately it all looks too human and contrived to me.

Religion has been used for power and control and still is.

Too many children have been indoctrinated from birth and too much insane cruelty inflicted.

I look around me and see beauty, awe and wonder. I do not even glimpse creation.

The human imagination and psychological needs have conjured up an elaborate charade to fill in the gaps.

Why should be fear death? What has formed this wondrous universe? What is the purpose of life?

Don’t worry. I have all the answers.

Poetry – We used to worship – religion and faith.

Posted on by Opher

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We used to worship

The lesson of the past is that things come and go. So many gods who were universally worshipped have toppled into oblivion. Gods and Goddesses thought so powerful that they constructed the universe and ruled all things, and either gave or withheld their assistance to humans, have been long forgotten. Where are Hrouda, Rura, Tiwaz, Vercana, Amon, Ash, Hu, Ket, Mut, Ptah, Aife, Blai, Clota, Cred, Ixtab, Mudu and a million others. People put their faith in them. People willingly died for them. Prayers, rituals, costumes and sacrifices were conceived to satisfy these deities. Their assistance was sought and praise was heaped upon them when it worked, and excuses found when it failed (we were not following the instructions were we). So many forgotten tribes were the ‘chosen’ ones.

So many religions waxed and waned.

Yet the ones we presently subscribe to are the real ones; the only real ones. They will never wane.

For one who does not believe, such as me, the prayers, costumes, rituals and entreaties, look silly.

If there is a mystical force it is within all of us, all the fabric of the universe, and not embodied in some human created god. There is no such thing as such a human construct as paradise or hell.

I cannot wait for the waning, for an awakening. We have life, an incredible universe and we live in the midst of great wonder and majesty. We are surrounded with astounding wonder. That is surely enough.

 

We used to worship

 

We used to worship the sun and moon;

We thought they were gods,

But now we understand what they really are –

Only rock and gas –

And the mysticism has dissipated on the solar breeze.

 

We used to worship trees, rocks and streams

And pray to the spirits that resided within,

But now we understand the molecules

Possess no spiritual qualities

Other than the wonder that resides in our own minds.

 

We used to worship Zeus, Apollo and Baal;

Make sacrifices, follow rituals

And offer up our prayers.

Now they, and the thousands like them,

Are banished to the past.

Their universal power no longer of consequence.

 

How many virgins?

How many sheep, goats and cattle,

Had their throats slit

In a futile attempt to curry favours

From a human god?

 

No lessons from the past

Seem to impact upon us now.

Our beliefs in Jesus, Mohamed and Moses

Will last for ever.

The will not eventually

Follow the sun.

Will they?

 

So I will sit in awe and thrill to a sunset,

Lie beneath the stars and absorb the majesty,

Smile with soft eyes at the spectrum of life

And relish the warmth of love and friendship.

It is the closest to worship I can achieve.

It’s enough for me.

 

Opher 22.6.2016