On Choosing To Be a Thinker
I sit by my radio tonight
And listen to people consume
The transfigured body of their god
And speak and sing of myteries
Beyond my meagre ken; of hope, true hope
And love and faith and light.
And I know that they are deluding
Themselves, that truly there is nothing more;
And still more; that that is the beauty of it:
That what exists is mystery enough
But still, somewhere, somehow, within
My frame resides a longing which
Responds to the call of the bells,
Of the still small trumpet, the massed
Breath, crescendo of feeling.
And I push it back, this impulse.
Back where it belongs, and go and read
A book, that I can comprehend. For what
Am I without denial, without rejection of
The urge, without self-construction?
I choose reason and thought; these are my truths.
So I close my mind to the bells,
Do not join in the choir.
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"I choose reason and thought; these are my truths."
ReplyDelete"And I know that they are deluding / Themselves"
As we all know, scientists are all rational atheists, and Christians are all low-IQ emotion- and impluse-driven self-deluding deists.
Or not.
Welcome to the real world, Mr. Dawkins.
The poem is too pseudo-rationalist, and lacks the epistemological balls to be asserting "reason and thought" to be truths (especially given the identity of the author), but still nicely captures the caught-in-the-middle feeling of an atheist in a Christian country.
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