Thursday, September 4, 2008

Three Poems

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Poetry by Donald Boos
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Where is God?



Is there a god you ask yourself,

As you take your bible off the shelf

This is alleged to be god’s word

Written by Scribes who claim to have heard

the voice of god, or so they said.

But the voice was only within their head.

When people hear voices others cannot hear,

They’re mentally ill is what we fear.

But when they claim the voice is god,

We view them as holy rather than odd.

So in your search for god, the answer you find,

God exists one place, and that’s in man’s mind.




History of God



Gods were created in ancient times by prehistoric men,

To explain the many mysteries that existed way back then.

There were gods of fire and gods of rain,

Gods caused death and gods caused pain.

Whenever an unexplained event occurred

Work of the gods was the explanation heard.

In a complex world that seemed cruel and unkind

Belief in gods gave peace of mind.

And as man’s knowledge and sophistication grew

The comfort derived from belief in gods did too.

An Egyptian pharaoh was of the first

to see the sun as the source of all life on earth.

So he said, “Instead of many gods there would be just one.

That would be Aton, god of the sun.”

Then Moses, leader of the captive Hebrews decreed

One god was all his people would need.

The Hebrew concept of god moved west

Carried by prophets with a religious zest.

Today, though nature’s mysteries are solved by man’s knowledge gains,

The belief in a mythical god remains.



The Holey Bible



The Bible is a holey book, on this point I will agree.

If by holey you mean full of holes in logic, morals, and history.

Some claim the bible was written by god and to doubt it is a sin;

But a critical reader soon discovers it was written by prejudiced men.

Men who thought they were the best around, sort of a superior race.

And they felt it was their god that gave them that special place.

They conquered and slaughtered their neighbors and claimed it was god’s will,

Although that same god was alleged to have said it is wrong to kill.

The bible condones pillage and rape which are worse by far

Than stealing and adultery, that the bible’s commandments bar.

So as a moral guide the bible is poor at best:

You must choose the rules to follow, and discard all the rest.

The stories in the bible that believers swear are true,

were copied from earlier cultures and are therefore far from new.

In them logic is forgotten, and mythology prevails.

To illustrate their absurdity, just fill in the details.

Take the story of the flood with Noah and his boat.

He needed all the animals and some were quite remote.

Kangaroos and koalas come from Australia’s distant land.

While peccaries and roadrunners are from America’s desert sand.

Polar bears and penguins come from opposite poles.

Nutrias are from water and underground the moles.

There are four thousand mammal species and that is quite a few..

But you must include amphibians, reptiles, birds, and insects too.

Food must be taken on board for at least an extra year.

These are the gross details, but I think the picture’s clear.

There is no indication of another of Noah’s required deeds

He must replant the earth from the ark’s storehouse of seeds.

It doesn’t mention the races and how they survived the event.

Where the water came from and where the water went.

It was an impossible task and unnecessary as well.

God could have zapped just the sinners and sent them straight to hell.

The bible’s “holiest” story is an enigma too.

It’s the story of Jesus Christ and what he had to do.

You have a god so powerful he can see a sparrow fall,

Yet prayers so overwhelm him he cannot hear them all.

He will not ask an angel to help him get this done.

So he told a mortal woman she will have his son.

Once the boy is born he cannot draw an immortal breath.

until he lives his life on earth and dies a cruel death.

They say he made this sacrifice for our benefit indeed.

Now they pray to Jesus, so he will intercede.

If it’s god who makes the rules about prayer and sacrifice,

he could easily just say that prayers alone suffice.

Prophets and priests concocted a fantastic story

of a father, son, and holy spirit ruling heaven’s glory.

People repeat this story without thinking about what they say.

Because if they thought about it, the myth would go away.

The Egyptians left no record of the plagues or Moses’ flight.

So we have no confirmation that the bible story is right.

No Roman ever recorded in seriousness or mirth

That all Israelites must return to the city of their birth.

As a mid-east story the bible has one hitch.

Fact and fiction blend so much you can’t tell which is which.

There is one thing in the bible you can easily find.

Every cruelty and perversion invented by mankind.

4 comments:

AtheistExile said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Everett Marx said...

My favorite line is from the third poem: "Where the water came from and where the water went." It stuck in my head upon first reading and will not leave. Not that I'm complaining!

Candace said...

I wish this was widely circulated so that lots of people could read it. I esp. liked the "Holey Bible." Heh.

Candace said...

Oh - forgot to mention my favorite line:

So as a moral guide the bible is poor at best/You must choose the rules to follow and discard all the rest.

exactly.