— The Buck Stops Here —
Does Atlas underlie the universe,
Standing upon the back of a turtle?
Is there an eternal basic substance
Or is it turtles all the way down?
— Composite Entities —
A God-who-is-a-person would, like us,
Be dependent on, and exist after,
The Ground of Ultimate Reality,
And so could not, in itself, be its own cause.
— We Are It! —
A God-which-is-not-a-person would be
The Ground of Ultimate Reality—
Energy, Awareness, or what you like—
The source of which forms/is our consciousness.
— Human Nature —
God said to Adam and Eve in Eden:
“Do what you like, but don’t eat the apple”.
Now we know that when you tell children
Not to touch something, they certainly will!
— Forbidden Thoughts —
Thoughts good and bad come and go, as the brain
Looks at itself without assigning values.
Still, lucky that others can’t read our minds,
’Though forbidden thoughts are normal and sane.
— Just Think Of It —
If you try hard not to think of something,
Then you will just think of it all the more—
So if told to avoid impure thoughts, you’ll
Think of people naked beneath their clothes!
— A Poor Example —
He murders by flame and flood; he tortures;
He entraps; he blames us for his mistakes;
He holds grudges for our ancestors’ sins;
He throws tantrums and fits—his name is God.
— Poor Craftsmanship —
Who’s to blame for the genetic defects
That lead to social misfits, obsessors,
And other special personalities?
Did the Maker’s hand shake when He made us?
— The Way It Is —
Only a Fool would blame His own creations
For the flaws therein, for His poor craftsmanship,
So rejoice, there’s no Maker of Man—these “flaws”
Provide for interesting character types!
— Hallucinations and Voices —
The founders of the religions were all
“Divinely inspired”, but were each told a
Different story; now we know that their
Visions might be psychotic episodes.
— Reasonable Doubt —
Well, possibly, probably, the quieting
Of the brain’s self-boundary ID center
During focus on mantras, hymns, or prayers
Is a neurological effect, and nothing more.
— Tunnel Vision —
The so-called near-death experience of
Bright lights and a peeking into Heaven
Is but a flood of opiate endorphins
Causing hallucinations and calmness.
— Mindless Souls —
Does Awareness, our soul, have any will
Before birth or after death without a
Brain and a mind for memory, senses,
And decisions? No, not as we know it.
— The Time When Life is Not —
If souls are eternal, then where were they
During the eternity before births?
Nonexistence is nonexistence, whether
It comes before or after a lifetime.
— Enduring, But Not Unique —
There may be no distinct and enduring
Personal identity after death.
For brainless, mindless souls share, with others,
The basic Ground of Existence: Space-Time.
— The Problems of Traditional Religion —
The Christian concept of reward and punishment
Handed out by an omnipotent, omniscient God,
Is derivative of the family experience—
The child and parent—a conception of our world.
— Geographically Arbitrary —
Most deep religious beliefs are shaped by
Little more than local social forces:
Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Christian, or none,
So then, how deep and meaningful are they?
— Our Cousins —
The chimps, with whom we share 98%
Of our DNA, through common ancestors,
Are just about as special as we are,
For they have consciousness and feelings too.
— Ground-Of-Determination (G-O-D) —
G-O-D is merely the quantum wave function
Of the entire universe, hardly some
Vengeful and overly emotional
Superbeing who thrives on adoration.
— “The All” and “The One” —
Energy is eternal, for it can
Neither be created nor destroyed,
Being made but of itself, omnipresent;
It’s the Mother of all Reality.