(no subject)
Mar. 8th, 2019 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apiphile posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
derekpoetrydumpwe all turn our eyes to heaven
How does an atheist pray?
If enlightenment is just a feeling
Made of chemicals in the brain
And cannot be trusted
If connectedness is just a feeling
Made of chemicals in the brain
And cannot be trusted,
How does an atheist pray?
If connectedness is made of chemicals in the brain
And the chemicals (proteins) are made of molecules
And the molecules are made of atoms
And the atoms are made of particles
Created at the birth of the universe
Like all matter, like all power
Then isn’t every particle my brother
Isn’t every molecule my sister
Isn’t every protein my family
Isn’t every part of this universe connected to me
In the white hot heat of the beginning?
Isn’t that feeling correct?
(And who will love you if there is no God to love you?
Oh then I will love me, and I will forgive me, and I will absolve me;
And I won’t ask for worship
And I won’t ask for prayers
And I won’t tell the loving other people
To abandon the love of theirs)
How do atheists pray, though, if you have no soul
If all you are is matter
Why do you matter
How do atheists pray, then, if you’re empty as a bowl?
If all I am is matter, am I different from a rock
Do I have a claim upon the space that I take up?
But there is no other matter
Like the matter I’m made of
Every single moment of my life is only mine
And every single molecule has changed over time
And every single combination of events
Means there’s nothing identical to me
In this whole firmament
If all I am is matter I am still unique
I am the only me that will ever exist
The same is true of granite
But I’m okay with this.
(And though I am unique, I am never alone:
The microbes in my body feed me
The atoms in the air sustain me
And when death comes to bleed me
My body will become
A million other things)
How do atheists endure, if you’ve no God to hold you
If there is no power beside you
In the darkest moments of your life
There’s no one to guide you
Through the longest night
How do atheists endure, without a spirit to enfold you?
If the night is long and lonely, the sun still rises
If my heart is broken, one day it will not matter
If my way is lost, my feet will find another
All this suffering and horror will pass
“I” may pass with it
“I” may not survive it
But it will pass.
And when the heat of the universe is gone at last
My particles will lie
In the sea of room-temperature nothing
With nothing to differentiate me
From the neighbours I loved
The foes I feared
The plants that I ate
And the worms that ate me
I need no gods to love me or demons to hate me;
This will pass
Time is intemperate
Nothing lasts
This will pass.
How do atheists pray then? A little like this:
I am connected
I am unique
All this will pass
But for now
I exist.
Posted at 12:08 PM 20 notes Permalink ∞
How does an atheist pray?
If enlightenment is just a feeling
Made of chemicals in the brain
And cannot be trusted
If connectedness is just a feeling
Made of chemicals in the brain
And cannot be trusted,
How does an atheist pray?
If connectedness is made of chemicals in the brain
And the chemicals (proteins) are made of molecules
And the molecules are made of atoms
And the atoms are made of particles
Created at the birth of the universe
Like all matter, like all power
Then isn’t every particle my brother
Isn’t every molecule my sister
Isn’t every protein my family
Isn’t every part of this universe connected to me
In the white hot heat of the beginning?
Isn’t that feeling correct?
(And who will love you if there is no God to love you?
Oh then I will love me, and I will forgive me, and I will absolve me;
And I won’t ask for worship
And I won’t ask for prayers
And I won’t tell the loving other people
To abandon the love of theirs)
How do atheists pray, though, if you have no soul
If all you are is matter
Why do you matter
How do atheists pray, then, if you’re empty as a bowl?
If all I am is matter, am I different from a rock
Do I have a claim upon the space that I take up?
But there is no other matter
Like the matter I’m made of
Every single moment of my life is only mine
And every single molecule has changed over time
And every single combination of events
Means there’s nothing identical to me
In this whole firmament
If all I am is matter I am still unique
I am the only me that will ever exist
The same is true of granite
But I’m okay with this.
(And though I am unique, I am never alone:
The microbes in my body feed me
The atoms in the air sustain me
And when death comes to bleed me
My body will become
A million other things)
How do atheists endure, if you’ve no God to hold you
If there is no power beside you
In the darkest moments of your life
There’s no one to guide you
Through the longest night
How do atheists endure, without a spirit to enfold you?
If the night is long and lonely, the sun still rises
If my heart is broken, one day it will not matter
If my way is lost, my feet will find another
All this suffering and horror will pass
“I” may pass with it
“I” may not survive it
But it will pass.
And when the heat of the universe is gone at last
My particles will lie
In the sea of room-temperature nothing
With nothing to differentiate me
From the neighbours I loved
The foes I feared
The plants that I ate
And the worms that ate me
I need no gods to love me or demons to hate me;
This will pass
Time is intemperate
Nothing lasts
This will pass.
How do atheists pray then? A little like this:
I am connected
I am unique
All this will pass
But for now
I exist.
Posted at 12:08 PM 20 notes Permalink ∞
