Agnostic

Believe in humanity, believe in the love of man.

Agnostic

I once served a god,

or should I say,

he once served me.

But the merit of this devotion

has indeed been sorely tested.

For I abandoned his hollow promises

and he abandoned my dreams.

Now we share in a mutual distrust.

Him of me and me of him

and the divinity he preaches.

I served as a naive boy

on the altar of Christ,

in the vestments of devotion and belief.

I took the sacraments,

digested them

and washed them down with scripture.

I sang with an angel’s voice

in the church choir,

feeling uplifted

in my spiritual song.

Then my world collapsed

and god became a fraud.

Someone invented to shackle me

and all mankind

to the doctrine of men.

Men without depth

or courage or conviction

in humanity.

Men who needed false gods to exist,

to persuade others to follow them

into the crusade.

 

26/12/14

Author's Note

Reviews

[Matching Socks]

I always get in trouble when I say I don't believe in God.
Let the people I live with and interact with be the ones to judge me.
Let my own conscience punish me with guilt if I've done wrong.

[ANTO]

I'd like to echo Prydes summary here John and say that I thought this a challenging write too.
As a lapsed Catholic I took the sacraments and I have spent much time tackling the guilt that comes with years of dogma since I was 4 yrs old. I swing from being humanist but when the chips are down I still pray. I am always in a state of spiritual conflict. Fair play to you for taking this on my friend.
You put me to shame mate.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

No Anto you need feel no shame as this is what religious dogma does to ordinary decent people.

[ANTO]

Its too deeply ingrained J mate - (i feel like one of the soldiers in the war films that gets hit and says to the rest of the guys - you go on - I'll only hold you back) lol.

[Pryde Foltz]

Men without depth
or courage or conviction
in humanity.
Men who needed false gods to exist,
to persuade others to follow them
into the crusade.

Faith is a complex thing and means many things to different people. We get in trouble when we see God as some kind of caretaker and religion as a stringent how-to … but faith itself for many comes dow to love and a sense of connectedness. A challenging write, here.