by Bob Mundle

Created on: October 27, 2009

Musings on God

[A Debate between Myself and I]

If God didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him (Voltaire)

(i) Proposition

There is no 'One True God',

merely pieces of a mystical jigsaw;

shards of a mirror

that reflects our own needs and desires.

(ii) Argument For:

All of us seek a deity

who fills the shape in our minds

we create for the God to inhabit,

cosy and warm

like a hand in a well used glove,

reinforcing the image indelibly sprayed

on childhood's memories,

and when we kneel to pray,

one beside the other in the same space,

at the Holy place,

we each keen to a different being,

a God of light, of power,

of love, of hate, and ask to be delivered

from mistakes we have made.

It's a trade:

We worship the God that saves

us from the great divide,

We want the God of the winning side.

(iii) Argument Against:

But what of a God who fails?

How do we reconcile what we want

With what we've got.

Do we forgive, and forget?

Or do we change allegiance?

Or widen the parameters of belief

And cling to another Being,

and in so doing,

ensure that God will always win,

and when we see the child that suffers

we remember Jesus, and cry let us,

bring the child to him

for he will remove all sin and

return us to innocence.

So is God

just a name,

a scapegoat,

something divine to blame

for human frailties?

Is God, in essence, with his glory and power

simply a necessary evil?

(iv) Conclusion

In the end, does it really matter

Whether God exists, or is an invention?

If he does not exist, we certainly do invent him

And in times of need, seek his intervention

And when it works, we give praise and sing.

And when it fails, we just keep looking,

and praying..

(v) Prayer

Now, while evening stars irradiate

the vast black bag of night

I gape into wind-swept frosty air

and sense nothing there.

Oh God, if you can see me

I want no Kings from the East

or heavenly chorals; or swift angels;

all I desire is some peace.

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