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.