How is religion?

http://alcuinbramerton.blogspot.com/2005/01/how-is-religion.html
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Religion has atrophied.
It has become
A matter, merely,
Of dust,
Dogma
And old books.

There is no spark,
No spunk,
No spirit.

God has moved out.
Religion has been left behind.
God happens elsewhere now.


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Cause and causation

One tame poodle to another:
"Who created the universe,
Woof woof?"
"God created the universe,
Woof woof."
"Who created God,
Woof woof?"
"Nobody created God.
God has always existed,
Woof woof woof."

If the universe
Needs a cause,
Why doesn’t God
Need a cause?

And if God
Doesn’t need a cause,
Why should the universe
Need a cause?

If our personal agenda requires it,
We can posit:
"God has always existed."
But another equally valid personal agenda
Might posit:
"The universe has always existed."

And anyway,
If we posit:
"God has always existed,"
There is a consequential question
To address.
"How do you know?
Who was the privileged observer
Who noticed this fact
And told you about it?"

You might answer:
"God was the privileged observer.
He told me about it."
This then raises
A couple of other
Consequential questions:
"How do you know it was God
Speaking to you,
Rather than the wino
Behind you
In the fish shop?"
And: "If God did tell you this,
Why hasn't he said
Exactly the same thing
To all those people
Who are more intelligent than you?
Does God only communicate
With the brain-dead?"

There would appear
To be a problem here.
Can anyone see what it is?

Might the whole thing
Simply be
A matter of opinion;
A matter of personal superstition?


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Nothing passes

He had absolutely nothing
Inside his head,
So he decided to become
A theologian.

His head was like
An unbroken eggshell
With no egg inside.

So there was plenty of space
For vacuous dogma
To rattle around
The soft echo-chamber
Of his untenanted skull.

His vocal chords, however,
Were well-developed,
So he was a great success
As a theologian.

His vocal chords
Were elastic,
Stentorian,
And lacking
In any species
Of self-doubt.

So he became a priest as well.

If you are a priest
It helps enormously
If you have an empty head
And well-developed vocal chords.

He could articulate
Periphrases without focus
And circumlocutions without content,
Such was the felicity
Of his decibels.

In the end he rose
To become the grand international
Head of his church.

But then a strange thing happened:
His church ceased to exist.
It had no members -
Not even him.

And no-one noticed its passing.

If you are standing
By the side of a busy road
And nothing passes,
You tend not to notice -
Even if the nothing is noisy.


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