Religion. Humanity’s vestigial organ. Belief in gods a leftover from a time when we understood so very little about our world and our place in it. Something doesn’t make sense? God did it. Something I can’t explain? God did it—the God of the Gaps. Even in so-called modernity, religion still latches onto minds and spreads like a virus, its unquestioned rules, guilt, and fear.
God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
In my poem, Prayer of the Unconvinced, I set my sights on the absurdity of it all—the gods, the saints, the rituals, the unquestioned obedience—and lay bare the contradictions, cruelties, and nonsense that religions have perpetuated for millennia.
Prayer of the Unconvinced: An Atheist Hymn
You beseech your gods; it puzzles me so,
your wont to beg and pray.
I cannot bring myself to heel,
to smother my curiosity and obey.
For if the god who’s claimed your soul—
all-knowing, omniscient, and good—
were all he claimed and made this world,
he’d take the credit.
Every bit.
Understood?
For childhood cancers,
tornadoes, diseases,
pedophile priests,
and Crusades.
The Holocaust,
wars, parasitic infections,
world hunger, suicide bombers,
and AIDS.
Yet no one blames this just, perfect god.
Her creatures will foot the bill.
The flaw is in man—designed imperfection—
yet somehow blamed for free will.
But your god is all-powerful, all love, is he not?
Incapable of making mistakes?
If that’s the case, you’d think he’d raise
all those dead kids from all of those quakes.
Still, religion’s pall hangs on like a cold,
heads stuffed with fossilized thoughts.
Because those who follow invisible gods
common sense, for sure, they have not.
This trust in airy supernatural things,
in gods and saints and sins,
depends on its self-anointed guides
eager to choke free thought of its whims.
You swear it’s true—divinely transcribed—
yet it fails time’s tests and questions.
Your frightened hands pressed tight in prayer
can’t bend the facts or stop progression.
Your holy books are relic scrolls,
cherry-picked catalogs of dread—
a thousand rules to bind the living
and comfort the long-since dead.
You heap praise on a mute, impotent god
perched on its trembling gold throne.
The silence is christened “love” because
you fear it’s true, we’re entirely alone.
Now if all this were merely childhood tales,
harmless sleepytime sweep,
I’d shrug; so what, they’re quaint enough.
But scripture’s words are sharp and cut deep.
It’s faith that demands we kill our doubts,
requires our kneels and nods.
It thrives by blinding every mind,
turning questions into trashcan wads.
So, in the harsh light of this holy charade,
stripped of its sacred dressings,
I’ll stand where reason cannot flinch.
It’s life without faith that’s a blessing.
Religion is often used as a safety net: blame it on the devil when something goes amiss, praise god when you do something right, so as not to sound arrogant about your own (koff koff god given) talents. “Jesus took the wheel” my Baptist neighbor said, describing her near miss on a slippery road–but you were driving, I said, and she just smiled sweetly, “no no, Jesus helped me”. It’s a convoluted way to keep yourself immersed in humility; it also is a dandy way to avoid criticism when you mess up–‘the devil made me do it”. sigh. It’s a wonder we all don’t just run screaming into the winter night over this. I actually said to her, ‘when do YOU get to take credit for anything?’ she had no answer.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Sounds like we’re on the same page when it comes to the whole religion thing. It’s funny and sad how believers are so quick to give god credit for only good things while blaming god for nothing bad that befalls humanity. We can’t apply logic and reason to religion. It’s merely an exercise in pointless frustration.
It’s simple—religions are destructive and ridiculous nonsense. The quicker we can put them behind us as a species, the better. Although, given how there’s still such a large weak-willed, desperate contingent of the human race, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Definitely not in my lifetime. Freedom of religion should mean freedom from religion. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, like the US, it’s impossible to get away from it.