10.07.2005

Dear Atheist: A Response to Sam Harris

(specifically, to this post -- h/t Ambivablog)

You, dear Atheist,
Are a gift from on high:
Proof of the existence of God,
And the priceless gift of free will.

You are also proof
Of our refusal, as species,
To grow up:
Like many,
You are angry that we
Do not want what you want,
Or see what you see.

This makes us wrong,
In your eyes.
Your anger exalts you.

Unlike you,
i do not assume
That a just God
Would not
Permit suffering.

Nor would i assume
That a flawless car
Would never crash.

We are set in the world
Together,
You and i.

i thank God
That you exist.

You are so right
To cry out,
Imploring us
To open our eyes
To reality

But why must we
Be required
To see
What you see?

The world will know peace,
Not when we all see what you see,
But when each of us sees
What we have each
Been created to see.

Then we speak it forth:
Eyes are opened.
Souls drink in
The Truth
From the many streams.

It comes from different sources,
But it all quenches.

To know
What you are called to know:
That is peace.
That is blessing --
Delight without dogma.

May we both know it
In this lifetime.

--Mr. Gobley

9 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Yogo said...

Thank you Mr. Gobley. Lovely.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

Om! Nappy has said it all for me.

Anonymous said...

The thing I love most about your poems is how always connected to eachother they are, like your fingers to your hand or lips to a mouth. It's late, i'm not being very imaginative tonight.

I could tell you how much I love this poem, but really still be thinking of the two previous ones and my memories and frosted feet flying 'til I can't feel them anymore, so frozen w/the connection of the frost.

I'm happy tonight. No headache, phew!! My memory did answer me and sent pictures of his family and i'm excited to reciprocate because I'm so proud of mine.

Please keep poeming along, mr. gobley. You lift my spirits and make my soul smile. It's a God-given gift you have. The fact that you take the time to share is further proof of this.

Anonymous said...

Mr Gobley

Thank you for your poem. I enjoyed it very much; you have a talent with the written word and you should use it.

However, one thing I contiunually find in responses to rational viewpoints posed by athesists, the central issues are never debated.

Your poem is nice, no doubt. But we are fortunate to have a variety of opinions on the subject of faith and reason available to us, not forgetting with the most powerful force in the universe, the human brain. I have not seen 'reason' successfully used to defend faith. Just my 2 cents worth

Steven

David said...

Steven:

Thank you for your comment, and for visiting.

Many traditions have strong rationalist approaches to faith. The Jesuits come to mind, as do the writings of masters of the Jewish discipline of Mussar. I refer you to the writings of Moses Maimonides -- one of the great scientists of his day, as well as expositors of Torah -- as a brief example.

Of course, these people are so infused with faith that their reason is either distilled or polluted, depending upon your perspective.

I thoroughly agree that we need diversity of viewpoint and opinion. It is when any kind of orthodoxy is imposed on us all that we suffer the most.

Anonymous said...

"Unlike you,
i do not assume
That a just God
Would not
Permit suffering.

Nor would i assume
That a flawless car
Would never crash."

Faulty analogy. A flawless car would drive itself and would not crash as such a crash would indicate that the cars nagivation system was not designed, well, flawlessly.

Anonymous said...

Unlike you,
i do not assume
That a just God
Would not
Permit suffering.

Nor would i assume
That a flawless car
Would never crash.
-------------------

A flawless car would be incapable of crashing as it would not require a driver, as, given its flawless nature, it's navigation system would never lead it to crash (as that would be indicative of a flaw).

Sure, if God is outside of nature/reality then science can no nothing about God. But if I propose that a zelopholus degrasus exists outside of time/space would anyone have any reason to take me seriously? No. Postulating the existence of anything outside of time/space serves no utility what so ever.

Anonymous said...

Supreme logic is irrefutable.

Supreme spirit is undeniable.

They both exist.