when you say of this you know
of God almighty high above
or horned devil down below
I sang the songs, I read the book
like every Christian person
and yet I see no proof of God
no love, no rhyme, no reason
for in the streets the children starve
and inside the children cry
what God of love could ever so
allow just one child to die
and there are sick and manifold
and still mercy passes by
abundant as the years grow old
we simply endure to die
and still you claim beneficence
when our suffering is high
human misery is our truth
that never once passes by
and bred into the human bone
such pain, misery and woe
that our lack of your salvation
is all worship that we know
and still the church vehemently
defends its little hold
to cast the poor from bed and heath
to go battle out the cold
through war and hate and corruption
a grim history of greed
two thousand years and still the same
these old stories that they read
so if God be God only if
this God can and will comply
yet human suffering endures
so this does not satisfy
for if God is willing but cannot
then he must be impotent
if God can act but does not care
then he is malevolent
if God cannot nor does not care
then why call him our own Lord
then why salute his heralds here
and to die beneath their sword
if this is God then let him speak
and come stand accountable
for if he is the God they claim
then he is responsible
and if their God does not answer
then they must take his old place
to answer for the wounds they caused
to our sex and class and race
the church cannot expect to stand
with both feet in our deep graves
and preach a gospel sweet and pure
of our God above who saves
the church cannot expect to thrive
while robbing the beggars blind
and preaching that it only has
our very interests in mind
the church cannot expect our souls
and strip us down to the core
the church cannot take all of us
and still demand even more
remember when they caught the witch
in old past forgotten times
and burned her on a fire of lies
for these imaginary crimes
remember when they came to save
darkest Africa from sin
and said that they should thank Europe
when they then came barging in
remember when they said to men
who dared sleep with other men
that God comes with his gnashing teeth
to consume and to torture them
so damn the world that disagrees
for failing blind compliance
and coddle all the naive brats
through their own pseudoscience
if God above there ever was
that holds any truth for me
the Christian god is not the one
for he simply cannot be
and if he is; his church alone
makes for his sole discredit
if they should hate, then why believe
in them that says he let it
I do not know of what you speak
when you say of this you know
of God almighty high above
or horned devil down below
But if per chance you have some proof
by all means come and share it
For proof of burden lies on those
Who claim and never dare it
by all means come and share it
For proof of burden lies on those
Who claim and never dare it
-o0o-
In this poem I would like to thank the philosophical work of Sam Harris
