Damn. There's a worldveiw if I ever saw one. I can't say that I've read a better poetic display of what one feels in relationship to faith.

Was this inspired by "Beyond Good and Evil"?

"Decide that You had never been
That faith in You is broken"

These two lines really stood out to me. They seem to be the summation of your argument/article here.

"my Lamb and Serpent true"

Do you include the symbolic images of good and evil here, further impressing upon us you see neither as ultimately true?

"Disgusting, how Your judgement rings
Of justice drawn to shameless things"

I wasn't sure what you meant by the last line.... his judgement disgusting, because it's drawn to shameless thing... what are to you the shameless things?

"Composed beneath Your eye"

Are you referring to judging us for doing the things which do not shame us?

"That You could dare to grant us wings
And damn us, should we fly"

These two lines are beautiful (read very beautiful), but I'm not sure, theologically what you are saying. Here, are you referring to our imaginations, impulses, our mind, which can naturally does that which is judged wrong by God?

This is inferring that it was His choice for those impulses to be there, right? The Christian reply would be that it wasn't his will that sin come into/onto us, hence the Crucifiction/Ressurection/Salvation aspect of Christianity, correct? Or would you see it differently?

"The truth shall come, by our device
And not by that of You."

GREAT lines here.   In this, you are saying that we/you find the truth by/in/for ourselves, and do not need a "absolute standard", such as the holy text (i.e. the Bible, Torrah, etc), as other religions seem to feel?


While I don't agree with what you've come to see as truth (for myself), I respect that you've seen it as truth for yourself, and have an opinion for yourself, and hence that your language isn't "bahhhh."

Great poem, by the way.   Oh dear, 666 in my post count.... we should worry.

~Titus

[This message has been edited by PoetryIsLife (02-10-2003 07:16 PM).]

empty-armed
and half a soul to go
                     -el sol
                        --Zwan

Es ist gut, daß das Leben die Toten studieren sollte.

Woohoo!  7 replies, and just three of them are by JM.     And hey, 3 by titus.  Which means 3 people read my poem.  

My adoring public of 3 whole people, eh?  I usually wait for more responses before including a thank you message.  Sorry for the lateness, JM.

Thank you all for your responses... I didn't write this specifically about the war, but I have been reading a lot about that lately, as well as reading Saint Augustine's "Confessions," which raises a lot of questions about faith.  

I don't find Augustine's argument on knowledge of the non-material very convincing, so this entry into Mortar and Pestilence (which goes along with the theme of the series, that God's own creation denies His existence) discusses how the material contradicts the divine, and how the senses we have learned to trust should be considered more reliable than the superstitions we inherit.

I'm trying to make this series as timeless as possible and for this reason I don't intentionally refer to any current events...

Oh and JM... thank you so much for taking the time to read the whole series front to back.  You know, that absolutely made my day on a day where I really needed that kind of attention.  You're a real doll.  

Titus, much of your interpretation was on, some of it was off, but I think if you read my poem a second time keeping in mind the main focus of it (that God's creation disproves him), you'll be able to understand me more clearly.

Carly, your shallow interpretation is right on.  Are you calling me a shallow poet?     I spent a lot of time toying with those lines you and JM seem so fond of, trying to get them just right.  It's a simple analogy I've used before in discussions of the free will argument.  I've often asked why God allows His creation the capacity to sin if He punishes them for sinning, and the response has usually been, "he wants people to have free will."

Capacity to do everything isn't necessary for free will though... we don't have the capacity to fly, for example, but that doesn't make our free will any less present.  Giving us the capacity to sin and then damning us for it, is the same as giving us the capacity to fly, and then damning us for it.  That's what those lines are speaking of.

Much love to all 3 of you,

Parasite

"Faith" means the will to avoid knowing what is true.
~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche