Why I can't be an Atheist Is that I believe in good. I believe in evil. I believe in the supernatural. I believe in truth. I believe in a common shared experience. I believe in a moral certainty. I believe in sexual fidelity. I believe in monogamy. I believe in inherent values. Why I cannot be a Muslim Is because the religion teaches its adherents to lie. Frankly, this one concept in Islam is so blasphemous to my ears That in the face of persecution, Muslims are allowed to lie. To me, God's standard is truth. If you were a Muslim, and that God were true You'd almost be compelled to tell the truth. Also, I cannot see myself bowing to a rock; If not for the flawed laws in the Koran The constant prostration to a rock in the middle of a desert Shows to me, at least, that the religion is centered around idolatry And is nothing more than statecraft. Why I cannot be a Hindu--- Though there is no other religion I'd be If not for Christianity, the only other one Enticing to me is Hinduism. But, its myths have bad ideas about charity. It praises the prince who capriciously gives Two mountains of gold to two passer yonders Rather than to the prince who labors For twenty-four hours to give based on the poor's needs. It seems the religion advocates lazy charity; And it also believes in a Manichaeism, Making good equal to evil in strength. Which, I cannot believe either. And the very notion of becoming a god Is petulant, self serving and dangerous. I cannot believe in any religion That would turn its adherents into gods. Thereby, giving authority to men What is unjust to give them Due to our fallible and finite nature. I also cannot stomach Dharma or Reincarnation As if all life were, is about ending it, I find this view horrible and immoral. I think life ought to be celebrated, And rewarded for a good one with eternal bliss. I also find Dharma insufficient And lazy, so as to excuse the suffering of the poor And to excuse injustice, and so tidily chalk it up With reincarnation, giving justice to pointless abuses. Why I cannot be a Buddhist Is because I find no meaning in suffering. There can be no meaning in suffering. To me, suffering is pointless, and is to be avoided. I find the religion's founder to be gross; As he would sit among battlefields And meditate among the rotting corpses. He would sit in graveyards and meditate. He seemed, almost, so inured and disassociated from the world. He, rather than help others, simply bore great grief And I find that kind of inaction pointless And even dangerous, and at the highest degree Buddhism is self serving in every aspect as a religion. Why I cannot be a Shinto or Zoroaster Is the same reason. I cannot believe In an ordering of spirits To where evil ones are given equal weight to good. I cannot believe it, because I believe good is strongest And evil is simply a disfiguration of what is good. Evil is a distortion of the good, or it's something That distorts and therefore, is negative rather than something Positive. I find evil must be destroyed one day Fully, and that it cannot be dualistic Giving equal weight to both good and evil. I believe that good must be stronger than evil And one day destroy it, otherwise, I cannot believe in God, if God is in part equally strong as evil. Why I cannot be a Pagan Is that it is banal to me to believe That many gods and goddesses are warring Among one another. That they are all benevolent And thereby, each having its own aim Wars with the other gods, giving license to one hero And they all vote upon the virtues of man. I find this contradicts the very spirit of Good To say that good is compartmentalized In metaphors about war, love, oceans or hell. That is all Pagan gods and goddesses are To me, are metaphors. And I cannot believe Metaphors are powerful enough for me to believe In and worship---as that's a kind of idolatry which I will never succumb to. I cannot be a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness Because I believe in the Trinity. I find God must exist in Three Persons. Thereby, if One God exists And carries all the attributes of God Commonly attributed to Him, Then God must exist in three Persons. Thereby, I cannot also worship Michael, As both these Arian religions worship him. I believe no angel deserves our worship And that God the Father and God the Son Are coeternal, uncreated And existing for eterniy. Why I cannot be agnostic is Because I know a god exists. Why I cannot be a gnostic Is because I believe we must Do good here upon the Earth. I believe we must abstain from evil. I do not believe we ought to Simply live our lives however we want. I believe we should, Instead, be fruitful, give generously, Abstain from sexual sin and violence. I cannot, again, believe in Dualistic ideas Of a demiurge and aeon. Of a physical and spiritual world; As my entire philosophy on life Is that both the spiritual and physical Exist intertwined, and mutually coexisting; As intricately woven together As God is in the Flesh of Jesus Christ,
Tag: Be
The Intelligent Learn How to be Stupid
The intelligent learn how to be stupid.
I used to pretend to be stupid,
In order to fit in, in order to survive.
Sentences with clear meaning
Fall over the heads of readers and listeners,
So, instead of using reason,
Just say, “That stupid because science.”
No matter how much logic or facts are packed into a sentence,
No matter how much research,
No matter how much evidence for the things unseen,
Or the substance of things hoped for,
Men lie, men steal, men learn the art of dumbing down
Their arguments to mere Rhetoric and Sophistry,
Getting it confused with logic.
How frustrating it is,
To listen to people go on and about
All the different myriads of stuff.
If presented with a cogent argument
They deny, deny, deny.
They even use tactics to win an argument.
Imagine if courts were all about winning,
Not proving innocence or guilt.
But, since egos are on the line,
People’s records of “Being tough on crime,”
Innocent people go to jail.
Precisely because of this bias and fundamental flaw
In the way we engage in communication.
It’s not to draw from men their wisdom
But to convince men that we are right.
How do you convince people of God’s existence today?
By simply presenting them with the case.
But, they would rather believe in no God,
Because it’s easier.
Deluded, but easier.
They call me a “Flat Earther,”
When I am nothing of the sort.
I say, rightly, we ought to believe in Evolution
And Earth as a Sphere.
The fact remains that I have never seen whether either existed.
I have faith that scientists are not lying to me.
Now you must have faith that I am not lying to you.
There is a God, and the reason why is because there is right and wrong.
There is communication.
There is truth.
There is good.
There is evil.
There is love, joy and peace.
Some might say, “How does that prove that God exists?”
How does Pi get calculated?
I would ask that to anyone who has never done it before.
Simply put, you just measure a circle’s circumference.
These things I present are the measurements used for God.
That there is righteousness and goodness.
You might say, “Well, didn’t God permit crimes?”
I would simply say, “Against nations filled with murderers,
“Pedophiles and cannibals.”
Given into that context, you’d have to be crazy
Not to see why they were destroyed.
Thus, when we refine an argument to its most crystal points
It’s most refined kernel,
All of the nuance of truth disappears.
When it disappears,
Men rely on the most primitive facts to discover moral judgment.
Rightly, the Cross is a rock of offense because the LORD had commanded
Wars, yet what do those critics do?
They simplify all arguments to a Sophistic draught
Of nothing, so that there cannot be justice.
And justice is formed by the comprehension of words and their intentions.
Thus, if one were to ask,
“Why ought not the intelligent learn how to communicate with the stupid?”
The reason why is that justice and mercy are at stake.
Should I say it to my friend,
Whom I argued with last night,
I would say this,
“Friend, there is a whole body of knowledge you’ve never seen.
“There is much you do not even know.
“I know, quite well, what you mean by “science”.
“But, do you know what I mean about justice?
“Science, unhinged from Word,
“Would become so disgusting and terrible for men and mankind,
“That without Word or its comprehension,
“There’d be no justice.
“Justice is found in the Word,
“The ability to judge the complexities of thought and motivations.
“Without that, I’m afraid science would be more like a prison
“And less like a wing.”
I doubt he would understand it.
As, why would he?
He is stubborn,
That simply in the word’s meanings
That is how you know it is truth.
What do you do with deaf ears?
Can you teach them to hear?
As meaning is integral,
And is the sole truth I am teaching.
Not facts, not actualities.
Simply that it can be understood
With the proper amount of time and effort.
And with that, it proves a whole world
Inaccessible to most of our modern men.
For intelligence, when it stoops to the lowest depths
In order to catch the ear with a rhetorical persuasion,
Is the most foul use for it.
Bring the low high,
Do not let the high be humiliated.
B. K. Neifert 