A Reconciliation
by cricketjeff on September 4, 2008. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
Just fourteen billion years ago, before the birth of space,
The Universe we see did not exist.
The worlds and stars and light and dark were yet to find a place
But nothingness it seems just can’t persist.
A billion, billion, billionth of a second after this
The forces that define us came to be.
Electromagnetism, weak and strong we cannot miss
And somewhere in the mix is gravity.
The time that follows on from now is easy to explain,
It doesn’t need a god to make a man.
That’s all the space creation has outside a human brain
For any god to write the total plan.
The stories that religions paint do not describe our world,
They don’t contain the large or very small.
They cannot tell how DNA stays very tightly curled
And cannot see a galaxy at all.
Yet DNA is almost huge compared with what we’ve found
Inside the smallest parts of you and me
And Galaxies are tiny specs like sand grains on the ground
Compared with all the universe we see.
It simply isn’t possible to write down in a book
Descriptions of it all on human scale.
In Genesis the Jewish faith did not attempt to look
For all we know and so it has to fail.
The problem that these stories have is they aren’t based on facts,
They were just dreamed by poets of their age.
Designed to make the world seem small and writable in tracts,
A simple explanation on a page.
The Jewish book is only one, the rest do not agree
About the way creation runs its course.
The stories that the priests have told are false complexity
Imposed on other faiths by massive force.
An explanation built on faith may ease a persons mind
But really it cannot explain a thing.
You need to have a theory that explains the world we find,
You have to go and look, not pray and sing!
A theory is based on facts and notions you can test
When they break down you stop and start again.
Religions try to build up walls to hold away the rest
And put a limit on the thoughts of men.
If all is planned and run by gods then why do things go wrong
Are they so cruel and needlessly perverse.
Would any sentient being save your aunt if asked in song
But otherwise decide she should get worse?
The ancient tales are alleg’ries not literally true
You should not base your life on foolish words
Its not about the stories but the good that you can do
Just love your fellow men and beasts and birds.
Author notes
OK 13.7 billion years not 14 and these billions are American and the billionths
are European (and the the latest researches cut the time by a further 8 or nine
orders of magnitude).
English