Yahweh or the Poet's Way?

I’ve been thinking about religion, more so about faith and even more so about just higher somethings in this universe for a while, but more so in the last month. As I alluded to in yesterday’s post, I don’t believe there is one male God who created the universe in 6 days and then had to rest on the seventh day of the week because, you know, creating the universe really knackered him out. Honestly, unless you’re Sarah Palin you can’t really tell me that a being who creates, controls and invents mankind then says he’s exhausted and gives humans a break to idolize HIS very being…really?

As an aside, I was talked into seeing, “The Invention of Lying,” yesterday which has some funny, some too silly thoughts on many ideas and life myths, but if you don’t think about the small things on the big screen and think about the overall idea it presents¸ its worth contemplating.

That said, I do think there is something special about the world, maybe some order despite the chaos, but mostly I believe that it’s more important to give people a reason to believe. Life sucks sometimes, it’s hard, sometimes sad and religion serves the purpose of giving hope to people, meaning to lives and I will never deny that to people and don’t think it’s a bad thing. I’m just looking for something real, and how do I make sense of them?

About a month while browsing my local Borders I came across the latest book by Karen Armstrong, a woman I first heard on the BBC when I lived in the UK years ago. She’s a renowned religion scholar with a lot of ideas I think many people around the world, even if they completely disagreed with every other religious group on the planet, would agree with. I find it a little sad that this is the state of the world we live in, but she seems to have a real voice of reason on matters of faith without alienating people. Not even me.

Here is the first line of her new book: “We are talking far too much about God these days, and what we say is often facile…despite our scientific and technological brilliance our religious thinking is sometimes remarkably undeveloped, even primitive.”

The interesting thing to note here is that these lines come out of this new book entitled “The Case For God,” and Armstrong herself looks and sounds nearly identical to the one famous errant nun- -turned-governess in “The Sound of Music.” Well, that’s not completely by coincidence—Armstrong WAS in a convent for seven years, left in 1969 and has spent her life writing about world religions after not being able to find the one “supreme being” of a God she was supposed to find as a young woman.

I have to say she’s probably the single person writing about religion right now that I agree with, almost completely and I understand immediately what she is talking about. For to me, God is not a person, it’s something that exists around us but is an entity that we all are. What I love about Armstrong’s take is that she shares this but takes it further and spells it out more clearly than I am usually capable of: God is not a “he” nor a “she,” but a “being itself” in everything that is around us. She goes on: “theology should be like poetry which takes us to the end of what words and thoughts can do.”

So as I explore my own beliefs further and continue to try to do the next best thing each day for myself and other human beings, I leave you with an idea and several short poems, or should I now say “theologies,” by Emily Dickinson, and one Haiku by Auntie Honey, all dedicated to belief.  Something tells me Armstrong would get along quite well with Dickinson over a pot of tea...now that's a party I'd like to be present for.

By Emily Dickinson

#324
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-
I keep it, staying at Home-
With a Bobolink for a Chorister-
And an Orchard, for a Dome-Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice-

I just wear my Wings-
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton-sings.God preaches, a noted Clergyman-
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at least-
I'm going, all along.

#569

I reckon -- when I count it all --
First -- Poets -- Then the Sun --
Then Summer -- Then the Heaven of God --
And then -- the List is done --

But, looking back -- the First so seems
To Comprehend the Whole --
The Others look a needless Show --
So I write -- Poets -- All --

Their Summer -- lasts a Solid Year --
They can afford a Sun
The East -- would deem extravagant --
And if the Further Heaven --

Be Beautiful as they prepare
For Those who worship Them --
It is too difficult a Grace --
To justify the Dream –

#376

Of Course—I prayed—
And did God Care?
He cared as much as on the Air
A Bird—had stamped her foot—
And cried "Give Me"—
My Reason—Life—
I had not had—but for Yourself—

'Twere better Charity
To leave me in the Atom's Tomb—
Merry, and Nought, and gay, and numb—
Than this smart Misery

by Helen “Auntie Honey” Carr

WHAT IS GOD
I FEEL HIS PRESENCE
IN THE FLOWERS STARS, SUN AND THE MOON