In the following poem I reference the movie Blade Runner, the TV series True Detective, Season 1, passages from Shakespeare, quotes from Neil deGrasse Tyson, Albert Camus, Nietzche, Bertrand Russell, and the New Testament, etc.
Without Religion
A life without religion
Is a life without the infinite:
The splendor of theater,
The joys of art and poetry
A life without
spiritual camaraderie,
synergy and serenity;
without meaning, purpose,
and cosmic identity
A life of existential anxiety,
unyielding despair,
A tale told by an idiot
signifying nothing
Thinking you are no-thing
Not a real self
just dust in the wind
A ripple on the surface of
an abyss of Nothingness
Ripped out of existence and
sent into life's thresher
A Blade Runner replicant
A simulation of a person
A cellular robot
Thinking "meat"
A mere "meat computer"
A gene xerox machine
Reduced to working parts
Then dismantled and discarded
Leaving no trace behind
Just recycled star shrapnel
a mere blip on the cosmic calendar
Such dreams of nothing but empty space
Running for nothing as there is no race
Nothing static, nothing real
just pushing a boulder up a hill
Until your nauseated spiraling into an abyss
With no up or down, no Right or Wrong
as a cosmic orphan, with no real Home
stuck in a night lair of Unbelief
A swirling sinkhole of nihilistic despair
Up, up, upwards climbs the soul
Out of the Abyss, soaring into a role
A life of religion is to be buoyed up
in a theatrical drama that trains you up
Dusts you off and says you are somebody
By trusting in a realm of Something!
that empowers your life
With beatific ends in sight
Running with purpose and a cosmic goal
with an eternal role of having a soul
With a deeply rooted identity,
connected to a People, a Story
spanning thousands of years
of trial-and-error, tradition and
belonging, sprouting a Good Culture
Scriptures are a "Love Poem to Reality"
Religious art and music uplifts the soul
With a grand Ethos that elevates and inspires
To do what's Right with a Meaning in Life
Spiritualizes thoughtfulness, fairness, and care
Generates love, joy, peace and unity,
Ongoing ethical synergy
A lasting serenity
and a sense of sublimity
within the Dreams of Eternity
