OF GODS AND GENES

We are a dream, born in a cell
As chromosomes unwind,
And neurone clusters spark to life
With pictures in the mind.

Some pictures prompted "How"? - some "Why"?
But "Why"? fomented fears
Of powerful rulers - unseen gods,
From far celestial spheres -

Who offered Man eternal life
By giving him a soul,
A myth born out of mortal fear,
A wish fulfilment role ?

We are but carbon's chemistry
Writ complex through its genes,
It replicates, evolves, then thinks,
Not sure what thinking means.

Evolution's bond with genes
Has led to Man's ascent,
His scanning brain can play great chess,
Yet artlessly invent -

-that "thunder is the voice of God -
And lightning his swift sword",
Whilst "suffering is the price of sin"
Religion's subtle fraud.

The "How?" of life we need to know,
But "Why?" incites the cause
Of superstition's ignorance,
And genocidal wars -

Since "Why?" invites inventive thoughts
When answers there are none:
Thus gods and demons 'came to pass'
And Heaven and Hell begun.

Those ancient creeds and modern cults
Reflect Man's questing mind,
Desire to know our destiny,
Significance to find.

But sense in Man is oft obscured
By instincts, fears and hopes
Exploited in the search for truth
By prophets, mullahs, popes.

All creeds, in time, will transmutate,
Absorb into Psychology,
Where truth prevails when minds are freed
From superstition's 'ologies'. ***

*** Theology Astrology Eschatology

by Paul Rattenbury
Alderley Edge, Cheshire