God Isn't Real

[Jara sang]

A world filled with wonder, a cold, fathomless sky
A man's life so meager, he can but wonder why
He cries out to Heaven its truth to reveal
The answer: only silence, for God isn't real.

Go ask the starving millions under Stalin's cruel reign
Go ask the child with cancer who eases her pain
Then go to your churches, if that's how you feel
But don't ask me to follow, for God isn't real.


He forms in his image a weak and foolish man
Speaks to him in symbols that few understand
For a life of devotion, the death blow he deals
We'd owe Him only hatred, but God isn't real.


Go tell the executioner of the power he can't defy
Go tell his shackled victim of the mercy on high...
Then go to your churches, go beg, pray, and kneel,
But don't ask me to follow, for God isn't real.


No, no matter how He should be, God isn't real.

http://robbiefulks.com/discography/songs/00035.html

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. I love Robbie Fulks...that one is on my Ipod

[alarimer]

13. He is great

He wrote "fuck this town" about Nashville. Very funny, very caustic. I also like "Let's live together"

"let's live together
these aint the cave times
I'm not a hunter-gatherer
or a bakcwater baptist
so let's live together sweetheart".

[mattclearing]

2. I feel some flaming coming your way.

But not from me. I'm not an atheist, but I'm by no means sold on God either.

Good luck with the flaming.

[Roxy66]

5. Same here

[txaslftist]

6. Ya think?

And can you blame the flamers?
This is such obvious flamebait I'm surprised it has lasted this long before getting locked.

[Jara sang]

7. It's just the lyrics to a song.

That I didn't write. What's the problem? The song is actually pretty damn funny. It's done in country & western style.

[txaslftist]

10. Gee. I suppose you didn't know that everytime this comes up it flames?

[Jara sang]

12. I just thought it was funny and wanted to share.

It's not the same if you can't hear the country and western twang though.

[txaslftist]

15. Oh yeah. Har de har har.

[Jara sang]

19. It appears as if you aren't open to ideologies other than your own

and you have a problem with people speaking their minds. You didn't have to respond to this post, you know?

[txaslftist]

23. You do know that Freepers read our posts, don't you?

And that they then not only post things like "democrats are all athiest-hippie-post smokers" they also send them in to Rush and Hannity to spew from coast to coast as illustrative of what we stand for?

I mean, you recognize that, right?

Which means that you don't mind it, right?

It has nothing to do with my personal idealogy. It has to do with the practical reality of politics and public perception of who we are.

[Jara sang]

24. I'm not going to stop being who I am because some pricks peruse this board

Are you saying that ageist aren't welcome here? And fuck Rush and his freeper supporters!

[Josephine]

35. Do you think that being an atheist, or a hippie, or a potsmoker are bad?

[EvolveOrConvolve]

37. Freepers can post what they want over to FR

I'm sick of people attempting to shut up atheists because they think it will give us a bad name with the freepers. I don't give a shit what the freepers think, and I don't base my life decisions on what wacko conservatives believe. If you have a problem with atheism, say so. If not, stop trying to get atheists to hide their true selves because you're worried about what freepers might think about you.

The freepers may not understand this, but liberals should: being atheist doesn't make one a hippy. It doesn't make one a drug user. It doesn't make one a bad person.

Your exhortations to keep atheists "in the closet" are offensive to many of us. Would you ask gay people to stay in the closet because it might offend some freepers? What about african-americans? Or Jews? If you wouldn't, then why are you applying a different standard to atheists?

[Jimmy Bob]

34. I like these song lyrics better

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
While traveling thru this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that bright world to which I go

I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home

I know dark clouds will gather around me
I know my way is rough and steep
Yet beauteous fields lie just before me
Where God's redeemed their vigils keep

I'm going there to my mother
She said she'd meet me when I come
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home.

(Traditional/Brian Ahern)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

25. Sorry but I think artistic license is warranted to the author

If you read the lyrics, he is challenging the fictional god people claim to believe in..he is not denying there is any higher power. Robbie Fulks is from North Carolina and grew up with the "god fearing" crowd that supported segregation...take a look at his website..he is jabbing his own roots.

[immoderate]

3. No disagreement from me.

:popcorn:

--IMM

[smirkymonkey]

4. After years of seeking, I am beginning to come to the same

conclusion. I just have no experience of "god" so why should I have faith?

I can see very little that would convince me that there is a benevolent "master of the universe" or whatever you want to call it. Very little.

[Dr.Phool]

8. Any one who believes in a

All powerfull, all knowing,loving, benevolent God, who can rationalize a tsunami as Gods will, has some serious reality problems.

[phylny]

17. Well, I believe, and I most certainly don't have problems with

reality.

I guess one of us is right and one of is wrong. Hopefully we won't know the truth for a long, long time :)

[catbert836]

27. I think God(s) do exist

but they are on a different plane/dimension than us, and therefore cannot interefere in our affairs.

[ozone_man]

31. They must adhere to the Prime Directive

concerning primitive cultures. But I think they're just bumbling scientists out to explore new galaxies.

[OrlandoGator]

9. God can't be all-knowing, all-powerful and good...only 2 of the 3.

Simple logic and observation of our world clearly show that the God of the holy texts is simply not possible.

I think God is all-knowing and good, but not all-powerful. God is a scientist and our universe is God's experiment.

[The Kicker]

11. Maybe we aren't real.

Maybe there is only God. I guess it depends on one's definition of "real". There is a quote from A Course in Miracles that resonates. "Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God."

[WiseButAngrySara]

21. I love that quote, and happen to believe in that definition of the truly

'Real', but it is hard to conceive of an Omnipotent, Omniscient, All-Loving God when one examines the world with human senses, intellect and heart. I'm inclined to think like another poster put it...God is a scientist. Spinoza's God is good for me. Nature is God, and God is Nature. Our human problems come into play when we lose our connectedness with God as Nature; when we imagine that we are separate from God. All manner of human suffering derives from this, from our predjudices, our nationalities, our views of us versus them, and MOST of all, and most ironically, our religions. Our religions purport to tell the Truth of truths, so if one adheres to one religion, all others must be wrong.

[ozone_man]

32. Nature is my "God".

I prefer not to use God to describe the transcendant feelings in nature, but then it is probably just semantics, a confusion of language. The feelings are real. I especially like this sentence:

"Our human problems come into play when we lose our connectedness with God as Nature".

[DanCa]

14. That's hauntingly i dont want to say beautiful. wgat's the right word

Thank you for posting this Jara I disagree with the message but the words are powerful and the imagery is stark.

[DanCa]

16. Jesus was an only son - Bruce Springsteen Devils and Dust.

Jesus was an only son
As he walked up Calvary Hill
His mother Mary walking beside him
In the path where his blood spilled
Jesus was an only son
In the hills of Nazareth
As he lay reading the Psalms of David
At his mother's feet

A mother prays, "Sleep tight, my child, sleep well
For I'll be at your side
That no shadow, no darkness, no tolling bell,
Shall pierce your dreams this night."

In the garden at Gethsemane
He prayed for the life he'd never live,
He beseeched his Heavenly Father to remove
The cup of death from his lips

Now there's a loss that can never be replaced,
A destination that can never be reached,
A light you'll never find in another's face,
A sea whose distance cannot be breached

Well Jesus kissed his mother's hands
Whispered, "Mother, still your tears,
For remember the soul of the universe
Willed a world and it appeared."

[drfresh]

18. This Life

>> For a life of devotion, the death blow he deals

If you believe that all there is to your existence is this time on earth, then I'd be pretty bummed too. Earth is a crappy place where the good are hurt and the wicked prosper, but I believe we are not built for this world, we are for the one after. Life is just a test.

Yay for my 100th post.

[DanCa]

20. Welcome to DU drfresh

:hi:

[CarbonDate]

38. Sorry you feel that way about life.

I seriously pity the people whose lives are so horrible that they have to look forward to death as their salvation.

I think life is beautiful. I think the world is beautiful. And I think it's all entirely too short. Sorry you feel otherwise.

[mattclearing]

22. Well, I stand corrected. No one has flamed yet. I love DU. n/t

[DS1]

26. Neither is the point of this post

:boring:

[NAO]

28. Declaration of the Free

Declaration of The Free
by Robert G. Ingersoll
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/inglife.htm


We have no falsehoods to defend
We want the facts;
Our force, our thought, we do not spend
In vain attacks.
And we will never meanly try
To save some fair and pleasing lie.

The simple truth is what we ask,
Not the ideal;
We've set ourselves the noble task
To find the real.
If all there is naught but dross,
We want to know and bear our loss.

We will not willingly be fooled,
By fables nursed;
Our hearts, by earnest thought, are schooled
To bear the worst;
And we can stand erect and dare
All things. all facts that really are.

We have no God to serve or fear,
No hell to shun,
No devil with malicious leer.
When life is done
An endless sleep may close our eyes.
A sleep with neither dreams nor sighs.

We have no master on the land --
No king in air --
Without a manacle we stand,
Without a prayer,
Without a fear of coming night,
We seek the truth, we love the light.

We do not bow before a guess,
A vague unknown;
A senseless force we do not bless
In solemn tone.
When evil comes we do not curse,
Or thank because it is no worse.

When cyclones rend -- when lightning blights,
'Tis naught but fate;
There is no God of wrath who smites
In heartless hate.
Behind the things that injure man
There is no purpose, thought, or plan.

We waste no time in useless dread,
In trembling fear;
The present lives, the past is dead,
And we are here,
All welcome guests at life's great feast --
We need no help from ghost or priest.

Our life is joyous, jocund, free --
Not one a slave
Who bends in fear the trembling knee,
And seeks to save
A coward soul from future pain;
Not one will cringe or crawl for gain.

The jeweled cup of love we drain,
And friendship's wine
Now swiftly flows in every vein
With warmth divine.
And so we love and hope and dream
That in death's sky there is a gleam.

We walk according to our light,
Pursue the path
That leads to honor's stainless height,
Careless of wrath
Or curse of God, or priestly spite,
Longing to know and do the right.

We love our fellow-man, our kind,
Wife, child, and friend.
To phantoms we are deaf and blind,
But we extend
The helping hand to the distressed;
By lifting others we are blessed.

Love's sacred flame within the heart
And friendship's glow;
While all the miracles of art
Their wealth bestow
Upon the thrilled and joyous brain,
And present raptures banish pain.

We love no phantoms of the skies,
But living flesh,
With passion's soft and soulful eyes,
Lips warm and fresh,
And cheeks with health's red flag unfurled,
The breathing angels of this world.

The hands that help are better far
Than lips that pray.
Love is the ever gleaming star
That leads the way,
That shines, not on vague worlds of bliss,
But on a paradise in this.

We do not pray, or weep, or wail;
We have no dread,
No fear to pass beyond the veil
That hides the dead.
And yet we question, dream, and guess,
But knowledge we do not possess.

We ask, yet nothing seems to know;
We cry in vain.
There is no "master of the show"
Who will explain,
Or from the future tear the mask;
And yet we dream, and still we ask

Is there beyond the silent night
An endless day;
Is death a door that leads to light?
We cannot say.
The tongueless secret locked in fate
We do not know. -- We hope and wait.

***

more works of Robert G. Ingersoll here:
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/index.shtml

[shrike]

30. Nice piece, but ...

Why do (some) non-believers assume that believers lead dark, joyless lives, our heads bowed, our bodies trembling as we wait for the end?

I have read pieces by atheists who speak of how they glory in the now, the mystery of the world, and I think, "Well, so do I."

[NAO]

29. God Is Only Pretend (bumper sticker)

From the master source of bumper stickers, EVOLVE FISH:



From page 6 of 10 pages of bumper stickers
http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/stickers-ss6.html

Evolve Fish
http://www.evolvefish.com/

[ozone_man]

33. That is so cute.

I saw this sticker a few days ago.

[Nihil]

36. On the contrary, GOD *is* real ...

... unless declared integer ...

(Ah for the days of Fortran programming!)