The Debate

A Debate The Atheist I see no reason for a god Indeed for any type of god at all I look around at all the churchmen The pompous richly dressed ones And wonder what their founder would have thought And then at the other end The shabby unpretentious lot More primitive, more fundamental and literal They have however one thing in common Unshakeable belief in their virtue and in their God who’s always there Despite the evils and the sorrows in this world They prate so endlessly About sin Sin as defined in their narrow mind They cheerfully pray that we can overcome some other systems of belief by force sometimes. How can they justify the killing and the torture of other humans? by their beliefs they are all God’s creatures. Nobody knows for sure how life was started But from a simple single cell We evolved until we’re here But few accept the clear evidence for evolution And what about the soul Of which they speak What is it? Where did it come from? Where does it reside in us? Where does it go? Or does it die with us? That’s if it’s there at all The Agnostic But my friend you’re just as bad Your position, or as so stated, is rigid and admits no other view I’m with you I also reject the Churches They are only human constructs And have been a source of evil I don’t know if there is a God A personal God who cares for us Or any other sort of god But until I know for sure I keep an open mind Where did we come from? Again I do agree with you Why did the first cells appear and how? I do believe and have some evidence That there is something in our nature Which yearns for more Is this a soul? The Theist You really are quite wrong The simplest hypothesis The one with least assumptions Is that something outside of us Maybe two string theory ‘branes By chance collided And brought our universe into being. Or maybe some vast, uncaring intelligence Caused in some way unknown creation and then Left uncaring, uninterested. If there is an environment friendly to some form of life It seems to start but we do not know why or how The Believer This cannot be My holy book tells all There is a God He cares for us It says so right here He created all Us and the animals And gave us dominium overall You worry about the sin and suffering You cannot know God’s purpose How dare you take HIS holy name in vain All three of you will burn in hell The wives We didn’t marry for philosophical debate We married, as we thought for love He spends all day and often all night Thinking about, what to us, is unthinkable What about us? What is our function? Is it just to cook and clean? To run the houses? To do the shopping? We all decided that this was not good enough We started to go together to dinners and to dances We each met a man we called them Hedonist They made us laugh and feel like girls again And then one day We found there were not four Hedonists but one! This was a shock But after long and painful talks We decided that we didn’t care And would just share. After all we did not love him Nor he loved us We all became friends but with privileges But never more than one at once! The Hedonist I listen to them talk Their weighty conversation It is so bloody boring Never any realisation. I do not concern myself with such considerations Life is far too short And anyway I’ve got to know their wives Such fun They are bored stiff with their deliberations And bored indeed in bed So one by one I’ve wined them So one by one I’ve dined them So one by one I’ve danced with them And one by one I’ve slept with them There’s Stella, Dorothy, Abigail and Claire They set the rules No commitment Just good fun Fine by me As long as nobody gets serious At that so important final moment They don’t cry out To: A random quantum fluctuation Or an entity full of hesitation Or then a again a being so barren Or even worse a jealous god, primitive man’s last bastion But no They shriek out loud Sometimes my name Or sometimes it’s just Oh you bastard! Or sometimes it’s just Oh you animal! Or now and again Please stop O stop you devil Then I know my duties done