Defiance

you scream at me to obey or face the fires of Hell
    from your megaphone in the park
    from the speakers of your mosque
    with your scriptured signs outside the sinner's funeral

    your heaven of biblical obedience
    your paradise of 72 virgins
    your nirvana of blissful enlightenment
mean nothing to me

perhaps I will face judgement when I die
perhaps I will face oblivion
perhaps my loved ones will be lost to me
    as I drown in the emptiness of an atheist's death
    or I burn in the fires of your Hell

but,
    you cannot take away the present
    you cannot take away my compassion
    you cannot take away the peace that grows from the injustice i correct
    you cannot take away the mark I will leave on this world

    I will do what is right
    If my soul will pay the price

    I will defy you for an eternity
    and my paradise will be now
because good is in the way we touch the world

Author's Note

I'm actually not an atheist, but I'm pretending to be for the purposes of this poem.

Reviews

[New Dawn]

Religion should never be forced but sought by those who feel they have room for it in their lives. I do not believe in a condemning God who would punish us indiscriminately. Living to a set of morals is important, being a good person is important and being able to forgive ourselves when we fail to live up to that is also important. I know atheists who live to a high moral code and christians who attend church and feel themselves to be highly moral on that basis alone. Great poem !

[Master K-tops]

Well,I have something for you too New whatever,did you create yourself? You say He is a condemning God when He made you,you sin and He asks for you to repent and come back to Him. He is loving and He is your creator. He has all the rights to condemn any wrong acts of yours. He is God!

[New Dawn]

Ah but I don't say he is a condemning God - I actually said I do not believe in a condemning God - I did not say that I do not believe in God - you are confusing religion and faith - they are too different things. Religion is created by man, run by man , and twisted by man to fit his own idelolgy. Faith is faith - individual to each of us and in my mind completely private.

[Mockingbird]

goes to show you don't have to be of some religion to have compassion and love in your heart. excellent poem.

[Sara-Hannah Carver]

I am a Christian, but this poem does speak on many reasons why people have difficulty coming to Christianity. When something is forced on someone, they are inclined to turn away from it, and that isn't right. I hate when people push religion in people's faces. Well done.

[eatme]

Where is the intelligence of bees?
There is a place that humans can't go.
Many little things network together to generate emergent forces that cannot be touched or found, but they exist.
Hydrogen, the simplest known form of matter is also the most abundant form.
The simplest known thing is what we have the most of.
When the simplest thing there is gets together with itself, its own gravity draws it together, crushing it, until it ignites into a star. Stars make all the matter of the universe, exploding into gold.
All that crap self-organizes into planets and dinosaurs and then us.

I'm not sure what is going on, but the word God is neither big enough or amazing enough to cover it.
The simplest thing there is self organizes into space ships.
That's pretty cool.

[Créatif Word]

Life is the gift that God gave and religion can't change that. Religion only spoils the true nature of our soul; live life by being true to yourself.

So many religions are man made and are not going anywhere. What is not man made is the compassion we should be feeling for one another.
A powerfull writing, but next time please don't pretend ;)

[Frieda P]

I vacillate greatly on religious beliefs, was brought up Catholic so there's that. Killer last stanza, and I'll agree, kindness has no religion, it's what makes us human.

[bobc]

J...this is not criticism, but it kind of shows that you are pretending here. That's quite alright really. No offence taken. ...bobc

[Master K-tops]

But J,poetry should be the expression of your own feelings and not the entire opposite! With this poem,one would think the mind behind it was so athiestic. If you are a believer then you should not have hurt your faith for the purpose of an empty-minded poem.

[DaturaBlossoms]

Good work, you can really feel the conviction in it. It could benefit from some minor editing, but it is quite good.

[Alex Falkner]

Firstly, I do have to say I am a christian, And like I've said a few times in various places on this site, In no way am I claiming to be a good one.
I smoke, I swear, I drink way too much, (coffee, one beer and I'm on my a*s) I have a 3.5 year old and I'm NOT married.
And I do not go to church.
I do believe however, that religion has nothing to do with personal belief.
Religion is what people have put into it, the customs and practices, most of it, from what I've seen, is nowhere in the bible and I believe it shouldn't be there.
I am not running down anyone and not intending to offend, I respect the beliefs, practices and choices that anyone choses and I am open minded, I will listen to anyones beliefs, except the Jehovahs Witnesses, but there is good reason for that.
My mother is one, and having read some of my writing, you should understand why I have no respect for it.
I still respect the people that choose that religion, I just don't want to hear about it or have anything to do with it.
That being said, I liked this work, to me, it shows why people think that christians (or whoever) are nutters.
The first line.
"you scream at me to obey or face the fires of Hell" I am sick of hearing that line from people preaching in the street, if they really want to save the souls of the sinners, they really should try a different method, that one just makes them look insane and puts people off.

Sorry, long winded again, but it's your fault, You've got a bad habbit for getting me wound up J.
Lol.

Tammy.