Brainwashed at birth . . A poem of our times

            Who ever knew Truth be put to flight
By falsehood in an open fight?
So said Milton and if truth be told
It was widely swallowed in his day
That falsehood could be kept at bay

But if Milton were alive today
He might have something else to say
How many of us, Protestants or Jews, 
Or Catholics, Communists or Hindus
Muslims or any faith that sets us apart
Could truly say with hands on heart
That their views would be the same
If they’d been born with another name
In another place with a rival creed
On rival parents’ views been forced to feed

Now, show me that person of any worth
Who thinks for himself, not brainwashed from birth. 

Not me for I was brainwashed too
Though while it happened I hadn’t a clue
It would have been decidedly odd
For a child like me not to trust in God
When not to do so, we were told, requires
Sinners like us be sent to Hell’s fires

You little need to read your own biography
To know your faith is governed by geography. 
Where we live is the ultimate clue
That binds us together with religious glue

The  problem is clear for what it is worth
Most of the world is brainwashed from birth. 
Centuries now have passed since the days
When charismatic leaders whose hypnotic gaze
And God claimed right to be peddling bile
Unknowing audiences did long beguile

The Middle East was randomly seeded
With contrary beliefs which if not heeded
Would sooner or later sound a bell
Sending believers to Heaven or to Hell

Did God sprinkle these seeds then leave us alone
For no hint of his presence has since been known?
God’s been in radio silence ever since
Making it difficult new folk to convince
When there are no new data for us to see
And no miracles that anyone can see
Since the recent invention of CCTV. 

ENTER now the mind of God
And does it not seem just a little odd
That after existing since infinity
And with no known affinity
He suddenly decides to end this dearth
By creating avatars on a place called earth
It’s a computer game
In all but name 
Making them however perverse
The sole inhabitants of the universe
Who if they want to enter Heaven must
First, in God have unthinking trust
In conflicting clues planted centuries ago
From which conflicting religions then did grow
Sprinkling rival beliefs that set people at war
Because they had a rival God to adore
Killing each other by tooth or nail
To prove their version of the Holy Grail

And the reward for the victors in this fight
Is to worship God for his delight
With doubters condemned to eternal fire
As God’s own law sadly does require. 
Religions mostly forbid you to ask
Why God devised such a complex task
Why did God plan it would happen this way
Off to Hell or Heaven without our say
When he could have created angelic serfs
To worship him without conjuring earth

The question this raises no longer seems odd
Did God create man or did man create God.
   

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Taken on: December 14, 2021

Tags:

God

Catholic

Muslim

Hindu

Protestant

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