On fanatical religious belief

Ovington Goulding - 1 August 1988

Reductio ad absurdum

Futile dreams of apocalyptic grandeur

The urge of Homo sapiens to believe

The unreality of faith and creed,

The primitive puzzling over cosmic questions,

Of origins, where from, where to,

“Whither goest thou?’ repeated eternally,

The apotheosis of venerating saints,

The idealisations of unreality,

Contrasting a musical Magnificat

With deifying joss-sticks.

Can repetitious Te Deums

Renew a dead faith?

Can morning Matins

Satisfy the hunger of deities?

The need for sacrifice

Which leads to violent death

An induced opium of the masses.

Ponder too sectarian violence

Rivalry in regulating minds,

In controlling creative thought.

Do the judges of Galileo and Erasmus

Still haunt the towers of orthodoxy?

Proselytical fanatics still roam,

Unleashed by reactionary priests.

Creationism still singing, siren-like,

Its bewitching allurements.

Renaissance man beware!

Leviathan may yet consume thee.