I agree with you that atheism is the province of fools. It defies science, it defies logic, for it insists of the believer the statement of belief that there is no god or gods.

And, yes, atheism is, of course, a belief system. It requires faith, just as theism and deism and pantheism require faith. Those who subscribe to this belief system are contradicting themselves by their very beliefs, because they are insistent that they know all that there is to know about the universe (and anything beyond). This implies, I think, that they consider themselves omniscient.

Omniscience, I think, is usually presumed to be the sort of all-knowing we attribute to our gods.

Since this is a poetry site, I will not go deeper into this, and only bring it up because of the seeming preponderance of pro-christian scribbles, along with the tiring screeches of apparent atheists.

Religion is indeed a personal thing, and I think white_rabbit, with her indication of skepticism in an earlier life comes closest to recognizing there is a third, a middle ground. Bertrand Russell, as referenced in this thread previously, was not an atheist but an agnostic, in the sense of the word that he was an unknower, he did not know. This is documented by the way, for what it is worth. He indicated, in fact, that publicly he ascribed to atheism, simply because he did not think the majority of people would understand the nuances, the differences, between his unknowing and atheism. You can look it up.

My lot is cast among these folks, the unknowers. I envy those who are true believers, although I am beginning to have my doubts. From a personal perspective, let me say, it must be awesome, as another poster indicated, to lose one's angst, depression, migraine headaches, simply through the power of prayer and belief.

On the other hand, we have people strapping shrapnel and bombs to themselves in the name of at least one of those same three religions MaryAnn mentions and killing innocent people, to say nothing of the history, the putrid history, of the very same religions throughout history. (A friend of mine wrote me once to remind me that religion, and particularly Christianity, has killed more people throughout the recorded history of mankind than any single disease. I do not know if that is true, but I suspect it is.)

There is something to be said for moderation, I suppose, and yet I wonder how one can be moderate if one is a true believer, regardless of god or chosen prophet (if there is one).

I agree with falcon, incidentally and if I read him right, that the poem is really an affirmation of the existence of a God, in this case a Christian one. I have not read about the poet, so, like MaryAnn, I do not know if he is of some other persuasion, but I read the poem, as falcon apparently does, as a one-sided conversation BY God to some person who was expecting a bit more due to his or her belief.

God was not buying in.

I do think it has humor, without being sacriligeous.

To paraphrase Bogie in Casablanca...Of all of the poems in all of the world...

Still, thank you for the effort, MaryAnn. It clearly had an impact, for better or for worse.

Take care,

Joe