Saturday, May 5, 2012

Foundations of Belief

By Steve Rensberry

So utterly 
convinced, some 
people are, that what they 
believe is the unmitigated truth.
But what, please tell me, is the criteria?
Feelings? A changed life? Intuition? Circumstance?
An infinitely subjective spark from deep within the mind?
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Would you not have to have absolute knowledge, or be 
absolute yourself, to know with certainty that 
nothing at all exists to prove otherwise?
Surely to grapple onto absolute truth, 
or what one thinks is absolute, 
is to embark on a journey 
of one's own making. 
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Think of the time. 
The decades. The years.
Wasted. Chasing rainbows.
Confusing effect with the wrong cause.
Believing death is not death, 
but merely a doorway. 
Fabricating reality 
out of emotion.
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Must not
belief, to be valid,
rest on sufficient evidence,
rather than on fanciful promises or 
the dogmatic, fear-laden tenets 
of institutionalized 
superstition and 
myth?

Carl Sagan on God, Faith and Religion

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