If God is a construct

If God is a construct

Devised by wise thinkers

Sitting around a campfire

Newly established,

To ward off predators

Skulking in the shadows,

To give meaning

To the randomness of tragedy

The need for a grand plan

When people of all ages

Failed to survive,

Decisions about lives

Should never reside in the hands of men

No matter how fair they believe

Themselves to be,

We would always choose to believe

A brother

Over any other

It is human nature

A matter of survival

How different we would be if we believed

We were alone

All the choices we had were our own

The hand that rocks the cradle

Brings down nations

Destroys the lives of millions

At a stroke

Because it can

It doesn’t mean it should.

The responsibility

For the grand illusion

Lies within us

If we just think,

There is no right or wrong

In the concept of a god

It goes hand in hand

With the evolution

Of the species

To give meaning

To the unknown

The stories we tell ourselves

To help our understanding

Should have open-endings

With room enough to breathe

Reification is deceit

There is no spiritual hierarchy

Just a mirror to reflect a truth

The pursuit of righteousness

As a lifestyle

Is evil in and of itself

The true believer

Will never see the error of their ways

When the concept of a god

Is all they need

To excuse the depravity

Of their own behaviour

When personal redemption

Is conceived

As an exercise of divine retribution

Everything is forgivable,

Even genocide.

And the apocalyptic failure

Of an extinction event

Is proclaimed as God's will.