Your poem was very good and I can tell it came from your soul. I really did enjoy reading it. You are a real poet!
I am going to find An Anchor to the Soul. In the meantime, if you haven't read anything about the "Tao Te Ching," the T is pronounced "d", try to read the "Tao Te Ching" or "The Tao of Inner Peace," that's my favorite.
It was written by Lao Tzu 3,000 years ago. You will have to consentrate and even re read parts of the books. It is written in prose, but whoever translated the book explains what Lao Tzo means.
The ancient book has been translated and printed almost as much as the Bible. In fact, it promotes love, understanding, nature and many other wonderous things. The Bible is full of half-truths, fiction, it's unclear about who wrote what and some of the passages were written by men two or three hundred years after the death of Christ.
I did my time in Church and tried so hard to believe. I attended church from age 3 in Bible School on up until I was 18 and started working. When I was a teenager, the Sunday School teacher asked me to leave because I was disturbing the class by asking questions about the Bible and what some of the verses meant.
I get the feeling she didn't know either. All I remember was her telling me to "take it on Faith." That sounded to me when I was 15 that to believe in God and the Bible, you should remain ignorant.
Since then, I have read piles of books on Christianity and I am horrified what was done to the Jews and other so-called "non-believers." The Church had so many horrible ways to torture those innocent people just because they didn't believe in the same way.
I've also read books by Richard Dawkins and Hitchins and other Atheists. Though it was pointed out the flaws and mistruths of religion, atheists don't go from door to door trying to spread the word, asking for money or try to convince people there is no God. People need to believe, so why tell them any different?
Carl Sagan, my biggest hero, spent most of his life trying to find God. He did experiments, physics, interviews, travelled to the Holy Land, attended church and still found no proof of God. On his deathbed, he told his wife, "I'm still not sure."
Didn't mean to run on, especially since I don't know if you are Catholic, Jewish, or Born Again. I respect the beliefs of others. They have that right. But I did my time in Church (Methodist) and the few times I attended at Christmas with my mother, I had panic attacks. I wanted to run out of the room!
I promised myself and told my mother, "I can't do this anymore." I do a lot of reading and a little writing and I don't feel like I need religion. I am a good person, never hit anyone, always helpful and respectful. I'm more concerned with right now than with Heaven. Oh, I asked a pastor what do we do when we go to Heaven and he told me, "We worship Him." Not me.
Desmond Morris,a zoologist and anthropologist wrote in "The Naked Ape" that man invented God to have someone to bow and scrape to. I wonder how true that is
It's way past my bedtime. I hope I didn't upset you. I do believe in life, love and happiness. I am also going to find "An Anchor for the Soul." I am always open to anything. Nothing is written in stone. |
|