In an age without faith

In an age without faith
reason is the moral compass.
Logic points to the answer.
Answers riot in the streets.
Events replace history.
Things happen
before they've barely begun.
Disasters are digested
before they've barely been tasted.

In an age without faith
there is more criticism than creative writing.
Earthquakes are trivialities.
Trivialities are rated from one to ten.
Physical pleasure is a conditioned response.
Death is unnatural:
death is a crime and the living are its victims,
death is a terrorist and the living are its hostages.

In an age without faith
God is a commodity.
The faithful hoard him
and flaunt him
and use him like money.
The frightened wear him like a flag.
Zealots shoot him like a drug.
The worldly treat him like a senile parent.
The government uses him
to support a life of obedience,
the liberty to do as you’re told,
and the pursuit of self-indulgence.

In an age without faith,
hope is replaced by expectation.
Rewards become rights.
Gifts become givens.
Disappointment and disenchantment
are always someone else's fault.

Because in a godless age
there is no responsibility.
There are only accidents, and the victim.

There is no justice.
There is only malice, and the scapegoat.

There is no conscience.
There is only shame, and the secret.

There is no forethought.
There are only predictions, and assumptions.

There is no divinity.
There is only man, and his mortality.

There is no truth.
There are only facts, and opinions

and people like me
who wonder why all the things
that everyone believes in
are smaller
and meaner
than they are.


copyright 2010 Matthew J Wells