By Any Other Name
Gods do not die!. They cannot die
In any sense we understand;
They simply fade from consciousness
And so it seems as if they die!.
But gods own powers to transmute
Their attributes to other forms,
(More pleasing to our modern taste),
Whenever they discern that we
Become dissatisfied with them.
All gods are one god only, (be
They male, female, human or beast).
Seen in the forms and with the traits
That we, from time to time, prefer.
Jove, Jupiter and Jesus are
The same throughout all history;
Krishna and Ganesh are the same;
Gaia, Astarte, Adonis,
Thor, Odin, Baldur, Gog and Bran,
Thoth, Anubis, Isis and Set,
Cipactli, Nahuan, Xipe
Topec, Quetzalcoatl and
Innumerable others; all
Are avatars of that one god,
Nature, whose presence fills the world
And influences human minds —
In ways we do not understand —
To pay devoted reverence.
We each, Christian or otherwise,
Need god as much as god needs us.
(Even the sceptic atheists
Will have some substitute for god
To worship!). Humans can’t escape
The feeling that some conscious force —
Invisible but immanent —
Pervades the world and is the cause
Of all that happens, good or bad.
They call it god or goddess, give
It names, embody it in forms
Expressive of its attributes,
(As they perceive them), offer up
Both prayers and offerings designed
To win god’s favours, or divert
Calamities, or to atone
For some imagined slight.
We know
That there are unexplainable
Aspects of being that seem not
Mere accidentals but designed;
And each discovery which clears
Part of those cloudy mysteries
Reveals more complex wonders that
Compel us to suppose that some
Mind, (greater than our own combined),
Designed, created and controls
All that has been, is and shall be;
A mind we designate as god.
As long as humans think this way
Gods cannot die. They will live on
In their omnipotence, (changing
Their names, forms, attributes to match
Contemporary hopes and needs),
Nature’s immortal avatars.
The gods live in our minds, and there
They will remain, until we find
Reason to let them fade away
Into oblivion. Till then
Nature, (by any other name),
Will be the god that dominates
Our thoughts, our sensibilities
And our diverse activities.