By Any Other Name

                  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, […]

                  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.

 

Author: J. A. Bosworth

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