Uploaded September 2010 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
***(SUBTITLES available)***
I wrote this poem in August of 2002. At the time I was taking my first semester of upper level science courses in college, and I was starting to think about scientific concepts in relation to religion for the first time. As a result of this poem I began to write down observations and questions I had about reality -- topics which turned into a lengthy essay, whose chapters are now episodes in my series, "Discovering Religion".
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"Magical or Molecule"
Along the banks of languid streams
In the brooding dawn
A bryophyte, struggling for life
Inspires understanding of ages gone
Or was it budding plumes of faith
That catalyzed thought in the hazy gloom
Through wanton orders given by a Ghost
His Son, or the Father who plays host
To molecular architecture
Of every nebulae and galaxy
Weaving laws and logic
Within the fabric of reality
Birthed of the elements
Suckling nature and wisdom
Rear seeds of doubt
That grow into suspicion
Of lofty held ideals
Seductive and diabolical
A distinction must be made
Magical or molecule
Are we from clay
Shaped in a form
Godly, dying
But brilliant as stars
Or are we of a substance
That constructs the Universe
Which gave life to Earth
And possibly Mars
We are divided
By prejudice and superstition
Intolerance and tradition
Our differences not celebrated
But counted as flaws
For when our beliefs
Inhibit understanding
They deny us the strength
To tear down the walls
Of hopefulness and fallacy
An opiate of dependency
On a crutch that forsook us
Or was never there at all
***(SUBTITLES available)***
I wrote this poem in August of 2002. At the time I was taking my first semester of upper level science courses in college, and I was starting to think about scientific concepts in relation to religion for the first time. As a result of this poem I began to write down observations and questions I had about reality -- topics which turned into a lengthy essay, whose chapters are now episodes in my series, "Discovering Religion".
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Magical or Molecule"
Along the banks of languid streams
In the brooding dawn
A bryophyte, struggling for life
Inspires understanding of ages gone
Or was it budding plumes of faith
That catalyzed thought in the hazy gloom
Through wanton orders given by a Ghost
His Son, or the Father who plays host
To molecular architecture
Of every nebulae and galaxy
Weaving laws and logic
Within the fabric of reality
Birthed of the elements
Suckling nature and wisdom
Rear seeds of doubt
That grow into suspicion
Of lofty held ideals
Seductive and diabolical
A distinction must be made
Magical or molecule
Are we from clay
Shaped in a form
Godly, dying
But brilliant as stars
Or are we of a substance
That constructs the Universe
Which gave life to Earth
And possibly Mars
We are divided
By prejudice and superstition
Intolerance and tradition
Our differences not celebrated
But counted as flaws
For when our beliefs
Inhibit understanding
They deny us the strength
To tear down the walls
Of hopefulness and fallacy
An opiate of dependency
On a crutch that forsook us
Or was never there at all
