The ultimate truth

Can one poem end all religious speculation?

As the opening piece I feel obliged to make a grand claim: I have the answer to the greatest question to ever bother humankind. I know the ultimate truth. I know how this all works and who is in control.

I’ll even deliver it in poetry. But first I should explain: My belief system came from a betrayal — I couldn’t forgive religion’s claims for being so far divorced from objective reality.

What’s a boy to do, squeezed into those angst-etched pews, soaked by waves of doctrine and pulpit-spouted fear?

How was I to understand what was metaphor and what was not?

So many questions…

We’re not the first and won’t be the last to ask the big questions. If only we were. If only some all-powerful deity could end this once and for all.

All that suffering and no effort — not even a hastily constructed PR statement explaining they put humankind at the heart of everything they do. Way too much effort from a creator of galaxies…

Well, let’s keep this united.

In the spirit of hope, I’m happy to pronounce that there is common ground; there is a shared beauty for believers and heretics.

Nature has the answer

So here’s my olive branch to you. I found it discarded in the garden, left behind by humanity’s most famous lovers. They grabbed for it in their shame, to cover the same perfection their one-time creator taught them to hide.

Nature has the answer. Awe is shared by believers and heretics. However it came about — whether through an expanding universe, space opera or divine architecture — this spinning rock never ceases to amaze.

And amazed we were, staring to those once godless skies… Some cosmologists argue that a universe can arise spontaneously from nothing, challenging the idea that something must precede creation. Others propose cycles of universes before and after ours. Whatever the theory, we remain in awe.

So whatever the origins, we should all find solace, freedom, and inspiration in nature.

And treat it with respect.

“I urge everyone to treat every day of the year as Earth Day. Planet Earth is the only home we shall ever know yet we are relentlessly harming it.”

Jane Goodall

As for religion…

I found myself rejecting what I saw to be the ultimate arrogance — the claim to be beholden to truth, to have been chosen as its messenger.

Spoken to you in words I couldn’t understand. And shouldn’t question.

Preached at me from a pulpit draped in hipocrisy and colonial flags. Teachings you exported to new lands, fed to locals, whose culture was co-opted into your practices as your soldiers kept rebellion at bay, and your businesses reaped and raped.

Ungodly acts, from the chosen few. Spouting damnation and fear, all the while making their own bed in the afterlife, sinking in the devil’s footsteps.

But happily, for now we rise…

I myself will throw down my proclamation. Fortunately, there is no further subscription needed, no pay to play.

It came to me as poetry and I leave it as my only sermon to you.

One poem to end all religious speculation, gifted to me by the sea.

I spoke with the ocean

I fumed: I don’t believe the stories.

It replied in cerulean:

There is only one truth.

We rise.
We fall.

— Tate Ellis

Ok, well that was an intense start

Sorry, no apologies.

We’re here to throw it down, dig it up and have at it. There will be many more thoughts along this road, some I guarantee will be more beautiful, many from people better educated and hopefully some with visions to share.

I may be a heretic, but the door’s still open…

Next up

I’ve co-opted some wonderful people to add their thoughts. There will be an Anthology of the Underworld featuring the wanderings of Substack’s visionaries; a playlist for elevator up and elevator down; discussions on religious beauty and much more.

If you’re interested in contributing take a read of the main Across the Stack 2 : Religion Ressurected page.

If you’re enjoying please take time to re-stack a quote that impressed you or click through to one of the contributor’s bios. Fascinating people all of them!