Night’s Geology - Edit3

[RiverNotch]

Night’s Geology


What gets you through the tunnel and the night
Is much the same: there’s dread it frees you of,
Fear of abandonment, like rocky height
Above, weighs down, no breath, no light, no love.
Hope’s not enough:  you must own confidence,
Belief in science, that this tunnel’s roof
Is like each other’s, bored through rock as dense,
That’s crushed no one – a tested, public proof.
You trust the pit-props shoring up your mind
Likewise, religion, ideology,
Because they’ve helped so many souls to find
Safe passage through each night’s geology.
    To engineer is human; so’s belief:
    The stress of life, like stone, wants strain relief.

I agree with dale. Faith in science is different from faith in religion, because science doesn't actually say what is true or not -- sure, to play around with it, you have to accept the idea that hey, there's an objective truth and poop, but that acceptance only works within science -- you don't have to believe to your core that metaphysical reality equals the physical reality of science. Religion, meanwhile, automatically jumps at the assumption that God is real, and works its way from there -- thus, it provides an answer, without any reference points, at least the sort of religion that digs deep in the Western way. ie, Religion says that something is, and that "is-ness" is beyond what anything the "I" can perceive, or even think about -- science, meanwhile, tells us to assume that what the "I" perceives and logically proves as the "is-ness" is the "is-ness" that is, but only for the moment in which it is to be, unless one considers science to be that "is-ness" beyond the "I", which is of course a religion of itself. 

Of course, commenting on the poem....it depends too much on the logic behind the comparison, so I can't really say it's even worth keeping. It might be fair enough for apologetics, but frankly, I have a bad opinion of that, at least in its philosophical form -- it can be real fun to read how this God is this, that God is not this, etc. This isn't exactly a poem that tries to exist out of its question -- it's not even a metaphor, for me, saying "science is religion" and playing it like that (maybe because the key elements of its conceit are never really developed -- what is "night" in the context of religion, for one? is it despair? because as any God-believing person since the dawn of time knows, faith is its own form of despair), it's just a proof. Maybe if you made the whole science and geology bit less metaphysical, or if you made the elaboration on religion more playful....

I have to note that I'm a firm believer in God's existence, and if modern society would allow it, for all of my things, I'd blatantly disregard science for all things religious, but again, because God is a God that is, and if He is then He is beyond me, trying to prove Him, even with His holy scripture (which, as most peeps should know, would just lead back to trying to prove Him) would be as sensible as saying "I do not exist" -- if I don't exist, then how come I said "I"?