Dogma
Hey, can you hear me? Hey, can you hear me?
If you turned your volume down, then maybe you would,
Or maybe you don’t want to, even when your own laws say you should.
Hey, can you hear me? Hey, can you hear me?
Why is your voice louder than mine? Why is your law better than mine?
Is this thing we call morality yours to define?
Is belief really just a thing you pick out of the sky and give us a score of one out of five?
Hey, can you hear me?
What about the other dogmas that are just as sacred as yours?
Every word written by prophets on tablets of stone, some you share and others you own, alone.
Alone. Of course, that’s it.
That’s what you want him to be,
The sole divine leader and you, the worshippers in the know.
Hey, please turn down the noise because I’ve got a question to ask.
Your god, the counter of sinful souls, who decides where we’ll go and how our story will end.
Is he open to bribes?
An indulgence or two?
Maybe a trade, Saint for sinner, one on one.
Or perhaps it’s just a ruse to keep us all under control.
Faith and reward for the righteous being easier than admitting that life is just shit for some.
Oh, you want us to believe in your Celestial hedgefund
Managed by people who only eat five peas in a row and tell us to pay using their FCM?
A futures clearing merchant, whatever that might be.
But just quiet down for a moment and hear what I think about you.
Your creed, your club, and its members who call me a pagan, infidel, heretic, goy, atheist, agnostic, sceptic.
Hey, can you tell me who is divine enough to give you the divine right?
The mandate to say that my truth is a lie and your lie is the truth.
Can’t you see how our worldview is a list of questions
And some makeshift answers about
who we are
and why we are
and what we are
and what we should do
and where we’ll end up when it’s all over for us.
Right and wrong as slippery sand going out on the tide.
Good and bad defined by the moulds we give them.
My unbelief as undefined as your right to believe.
Just a foothold on the mountain that we’re all climbing.
Yes, I mean you and me.
If I believe in anything,
I believe that when I walk, my feet should find free ground
Not stepping on other people whose path I share.
That my place is in the community, and my attention is on the people I love and the danger of anger.
If I have to ask if you can hear me, your dogma is too loud.
But I know that if the music stops, you’ll fold like a puppet
So here’s one piece of advice I believe you should hear from someone who has no agenda.
Stop your prayers for the pagans, infidels and unbelievers.
Put them in one of your pretty boxes and leave them there.
Hey, can you hear me?
If a divine power is really sitting listening somewhere above us,
Then he should already know that we’re all doing just fine without him.