Awful Lie Poem by gershon hepner

Created to pretend we never die
religion may fail us when we all do,
and learn to our surprise it was a lie
without a God or heaven we can sue,
for we may all discover when we die
that we must live with the eternal curse
because the talk of heaven was a lie
and what comes after death is even worse.


Jonathan Raban (“My Holy War, ” The New Yorker, February 4,2002) , writes about his rebellion against his Anglo-Catholic father in England during the years when students marched to Aldermaston, pointing out that his experiences then were not unlike those that have induced Moslems who come to The United States and England to turn to jihad. Raban quotes Philip Larkin:

Religion….
The vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die.



2/2/02