Tag: atheism

“You are light as air & heavy as clouds”

Warren TangLeave a comment

These lines are from my poem atheist become.

For me, a metaphor is what creates the illusion of something like God. They are concepts and nothing more. So they can be as light or as heavy as you can imagine. In the same way we can imagine that when we die we go to some place better. But do we? Is there some place to go? I ended the poem with but nothing will free you / from death and / to nowhere will you go to suggest perhaps the reason why we do imagine a heaven is precisely because the idea of nowhere to go is rather lonely. Atheists must overcome loneliness as they do not have something to comfort them as Christians do. It reminds of the line from Kafka’s novel, The Trial:

“It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.”

Why I am an atheist but not against religion

Warren TangLeave a comment

As a person who looks at language for a living and have come to believe all of what we know and believe comes from a combination of experience, thought and language. 

Not matter where we look cultures have religion. We, as human being, like to make religion, as much as we like to make language or literature. We are different to other animals in our ability to do so in such a way. 

So I cannot be “against” religion, or language or literature. It is inherent in us to make religion, language, literature and the such. 

What I do have believe, though, is that we also have the same capacity to “see through” the need for religion, language, literature, etc. For whatever reason we have religion, language, literature, etc, we have to learn to deal with it as reasoned but critical beings in a physical universe. 

atheist become

Warren Tang3 Comments

released from
some kind of burden
you are light as air
& heavy as clouds

god did not leave –
not there to begin with
as they would
like you to believe

the world is yours now
but nothing will free you
from death and
to nowhere will you go