Mid-Week Poetry: Creed by Steve Turner

Steve Turner, whom I've mentioned before, is one of my favorite poets. He has a particular way of embodying certain ideas in his poems with wit and satire. In "Creed," he takes a humorous jab at the modern worldview:

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe that everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy's OK.
We believe that taboo's are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes
UFO's and bent spoons.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at the least the one we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death come the Nothing
Because when you ask the dad what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then it's
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe that there are direct links between warfare and
bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.