Atheist Prayer

Let us take responsibility for our own actions, inactions, strengths and frailties
And not project them onto ghosts, spirits, stars, portents and gods unseen
Let us have the courage to accept that one person's faith
Is another person's bloody-minded pigheaded refusal to accept the obvious

Let us have the courage to accept that the person at the front of all crowds
Including this one, doesn't know all the answers

Let us have the wisdom to accept that if our ancestors had fared differently in wars,
Our communities would be holding different absurdities up as sacred truths
And the willingness to accept these absurdities would be seen as the badge
Of social trustworthiness - or even the right to be allowed to draw breath

Let us accept that the difference between a prophet and a madman is not what they say,
But whether the crowd accepts the story and tells their children to believe it

Let us have the courage to accept that wanting to believe in something with every fibre
of our being does not, and cannot, make it true

Truth needs no help, no believers, no bowed heads and no amens.


- Martin Willet -