MY RELIGION 
 
 my 
 
 Philip Johnson Fishback 
 
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 ^"^ 
 
MY RELIGION. 
 
 'What the great 
 "What the origin of 
 
 ^^FT we ask ourselves the questions: 
 
 creative plan?" 
 "How and when first came religions?" 
 man?" 
 As we slowly travel backward, on the avenues of Time, 
 
 Through the valleys of Tradition, and the mystic mountains 
 climb 
 Through the map-lost Aztec empires, through the lands of 
 mosque and dome, 
 Of the early Aryan races, and the first Turanian home, 
 Past the pyramids of Egypt, where the mounds on Tigris 
 
 rise, 
 To that grave beneath the ocean where the lost Atlantis lies ; 
 As the writings and traditions of the nations long since dead 
 
 Are exhumed from hoary ruins, and by patient scholars read ; 
 As the veil is slowly lifted that conceals the Past from sight, 
 
 And as Science lights the darkness of that long, unmeasured 
 
 Night; 
 
II. 
 
 As we search through ancient records, far as truth or legend 
 
 leads, 
 
 For the story o£ Creation and the origin of creeds — 
 
 Through the Gospels of the Christian, through the records 
 
 of the Jew, 
 In the Koran, and the Vedas, and the mystic and the true; 
 Our present great theologies, as will clearly thus appear. 
 
 Had their birth in old traditions, and in ignorance and fear. 
 In the times of mental darkness, and when men were rude 
 
 and wild; 
 When the brute was most developed, and the Reason yet a 
 
 child; 
 When 'twas thought that Nature's forces all had human 
 
 traits and form; 
 That a god gave out the sunshine, while a demon sent the 
 
 storm. 
 As men feared these unseen beings their own ignorance 
 
 had reared. 
 Soon in vague and slavish terror they then worshipped what 
 
 they feared. 
 
III. 
 
 If we would enslave the body we must first enslave the 
 
 mind — 
 The ignorance of the masses is the bondage of mankind. 
 Men are largely led and governed through ^'religious" zeal 
 
 and hate ; 
 Hence, the rulers and the clergy early merged the Church 
 
 and State. 
 Then they taught the trusting people (and they teach it yet 
 
 today,) 
 That a few are bcrn to govern, while the many must obey; 
 And whene'er the masses murm.ured, priests and rulers taught 
 
 the throng. 
 "It will all be right in heaven", and "The king can do no 
 
 wrong"; 
 "Servants must obey their masters", and "Draw nearer to 
 
 the rod"; 
 "For the rulers are anointed, and have been ordained of God." 
 In each struggle of the masses for their rights and better 
 
 laws. 
 An Established Church and clergy have espoused the tyrant's 
 
 cause. 
 
IV. 
 
 Honest doubt brings search for knowledge ; knowledge leads 
 
 at last to Truth; 
 Age and time oft prove the error of opinions formed in 
 
 youth ; 
 In the onward march of progress, and the widening reach of 
 
 Mind, 
 Creed-bound churches and their clergy have forever lagged 
 
 behind ; 
 They have claimed Divine appointment to proclaim a Sacred 
 
 Word, 
 While they've hounded "unbelievers" and condemned them 
 
 though unheard; 
 They have scoffed the voice of Reason, and have tried to 
 
 chain the pen; 
 They have crucified the Thinkers, and have dwarfed the 
 
 minds of men. 
 The inscriptions on the milestones, guiding Progress through 
 
 the years. 
 Have been written and re-written with the thinkers' blood 
 
 and tears; 
 Yet, the race keeps marching forward — with the thinkers in 
 
 the van — 
 Leaving worn-out creeds and dogmas — working out the 
 
 destined Plan. 
 
V. 
 
 Though the march be slow and painful, and the Truth be oft 
 
 denied, 
 Yet the Truth at last must triumph, and the Error stand 
 
 aside ; 
 Thus in every age and nation have been some who sought 
 
 the Light — 
 Some of grand, heroic courage, and who dared proclaim the 
 
 Right; 
 And for them, on Nature's altar, lay a book of wondrous lore. 
 
 Filled with Learning's choicest treasures — a profound and 
 / endless store. 
 
 Open wide that Book of Nature! There behold the Builder's 
 
 plan! 
 There, in records clear and perfect, read the Message left 
 
 for man ! 
 There's the story of Creation — and we well may read with 
 
 awe — 
 For we find no myths nor fables, but that everywhere is Law ! 
 Study well that Sacred Volume! Heed no churchman's 
 
 frown or rod! 
 There's the perfect Revelation! There's the evidence of 
 
 God! 
 
VI. 
 
 No Immaculate Conceptions, and no miracles are there; 
 
 And no man-made gods or devils the confiding throng to 
 
 scare. 
 (Deeds of Christ, Mahomet, Buddha, need no mystic, God- 
 wrought plan ; 
 For their lives show clearer, grander, as ideal types o£ man.) 
 There no hell of endless torments, hopeless screams and 
 
 devil's din. 
 Nor of that blasphemous falsehood of a race conceived in sin ! 
 There no God as savage monster, spreading ruin round His 
 
 path — 
 Breathing vengeance 'gainst His creatures — pouring out His 
 
 vials of wrath ! 
 Nature's book has no such record ; and a god of hate and rage 
 
 Is but the ignorant concept of a past barbaric age. 
 Mother earth is still an Eden, wherein angels yet might 
 
 dwell ; 
 Through his greed and lust and blindness, man alone has 
 made a hell. 
 
VII. 
 
 Nature's story of creation is the same within all lands ; 
 
 It is sculptured in the limestones, and is etched upon the 
 
 sands ; 
 It is graven by the glacier, it is chiseled by the stream, 
 
 And is printed on the fossils that in hill and valley teem; 
 It is written on the mountains, with their walls of tilted rock; 
 
 In the vast volcanic fissure, and the earthquake's dreaded 
 
 shock. 
 It is seen in ocean corals, and the diatomic shell ; 
 
 In the growth of complex bodies, and the protoplastic cell; 
 In the change of inert matter to the spreading branch and 
 
 root. 
 From the seed-germ's first unfolding to the flower and 
 ripened fruit; 
 In the work of Primal Forces, far as finite mind can range ; 
 In the Unity of Matter, and infinity of change. 
 
VIII. 
 
 Nature's forces and her records are around us everywhere ; 
 
 We may see them in the water, in the clouds, and in the air; 
 In the silent power of sunlight ; in the work of frost and ice ; 
 
 In that strange electric fluid, and the lodestone's weird 
 
 device; 
 In repulsion and attraction — that unknown, atomic force 
 
 That gives life and form and motion, and directs each planet's 
 
 course ; 
 Through the spectroscope and spectrum, which disclose to 
 
 mental sight 
 Primal elements of bodies, by dividing rays of light; 
 Through microscope and telescope — which reveal to human 
 
 eyes 
 The endless forms of Littleness and the vastness of the 
 
 skies — 
 From infinitude of Smallness, to that vast, abysmal space 
 
 Where the stars fade out in darkness and Conception veils 
 
 her face. 
 
IX. 
 
 From her mountains, plains and waters, in her sky-domed 
 
 lecture hall, 
 Nature teaches of Creation, and the laws that govern all; 
 In those laws so v/ise and wondrous, we may trace the 
 
 Maker's plan, 
 And in records true and perfect, read the Message left for 
 
 man; 
 In the countless forms of being, with their endless scheme 
 
 and range — 
 In Life — with all its mysteries — and in Death — the later 
 
 change ! 
 There the Holy Inspirations in their purity are found — 
 
 And we well may tread with reverence — for it all is Holy 
 
 Ground ! 
 Nature's book has endless problems with the answers yet 
 
 unknown — 
 And when man that knowledge masters, he will stand with 
 
 God alone ! 
 Yet, with all our finite limits, and in weakness we must plod, 
 
 Who but reads aright from Nature, reads the Message from 
 
 his God! 
 
/ 
 
 As men grow in mental stature, and their social life expands, 
 
 Their environments must widen or they burst the swaddling 
 
 bands ; 
 While we honor ancient wisdom, and the great, immortal 
 
 dead. 
 Yet new problems have arisen — times have changed and 
 
 knowledge spread; 
 Every later generation has been cramped and pinched and 
 
 sore. 
 Wearing outgrown mental garments from the age that went 
 
 before. 
 All the earnest agitations that arise and grow apace 
 
 Are but conscience-quickened protests of a mind expanding 
 
 race. 
 Far too long we've rendered homage to old fictions, faiths, 
 
 and fears; -.. 
 Fraud and error ne'er are "sacred" though they live a 
 
 thousand years. 
 Far too much our laws are cumbered with old "precedent" 
 
 and "code," 
 Till they /a/7 of right and justice and become a galling load. 
 
XI. 
 
 We have reached that stage in progress when our creeds and 
 
 laws must change ; 
 When men's honest thoughts and efforts must have wider 
 
 scope and range; 
 When we need a new religion — freed from ignorance and 
 
 strife — 
 For the minds of men are starving for a truthful Bread of 
 
 Life. 
 "Faiths," "immersion," and "election," and a "purgatory" 
 
 pen, 
 Are too triBing for attention from progressive, earnest men; 
 That we're all "depraved by nature" is a libel on mankind; 
 
 And to ask "rewards" from heaven shows a base and selfish 
 
 mind. 
 Let us preach that new religion from a higher moral plane 
 
 Than craven fear of punishment, or the hireling's hope for 
 
 gain; 
 Let us preach less "hell and torments," "Noah's flood," and 
 
 "Adam's fall" — 
 More of God's transcendent goodness — through earth's 
 
 bounty for us all. 
 
XII. 
 
 Let our creeds and laws be fashioned to improve our social 
 
 plan — 
 Based on Truth and Love and Justice, and the Brotherhood 
 
 of Man. 
 Let us rise to higher levels — rise above the seething flood 
 
 Of our groveling lust for mammon, and the brutish thirst for 
 
 blood; 
 Rise where "vested rights" of dollars hold no Rights of Man 
 
 in thrall, 
 But God's lavish gifts through Nature are the heritage of all ; 
 Where true manhood — mind and morals— shall be given 
 
 merit's meed. 
 While no more are place and honors bought by cunning, 
 
 soulless greed; 
 Where religion, linked with Science, Nature's wondrous laws 
 
 shall trace — 
 Searching out her endless secrets — ^winning blessings for the 
 
 race; 
 Where the reign of Thought and Justice — told by poet and 
 
 by seer — 
 Shall restore to man his Eden, and will make a heaven here. 
 
XIII. 
 
 When we pass into that future, and have done with mortal 
 
 breath, 
 And the conscious, thinking ego has survived the change 
 
 called death, 
 In that realm that men call heaven there will be no streets of 
 
 gold, 
 And no rich in princely mansions and no homeless poor and 
 
 old; 
 There will be no saintly nobles, re-enacting worldly scenes. 
 
 Wearing crowns upon their foreheads, aping earthly kings 
 
 and queens; 
 No exclusive, sacred city, walled around with precious stone, 
 
 And no throngs of idle angels simply chanting round a 
 
 throne. 
 There will be no cross or crescent — Christian, Moslem, 
 
 Buddhist, Jew; 
 Each the only "true believers," each the special, "chosen" 
 
 few. 
 Justice then will be so perfect, and the mental view so wide, 
 All such fictions and distinctions will be quickly swept aside. 
 
' XIV. 
 
 Change, development, and action — are the universal laws 
 
 That are fixed for mind and matter, by the all-pervading 
 
 Cause. 
 When weVe laid aside the mortal, and immortal have put on. 
 
 Then will come sublime Progression — and a wondrous mental 
 
 dawn; 
 Earthly mists will quickly vanish from our death anointed 
 
 eyes 
 As the glories of Creation in unending changes rise ; 
 Freed from worldy din and dulness, then our clear, enrap- 
 tured ears 
 Will catch the rhythm and melody of "the Music of the 
 
 Spheres"; 
 Then will come that feast of Knowledge — and that fulness of 
 
 the soul, 
 As we learn the Cosmic Order and the laws that all control ; 
 In pursuit of endless Knowledge we'll the highest heaven 
 
 find 
 Learning more and learning ever of the Great Eternal Mind !