On Being Reasonable Persons

January 2010

We humanists are a dangerous lot, as menacing as can be,
And we're arrogant, our critics say, for a minority.

Our ranks are few (but growing), our ideas are clearly wrong.
We never thank our Maker or celebrate with song.

We believe the world is warming when everybody knows
We still have spring and fall and winter and the lovely snows.

God made this world for us; all scripture tells us this,
And He'll determine when it ends, as it says in Genesis.

And how can we be moral without God's guiding hand?
Our ethics must be built upon soft and shifting sand.

We're at odds on everything, from gays to God in school.
Can't we see that each of us is just a secular fool?

We rely too much on science. There's a lot of stuff
That prayer can do that science can't if we have faith enough.

God made man and woman and each one has a role
And we must all acknowledge this or we might lose our soul.

We're not descended from the apes; there's dignity in man,
And if we can't see this obvious fact, religious people can.

Our country is a Christian one, which we don't recognize,
Which shows that we're close minded and anything but wise.

We really should get back in step, we really should reform,
And leave our thinking minds behind and accept faith as the norm.

Our puny minds can't give us truth but just approximations.
We can't rely on evidence or reason or equations.

We need the certainty of God and what He has revealed.
And if He hasn't told us all, there's good reason it's concealed.

It tests our faith, and we should learn it's what our life's about.
We're here to exercise our faith and scuttle any doubt.

It's true the world has many faiths, but we should choose the one
Among them all that has the truth, which is easier said than done.

And when we find it we should reject the others out of hand,
And convince those of other faiths they're in some fairyland.

But isn't this what humanists do? And yet we're not excused
Like missionaries are, so now I'm totally confused.

I guess it boils down to our epistemology.
Reason's out and faith is in, and that's as it should be.

If you're a man of faith then you're on the side of God
And you're accepted though what you think may be quite odd.

And so it is that reason may be just too much to ask,
And humanists who do it face a mighty arduous task.

With this happy thought I'll wish you all a merry Christmas,
Or Hanukkah, or Kwanza, or Solstice just among us.

--Earl Wunderli