Who is this god, anyway?

Whose god is this

that let us explore the beauty of mathematics

while whispering only to us that we are His chosen people

Who is this god

that lets men abuse children and rob the elderly

and still shows us the grace of the earth in the springtime

Whose god is this

Whose hand we see in every detail of creation

and whose teachings we have reduced to the stalest of dogma

Who is this god

that permits us to kill for him as they would kill us in his name

and yet is love, being filled with infinite mercy

Whose god is this

that placed us in a universe 15 billion years old

where we live but our three score and twelve

Who is this god

that allows seven billion humans to overwhelm the earth

which still produces rainbows after a cleansing summer rain

Whose god is this

that we hear in Bach and see in Leonardo

yet lived in Hitler and thrived in Stalin

Who is this god

that lets children have more ignorant children without hope

and helps the fawn to its feet with mother licking so tenderly

Whose god is this

that created the beautiful clockwork chaos of cosmology

and rains down repeated acts of random violence upon us

Who is this god

Who permits us to extinguish the tiger

yet still gave us the ability to admire its grace

Whose god is this

that shines in the eyes of every smiling infant

and in whose name we kill with such impunity

Who is this god

that stands in the twilight, arms outspread over old freeways and junkyards

and simply blesses each day, our hopeless factory white bread

Whose god is this

whose work is revealed with telescopes and microscopes

and who counts each fish as it disappears from the oceans

Who is this god

Stooping so low as to tempt us with paradise and threaten us with hell

yet is omniscient, omnipresent, eternal and merciful

Whose god is this

that teaches us forgiveness to one and towards all

but allows no mercy towards those who put false gods before him

Who is this god

that pushes up dandelions amid smoking ashes

and gives us the faith with which we move mountains

Whose god is this

that brings shade from the sun and a breeze to sweaty brows

yet commands the drought, the famine, the pestilence and the starvation

Who is this god

that merely watches from above as the old lose their dignity

and invests the clouds with the patterns from our dreams

Whose god is this

Teaching us to forgive and to forget

and insisting upon an eye for an eye, again and again

Who is this god

that oversees the destruction, pollution, extinction and over-population

yet guards so carefully the seeds of hope that ever sprout in our hearts

Whose god is this

that cradles the ever-increasing poor and the hungry

and why is his word used as a tool by so many shrewd opportunists

Who is this god

that smiles down upon our torture, executions and imprisonment

and in whose love and mercy our land puts its trust

Whose god is this

that stands up for those who cannot stand up themselves

and then stands by so silently as they are led away forever

Who is this god

that we have all invented, so alike are our needs

who brings us all moral comfort as we slaughter each other, for him

Whose god is this

that the old, the halt and the sickly find so very comforting

and the dead child's mother wails to without any consolation

Who is this god

that blesses us as we poison the rivers, foul the air and butcher the trees

yet grants us the sacred sound of snow falling on the silence of the mountains

Whose god is this

that brings our family together during holiday seasons

and sends our lonely sons to faraway places to perform unspeakable acts

Who is this god

that baptizes children with paint full of lead and air full of toxic fumes

and remains at our sides throughout all the days of our lives

Whose god is this

that gave us our senses to appreciate the grandness of his creation

and taught us of drugs, alcohol, violence, repression, rape and abuse

Who is this god

in whose image are the looters, the whores, the rapists and the insane

and whose mercy gently rains down upon them all in an equal measure

Whose god is this

that blossomed in poverty and required no finery to walk in full grace

and whose faithful followers grow rich and fat in his reflected righteousness

Who is this god

that though certainly all-knowing must still test our faith

but shares all his secrets with any who simply listen