I believe in a Higher Power

[George S]

I have found the real God! It turns out she is a fickle bitch called Mother Nature. She doesn't give a damn. She doesn't listen to the most sincere prayer. She neither curses nor blesses. She has her commandment, just one -- I may not be denied. Both nurturing and cruel, she rules. The oracle of truth if asked in just the right way. As with all oracles (oracles in myth are but models of her) she always gives true answers. And often misleading ones. Lying with the truth is in her very nature.

Do I believe in a higher power? Yes, see above.

 

[Keith&Co.]

If there's no such thing as blessings, explain bacon.

 

[George S]

If there's no such thing as blessings, explain bacon.

She is the yin-yang personified. Bacon and cyanide.
Slightly out of balance, never satisfied.

 

[Atheos]

Maybe more appropriately bacon and trichinosis.

 

[ronburgundy]

The part I balk at is "higher power". Higher than what? Power over what? There is nothing outside of nature. Humans and all we do are as natural as anything else. Thus, there is nothing for Nature as a whole to be higher than or have power over.

All variants of theism and "spiritualism" wind up falling into this trap created by forms of anthropomorphizing nature. That is why atheism and non-spiritualism are the only rational positions, with scientifically grounded understanding and respect for the realities of "nature" being a distinct alternative to rather than a variant of "God", theism, or spiritualism.

 

[George S]

The part I balk at is "higher power". Higher than what? Power over what? There is nothing outside of nature. Humans and all we do are as natural as anything else. Thus, there is nothing for Nature as a whole to be higher than or have power over.

All variants of theism and "spiritualism" wind up falling into this trap created by forms of anthropomorphizing nature. That is why atheism and non-spiritualism are the only rational positions, with scientifically grounded understanding and respect for the realities of "nature" being a distinct alternative to rather than a variant of "God", theism, or spiritualism.

Point taken. Perhaps a better wording would be "Highest Power." I invoke the usage "higher than man" as my meaning. Nature -- the Highest Power. And, an example, by the way of lying with the truth when asked by theists. Gods, to be called gods, must defeat my goddess! In fact they make that claim in miracles. Doing what would be denying Mother Nature. Well, hell, let's just stop with her.
As an explanation to a theist who believes that everyone believes in some god, she is a God. A deist god. Nature's God. More powerful than any other "god." There are no other gods to be before her. Nature personified.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe more appropriately bacon and trichinosis.

That would have spoiled the rhyme. But much better.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

If Mother Nature is so damn special, then why is it that humans needed to invent the XBox on our own instead of having it grow naturally on trees?

 

[Valjean]

I found a higher power behind my fridge -- a 220 volt outlet!

 

[rousseau]

I have found the real God! It turns out she is a fickle bitch called Mother Nature. She doesn't give a damn. She doesn't listen to the most sincere prayer. She neither curses nor blesses. She has her commandment, just one -- I may not be denied. Both nurturing and cruel, she rules. The oracle of truth if asked in just the right way. As with all oracles (oracles in myth are but models of her) she always gives true answers. And often misleading ones. Lying with the truth is in her very nature.

Do I believe in a higher power? Yes, see above.

Not true, she answers every prayer by slowly killing off bad genes until we're able to live for 80 years un-sussed.

The universe isn't ambivalent, it's supportive.

 

[skepticalbip]

The universe isn't ambivalent, it's supportive.

Only if you know, understand, and obey the rules. Fail to do so and that bitch will slap you down.

Never trust the smile
of a crocodile.

 

[rousseau]

The universe isn't ambivalent, it's supportive.

Only if you know, understand, and obey the rules. Fail to do so and that bitch will slap you down.

Never trust the smile
of a crocodile.

Can't push the rules past the breaking point.

 

[Tigers!]

I do too, its called SHWHMUBO (For fans of Rumpole of the Bailey)

 

[none]

I have found the real God! It turns out she is a fickle bitch called Mother Nature. She doesn't give a damn. She doesn't listen to the most sincere prayer. She neither curses nor blesses. She has her commandment, just one -- I may not be denied. Both nurturing and cruel, she rules. The oracle of truth if asked in just the right way. As with all oracles (oracles in myth are but models of her) she always gives true answers. And often misleading ones. Lying with the truth is in her very nature.

Do I believe in a higher power? Yes, see above.

I'd go with more of an it than she

 

[Atheos]

Maybe more appropriately bacon and trichinosis.

That would have spoiled the rhyme. But much better.

Alas, your rhyme and wit were lost on my dim self. How about this then:

She is the yin-yang personified.
Bacon and trich dance side by side.
Slightly out of balance, never satisfied.

 

[George S]

I have found the real God! It turns out she is a fickle bitch called Mother Nature. She doesn't give a damn. She doesn't listen to the most sincere prayer. She neither curses nor blesses. She has her commandment, just one -- I may not be denied. Both nurturing and cruel, she rules. The oracle of truth if asked in just the right way. As with all oracles (oracles in myth are but models of her) she always gives true answers. And often misleading ones. Lying with the truth is in her very nature.

Do I believe in a higher power? Yes, see above.

Not true, she answers every prayer by slowly killing off bad genes until we're able to live for 80 years un-sussed.

The universe isn't ambivalent, it's supportive.

She hasn't heard so there is no answer. She is "she" not "he." She is Mother Nature the source of life itself -- mother of us all. Provider of provender; thanked (but she doesn't listen nor care for your thanks) at mealtimes. That's her good side.

She is uncaring of her offspring generating quantity, most of which she kills off. If all life is her children, eating plants is eating distant cousins. Eating fish, fowl and beast is eating closer and closer cousins. Individual lives by the billions (most microscopic) destroyed each second of each day.

 

[George S]

That would have spoiled the rhyme. But much better.

Alas, your rhyme and wit were lost on my dim self. How about this then:

She is the yin-yang personified.
Bacon and trich dance side by side.
Slightly out of balance, never satisfied.

She is yin-yang personified,
Bacon :: trichinosis, side by side.
Slightly out of balance, never satisfied.

 

[abaddon]

She is uncaring of her offspring generating quantity, most of which she kills off. If all life is her children, eating plants is eating distant cousins. Eating fish, fowl and beast is eating closer and closer cousins. Individual lives by the billions (most microscopic) destroyed each second of each day.

That’s an example of uncaring or harshness?

Looks like exuberance to me.

There’s a kinda manichean dualism in the split between the Nice and the Mean, the Mother and the Bitch.

But is there even a bad side at all? What’s the split introduced into it for?

Deer, elephants, people… they all need some variety of being kept in check or life’s diversity, its flourishing, is diminished. Too much of one species means too few of others, and earth's features get barren, less exuberant, whenever one species "wins" out over others. Death is a big part of how life flourishes. Which means it’s not the dismal or horrible stand-in for a manichean Dark Side after all.

They put wolves back into Yellowstone. Bad news for the deer? I guess, in the eyes of those with a very fragmented, reductive viewpoint. But life of all kinds bloomed around the deer. The whole regional entity or organ[ism], the ecosystem, became much healthier: its diversity flourished.

How does life flourish? Partly because Mother Nature kills a lot of it! Which is just an alternate way of saying she nourishes it.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&feature=youtu.be[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Kharakov]

Alas, your rhyme and wit were lost on my dim self. How about this then:

She is the yin-yang personified.
Bacon and trich dance side by side.
Slightly out of balance, never satisfied.

She is yin-yang personified,
Bacon :: trichinosis, side by side.
Slightly out of balance, never satisfied.

Bury 'em, eye so cyanide...
that narrow gaze, cast so wide.
Always seeing truth, because of foolish pride,
no forest behind the trees, never satisfied.

... I assume the cyanide reference was to Ba (CON)₂?

 

[Kharakov]

Cyan ate never a CON, always an NCO or CNO. Which is quite disappointing.

 

[Horatio Parker]

She hasn't heard so there is no answer. She is "she" not "he." She is Mother Nature the source of life itself -- mother of us all. Provider of provender; thanked (but she doesn't listen nor care for your thanks) at mealtimes. That's her good side.

She is uncaring of her offspring generating quantity, most of which she kills off. If all life is her children, eating plants is eating distant cousins. Eating fish, fowl and beast is eating closer and closer cousins. Individual lives by the billions (most microscopic) destroyed each second of each day.

This is about Spring, but could be about Nature:

SPRING omnipotent goddess Thou
dost stuff parks
with overgrown pimply
chevaliers and gumchewing giggly

damosels Thou dost
persuade to serenade
his lady the musical tom-cat
Thou dost inveigle

into crossing sidewalks the
unwary june-bug and the frivolous
angleworm
Thou dost hang canary birds in parlour windows

Spring slattern of seasons
you have soggy legs
and a muddy petticoat
drowsy

is your hair your
eyes are sticky with
dream and you have a sloppy body from

being brought to bed of crocuses
when you sing in your whisky voice
the grass rises on the head of the earth
and all the trees are put on edge

spring
of the excellent jostle of
thy hips
and the superior

slobber of your breasts i
am so very fond that my
soul inside of me hollers
for thou comest

and your hands are the snow and thy
fingers are the rain
and your
feet O your feet

freakish
feet feet incorrigible

ragging the world