Fecisti nos ad te
Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 8:25 pm
Fecisti nos ad te
Variations on a theme from Augustine
Even if there is no God
Augustine had it right –
There is a restlessness of the heart
no narcotic can still;
a craving demanding satisfaction
no addiction can fill;
an anxiety agitating the mind
no assurance can null.
Are we thus, created out of nothing,
thrown into an existence of restlessness
to return to nothing,
or created to enter a state of discovered truth;
and can we ever know, and not knowing
make claims about existence
beyond our knowing?
And if there is a God, as Augustine claims,
are the cravings and restlessness of the heart
the designs of absurdity,
or the certainty of meaning,
powered by the heart’s emptiness,
its desire for coherence,
and its faith in the possibility of understanding;
or have we fallen to the state where we are placed,
standing on the edge of the abyss,
staring at nothingness;
and is God this nothingness who is no thing
that can be comprehended by our knowing?
If there is no God,
whence this restlessness?
If there is a God
whence this restlessness?
Variations on a theme from Augustine
Even if there is no God
Augustine had it right –
There is a restlessness of the heart
no narcotic can still;
a craving demanding satisfaction
no addiction can fill;
an anxiety agitating the mind
no assurance can null.
Are we thus, created out of nothing,
thrown into an existence of restlessness
to return to nothing,
or created to enter a state of discovered truth;
and can we ever know, and not knowing
make claims about existence
beyond our knowing?
And if there is a God, as Augustine claims,
are the cravings and restlessness of the heart
the designs of absurdity,
or the certainty of meaning,
powered by the heart’s emptiness,
its desire for coherence,
and its faith in the possibility of understanding;
or have we fallen to the state where we are placed,
standing on the edge of the abyss,
staring at nothingness;
and is God this nothingness who is no thing
that can be comprehended by our knowing?
If there is no God,
whence this restlessness?
If there is a God
whence this restlessness?