Born Again

Well then, it’s settled.
There will be no death for you
who have accepted fiction over fact
and value culture over the cultivation
of knowledge—
which will go on
separating the wheat from the chaff,
the pit from the peach,
and the wise man from the fool
even as you go on believing
heaven and hell are waiting
and there’s a choice to be made
in the name of everlasting life
which you have faith will mean more
than any scientific discovery
which tells us that brains are not ghosts
inhabiting the machines of our bodies
and that death is the bittersweet reward
for having overcome the odds
that insist we’re lucky
to have even once been born.
Peace of mind at the expense of truth
has no appeal,
and comfort has never been responsible
for improvement, growth or change.
But if ignorance offers anything, it’s bliss—
an intoxicating concoction that aids
in your denial that reality is just as magical
as anything our imaginations
can conceive.