Greetings from the ultimate humanist.
Progress Unyielding (From Eden against the Colossus)
Our souls before these sights dwarfed shan't become.
Why bow to passive matter of antiquity?
What spreads from them is utter pandemonium;
Their barrenness is source for all iniquity.
'Tis in our minds the idols hatch,
Of stone for man to shape and mold.
Such logic does our hands attach
To this domain of lifeless cold,
To every cavern, crater, creek.
Damned is the man who'd preached the norm
That worlds are destined for the meek!
Our will and strength give matter form.
Who grovels tastes his obsequies;
We float into the void, oases craft.
We are not slaving tribal bees,
And no collective guides our raft.
We are not one, but many knights;
Each does himself his quest ordain,
We thrive on work, and work from rights.
Our well-earned profit's our domain.
This ground bears meaning solely to our aims.
Its monuments stem from our ingenuity.
Glory to him who savage wildlands tames,
And weeds out every incongruity!
What shall replace the brittle dune?
What shall refine this cratered scar?
Our pavement shall embrace it soon,
And spread to every spawn of star
Yet seen, and into others we shall gaze,
And thus apply the universe's stock.
This is not but one transient fase.
Forever shall we harness pristine rock!
Cosmos is Man's, its means and goal.
Its exiled heirs now seek its wreath:
Supremacy, from atom, oil, and coal.
Our claim to treasures underneath
These jagged lands shall never wane.
Always grand mechanisms will be our guide.
Who doubts their value is a despot most profane.
Inventors we exalt and vandals we deride!
Merit determines worth under our creed.
The self-made prodigy our government defends,
Does daily our endeavor by example lead,
And never harms one for another’s ends.
What is the trait we deem sublime?
The source which does all virtue render.
It, dauntless, conquers space and time,
And never can its plight surrender.
It is inside us, best within the great,
The ego, mind, one's self, one's soul,
Prerequisite to any proper state.
Maintain your own, and you've fulfilled your role.
No world beyond this life is real;
Its furthering's our sole concern.
No godly favor is to steal,
No mystic afterlife to earn.
God's not above us, but within;
The Self's the Lord, Reason, His rite.
We have a universe to win.
Join us, great men, in splendid flight!
Now, how would such a mentality plunge man into collectivism?
Mr. Baxter is much more of a freedom lover than most religious men, many of whom would seek to blend Church with State by mandating the presence of "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance or spending taxpayers' money of "faith-based initiatives." It is possible, by minimizing the role of God to a passive observer (as the Deists had done) or to the life of the religious individual alone (as many moderate Christians do) to earnestly promote values of liberty, civility, and progress. But history has shown that the societies more extensively permeated by religion, such as Medieval Europe or Spain during the Great Inquisition, suffer from widespread unreason and persecution of original thinkers. The reason why America has generally escaped this is because of the moderation and toleration of its religious population. But, whenever religious fundamentalism reared its ugly head in this country, such monstrous events as those leading up to the 1925 Scopes Trial took place even here.
I am G. Stolyarov II
The Prologue: http://www.geocities.com/rationalargumentator/eac_prologue.html
Chapter I: Protector's Summons: http://www.geocities.com/rational_argumentator/eac_chapter1.html
Order Eden against the Colossus at http://www.lulu.com/content/63699.
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