The Gospel Of The Godless

Every now and then,

more often than not,

right after an aftermath, 

when a dozen corpses

lie tangled into one indistinguishable lump of belief and bone,

wise men and women crawl out of their moral bunkers

to remind the world,

in voices polished by privilege and prayer,

that terror has no religion.

They say it like absolution,

like a cough disguised as compassion,

like vomit rehearsing its return

from the intestine to the tongue —

that reflex of denial so pure

it sounds almost wise, nearly divine.

But they never tell you

the latter half of that sentence.

Terror doesn’t have a religion;

because terror is religion.

And religion is terror.

They both demand worship.

They both sanctify submission.

They both manufacture meaning

out of fear wearing holy robes.

One kneels before gods,

the other before guns,

but the prayers are identical:

syllables of surrender

disguised as devotion, 

metaphors from a forgotten tongue

warped until they sound like satanic sermons

bleeding grenades blessed by false prophets.

History keeps repeating the same verses

in different dialects of damnation.

Every empire had its scripture.

Every scripture had its massacre.

Every massacre had its priest.

Faith is the only weapon

that kills without ever touching the trigger.

They’ll tell you not to say that.

They’ll tell you you’ve misunderstood divinity.

But I’ve seen the divine, 

and I can tell you this, 

it prays to bureaucracy.

Terror doesn’t wear turbans or crucifixes.

It doesn’t chant or fast.

It legislates.

It votes.

It marries morality,

raises prophets,

and names their children peace.

And every time blood meets faith,

someone lights a candle

and calls it hope.

Every time belief kills reason,

someone writes a prayer

and calls it poetry.

But I’m done praying.

If salvation needs a tongue,

count mine tied.

Terror doesn’t have a religion;

because terror was the first religion.

Born from the fear of thunder,

disguised as reverence,

and gift-wrapped as meaning.

We are all

but descendants

of that original panic, 

the only religion

we never stopped believing in.

Amen.