WHAT IF THERE NEVER WAS A HEAVEN?

WHAT IF THERE NEVER WAS A HEAVEN?             

I often wonder why,
so many good souls,
embrace a religious  belief,
that  creates such human grief?

You say it isn’t the mind that drives
but your faith that gives the lead,
and no matter the mind’s illogic,
your God  gave you that  belief?

and left the others faithless
knowing the hell that brings?

You say you’re a Muslim
and were  taught to  believe,
there were two sides to life,
your  loving  god,
and the devil he fights,

and when they were murdered
you knew it  was the devil’s side,
and now you live for god’s revenge
exploding those on the other side?

Nothing like that, did you say?
You’re not a Muslim but a Christian
and believe in the holy script,
written by the hand of God,
through the messengers he picked?

But there are hundreds of those scripts
claiming  gifted intervention.
Was that explained to you
prior to your confirmation?

And what particular sorting power
makes your’s  the only one,
when every one that believes in their’s
says their’s is the only one?

Do you ever stop to wonder
why so many options?
Do you ever wonder how its possible
that  perhaps a 1000  religions
are claiming your’s implausible?

Not an issue if its harmless,
for that belief is their’s to have,
so what’s the issue and why this
poem, if that’s their right to bear?

So let’s review the simple things
Like ending up, ‘up there’.

Why was it better to believe,
loved ones go to  heaven,
knowing the torture
they’d be gone forever,
and left us crying at their grave?

What if---

What if what we believe is
only steeped in the reality
of what we see and what we feel,
and build our belief on that?

But what despair could be worse
than knowing our life
will completely end on earth?

And given life so hard to bear
why believe in such despair?
For what reason would one wish,
to believe in anything
that kills the only hope
that would justify our life?

What if----

What if all those souls,
we thought heaven sent,
were actually here,
and with us now?
What if those souls never died
but joined other souls instead?

How nice to think
that when she died
my mother stayed right here,
in my soul and at my side.

And if that were true,
why not me? 
How nice it’d be
to be with each of you
leaving behind the residue
of what you liked best about me.

What if souls were as ethereal
as we’ve come to believe,
and simply broke into the pieces
that we most admired
then clung to our souls
when their body departed?

Since belief is required
to become so inspired,
then why can’t our souls
finally come to rest
with those special few,
we loved the best?

It seems to me, so easy
to believe, all those I loved,
will leave with  me,
what I loved best about them.

And should this be true
I shall do the same,
as I choose to believe,
those so passed
have done for me.