An Atheist’s Psalter
Here I go again, trying to explain what I do and justify the extraordinary amount of time I spend on it to my family.
Palimpsest is an atheist’s Psalter, a loosely organized and moderated collection (some old and dusty) of articles, poetry, and prose centred around my own personal belief system. It is part celebration, part condemnation, part praise and part critique. I see and listen and yes, judge, with a critical eye and ear. Judgements always come with a caveat: I may be wrong. Judgements can change over time and with new information and changing awareness. But I try to make the basic observations unbiased where possible.
I reject deism and theism as I do most other “isms”. I’ll make on exception here: While I do not accept theism, I do embrace spiritualism. To take on the title Deist you must first have a firm understanding of God or Gods and who can rightly claim that knowledge? I think (?) I have a solid grounding in spiritualism. A blanket “ism” represents a generality used to justify (or excuse) a specific idea or ideas. It is an inadequate effort to define or explain something by putting an “ism” fence around it. It needs a sure, unshakeable foundation to rest on. The content (such as it may be) is all. The rest is nothing.
Now, I love the Psalms, most written (we assume) by my namesake, David. They are beautiful and, in the King James Version, lyrical. Like any collection, it contains both good and bad, reflecting a certain viewpoint which may not be your own. You’ll have to read the articles in Palimpsest – as you do in the Book Of Psalms – to get a sense of my views on deism and the afterlife and life in general. Be warned: As of this writing, there are over 180 of them. But also be at ease: Most of them are quite short.
In Palimpsest I have tried to capture the essence of an idea, take it apart and put it back together, reorganized it, tried to express it for the better understanding of both the reader and myself.
Since vision is the most information-rich of the senses, I have tried to paint with words. It has a vast, and often misunderstood, palette. It is,at times, an awkward and difficult medium to work with. If you are not classically trained, like myself, it takes much time and effort to master, as does any discipline.
Palimpsest has been my theory notebook containing many false starts and faltering steps. It is a scratchpad, a sketchbook, my doodlepad. It is both a learning process and a work in progress. It has been discouraging and uplifting, a pain and a joy. I expect to make more missteps and mistakes. I ask your patience.
If I am granted the time,
I will go back to correct them.