If

If there was a god
good and kind as he is
If there was a god
caring and loving to man
If there was a god
just or merciful
If there was a god
powerful and omniscient
then suffering would not exist,
evil would not persist,
war and famine would never be known

But alas, there is suffering,
there is pain, there is war, there is powerlessness,
there is ignorance,
there is hardship...

If only man believes in himself
in his power to transform the world
in his inherent greatness to do good,
as well as his capacity to do great evil
Then what matters, what really matters
Is that man creates his own life,
assigns its own meaning,
and thereby create its own solutions
to solving humanity's greatest challenges.

If only man sees that after all
After everything has been said and done
God is man himself externalizing himself
Explaining the world to himself
For himself
For his benefit.

Man is God ossified to impossibility and contradictions,
improbability and ignorance,
insecurity and rigidity.

If man frees himself
From deities high above
Of which he himself has invented
then the greatest potential of man
is man released from fearfulness
to man confident of the world
to explore and discover it
to understand and savor it

If only....
then only....