I love your audacity. No wonder, this turned out to be a controversial piece.
Wow! This is cool!
I think it's also very very VERY cool that you made this a haiku. Haikus are fun, but they're surprisingly fiddly beasts, and I love when you get them to work.
My favorite line is the last one: "It is a knowledge." It's just. SO. AWESOME. In fact, I think it's so awesome, I don't know what the heck I am saying right now. I have deleted over seven versions of an explanation for why I like it so much but I can't make even ONE work right. I just like it because it's kind of enchanting and interesting and for some reason makes me get all... philosophical about things. I dunno.
~Curiosity killed the cat
P.S.: By the way, thank you for NOT trying to stuff this down our throats. It's not rude to write a poem about something you are passionate about, no matter how controversial it is, as long as you aren't being mean about other people's beliefs while you're at it.
P.P.S.: I am not actually Christian.
I love how this short poem is garnering all this attention. XD So I must give u props for the controversial quality of this. Well played. Lol.
I read this expecting to discover why you believe in God, and you clarified for me. You don't know why you believe in God, but have had some sort of revelation or indoctrination that convinces you that God exists. I have regretfully not had the same revelation, so I must rely on my own experiences to shape my beliefs and convictions about God.
I am not a Christian, but I am a religious Jew, and even if I were to replace your first line with "Judaism", I would feel let down by this poem. I am convinced only of the fact that you are unable to express why you truly believe, and hence I am left skeptical of your beliefs.
A quick,
"I see the crops grow
as white powdery snow melts
to magical spring."
Would do a far better job of convincing me to believe in God than what you have wrought. Sorry.
Racket, here to review your marvelous, amazing, perfect poem.
I'm going to repeat that: ...marvelous, amazing, perfect poem.
Dude, this is awesome! It is so straightforward, it tells you the complete and utter truth that is the key to any existence. The last line, especially.
It is a knowledge.
Honestly, I laugh at people who take this personally, as if you're trying to shove our belief down their throats.
To us, it is a knowledge. That's what you're emphasizing. I love this, and not just because I'm Christian. Looking at it from an atheists point of view, I would still love this. Because to believe in something so truly, with so much of your heart that it's not a belief anymore, it's a KNOWLEDGE, that is something truly incredible.
Bravo to your wonderful poem. Thank you for writing it, and for explaining my faith to me, better than I've ever been able to explain it to myself. It's funny how just 17 syllables can bring tears to my eyes.
Definitely Keep Writing, God be with you.
-Gravity
Hello it's joe to the reviewing rescue
Yikes no wonder this sparked so much controversy.
Ok just to start I'm a christian so this isn't like I'm saying there's no god only an empty vacuum of darkness that is space. So now that that's out there.
Isn't this completely biased and belittling to other religions? And I know you must be yawning because you've heard this over and over but it's true! In future I'd refrain from putting hardcore religious stuff on here cus' there's only one audience and you make a ton of other people very mad.
I'm also Buddhist (yes you can be both) and I think god can be believed in any form. Wether vishnu or Buddha as long as they bring people together in a peaceful manner.
So yah over all I don't like this because it's so controversial. But congrats on all the likes and reviews!
TakeThatYouFiend (love the name)
P.S do you believe in evolution I'm actually curious to know.
Joe
I'm going to spill it all out here. This is a poem that garnered a lot of responses. I can see why. This has 20 likes for Christ sakes. I'm going to say what I disliked about this poem
One word to describe this: Biased. "A knowledge." That's a pretty out there move. When they say its knowledge, I can't help but disagree. Where's the proof God exists? I do believe in Evolution, but I can't believe in God. I always disliked works like this. There are a lot of people already shoving religion down our throats. After this, its already down 29 inches. I have no problems with this poem, just the idea. Don't stop reading, because I do like somethings about this.
This holds one hell of a statement, and I LOVE that. When a message this powerful can make people riot, you know you have something powerful. I love how you can do that, and how it holds a punch. This is simply genius though this is simple. I always love when someone does this. Bravo, Fiend
Overall, iffy message, great overall
Strange gives you...
Off the charts!
Great job
Keep writing
Stay groovy Fiend
Hi Fiend!
Wow, this piece has certainly got tons of reviews! It's probably a nice feeling to have all these people post thoughts and whatnot on your work... even though some of the responses have been less than flattering, it shows that people do care enough to post a response!
This poem is really short, and sometimes I think that these short kinds of poems that turn out to be quips can be pretty neat. In fact, sometimes short poems are the best! However, there is one contradictory thing about this poem that sticks out like a sore thumb, especially because of the shortness of the piece, that is driving me crazy, so I figured I would point it out and let you, the author, figure out what you want to do!
The thing that bugs me is that your title says, "Why I believe in God." So, it indicates that you have a belief in God. Which is cool. Yay for believing in God! Go you!
Then, in your first two lines, you say, "Christianity/ is not a belief at all."
And so I stared at the poem and thought, "What?"
I mean. Think about it. This poem is very short. The title is five words, the poetry is eleven words. So, basically, with the title and the poem together, the title consists of approximately a third of the entire text. Which is a lot. So, in the case of short poems, your title MUST add something very important to the poem. For instance (and I'm not trying to be a braggart here, but this poem was the first thing that came to mind) I wrote a short poem called, alternative history OR how the wooden horse never came to be. The title indicates the Trojan War, so just in case you have no idea who Menelaus is, you have somewhere to fall back on.
For this poem, your title contradicts the entire point of your poem. Which is baffling, and it makes your message horribly unclear and strange and rather un-Christian. Are you saying that belief is contradictory? In a scholarly circle, such a thing might be interpreted. Are you saying that your personal belief in God is incompatible with knowledge? In a scholarly setting, such a thing might be interpreted. Are you saying that Christianity is merely a religious knowledge, and so there is no real belief in Christ at all, but that belief in God can extend beyond the limited confines of Christianity? It can also be interpreted as that. So, your title is really doing a disservice to your poem... or your poem is doing a disservice to your title. One of those two!
In fact, it's really hard to find the pro-Christian part of this poem. In order to make it pro-Christian, you have to basically take the title separately from the poem and the poem separately from the title and not combine the two at all. Which means, you can't really read the poem properly. Mind you, I am pretty sure this is supposed to be a pro-Christian poem, so thus I am reading it this way, and thus warning you about what I see. But, if I saw this in a poetry book, I would assume that it was actually against Christianity and it viewed God with a more universalist manner, i.e., you don't need Christ to find God.
SO. With this said...
If the piece is trying to show the contradictory nature of Christianity, it's probably a good idea to leave it be.
If this piece is supposed to be pro-Christianity, yet still short, I think it might be better to change the title or change the poem and make them non-contradictory. Is this hard? Yep. Not pretending that it isn't. But, as a pro-Christian piece, I don't see how it can be thought of as pro-Christian, when you really think about it.
If this piece is supposed to be pro-Christianity, yet you want to keep the title and the poem, you should probably consider lengthening it and explaining your position more. This may seem to be unpoetic at first, but actually many poets use the first lines as a kind of controversial opening to bring readers into their ideas more. Terence, this is stupid stuff by A.E. Housman comes to mind immediately, where he starts off with a controversial statement and then goes on (in verse) to talk more about that statement in a rather blatant way and why he does what he does! Daddy by Sylvia Plath also kind of does this, but in a much more subtle way, in which she relates to how her father has hurt her and how she says he will do no more to hurt her -- though it is obvious from the rest of the poem that although he has and will continue to haunt and hurt her. Mind you, these poems aren't really that uplifting. But, they're just examples that come to mind quickly.
If you want something more uplifting about how poetry can start in a first controversial way and then, as they continue on, become more godly, then just reread Psalms. There are tons of psalms that cry out about being hurt or betrayed or whatever, and then end with a note of hope that God WILL come and be glorious. So, it at first LOOKS like they might be contradicting God and talking about how horrible he is, but then, nope! They totally go back and talk about how awesome he is at the end and reaffirm their faithfulness in God.
So, if you want to do this, you can continue and say something like, "
It is a knowledge
that God
will come to our aid.
OR SOMETHING LESS HORRIBLE THAN THAT. (That was horrible, was it not?) And just continue until the person reading it is filled with the knowledge that God is awesome and saving and Christ is totally wonderful and that, far from being a merely personal belief, it is more of a life-giving essence. Or... something like that. You're the poet, not I!
ANYWAY! This review has gone on for far too long. Good luck and happy editing!
Your view on religion?
Here is the "Your view on religion" forum, go to this for religious debate!
I'm just loving the fact that such a very short piece had this amount of attention and reviews. I'm actually amazed by that fact alone. But I'm sure it's because of the religious nature of the poem
I don't normally review poetry as it's not really my thing; I'm much more a prose guy. However, with all the controversy and strong feelings this is causing, I'm going to throw my opinion in too.
First of all, I am an Atheist.
Second of all, I think the haiku is okay.
My main two comments would be:
-> On subject, I would have preferred to see some imagery, rather than just a statement. I'm not sure a whole lot is gained from the haiku form.
-> On form; assuming you want to keep the words exactly as they are, I'd rather it be all a single sentence, with a semi-colon in place of a full-stop.
And that's pretty much all I have to say.
Happy writing.
Guys this is gonna turn into a weird flame war >.<
I am not religious myself but I don't think we need to bring exterior debate into this? Just review the poem.
@beeyaay I don't think @Lapis has anything agaisnt christians, you are both being rude to each other.
Basically just review the poem and accept other people beliefs.
1. I think Lapis has something against Christians because this......this is very logical.
2. i loved it, it's facts with enough logic, you just need to find it your own way!
keep writing dearie!
An assertion of faith without any evidence, which is vague and short? I've never seen that before.
I wouldn't mind this so much if you backed everything up with "in my opinion", because this is what this is. An opinion. This isn't stone cold fact. Indeed, Christianity is a belief and although it has knowledge, it only has knowledge of what existed in its time period (say 3,000 years ago). So it is valuable in the understanding of the context surrounding its existence; just not the content itself.
The incredibly short length does not do enough, not even close, to justify and offer an explanation to your statement. All you are doing is keeping the assertion of the Christian God as an unfalsifiable hypothesis and that, in my words, is incredibly undesirable in this day and age. I would like you to revise the certainty of your poem. It just looks and reads naïve. I would love to read an essay of proof that why you actually believe in God, as opposed to why you think he exists (I assume it's a he, pardon my ignorance).
So, please, tell me how you "know" God exists. Until you have provided me with equal weight as science gives currently, then I refuse to acknowledge any statements or justifications.
I guess I took a very different approach toward understanding this short piece.
Saying that something is not a belief but a knowledge is usually the same thing as saying something is not a belief but a way of life. That is, the knowledge / actual understanding of the belief leads you to live your life in a certain way.
So in this case, what I take your poem to mean is that Christianity is not simply a set of beliefs -- just saying "I believe in the Resurrection" or "I believe in God" is not sufficient enough to be truly a Christian. Rather, it is set of practices that are informed by the beliefs; a Christian is someone who reaches out to others in their time of need, and treats others as they themselves would like to be treated. At one point in time, Christianity was called "The Way" because unlike the paganistic beliefs that dominated at the time, it calls for living your life in a certain manner. More specifically, it calls for living your entire life in service to others.
Because these life practices are informed by the beliefs, Christianity is often called a knowledge. This is because true knowledge changes the way you interact with others and the world around you.
I have no idea how you could possibly classify this as poetry. The only thread connecting it to any form of poetry is the 5/7/5 syllable pattern of a Western bastardisation of haiku or senryu, but it obviously lacks the other crucial elements of those forms. I just... this might be the worst thing I've seen on this site.
I find this kinda lame :/ It's an over confident statement that defies all logic and evidence, merely stating that you have pretty much no good reason. I admire the simplicity of this, but aside from that I find that it holds little weight. The assertion that it is a knowledge and not a belief is purely silly. Due to the length, there seems to be little to review to me aside from merely expanding my current statements, but yes.
We which includes you and me live life according to our whims, desires and hopes saying that this life is the only home we will ever know. We will live and then die and simply turn to bones. If people ever get too confused they just turn towards the alcohol and if they don't feel okay they just turn up the music. People learn to live a lifestyle of drugs and rock and roll. People desire to make as much money as they can and show their backs when it comes to giving money to the poor. I mean, Haven't you ever thought these life questions? Questions like 'What are we doing here?' and 'Where are we gonna go?' 'What is our purpose?' and 'How did we get here?' and 'Who made us so perfect?' and 'What happens once we go?'. Did you ever try to search for this simple life questions? . Is this world all really worth it?
''Questions we don't answer because apparently we don't have to. There's no purpose to this life and our existence is merely natural. ''
Then in that case please let me ask you that did you create yourself? Or was it somebody else who fashioned you?
The way the grass dies and the rain arrives and it re-grows and Allah promises to do the same thing to us and very soul. He will bring us back from our very own fingertips to our toes.
We are surely being tested in our wealth, health , self , actions , thoughts and deeds.
We will surely be brought back to our Lord and our accountant for our every single deed. We ourselves are sufficient for our own account abilities.
People say that they don't care about what they do because apparently they would like to enjoy their life. As the saying goes ' You live once, so enjoy it fully'. I really don't get this.
This life is merely of two and half minutes and the hereafter is forever.
If you disbelieve please read the Glorious Quran and don't let that day be the first day you find out what your life really means because we will surely be resurrected.
Islam is the true religion.
Read the Holy Quran and you will finally come to know the truth.
Hi there. This isn't a review really, but I'm certainly up for religious debate (bring on the chaos XD.)
First off is like to say that I come from a very religious family in which I am the exception. Although I believe that there is some sort of higher power that acts within the scope of the universe, I don't buy the creationist point of view and I do not think that it takes the form of a obvious being who singlehandedly governs said universe. I also think that religion does wonders for people as far as giving them hope an an incentive to be better people, but I really don't think that it's as pretty and clean as it's made out to be. Religion has accounted for more loss of life than any other point of conflict over the centuries and religion has led entire nations of people to fall into horrible and vindictive feuds with other nations over something that is meant to be pure, peaceful, and just.
In the United States, religion was used as an excuse to persecute new immigrants during the mid to late nineteenth century and religion was ALWAYS used to justify racial prejudices and Institutionalized racism, especially during the day of slavery. Throughout American history alone, we can see a defined trend in which religion is manipulated by many different ppl to somehow benefit themselves and sometimes exploit others. This seems very ironic when you think about the tenets of Christianity. Nowadays, religion is used to persecute homosexuals.
It is also my personal belief that religion KEEPS PEOPlE FROM TAKING THE INITIATIVE in their lives. Often people in horrible situations aspire to better their state of living but rely solely on religion and prayer to make things happen for them. It's quite tragic when they realize that they actually have to pull themselves out of their hardships, but that's only because they had thought that someone else (not a human but a higher power) would do it for them and are forced to infrint the truth when nothing changes. I'm not saying people should blaim a higher power for anything, but they shouldn't give a higher power all the credit for their own hard work and accomplishments.
I am a strict believer in the power of the human mind and intellect. Human beings are the rulers of the earth. Humans have harnessed the power of nearly every resource availible on this planet. While we have certainly made mistakes with crippling consequences, humans have the capacity to feel empathy and to work towards bettering ourselves and the world around us. Who thought up religion? A human being of course. Why? Because times were tough and their human mind could not figure out how to resolve a problem or explain a reality with a rational solution.
Phew...well, I really blew this one open...sorry if I offense anyone I just love to debate. Anyone who sees this and wants to have a FRIENDLY and interesting debate on the topic of religion vs the human capacity, pm me!
Hi!
You know, I wasn't sure I wanted to involve myself into this because it's about religion and discussions and all that with religion are usually very messy, but I couldn't help myself.
This haiku is beautiful and concise and captures an idea so beautifully, I would suggest you don't change it a bit. However, I wanted to say how, in a poem, the author is separated from the speaker of the poem. And, with only a few words, you managed to create a speaker, a persona, who is so much more than just what you wrote down in these three lines. You created an entire character who is religious, devout, and adamant in their beliefs. By establishing this argument, by making such an explicit statement, the character stands up to the face of those who believe otherwise. Your speaker is daring. And I find that absolutely fantastic given that you did this in only three lines and eleven words.
Another point I want to bring up is that I don't agree with a reviewer that this only appeals to an audience of Christians. There isn't anything specific, besides the title, that makes the emotion and beliefs in this strictly about Christianity and that's a factor of this haiku that I think is what makes it so remarkable.
Anyways, I love this and I am astonished by how wonderful your writing is.
Keep writing and good luck,
Dianne E.C.E.
Hello, TakeThatYouFiend!
RachelLeeAnn here to review!
I really liked this! It's short and to the point, like most haikus are. As another reviewer pointed out, it reminds me of that quote by C.S. Lewis, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
Much like this quote, you piece is rather a mystery to those who don't have that mentioned knowledge. To nonbelievers, they see it as just a belief/religion, and nothing more. I think your poem captures the knowledge aspect of Christianity. The real essence of actually knowing God.
Great work. I would love to see you expand this into several haikus.
Keep Writing!
-Rae
Amen!!
Short, sweet, and to the point. I love it
Although there is much more to Christianity than just knowledge, I get your point. Beautiful for such a short poem.
Reminds me a bit of an old CS Lewis quote: "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
As for the poem itself, I think there is a little more to Christianity than just knowledge. Both faith, knowledge, and perseverance all play immense parts in it.
Anyway, this is really good for a very, very short poem. Conveys a lot for just eleven words.
Happy Review Day!
I really like this poem; I hope this doesn't offend you in any way, but, as a religious person of a different faith, I think that your poem would be so much more relatable for a wider audience if you didn't make it specifically about Christianity. On the other hand, not all religions work the same way, so it might do your poem a disservice if you make it about religion in general, so I don't know if I should advise you on what specifically would be written differently.
But all the same, I like the message of your poem from a more general perspective. Religion isn't about blindly believing in something I may or may not understand. It's knowing that what I'm doing is true and right and that's what keeps me strong.
Alright let's review this new member piece for review day!!
Let's look at your rhythm first of all. Remember that all poetry has rhythm as a foundation. Without rhythm, your poem will be, how shall I put this? Ah, yes, your poem will be spineless. Rhythm is the bones to the words which are the meat. Some flesh are better than others!
Anyway on with the review. You need to know that you rhythm is as follows:
1--5
2--7
3--5
The rhythm thus flows magnificently for this short verse.
The words. Are they aesthetically pleasing?
Christianity is not a belief at all. This does not have artistic flourish. A better possibility is the following:
Christianity,
not at all a belief.
Rather, knowledge.
Don't you think this is more concise?
Anyway happy review day!!
I understand and like what you are trying to do, but Christianity is a belief. In fact, it is both a belief and knowledge. It is knowledge when it pertains to things that can be proven through reason and logic. Subjects such as Macro-evolution, the existence of God, and various things we know about God. We can not, however, know everything because God is infinite and we are finite. It is impossible for us to comprehend or learn everything there is to know about God. What we cannot deduct through reason we believe through faith. We have faith that what God says is true when we cannot understand it through reason, and have knowledge when we can understand it through reason.
An example: If someone tells you that they have their keys in their pocket, but you cannot see them, you are believing what they say to be true based on faith. If they instead take their keys out of their pocket and show them to you, you have knowledge that they have keys because you can deduct through reason that they are in his hand.
Hello! Crookshanks here to review.
So let me just start off by saying that I liked this a lot; it's always interesting to see fellow Christians post Christian things, it really makes me smile. I think you were able to convey a lot within these three lines and for that reason, it's one of the most powerful three-lined poems I've ever read. And the subject matter, of course, makes it even better (for me).
The only thing I would nitpick on is saying "knowledge" instead of "a knowledge," but luckily someone has mentioned that before me. Other than that, it was really great to see such a powerful Christian poem posted here.
I enjoyed this. Happy Review Day!
xoxo Crookshanks
Messenger here for you! Happy Review Day opposing team member.
Wait . . . you are a Christian? I had no idea. That's really cool and awesome!
Well this is one of the most powerful three-lined poems I've ever read. I have read a lot of good ones, but for me this one is one of my favorite because of the point and subject of it. I think you did a good job of portraying your relationship with Jesus. You didn't write anything that is false or misleading but you also didn't shy away. I am always happy to see a Christian posting Christian things.
Kep it up!
Hello and Happy Review Day! *fireworks* Alright, so Sis her to review for you!!
This really is a neat poem. So, I'm gonna give you a list of pros and cons:
Cons:
1. In the last line, I think maybe it might flow a bit better if you said,
It is knowledge.
When you say it is a knowledge, you are basically saying, I is knowing something! (DOBBY!!!!!) Or you can say it is a knowledge and mean that it is A KNOWLEDGE. That is possible. But in this case, I don't see how that fits.
Pros:
1. Lots of people are going to read this and not care. Some people won't read this because God is mentioned in the title. But for those that do, if they believe in God then yay! You are sharing something about Him and what he teaches that you believe. I think that is your point in this poem. Jesus TAUGHT the people, he never force-fed them beliefs. He taught them the truth. I suppose this is what you mean by knowledge. That's really interesting. I'm never heard that before. I like it.
2. You don't care that you are posting about a religion on here. This is almost saying, criticize me, I dare you. That's good. Stand up for what you believe.
Keep writing and smiling! See ya around the site and see ya in the reviews....-.- Red Team.
-Sis
Hello!! Happy Review Day!
Okay, so I read the title and made up my mind that I would read this, and then saw Haiku in the description and was a little wary because Haikus scare me.
Basically I'm going to assume that you have all the specifics right because I managed to miss the part of school when rules are explained.
Overall, I love this. I also believe in God and this just sums it up so well for the most part. Of course there are times when there are doubts or when my faith feels more like a feeling or a hope than a knowledge, but this is just such a fantastic way to explain Christianity.
A small suggestion, take away the first period and replace it with a semicolon or a dash or something. It just seems like a really abrupt stop in the middle of the poem. Then again, you may have a reason for such a complete stop.
Also, I think it might be nice to read a longer poem about this too. I mean, I know there's a lot to Haikus and you can fit a lot into such a small space and all, but it seems like there is also so much more to Christianity.
But that is kind of a side note. I really don't have anything more to add to this review, but I hope it maybe was kind of helpful? And maybe someone else will come by and give a more complete review.
Hey Take. Jonathan here for a little review for your poem.
"Christianity is not a belief" Well are you simply stating that it is true or are you saying that if you believe you know.
Okay one thing I think you need more words for this poem I can't get you idea making it hard to write a good review. I know this is a hi-cue or something but I think you should change it.
I hope I help.
Points: 474
Reviews: 134
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