If, as Christopher Hitchens vocally maintained, religion poisons everything, it necessarily poisoned Psalm 23, too:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
I’m working on an irreligious replacement for the above monstrosity. Here are my proposed first lines, in which I and my are understood to refer to a temporarily interdependent cell colony:
Matter in pointless motion is my internal/external integrative mechanism; I shall not be disappointed in my viscerogenic hungers.
It causes me to orient myself toward a non-social object with affective significance . . .
I’m still working on it.
Posted from Atlanta, Georgia