Purgatory Musings

This book of poetry deals with the conflict where science is dominant in working its wonders and the religious has become questionable regarding its relevance. It results in our culture's tendency to view science as our major source of defining and controlling reality. This is suggested in Arthur C. Clarks novel Childhood's End as well as in the classic Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The point being that we are no longer children dependent upon a father but are on our own alone. <br>Science utilises information of the external world ie. collection of data and statistics but is weak in its ability to cross the boundary into the internal world of the individual. In fact it frequently disparages claims of noetic witnessing as fancy hysteria illusion or outright psychosis. The poems are a mixture of fantasy and reality leaving the reader to determine their personal view. The two convictions noted have consequences. Our culture's present absolute trust of science in all knowledge leaves a sense of control but results in a terrifying feeling of alienation in a cold universe. The religious view having a quality of support offers comfort of hope but at the price of having to submit to a power greater than ourselves. <br>Speculation is that our world of common experience with its mix of good and evil within us as well as without is in fact an odyssey of repetition and judgement. It is our home it is Purgatory.