The Scientific Enlightenment came at no small cost
Imprisionment, blasphemy, books burnt, lives  lost.
The Inquisition, internment, death, left the west bereft.
Yet the Secular, Spiritual Sceptical, Scientific spirit
Survived and slowly tamed Christian fundamentalisn..
Without the church we were still thriving and alive. 
But now, a new constant vigilance is the price we must pay
For unreformed superstition has, again, come our way.
Seeking to re-establish a new dark nest of ignorance in the west, 
Whabbism, Muslim fundamentalism, Salafists with guns;
Truly it is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.
Those who can make people believe absurdities
Can, just as easily, make them commit atrocities.
Common sense is not so common, as you may think.
Secularism opposed again by a Superstition-with-bombs
Free speech condemned by unholy men
We must judge a man or woman solely by their independence of mind:
By the questions they ask,
Not by the answers.they've been taught to expect
From a man or a woman with a rope around her neck. .
Ecrasez l’infâme - said Voltaire - jailed for blasphemy,
Yet brave enough to speak up for the future as I, too, must do.

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