Determinism

Determinism helps ease my cares,
But there are other approaches—like prayers;
The beliefs I assume
Calm my fears of doom,
Just as everyone else’s calm theirs.

               *               *               *

With planet earth ready to char,
The way things work might seem bizarre;
Looking closer we see
That things couldn’t be
Any different from what they are.

Existing energy and matter
Move by laws more strong than mere chatter;
The way they’re arranged,
Things cannot be changed,
Even though, for us, poo starts to splatter.

From Buddhist, and other traditions,
If we knew everything’s positions
Plus direction and speed,
We’d have all we’d need
To predict, based on prior conditions.

Physical laws all ensure
There’s a way we can still feel secure:
Fate sets what we get,
So have no regret:
Our paths in life make no detour.

If the Big Bang restarted somehow
The same way, it would build and endow
All the same designs:
You’d be reading these lines
Exactly the way you are now.

So it’s earth to earth, dust to dust,
But despite all of this I still trust,
Though for us things are worse,
That the whole universe
Is unfolding just as it must.