Lines composed upon The End Of The World

There was once a small planet in space
Where there lived a most self-centred race
That believed all would end
In a bang last weekend
And some cleared out their diaries in case.

Good Sir Isaac I find less despairing -
He considered the Earth more hard-wearing
And that it would endure
At least forty years more
But by then I'll be far beyond caring.

Now the point at which quack theologians
Depart from the best geologians
Is when God calls their bluff
They go off in a huff
And so rarely make good apologians.

So I think we are wise to conclude
That if Nature's to be well construed
Good empirical science
More deserves our reliance
And zealots are better eschewed.

But likewise, regarding the Soul,
I'd like Science itself to patrol
And have far less to say
In a scholarly way
About things it can't know or control.