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Jan 25, 2014 - 09:16 AM |
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I am an atheist in favor of religion |
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As an atheist, one would assume I worship at the altar of Neil deGrasse Tyson (I don’t, can’t stand the guy) or Carl Sagan (now we’re talking!), but the fact of the matter is - my atheism doesn’t stem from Internet group-think or a simple “rage against the machine” youth-logic that a lot of it seems to come from these days. Nor does it come from having a super-science brain. I am not particularly smart (I would consider myself more “clever” than anything else) and cannot explain away God like so many other people smarter than I.
Yet I would not rid the world of religion if given the choice.
Putting aside the absurdity that one person’s or group’s belief system can trump others (a common point in theological and political ideals - read Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer” to understand it better), the fact is that much of the history of art in all its forms is based on religion. The Louvre would be largely empty were it not for early masters and idiot children today would not have crappy pop music if those artists weren’t influenced by the Beatles. And the Beatles by Bernard Herrmann… and Bernard Herrmann by Percy Grainger and Percy Grainger by Edvard Grieg and so on. All the waters - both shallow and deep in the streams and rivers of music - eventually flow out into the sea of classical influence. And classical music has a strong grip on all religious views.
Think of all the music that came from faith. To rid the world of Mozart is a much, much greater crime than to rid it of any supposed God. To rid the world of God would bring some peace but to rid the world of music would bring complete silence. There is no uglier fate than that.
And I am not talking about pop song religious fluff either. I am not talking about “Jesus take the wheel” schlock, which sells Christ like Reebok sold sneakers with basketball stars. I’m talking about *music* - that art above other art that expresses the incommunicable and changes and grows with every performance.
Music music, not dance pop numbers or trivial rock music - but music that speaks to something greater than every day angst and doesn’t consist of little more than minor chords or synthesizer beats. Music that, by its nature, informs you of a part of yourself that had previously not existed.
Music is, in many ways its self, God.
So, I will live with the presumed silliness of (what I believe is) someone else’s outmoded belief systems if it means the world has George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah” and Morten Lauridsen’s (totally fucking sublime beyond all expression, that I have to use the word “fucking” between “totally” and “sublime” just to get the point across) “Lux Aeterna” and the “Missa Solemnis” by Ludwig van Beethoven. It would not be a world worth living to remove the greatest musical artists of all time from history - nor should we invest in a future where religiousness or faith is undermined or removed simply because there is no proof in the existence of God or the obviousness of science and an arbitrary existence.
I will suffer, gladly, your notions of a bearded or multi-armed deity if it means you leave me alone with music.
Response entries:
A brief reflection on religion and music by i am good at jokes
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