What makes an atheist love religious music?

[rug]

By Jason Heller
Dec 20, 2013 • 12AM

Years ago a cute girl walked into the record store where I worked. That was not remarkable. What was remarkable was this: She started talking to me. Not only that, but when I rang her up, she asked me out. This sort of thing simply did not happen to me. I was giddy. She suggested we go to a punk show that some of her friends were playing that weekend. I couldn’t say yes fast enough. We exchanged numbers, and she said she’d pick me up Friday night. If I’d been a religious person, I would have thanked God for the stroke of good luck.

As it turned out, God did not deserve my thanks. After we arrived at the venue that Friday, an odd feeling crept over me. Why was a punk show being held in a well-lit unit of a suburban office park? Why were there so many parents hanging around? And why the hell was someone serving slices of cake? When my date led me deeper into the venue, it all became clear. Against the nearest wall leaned a smiling teenager with a foot-high Mohawk and a T-shirt that proudly proclaimed, “JESUS WAS A PUNK.”

Being suckered into attending a Christian-punk show isn’t the lamest thing I’ve ever had to endure—but it’s close. As far as I’m concerned, such a thing is reverse blasphemy. I am not agnostic, undecided, or otherwise straddling the fence about the existence of God; I am an atheist. I also came of age in the punk scene, and one of the first things you figure out is that God and punk mix about as well as funk and metal. Sure, there are Christian punk bands. But why listen to peppy crap like MxPx when you can crank up Amebix’s scathing “No Gods No Masters” or Dayglo Abortions’ snotty “I’m My Own God”?

In addition to being an atheist, I am a hypocrite. I love religious music. For as long as I’ve been a serious music listener, I’ve been drawn to all kinds of devotional artists and songs—just not Christian punk, with which I have a personal beef that may or may not have been aggravated by a certain young woman and a certain bad date. My first dilemma came when I was 15. A huge fan of The Smiths, I’d gotten into a vaguely similar band called The Housemartins. Jangly and chirpy in that ’80s-British kind of way, The Housemartins are remembered mostly because the group’s singer, Paul Heaton, went on to form the far more successful outfit The Beautiful South—and its bassist, Norman Cook, took up DJing and became Fatboy Slim. But The Housemartins did have one chart-topping hit in England: the 1986 Christmas single “Caravan Of Love.”

http://www.avclub.com/article/what-makes-an-atheist-love-religious-music-200686

More songs at link.

[okasha]

1. Must be the same thing that makes this pagan

love Christmas and Easter music and the Episcopal Hymnal. A lot of it is just plain gorgeous.

[rug]

2. Yeah, and the chants just transcend.

[okasha]

6. That's beautiful.

I love Gregorian chant, too.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Some of the greatest music ever written

was composed for religious services. Most of what we know of "western" music originated in the church during the Middle Ages. I love the choral music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods - Josquin, Palestrina, Monteverdi, the Bach B Minor Mass, Mozart's Requiem, etc., and I'm a devout agnostic. It's just magnificent music.

On the other hand, there is so-called Christian rock, which is pure crap.

[rug]

4. Followed closely by Christian Gangsta Rap.

[justhanginon]

8. Love just about any classical choral pieces.

The more over the top and soaring the better. There is a Verdi Requiem that I heard one night as I drifted off to sleep that drove me crazy. It had drums just fading off in the distance until silent. I was half asleep and probably thought I had died. Took me a month to track it down. Now I have look thru my albums and try to find it again.
Agree on the Christian rock. Yecchhhhh!

[Voice for Peace]

5. inspiration has no religion, even if it is triggered by religious beliefs

[okasha]

7. It's been said by many

that music is the universal language. I think that's probably true.

[cbayer]

9. I have always loved sacred music, but christian rock not so much.

Some of my best memories are when I sang some of these pieces in choirs. I had the great fortune to sing in some awe inspiring venues.

I think I will go to the cathedral here in La Paz on christmas eve. It should be very special.

[markbark]

10. There's a certain logic to it

After all, as a certain wise man once said "The only good thing to have come out of religion has been the music"

[Evoman]

11. ears and a brain.

Good music is pleasing, even if you don't agree with the message. I don't have to like fucking dudes to appreciate a song written by a female about her lover.

For the record though, I do like big butts and I don't know why.

[dimbear]

12. Almost everybody loves this anthem, practically a signature for the Stones.........

If you meet me, have some sympathy.............

Can you hear it right now in the back of your head?

It's because it's a good song.

Not exactly religious music. I don't see anybody shying away.

Just a good song.

[rug]

13. This is the closest they've come to a religious song.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

30. Charlie looks extremely bored.

And Ronnie is committing pedal steel guitar abuse which is a requirement for all country songs. At least Mick doesn't have a clothespin on his nose, which is the other requirement for all country songs.

That was a hoot.

[goldent]

35. Really like that video

First of all, he's not lip syncing to the recovered version - this one is definitely live, although not sure if the instrumentation is live also - but it could be.

Also, pleased to see that they played the steel guitar rather than have a session player - and they really used it to great effect in this song.

And although this song is satire, you hear CW in some of the stone's songs - I imagined they liked some a lot of the traditional CW from back in the day.

[LostOne4Ever]

14. Because it has a good beat and well written lyrics and...

just because I don't believe does not mean I don't understand the feelings and emotions they are expressing. Many of us started out as believers and probably a few other atheists like myself would like there to be gods (in particular, the pagan variety...I love pagan mythology). But wanting to believe and actually believing are two different things.

Where I live I have a few choices in radio stations. Country, more country, Tejano, even more country, golden oldies, even more freaking country, or the sole Christian alternative rock station. So I get to hear a fair amount of Christian rock. I even got to the point where there are a few Skillet and Disciple songs I like (Dear X being an example). Again, while I disagree with their message I do understand the sentiments they are expressing.

[p class=post-sig style=margin-top:0px;text-align:center;]

[div style='color: #B20000;font-size: 2.000em'] [center] Not all those who wander are LOST!!! [/center]

[rug]

15. That's tough. My town is between hills and I can usually get only two stations clearly.

Sometimes I just get in the car and drive until I get a good station.

[LostOne4Ever]

16. The burden we pay for not living near a large city

I suppose

[cbayer]

22. Have you looked into Sirius XM?

We love it. It works in your home, on a boat or in your car.

Lots of stations, including lots of talk radio (if you are into that kind of thing) and some really good music stations.

[rug]

25. I thought about it but I just like the surprise of driving into range of a new station.

I remember years ago driving around Queens in the middle of the night and picking up Chicago AM. Half hour later I was listening to French from Montreal.

[cbayer]

26. I enjoy that as well, particularly when on a long road trip.

But I also like to listen to particular things and kinds of music at times.

WLS was THE station in Chicago when I was an adolescent. It boasted of having the biggest range of any station in the world.

[cbayer]

23. This is a good answer.

I think I have never been so religiously "moved" as I was during the calls to prayer in Istanbul.

There is much to love about both spiritual and secular music, though country would be down pretty low on my list.

[kwassa]

17. much great art is religious art, too.

[uriel1972]

18. I listen to good music and appreciate all forms of good art.

If it is religious so be it. Doesn't make me any less of an atheist, doesn't mean I think it sprung into existence from God any more than i believe in the Muses.

[rug]

19. Why did you name yourself after an archangel?

[uriel1972]

20. Heh wasn't always an atheist...

Besides the Catholic Church decided there wasn't enough evidence for his existence and removed him from his pedestal. Funny thing tho a Saint Uriel popped up just after this decision basically carrying the same symbolism. eh, go figure

[immoderate]

21. The Housemartins are too square for my taste. The Silver Bells rock!

Music (and art) are not religion, or products of it. They are creative works of varied inspiration or motivation, real or imaginary, and for me, it's the final product that counts. I'm quite sure that at least some of the great composers, that collected honoraria for them, were not believers in the doctrines they presented.

I like them if they're good, dislike them if they suck, and subject rarely matters as I pay little attention to what they say. And if anything, I'm more interested in how the lyrics work, than what they mean. How many words would you have to change in a song like Light My Fire, to turn it into a pounding Christian prophesy?

I listen to a lot of music sung in languages that I don't understand. I don't know if what they're saying is anything better than what I think they're saying. It's sung in its way -- and I take inferences from the tone, but sometimes it's hard to tell if someone is extolling his god, or trying to get laid.

--imm

On edit: I answer my own question: If, in Light My Fire, you replace "baby" with "Jesus," and "love: with "faith," the prophesy is true!

[cbayer]

24. I also listen to a lot of music in other languages.

Sometimes I get so caught up in lyrics that I miss the music, so listening in other languages offers me a different experience.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. I know some religious people that like this song.

[hrmjustin]

29. I don't care for it but he seems to like it. and yes I would have had a beer with him after.

[dimbear]

28. Consider, if you will, Seals and Crofts, Hall and Oates, Nash and Young,........and so on.

Folk that harmonize astonishingly well. Anybody really care that Seals and Crofts are Baha'i?

Let others worry about that sort of thing, Go out east of the ginger trees.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

31. The Tallis Scholars and Anonymous Four are great.

Anything they do is wonderful, and the same goes for Chanticleer.
There's lots of great sacred music that was either written in Latin or put in a choral setting in Latin. And there's some in other languages too.

I love to go in old churches and check out the artwork. I watch the Pope saying midnight mass on Christmas Eve because I love to see the great art and architecture that Bernini and Michelangelo created. We learned about it in art history.

I've been accused by some here of hating everything about Christianity. That is not true. I don't think liking sacred music or religious art and being an atheist makes you a hypocrite. I think it makes you a person that appreciates profound art, whether it was motivated by devotion to God or by something else non-religious.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

32. The same reason I can enjoy Lord of The Rings whithout believing in Orcs and Elves.

Entertainment.

[rug]

33. That's how I feel about Dawkins' speeches.

[pinto]

34. It's moving. Irregardless of religious pov, it touches people as much music does.

We are more alike than we are different. Devotional (I like the author's choice here) pieces touch us as humans. That crosses cultures, communities, languages, faiths, localities, and time.

Plus, when it's good, it's very very good.

Mahalia Jackson - How I Got Over

Sufi Dance and Sound

Ave Maria

Boston Gay Men's Chorus - Hallelujah

[jeepnstein]

36. It's a love/hate thing with me.

I've been playing Christmas music since well before Halloween. Every year is a continual grind to get every bit of phrasing and time together with my band mates. And just as we hit a pleasant spot someone decides to take it to another level and that sensation of drowning in music theory strikes again. Tonight I'm playing a Christmas Eve service and I wish I could say I was looking forward to it in the slightest. Instead, I'm buried in the details of the performance. I hope someone else gets something out of it because it's just no fun at all to me.

And then every once in a while it happens. We all let loose and just let it flow. It's magical for a minute or two and then back to the grind. Arghhh.... I should be playing through everything again but my fingertips are bruised and my head is spinning.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone.