Yesterday, I mentioned that Jazz bassist Ben Allison recently outed himself as an atheist. Apparently, he’s not the only musician taking that path.
The band A.F.I. (A Fire Inside) has a new album coming out tomorrow titled “Crash Love.”
One song on the album is titled “Sacrilege” and the lyrics allude to a pro-atheist stance:
How could you recognize
and cherish hysteric fairy tales.
They’ve come to life.
Now sit by and listen…
the whole world wails.…
How is it divine
when it’s flawed design?
Fill the cracks with faith I can’t find.Oh please believe I’m doing just fine.
For what’s deceased I shall never grieve.
Just let your faith die.
Did I say “allude to”? I meant they come right out and say it: religious beliefs are absurd and we’d all be better off without the superstition.
Meanwhile, David Bazan was the frontman for (as the submitter put it) “one of the few historical non-sucky Christian bands” Pedro the Lion. But his faith is slipping, too.
His new solo album, “Curse Your Branches,” came out earlier this month.
According to the LA Times review, he’s come a long way since his Christian days:
Bazan built an intensely devoted following inside the Christian community during his decade-long run with Pedro, asking tough questions of religion from the perspective of a thoughtful believer. Here, though, the doubt that Bazan has always scratched at takes a firmer, more certain form: “I clung to miracles I have not seen,” he admits in “Bearing Witness,” “From ancient autographs I cannot read.”
The past tense there is crucial: “Curse Your Branches” documents Bazan’s coming to terms with his newfound agnosticism , a change of heart he credits in “When We Fell” to his inability to accept “the threat of hell hanging over my head like a halo.” (“In what medieval kingdom does justice work this way?” he wonders later in that song.)
How exciting!
Now, we just need one of these artists to make it big enough so they can sing these lyrics on TV or at an awards show.
Speaking of which, can we have a Grammy category for Best Contemporary Atheist Album? Kathy Griffin could present it…
(Thanks to Jay and David for the links!)
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