What You Hear In Church

All the conscious lies, all the semi-conscious, willfully childish, negligent fostering of falsehoods, and all the sincerely believed nonsense have a single root, the Prime Untruth.

In the beginning there was the word, and the word was God. And that’s all it has ever been, a word.

Ahhh, but not all “worship” songs are horrendous 😉 I’m an atheist but also a professional vocalist. I sang for an Episcopal church for years and years (paid position of course, and hilariously the priest was one of the coolest old dudes I ever met) and sang some of the best music ever written. The choir director was also an atheist, with a MM in composition from an amazing school.

I’m sure you must be referring to either some old-timey baptist crap music OR some of the equally hideous newer, “contemporary christian” stuff. Yes, that stuff is hideous. But Bach… not so much. Oddly enough, many of the great classical composers were in my very position – produce your music for the church or don’t get paid 😉

I know one church music director who is quite openly non-Christian. He says his religion is Bach. Admittedly the older music has been winnowed by time so mostly the good is left.

“people want to be captivated and will pay through the nose for it. ”

This is the part that I think is most important and most often overlooked. It goes along with the throw-away dismissals of “stupidity” and “fringe-groups” and so forth. I think many of us (atheists and humanists) ignore, or at least underestimate, the deep-seated hunger for this nonsense that underpins so much of fundamentalism.

I am convinced that the lucrative business of church depends upon the demand of its consumers for its persistent survival and repeated resurgences throughout history more than anything else. It isn’t simply credulous followers duped by cynical leaders. The “followers” create the megachurches themselves. They want the mythology and the false certitude. They enable these powerful entities to exist and prosper.

And I think there is more to it than mere comfort and need for belief. It is power of a majority that is the true goal sought. It is the almost overwhelming psychological need for community and belonging,yes, but most people want not just any community. They want a community that is large and powerful. A community that can whup ass. That can impose its will on the “others”. We see it all the time. Every single bloody day.

I am sure there is an evolutionary explanation – no doubt long ago explained or at least hypothesized by the great minds (Dawkins, Dennett, et al) who dare to speak of such things. (ETA) Oops! Hit submit before finishing this thought! Anyway, I am sure I am not breaking new ground here in thinking about religion’s apparent stranglehold on the masses, but I sure wish it didn’t seem to be such a primitive “tap root” kind of thing. 🙁 I guess the hopeful part is that so many of us appear to have evolved slightly apart from that – though given the history of savagery of the religious toward the areligious, it is hardly surprising that we are so much int he minority! Cases like young Damon’s are clear evidence that the danger for the areligious and nontheists is as real and present as ever!