YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 66 (A Critique of Religion)
(Originally finalized on March 16, 2024)
Preface: This week we're going to explore some songs that offer a critical perspective on religion - and in particular, Christianity (which I have the most familiarity with, and disdain for). I'll have more to say about my own religious beliefs (or, rather, non-beliefs) as we go, so let's get started.
Monday: John Lennon - God [John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, 1970]
Comments: I'll be honest, I'm not exactly sure what John Lennon means when he says "God is a concept by which we measure our pain." However, the statement that "God is a concept" itself is very powerful. Religion, by its very nature, depends on unyielding belief in the extraordinary claims it makes, in the absence of evidence (because that's what differentiates belief from proof). It's clear that the human mind has a tendency to imagine powerful deities that exist above and beyond the natural realm. But not everything the human mind imagines is real (in fact, most of it is not). That's where French philosopher René Descartes went off the rails, after formulating his groundbreaking dictum "I think, therefore I am". What if God is just that - a concept - and nothing more?
"I don't believe in Jesus. I just believe in me - and that's reality."
Tuesday: Jethro Tull - Wind Up [Aqualung, 1971]
Comments: Like many Americans, I was raised to be a casual Protestant - far from devout, but going to church on Sundays, and singing platitudes to Jesus on all of his stolen holidays (such as Christmas and Easter - if that statement intrigues or offends you, do read up on it; Christianity has a shameful history of plagiarizing other cultures, and then literally demonizing the sources). But during confirmation, I struggled to reconcile the logical inconsistencies of religious doctrine, and when my youth pastor instructed me to lie about my conviction, I knew this wasn't for me. I'm not hostile to a spiritual experience of living, but I don't believe it should involve making claims (not just about the unknowable, but also about things we do know!) that contradict science and reason.
"I don't believe you, you have the whole damn thing all wrong. He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays."
Wednesday: Black Sabbath - Under The Sun/Every Day Comes And Goes [Vol. 4, 1972]
Comments: Being the first band to fully embrace the devil-worshipping aesthetic that would become a heavy metal cliché, Black Sabbath has no shortage of songs critical of religion. But I always viewed them more as devil's advocates, than straight up Satanists. Consider how, on their 21st century album 13 (the lead single from which contemplates Friedrich Nietzsche's claim that "God is dead"), Ozzy condemns abusive priests in the song Dear Father (if the Vatican won't hold them accountable, somebody else must). But the song I've picked today addresses the afterlife. One of the Church's most powerful tools of seduction is exploiting anxiety over the inscrutable veil of death, by offering empty promises of eternal life. That is, if you behave. Otherwise, what awaits is not the peaceful rest of nonexistence, but an eternity of torment in Hell.
"I don't want no preacher telling me about the God in the sky. No, I don't want no one to tell me where I'm gonna go when I die."
Thursday: Ten Years After - Religion [Rock & Roll Music To The World, 1972]
Comments: Here's a hidden gem from Ten Years After's underrated album Rock & Roll Music To The World (nobody remembers anything except the album I'd Love To Change The World came from). To comment further on the subject of the afterlife, in this song Alvin Lee sings, "the biggest sacrifice to make is death." The religious worry that atheists have no moral code, but the truth is, atheists don't have to be told to do the right thing. They make a conscious decision to do it (or not - but there are plenty of bad people who believe in God), because it's right. This life is all we have. It's our most precious resource. And we should make the most of it. Atheists don't treat life as a trial, with a promised reward to come only after death (thereby making the guarantor conveniently unaccountable). Incidentally, this is a really good way to manipulate people, if you can convince them to believe it. "Obey me, and I'll give you the key to Paradise. You can pick it up after you die."
"Never really understood religion - except it seems a good excuse to kill."
Friday: The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil [1968, Beggars Banquet]
Comments: Famously written by Mick Jagger after reading The Master and Margarita (I haven't read it, myself), this song consists of a long list of more and less obscure historical references into which the narrator - who not so subtly identifies himself as Lucifer - insinuates himself and his enduring influence. More than the book or the song or any of its references, I think the title alone says everything it needs to say. Satanism, as Christians and pop culture conceive of it - devil worship, blood sacrifice, and the glorification of evil - is largely a fantasy, sustained by troubled youths and the mentally ill. True Satanists don't worship the devil - they don't even believe in the devil! They just sympathize with what the devil stands for - which is the courageous whistle blower ("satan" is literally Hebrew for "accuser") who dares to do the right thing, by speaking out against a corrupt and unassailable authority. Satanists also reject Christianity's puritanical regime of shame and self-loathing, and instead champion all that which makes us human. As Al Pacino recites in The Devil's Advocate, "I'm a fan of man! I'm a humanist."
"Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints. As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer - 'cause I'm in need of some restraint."
Saturday: Iron Maiden - Holy Smoke [No Prayer For The Dying, 1990]
Comments: Apologists will, of course, be quick to mention that this song is aimed at televangelists who "give" Christianity a bad name (like it doesn't already have one), but it still makes a good argument for the hypocrisy of religion. If preachers can be immoral - and susceptible to sins like pride and greed, exploiting the gullible for personal profit - then who can you trust? Aren't they supposed to be "certified" by God? If they can be corrupt, then who's to say the preacher you admire isn't just blowing holy smoke, too? Aren't you really just determining for yourself what sounds good to your ears, and stamping it with the badge of divinity? Otherwise - if you believe whatever you're told - then you're susceptible to being led astray. That's the problem with blind faith. There's no reality check. Fallible as human beings are, I don't trust any mortal man who claims to speak with the authority of God.
"I've lived in filth, I've lived in sin, and I still smell cleaner than the shit you're in."
Sunday: Rush - Freewill [Permanent Waves, 1980]
Comments: Canadian rock band Rush's chief lyricist (also: legendary drummer) Neil Peart was a vocal agnostic, and wrote many songs for the band that are critical of organized religion (e.g., Witch Hunt, Faithless, Brought Up To Believe). One of the more popular ones discussed between Christian and atheist Rush fans is Freewill. You'll have to forgive me if the anti-religion sentiment in this song went over my head for many years; it's not like the religious don't use free will as an excuse to skirt the problem of evil. As a person who struggles with anxiety, I can be indecisive, and I frequently feel trapped by my own limitations. So I feel called out by the line, "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." But I realize now that it could describe the writer's own agnosticism, which differs from atheism by being a statement on uncertainty, rather than a conviction to non-belief (in practice, I find the difference to be largely cosmetic). Anyway, Christians do have a sickening tendency to explain away everything as "God's plan", like it's not logically inconsistent for an all-loving, all-powerful deity to plan all the rape, murder, and genocide (to say nothing of child cancer) that goes on in this world. Everything happens for a reason? I say we have the free will to determine our own meaning to the chaos that surrounds us.
"A planet of playthings, we dance on the strings of powers we cannot perceive. The stars aren't aligned - or the gods are malign. Blame is better to give than receive."
Honorable Mention: The Yardbirds - You're A Better Man Than I [Having A Rave-Up With The Yardbirds, 1965]
Comments: I'm relegating this song to an honorable mention because, even though I love it and it's filled with sage wisdom (much of which could be summed up using the title to another song the Yardbirds performed - "you can't judge a book by its cover"), there's just one short, offhand comment about religion. Nevertheless, it provides me with a reason to call out Christianity's myopic focus on their "one true God" - like as if they own religion. I've already brought up Christianity's tendency to literally demonize other cultures, but the idea that the only way to salvation is through your particular religious doctrine is nothing but ego, arrogance, and a desire for control. Which is why people who like to lecture to strangers about Jesus are especially repugnant to me. Spirituality is very personal, and everyone's path to God is going to look different. That doesn't make it invalid. Christians disbelieve in all Gods but their own. Atheists just believe in one less God than that.
"Can you condemn a man if your faith he doesn't hold?"