In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins refers to John Lennon who asked us to imagine no religion. For those of you who never knew John Lennon, here he is singing Imagine. No, John, you're not the only one. (Thanks to The Scientific Indian for finding the video on Google Videos.)
No wonder that he was killed then - too good to live
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, religion is a type of cultural organization, many with authoritarian histories. John Lennon personally held various spiritual beliefs.
ReplyDeleteThat song, though, does a piss-poor job of expressing why such a world is desirable. "Only" sky above us? As though a 13.7-billion year old cosmos filled with beauty and order, operating according to knowable natural law, possibly teeming with life, is somehow a letdown from the simplistic, anthropomorphised skygod mythos it replaces!
ReplyDeleteWorse--and more consequential--is the implicit connection between atheism and "living for today". The notion that hedonism or some kind of juvenile abandonment of responsibility is the outcome of leaving the religion in which one was brought up is quite prevalent enough already.
This piece of feel-good pabulum is the exact opposite of what an atheist anthem should be. It tears down traditional religion only to replace it with insipid visions of incurious, passionless Eloi running around doing nothing in particular.