Atheists Don't Have No Songs

[Selene]

Steve Martin, a philosophy major, has a new album with the song above. Read article here.

[syrakusos]

That was cute! If you look at the sidebar, you can find more atheist songs. ABBA's "Thank for the Music" is touted as one.

Victoria Jackson wrote one about Julia Sweeney. (I found the better of two with good sound, but can't seem to relocate that.)

Another is to the tune of "Under the Sea" and it has several arrangements and covers.

Use search phrases in YouTube and you can find a few more of differing quality and value.

Have you noticed how the ads at the top here on Objectivist Living tie to the content on the page? I saw how close this matches the content a few months back when we were discussing the rising price of gold. Well, for this discussion the ad offered a story of a woman who is proud to be a Mormon.

[9thdoctor]

No songs?

No songs without a Marxist slant, maybe...

[syrakusos]

As the story goes... Billy Bragg said to Pete Seeger that the English lyrics were out-dated. What, I point out, is "the age of cant." Cant is bad poetry, doggerel, not a word we use every day. "Age of can't" or the passing for us of the "Age of Kant." Anyway, here are the modern English lyrics by Billy Bragg.

And, while the claimed to be "materialists" we know that theirs was only the "God that Failed." We know that some caution against Objectivism being adopted like a religion. True enough, it can happen. But the lack of atheist songs - and capitalist songs! - indicates something deeper. Individualists do not engage in group chants.

[Kat]

"God is a concept by which we measure our pain" - John Lennon

I've always really liked this song and I first heard it when I was a teenager and questioning the existence of God.

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/La2qkUTTwWw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[syrakusos]

"The Preacher and the Slave" also known as "Long Haired Preachers" was written by Joe Hill.

Wikipedia has the lyrics and a discussion of them:

Long-haired preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;

But when asked how 'bout something to eat

They will answer in voices so sweet

Chorus

You will eat, by and by,

In that glorious land above the sky;

Work and pray, live on hay,

You'll get pie in the sky when you die

And the Starvation Army, they play,

And they sing and they clap and they pray,

Till they get all your coin on the drum,

Then they tell you when you're on the bum

(Chorus)

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out

And they holler, they jump and they shout

Give your money to Jesus, they say,

He will cure all diseases today

(Chorus)

If you fight hard for children and wife-

Try to get something good in this life-

You're a sinner and bad man, they tell,

When you die you will sure go to hell.

(Chorus)

Workingmen of all countries, unite

Side by side we for freedom will fight

When the world and its wealth we have gained

To the grafters we'll sing this refrain

Chorus (modified)

You will eat, by and by,

When you've learned how to cook and how to fry;

Chop some wood, 'twill do you good

Then you'll eat in the sweet by and by

Edited June 13, 2011 by Michael E. Marotta

[Xray]

Steve Martin, a philosophy major, has a new album with the song above. Read article here.

In the link link you gave, there's another link to an article published by apologist Jerry Johnson:

"The Blind Faith of Atheism" http://nicenecouncil.com/media/display.pl?media_file=60

The article contains some interesting debate strategies - I'm looking for a suitable thread to discuss this in more detail.

edited to add:

I have posted it here: http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10622&st=60&gopid=137264entry137264

Edited June 17, 2011 by Xray

[Fred Cole]

Isn't the Rush song Free Will athiestic? Or did I completely misunderstand the song.?

[johnXsmith]

But the lack of atheist songs - and capitalist songs! - indicates something deeper. Individualists do not engage in group chants.

If songs were "group chants", then individualists would not like any songs about anything. But they're not "group chants" in the first place. Even when an entire audience sings them along with the band, it's simply a value those people have in common - which is why they all ended up at that same concert. Just as we ended up on this Objectivist forum.

But yes, there is something deeper behind the lack of atheist and capitalist songs.

On atheism: artists create art about what is important to them, and since "God" is extremely important to believers, there is always a lot of religious art and music. But atheists believe in the nonexistence of "God", and nonexistence isn't art-worthy. You can't very effectively write a pro-nonexistence song lyric, because it would stand for nothing. But you can write an anti-religion song, which is a basic protest song that stands against something.You can also put my favorite twist on the subject: rather than stand for nothing or against something, you write a pro-individualist song and stand for something. Which also stands against the other thing as a corollary. I think that's the best of all worlds, and as someone already said, Sinatra's "My Way" is probably a good example.

On capitalism: I can say from my own experience as would-be inventor of Objectivist Shock-metal, that the absence of pro-capitalism songs is pure social conditioning. For one, we as a species are generally programmed by our envy-driven victimizers to believe that money is evil. For two, we as artists are programmed - and with the justification of countless examples - to believe that money brings the death of art through compromise. And for three, even if we avoid the first two, the fact remains that business as such is very dry and, much like atheism, is not art-worthy. But also like atheism, you can put twists on it.

Well, in theory you can. It's even harder than you think. I have already failed once on it, and I can't think of anyone else even trying. So now I guess I have to do it, huh....

- John X Smith

[johnXsmith]

Isn't the Rush song Free Will athiestic? Or did I completely misunderstand the song.?

It is, and you didn't.

- John X Smith

[BaalChatzaf]

I like this parody the best.

Ba'al Chatzaf