If I had the choice, I'd be happy to be a Christian, Moslem, Buddhist, heck, I'd settle for being a Scientologist. It makes no sense to not believe in something, anything at all. Here is the a case for faith.
1. You feel secure when you're alive if you believe there is more life when you're dead
2. And if you're wrong, you will never know it.
3. It causes so much war it does a nice job of population control.
4. If you're gonna be messed up about something, better what God you choose to worship than your Mommy not having sex with you.
5. Really, it makes moral choices much easier
And finally,
6. It puts the guilt back into sex, which is where it belongs of course.
Here is the case against faith
1. I don't have any.
But my lack thereof notwithstanding, God, etc? No kick against it.. Still neither family, nor tradition, nor fear, nor simple good sense moves me and as Christmas approaches, I find my religion somewhere near where Bob Dylan finds his:." I believe in a God of time and space, but if people ask me about that, my impulse is to point them back toward those songs. I believe in Hank Williams singing `I Saw the Light.' I've seen the light, t "Those old songs are my lexicon and prayer book. All my beliefs come out of those old songs, literally, anything from `Let Me Rest on that Peaceful Mountain' to `Keep on the Sunny Side.' You can find all my philosophy in those old songsoo."
Some 30 years ago I compared myself to the music sheet salesmen in "Pennies From heaven" he died because he believed in the dreams of pop lyrics. I would say that hasn't much changed. Like Dylan and like Dennis Potters loser, I get enrapt in my faith in the ability of a pop song to set my soul free. To bring me the semblance of immortality thru mass empathy I get in three minute pop tunes. This is a form of religious fervor. And it is replacement for religious fervor. It is the Jungian concept of shared reality come to life. When we all sing the same song we transform the song. When I invert "songs of praise" to "praise of songs", I am trying to find my god within that community.
And, on behalf of rock nyc, I would hope that in you're allowing me to share my faith in music, you give me very merry Christmas.
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