Saturday, September 23, 2023
News Media Empire
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Home
  • World News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Money
  • Science & Tech
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Crypto
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • World News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Money
  • Science & Tech
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Crypto
No Result
View All Result
News Media Empire
No Result
View All Result
Home Entertainment

‘Imagine’ at 50: Why John Lennon’s ode to humanism still resonates | Arts

September 15, 2021
in Entertainment
0
Portrait of Japanese-born artist and musician Yoko Ono and British musican and artist John Lennon (1940 - 1980), December 1968. (Photo by Susan Wood/Getty Images)
0
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare on Whatsapp



  • Imagine is unabashedly utopian and deeply moral, calling on people to live, as one humanity, in peace. 
  • I have always been fascinated by how Imagine is perhaps the first atheist anthem to be so enormously successful.
  • Yet numerous attempts have been made since Imagine was released to reconcile Lennon’s anthem with religion.

Fifty years ago, John Lennon released one of the most beautiful, inspirational and catchy pop anthems of the 20th century: Imagine.

Gentle and yet increasingly stirring as the song progresses, Imagine is unabashedly utopian and deeply moral, calling on people to live, as one humanity, in peace. It is also purposely and powerfully irreligious. From its opening lyric, “Imagine there’s no heaven,” to the refrain, “And no religion too,” Lennon sets out what is, to many, a clear atheistic message.

While most pop songs are secular by default – in that they are about the things of this world, making no mention of the divine or spiritual – Imagine is explicitly secularist. In Lennon’s telling, religion is an impediment to human flourishing – something to be overcome, transcended.

As a scholar of secularism and a devout fan of the Beatles, I have always been fascinated by how Imagine, perhaps the first and only atheist anthem to be so enormously successful, has come to be so widely embraced in America. After all, the U.S. is a country that has – at least until recently – had a much more religious population than other Western industrialized democracies.

Since being released as a single on Oct. 11 1971, Imagine has sold millions, going No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K. charts. And its popularity has endured. Rolling Stone magazine named Imagine as the third greatest song of all time in 2003, and it regularly tops national polls in Canada, Australia and the U.K.

Countless recording artists have covered it, and it remains one of the most performed songs throughout the world – the opening ceremony of this year’s Olympics Games in Tokyo featured it being sung by a host of international artists, a testament to its global appeal.

But not everyone is enamored of its message. Robert Barron, the auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, responded to the recent Tokyo rendition by lambasting Imagine as a “totalitarian anthem” and “an invitation to moral and political chaos.” His issue: the atheistic lyrics.

Numerous attempts have been made since Imagine was released to reconcile Lennon’s anthem with religion. Scholars, those of faith and fellow musicians have argued that the lyrics aren’t really atheistic, just anti-organized religion. Others have taken the sledgehammer approach and just changed the lyrics outright – CeeLo Green sang “And all religion’s true” in a televised rendition on New Year’s Eve 2011.

In interviews, Lennon was at times ambiguous about his beliefs on religion and spirituality, but such ambiguity is at odds with the clear message of Imagine. The song’s irreligious ethos is frank. The first verse speaks of there being “no heaven,” “no hell” – “Above us, only sky.” In such clear, distilled words, Lennon captures the very marrow of the secular orientation. To me, Lennon is saying that we live in a purely physical universe that operates along strictly natural laws – there is nothing supernatural out there, even beyond the stars.

He also expresses a distinct “here-and-nowness” at odds with many religions. In asking listeners to “Imagine all the people, livin’ for today,” Lennon is, to quote the labor activist and atheist Joe Hill, suggesting there will be “no pie in the sky when you die,” nor will a fiery eternal torture await you.

Lennon’s lyrics also give way to an implied existentialism. With no gods and no afterlife, only humankind – within ourselves and among each other – can decide how to live and choose what matters. We can choose to live without violence, greed or hunger and – to quote Imagine – exist as a “brotherhood of man … sharing all the world.”

It is here that Lennon’s humanism – the belief that humans, without reliance upon anything supernatural, have the capacity to create a better, more humane world – comes to the fore. Nihilism is not the path, nor is despondency, debauchery or destruction. Rather, Lennon’s “Imagine entails a humanistic desire to see an end to suffering.

The spirit of empathy and compassion throughout the song is in line with what scholarship has found to be strong traits commonly observable among secular men and women. Despite attempts to tie Lennon and “Imagine” to blood-lusting atheists like Stalin and Pol Pot, the overwhelming majority of godless people seek to live ethical lives.

For example, studies have shown that when it comes to things like wanting to help refugees, seeking to establish affordable health care, fighting climate change and being sensitive to racism and homophobia, the godless stand out as particularly moral.

Indeed, secular people in general exhibit an orientation that is markedly tolerant, democratic and universalistic – values Lennon holds up as ideals in Imagine.

Other studies reveal that the democratic countries that are the least religious – the ones that have gone furthest down the road of “imagining no religion” – are the most safe, humane, green and ethical.

Imagine was not the first time Lennon sang his secular humanism. A year before, in 1970, he released “I Found Out,” declaring his lack of belief in either Jesus or Krishna. Also in 1970, he put out the haunting, scorching “God.” Beginning with a classic psychological explanation of theism – that humans construct the concept of God as a way to cope with and measure their pain – “God” goes on to list all the things that Lennon most decidedly does not believe in: the Bible, Jesus, Gita, Buddha, I-Ching, magic and so on. In the end, all that he believes in is his own verifiable personal reality. Arriving at such a place was, for the bespectacled walrus from Liverpool, to be truly “reborn.”

But neither “I Found Out” nor “God” achieved anywhere near the massive success that Imagine did. No other atheist pop song has.



Source link

Get Free Advertise Coin
Previous Post

How to have a healthy sex life in your 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond

Next Post

Concerned about COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy? Here’s what we know | CBC News

Related Posts

Director Agnieszka Holland poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film 'Green Border' during the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Entertainment

Director of migration drama denounced by right-wing leaders as film opens in Poland

September 22, 2023
Models wear creations as part of the Gucci women's Spring Summer 2024 collection presented in Milan, Italy, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Entertainment

Sabato De Sarno makes much anticipated debut at Gucci under the gaze of stars like Julia Roberts

September 22, 2023
Ads are coming to Amazon Prime Video — or you can escape them for a fee - National | Globalnews.ca
Entertainment

Ads are coming to Amazon Prime Video — or you can escape them for a fee – National | Globalnews.ca

September 22, 2023
Next Post
Concerned about COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy? Here's what we know | CBC News

Concerned about COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy? Here's what we know | CBC News

Rare caribou coat returned to Innu Nation after being found in freezer across the river | CBC News

Rare caribou coat returned to Innu Nation after being found in freezer across the river | CBC News

A reality check on Alberta's path to the devastating 4th wave of COVID | CBC News

A reality check on Alberta's path to the devastating 4th wave of COVID | CBC News

Discussion about this post

AdvertiseCoin ADCO Get Now Free
News Media Empire

Newsmediaempire is an online news source that provides the latest news and other information about everything that you must need to know. It publishes news related to various fields like world, business, sports, politics, tech, health, lifestyle, and other different exclusive stories.

Let's connect!

Categories

  • Business & Economy
  • Crypto
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Money
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Science & Tech
  • Sports
  • World News

Recent News

  • Man City boss Pep Guardiola jokes Erling Haaland’s form is causing him sleepless nights September 23, 2023
  • Inside the M&S Beauty Advent Calendar for 2023, including our Beauty Editor’s favourite products September 23, 2023
  • Return to downtown is important as fall arrives, ships depart | Op-Ed September 22, 2023

Join Our Newsletter!

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    newsmediaempire.com © 2021 All rights reserved.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Home 1
    • Home 2
    • Home 3
    • Privacy Policy
    • Random
    • Sample Page
    • Terms & Conditions

    newsmediaempire.com © 2021 All rights reserved.

    en English
    ar Arabicbg Bulgarianzh-CN Chinese (Simplified)nl Dutchen Englishfr Frenchde Germanit Italianpt Portugueseru Russianes Spanish
    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.