Theism v. Atheism in Prog

As did the beliefs of Amenhotep IV of the Kingdom of Egypt, if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks Pnoom, I stand corrected. Wasn't Freddy Mercury a Zoroastrian? Don't think he sang about his beliefs, though...

keiser willhelm wrote: fuxi wrote: AQUALUNG not atheist? Then what do you make of Mr. Anderson's sleevenotes: 'In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him. 2. And Man gave unto God a multitude of names, that he might be god all over the earth when it was suited to Man. 3. And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good.' Pretty obvious, isn't it? No matter what Ian may be singing about in "My God", and no matter what he may have said in certain interviews, these statements clearly point towards an atheist way of thinking. I have to disagree that this is clearly an atheist way of thinking. although it could be seen as that from an atheist point of view and used to argue for atheism i think anderson meant it to be more of  condemnation of organized religion, ie the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church wrote the bible, created the image of God, set up the idea of God gave him a multitude of names so he might be God all over the earth when it suited the Catholic Church. Ian doesnt come out and deny the existence of any god or a God, just the God created by the Catholic Church.

I'm afraid your reasoning is not totally correct, oh Kaiser.

1. In fact, Ian Anderson makes a point of attacking "The bloody Church of England / in chains of history", whilst AVOIDING attacks on the Roman Catholic Church. If you listen to the live performance of "My God" on the Isle of Wight album, it becomes clear that the mysterious words "and the graven image you know who / with his plastic crucifix" (which always puzzled me) originally ran as "and the graven image Catholic / with his plastic crucifix", which makes more sense. But for reasons unknown Ian changed his lyrics when he recorded the album. In that same live version, Anderson sings about Anglicans, Catholics and Jews. It seems obvious he was attacking all the monotheist religions he could think of (with Islam being far less familiar to 1970s Britons than it is now).

2. The Catholic Church neither "wrote the Bible" nor "set up the idea of God". Most of the Bible was written in Hebrew, long before the birth of Jesus. Monotheism was a Jewish invention (or discovery, if you prefer).

fuxi wrote: AQUALUNG not atheist? Then what do you make of Mr. Anderson's sleevenotes: 'In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him. 2. And Man gave unto God a multitude of names, that he might be god all over the earth when it was suited to Man. 3. And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good.' Pretty obvious, isn't it? No matter what Ian may be singing about in "My God", and no matter what he may have said in certain interviews, these statements clearly point towards an atheist way of thinking.

I have to disagree that this is clearly an atheist way of thinking. although it could be seen as that from an atheist point of view and used to argue for atheism i think anderson meant it to be more of  condemnation of organized religion, ie the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church wrote the bible, created the image of God, set up the idea of God gave him a multitude of names so he might be God all over the earth when it suited the Catholic Church.
Ian doesnt come out and deny the existence of any god or a God, just the God created by the Catholic Church.

micky wrote: The T wrote: micky wrote: rushfan4 wrote: To change the subject back to the subject, this might be a good time to mention the ProgArchives Featured Album of the Month called The Pleasure and the Pain: Part 1 from Torman Maxt.  It is a concept album with a Theism (Deism) theme relating to the story of Job.    (No need to bring up past issues with this album, however, M@x please forward my commission check ). Never even listened to the damn album.   Oh.. it's so closed related to Job's fable that it even teaches you.... to have PATIENCE and not press SKIP... Job's Fable???   huh... *fast train to hell with micky as conductor*  Must have been sleeping that day in Bible study..

micky wrote: rushfan4 wrote: To change the subject back to the subject, this might be a good time to mention the ProgArchives Featured Album of the Month called The Pleasure and the Pain: Part 1 from Torman Maxt.  It is a concept album with a Theism (Deism) theme relating to the story of Job.    (No need to bring up past issues with this album, however, M@x please forward my commission check ). Never even listened to the damn album.

AQUALUNG not atheist? Then what do you make of Mr. Anderson's sleevenotes:

'In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.

2. And Man gave unto God a multitude of names, that he might be god all over the earth when it was suited to Man.

3. And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good.'

Pretty obvious, isn't it? No matter what Ian may be singing about in "My God", and no matter what he may have said in certain interviews, these statements clearly point towards an atheist way of thinking.

My post is quite clear.

to potential contributors to this thread: any posts discussing the merits/demerits of atheism/theism will be deleted.

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Edited by Tony R - May 08 2008 at 15:08

I dont think he was being trollish Tony, i think his argument is directed at a statement he misunderstood. Tony didnt say you couldnt bring religion into it, thats obviously going to happen.
 he just didnt want people coming in here and saying "atheism is stupid!" or "i cant believe people would believe in that thats ridiculous".
Religion and your beliefs have to be brought into it, directly or indirectly and im sure they are allowed to be discussed as to how they relate to your opinion on the best treatment of religion in progressive music.

OK so I forgot the smiley

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