I’m basically an atheist who wishes the world were magical. In fact, many times I feel it is magical, that the world is just amazing, and that it is amazing there’s anything here at all, and that what’s here must be precious and has to be sacred. And then I come back to earth, as it were, and realize all is dust, and from dust to dust I go: you live you die and that’s it nothing, nada, you’ve vanished into nothingness. Well, that’s about it. But in the meantime, there’s music! That’s why I keep coming back to John McCain and buddies railing and ranting in the midst of some of the most glorious music that ever existed. It’s the music I hear, not them. Behold the Lamb of God, indeed. Here the Lamb of God is love, caring, tenderness, mystery, wonderment, indescribable beauty on a plane so high it’s out of this world and trying to take me with it. I want to go but I can’t, imprisoned here on earth. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe in life after death. I believe in life now, there’s only the now and if we are to find heaven we’ll find it now. OK, that’s enough of a rant for now. I gotta go — now.
😆 
Tags: atheist, earth, glorious music, heaven, indescribable beauty, john mccain, lamb of god, life after death, mystery, nothingness, rant, wonderment
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Well said, Papa!
I think I have to agree with your most excellent post.
It’s a bit depressing, but, I believe it’s better than getting lost in the fantasy that something “better” will happen if things don’t “work out” in this life.Though, perhaps, living with the belief that our existence “means” something and will, indeed, “be continued,” isn’t such a bad thing, after all.
Sigh.
I think I’ll name my next band “The Pragmatics.” -
Hi Mardé,
Wow, you are all reved up 😆
A very nice post and well said; life is beautiful even if we do get some hard moments along the way.
Let’s us never forget to open our eyes and wonderI think that you would rather believe in a “heaven on earth”, than heaven itself.That’s fine. So get out and enjoy 😉
Take care.
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I can feel the passion here!
I’m an atheist too and I must say I don’t wonder too much about life in the future. I try to think about current issues. But hey, I’m young and innocent 😉
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I’m not an atheist but I don’t fully believe in “life after death”. I don’t want to go deeper on that issue. I’m just enjoying what my life now.
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Hey, thanks, all you guys for your perspectives on this. It’s hard for me to be anything other than a materialist. Those guys can reduce just about anything to a simple explanation. Well, excepting the universe itself of course, but never fear, they say, we’ll get there. If not by string theory, then by some other theory. And the wonderful mystical experiences I might have from music are explained by brain chemicals and neuronal action potentials, even consciousness itself, some feel, is on the verge of a material explanation.
I think Zhu has expressed it well: best to be young and innocent in spirit, and be concerned with spreading love and caring in the here and now. Not that that’s a simple task. But why should we do that if we and the whole world are pointless? Ah well, I’m sure Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and others would have explanations for that.
😆 😈 -
Yes indeed – the fact that we are here at all IS the magical thing, isn’t it? And yes, for me, the “life after death” verdict is still in deliberation. I know lots of people who believe in past lives – I’ve even been told that I was once an Apache man who had a wife and 2 sons and that I killed white people! Interesting story, but my intellect tells me that there is life happening RIGHT NOW… and that the realms of heaven and earth are not external (meaning of this universe) but INTERNAL – states of mind.
Boo yah, bruthah! Keep on keepin’ on!
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Do you know the work of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Marde ?
Gerald Finzi. I am not sure about the latter but VW wrote church music because that was where he could make music, if you see what I mean.
I am no christian as you might have found, but I love so much ‘church’ music.
As far as magic is concerned – we live in a quantum universe… all things are possible. -
Hey, thanks for these two new comments. I’d about given up on this thread and ready to go back to…..politics.
Minds Erased — what a choice of moniker! — whoever you are, I agree it would be nice if we had past lives. It’s fun to speculate. And there are always those ready to take it seriously. Of course, we have NO way of knowing, although there are those that say we do, etc. Interesting about the Apache warier. Yes, I agree, heaven and hell are not external, in the usual sense of the word, but internal. Good insight.Alieni, yes VW has done some great stuff. I’ve sung a lot of it, in groups. Some wonderful things. And YES, a quantum universe is mind blowing in itself. It makes materialists look, well, 19th century! Thanks, Aileni.
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Powerful stuff! I think the important thing is to live as much as possible in the here-and-now. Whatever we have experienced in the past, or hope for in the future, we are living now and should live as best we can.
And sing!
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Hey, thanks, Dragonstar aka Mererid! That’s right on! Wow, you said it. That is the trick. And sing. Always sing. Cheers!
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