Relating to Music: Can An Atheist Love Religious Music?

July 11, 2012 in Music, Religion

Can an Atheist love religious music? Well, looking through my iTunes collection, there are 29 songs with the words “Jesus” in them, although one of those is “Jesus Penis” by The DC3, and another one is “The Jesus Stag Night Club” by Babybird. Searching for “God” gives me over 100 songs, but two of them (“God” by John Lennon and “Dear God” by XTC) are kind of about atheism, so they probably don’t count. Searching for “heaven” also gives me over 100 songs, but “Heaven’s In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac” isn’t a very spiritual song either. Nevertheless, despite [...]

What Tim Minchin Can Teach the Church about Jesus

June 28, 2012 in Comedy, Entertainment, People, Religion, Self, Society

Do you ever come across people who randomly pop up in your life and consistently surprise and inspire you?  Tim Minchin does that for me.  I’m not an avid follower of his career, but whenever I spot him on the telly I end up rooted to the spot. He’s amazing. On the last such occasion, he sang a song ‘White Wine in the Sun’.  It’s about Christmas and family and it contained these lyrics: And yes I have all of the usual objections to the miseducation Of children who in tax-exempt institutions are taught to externalise blame And to feel [...]