God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

I'll say it again:

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

yeah (yeah) yeah (yeah)

I don't believe in magic; I don't believe in I Ching; I don't believe in Bible; I don't believe in tarot; I don't believe in Hitler; I don't believe in Jesus; I don't believe in Kennedy; I don't believe in Buddha; I don't believe in mantra; I don't believe in Gita; I don't believe in yoga; I don't believe in kings; I don't believe in Elvis; I don't believe in Zimmerman; I don't believe in Beatles; I just believe in me. Yoko and me, that's reality.

The dream is over - what can I say? The dream is over - yesterday I was the dreamweaver but now I'm reborn. I was the walrus, but now I'm John. And so, dear friends, you'll just have to carry on.

The dream is over.

On his first solo album, with the "Plastic Ono Band", John Lennon's song God is an interesting reversal of the credo, the I believe mantra spoken in Roman catholics mass. Can plain rejection be taken seriously as an answer to religion? It is certainly an answer to the "faith by repetition" that is commonplace in the Catholic church.

If a believer can seriously profess "credo quia absurdum" (I believe because it is absurd), it's at least as convincing to declare "I do not believe in the absurd."

A more principled statement of non-belief is "I don't believe in worship; don't follow names, be yourself and love the ones close to you". This is what Lennon seems to declare here. But is the ideology of individualism really a worthy replacement of religion? Or are we looking at something more?

-- (Beep@beep.beep), January 29, 2004

Answers

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-- (none@none.com), January 29, 2004.

Anybody who wastes time on John lennons scribblings is an unredeemable fool.

-- J. Fernandes (goananda@hotmail.com), January 30, 2004.

No one is unredeemable... even St.Jerome ran a Brothel once. Aufustine was a devout Pagan. Paul Murdered Christains and attempted to destory the early Church. I think a John Lennon fan can be saved, but that Lennon himself was less than great...

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), January 30, 2004.

St. Jerome ran a Brothel once.

Zarove, prove it!

I believe this to be a false charge against a great Catholic saint. The encyclopedia says that he settled in a Palestinian monastery near a convent headed by Roman women named Paula and Eustochium. A brief online biography of the saint says:
"Friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium, an association that led to so much gossip, Jerome left Rome to return to the desert solitude."

Perhaps it is an anti-Catholic source of yours, Zarove, that twisted the above-mentioned "gossip" into that "brothel" rubbish.

-- (Dot@Dash.Dot), January 31, 2004.

Its anti-Catholic to say that before the saints where saved they sinned? Remember, I also listed Augustine and Paul, and their crimes BEFORE conversion.

Jerome wasnt always a great man int he Church, he had to learn about, and accept, Jesus and his Hospel, and before that he had his own life.

So I beleive you misunderstand my comments, all I was sayign was that none are irredeemable, meaning, by extension, that those on the list WHERE redeemed dispite their sins.

I will look for the spacific source, I may have listed the wrong saint, but I know one of them ran a brothel , and rmemeber, this was BEFORE they converted, and spoken of here to show that all can be redeemed, not intended as s slam on anyone.

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), January 31, 2004.

All you need is love. (John) God is love (John)

-- Bob Hennessy (bobhenn@hotmail.com), January 31, 2004.

John's song "woman" portrays his own wisdom and insight to the miracle of the female. Therefore the adoration of our Mother Mary. In many of his lyrics he refers to the love of Mother Mary. I feel he left humanity with optimism beyond words.Love is all we need. Isnt that Jesus's ultimate commandment to love each other. We still have a lot to gain.

-- Richard Rivers (forivers@quik.com), February 01, 2004.

"In many of his lyrics he refers to the love of Mother Mary."

You mean Let it be?

This seems more like a subtle mockery to me, if you take this in combination with his song Imagine.

Let it be and let it be done unto me according to Thy Word are not the same. The former can be taken to be a direct, intended rejection of the latter and an insult to the latter, and imho that's exactly what was intended.

Let it be is the exact response the Mother of God received from the 20th century, but the 20th century has accepted instead what the song Imagine was promoting.

The Beatles give me the creeps.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), February 01, 2004.

The beatles shook the established "norm" of life to the core, probably needed it. They gave me a chance to view the world in which I grew up in a non subjective experience.A lot of older folks could say a lot of things but you have to look into your own soul and decide what you to believe is real. I was raised RC and drifted for years and like john, like siddhartha, has to find their own way or suffer no self credibility. Truth is my love and belief in Jesus has never been stronger, and is a result of long self searchings. I am a better person for that and am raising my family to question everything and find the truth because it is out there. In Christ.

-- Richard Rivers (forivers@quik.com), February 01, 2004.

"In many of his lyrics he refers to the love of Mother Mary."

You mean Let it be?

'Let It Be' was written by Paul McCartney. "Mother Mary" has nothing to do with the Blessed Mother Mary, but McCartney's own mother whose name was Mary.

-- Regina (Regina712REMOVE@lycos.com), February 01, 2004.

Hey Regina, you're right. For some reason I was thinking it was Lennon, but I should know better. Let it be immediately came to mind, though, because I've heard people say that it was about his real mother, but I've also heard others say it was intended to be a reference the the Mother of God; the last never seemed right to me at all. At the same time it really does seem like he's trying to get people to draw that impression out of people.

Imagine, though, is completely unmistakable in it's intent.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), February 01, 2004.

"At the same time it really does seem like he's trying to get people to draw that impression out of people."

I mean, trying to get people to draw that impression.

-- (emerald1@cox.net), February 01, 2004.

Hey Regina, you're right. For some reason I was thinking it was Lennon, but I should know better. Let it be immediately came to mind, though, because I've heard people say that it was about his real mother, but I've also heard others say it was intended to be a reference the the Mother of God; the last never seemed right to me at all.

I had always assumed "Mother Mary" was a reference to Our Lady, too Em, until I heard an interview sometime ago explaining the story behind it.

Hey, get this: I remember being about 6yrs old or so and listening to my older brother's Led Zeppelin's records and being absolutely *convinced* that "Stairway to Heaven" was a song about the Blessed Mother! Wow! Could I have been more off, or what!LOL

Imagine, though, is completely unmistakable in it's intent.

Oh, I couldn't agree more. Quick story from the other day:

Had the radio on and 'Imagine' came on. The first lyric is "Imagine there's no Heaven..." and my 6yr old said "this sounds like a nice song. Can we leave it on?"

"Sure. But I want you to sit and listen to the words. When it's over I want us to talk about what you think the song meant."

During the song she piped in with comments like "how can we have peace without religion?" How can life be happy if we didn't have a heaven to think about?"

The song ended and I asked her what she was thinking. After a minute or two she said "the guy wants us to think that if there wasn't a God or all those good things that God made, that we'd all be a lot happier! How could he think that? It's a bad song that wants us to forget about all the important stuff. The guy was singing about how good stuff is bad."

"Was it a nice song?" I asked.

"No. The piano sounded pretty but the words were ugly."

Indeed.

-- Regina (Regina712REMOVE@lycos.com), February 02, 2004.

That's really good; I've done exactly that same sort of thing with my kids, if the song isn't blatantly objectionable on the face of it. I did that with my two oldest with that same exact song, Imagine and they got it but not in that much detail; that's a pretty good analysis yours gave you. My oldest did pretty good with Best of Both Worlds. Of course, I'm sitting there wondering if I'm going to turn into a pillar of salt for listening to it with them: Don't Look Back. lol!

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), February 02, 2004.