Exercise in Restraint: What Religion Do You Believe In?

[Haffner]

Oh, I don't know. I religiously listen to whatever the hell I want to.

[Ephemerid]

I believe ones views on relion shape what composers one is drawn towards.

I don't see how this necessarily follows.  Considering my views have changed considerably over time, that has never altered my attraction to certain composers.  Ages ago, I heard Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms & fell in love with it, but not because it was necessarily religious music.  And even now as an atheist, I still love it.  (just to cite one example)

And when I was a fundamentalist 18 years ago I loved Barber, Copland and other gay composers, fully aware they were gay-- it certainly didn't dissuade me from loving their music back then, when, according to the Church of Christ, that's sin sin sin!

[Israfel the Black]

I believe ones views on relion shape what composers one is drawn towards.
At least reading over this topic I see some associations betwenn ones thoughts and ones choice in music. Music has always been a  part of religion.

This seems particularly inaccurate. It is not that what you say is entirely incorrect, but that it is extremely vague. Are we speaking about one's views of religion in terms of the sociological institutional phenomena, or one's view of religion in terms of spirituality, meaning, and beauty? The latter could be associated with a religious understanding of aesthetics, insofar as I may value Bruckner for his spiritual ambitions, divorced from any specific religious establishment that may have informed his spirituality, because I may find something as equally meaningful in this spirituality. I believe Woody Allen was the one who said art is an intellectual's religion, and it holds true in many cases. Music reaches at something fundamental that transcends orthodoxy and religious establishments, and comes closer to what we mean when we talk about the transcendental, the moral, the spiritual, or the beautiful -- these are ideas that can be associated with religion inasmuch as they are the foundation for which people search for meaning, and quite similarly, what many of us look for in aesthetics. I may be non-religious, but I am certainly not non-humanity, and I know spiritual greatness in Bach or Bruckner when I hear it.

[paulb]

Glad to know my idea is controversial.
makes me feel good.

[Sean]

I live on the same road as this major Hindu temple and visit regularly for a blessing from Lord Ventakeswara, a Vishnu incarnation. Also contributed to the Wikipedia article-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tividale_Tirupathy_Balaji_Temple

[karlhenning]

Glad to know my idea is controversial.

It isn't controversial. It's just wrong 

[paulb]

It isn't controversial. It's just wrong 

A tiny wrong isn't so bad in  comparison to Bush's wrong if/when troops go into pakistan. Thats a  monster of a  wrong. Al qaeda is the face of a religion in its death throes. Islam doesn't need any help from us.

[karlhenning]

Oh. I thought you were talking of your belief that "one's views on religion shape what composers one is drawn towards."  I don't think it quite charitable to speculate on the "death" of a major world religion.

[Haffner]

Oh. I thought you were talking of your belief that "one's views on religion shape what composers one is drawn towards."  I don't think it quite charitable to speculate on the "death" of a major world religion.

Doesn't Islam have even more adherents than Christianity?

[paulb]

  I don't think it quite charitable to speculate on the "death" of a major world religion.

whats so insulting about the obvilous, the inevitable?

[paulb]

Doesn't Islam have even more adherents than Christianity?

what does #'s have to do with anything?
You guys have the biggest numbers in your classical camp? Does that make your composers better than  our classical camp?
China, africa and india each have the biggest populations. Does that make them better than say Costa Rica?
Isalm will not exist in 100 years , or (hopefully) less.

[Ephemerid]

what does #'s have to do with anything?

Well, it does has everything to do with your specious notion that Islam is "dying." 

[paulb]

Furthermore, i already knew how you guys would take my initial statement.
How you responded was no surprise at all. And i know whats futher comming my way. I'm intuitive.

[paulb]

Well, it does has everything to do with your specious notion that Islam is "dying." 

Dying is not the right image. She, the whore = Miss Islam , is dead.

[Haffner]

Dying is not the right image. She, the whore = Miss Islam , is dead.

Paul, forgive me for having missed this, but are you an adherent of a religion?

[greg]

Doesn't Islam have even more adherents than Christianity?

no......... at least, not until they kill us all.

[paulb]

no......... at least, not until they kill us all.

I will refrain from saying anything more of the truth about mohamedISM, lest the "faithful" send one of their henchmen to kill me.
As my real name is used as login and home town for everyone to see.
Which means read quickly cause i am about to erase it.

[Ephemerid]

I will refrain from saying anything more of the truth about mohamedISM, lest the "faithful" send one of their henchmen to kill me.

Oh, please... 

[paulb]

Oh, please... 

would you please delete the quote.
if they murder me, it;'ll be on your conscience 0:)

[paulb]

The Great Satan is actually some dude living in Louisiana. Whodathunkit?

spoken like a  true Mohamedist.

what a  rascal that guy was, mohamed i mean, you ought to read his bio.