Singing

[hannahjoy]

I'm mainly addressing atheists, but anyone is welcome to offer an opinion.

From How to irritate an atheist:

And these merit instant annihilation:

187) Sing.

I would guess that most of you do listen to music with vocals (whether it could be called "singing" is debatable ), so what kind of singing is that referring to, and why do you hate it?

[bernee51]

I'm mainly addressing atheists, but anyone is welcome to offer an opinion.

From How to irritate an atheist:

And these merit instant annihilation:

187) Sing.

I would guess that most of you do listen to music with vocals (whether it could be called "singing" is debatable ), so what kind of singing is that referring to, and why do you hate it?

I would suggest it is not the singing per se but the intent of the singing. All that hand waving and accompanying singing drives me crazy. Why can't people love god quietly?

[ST88]

I don't find religious singing particularly annoying except by context. I think the "irritate the atheist" context is in the middle of a conversation about religion. When you say something like, "There's no proof than any miracles have ever occurred," and the other person spontaneously bursts into "Nearer my God to Thee," that's annoying.

On the other hand, some gospel music is wonderful, and then there's all that Vesper stuff.

[MagusYanam]

I'm not an atheist and I personally love a good hymn sung a cappella ('Oh for a thousand tongues to sing', for example) but I do find certain religious music to be a particular annoyance, like Taize. But even Taize does not compare with the abomination known as 'praise music'.

Secular pop music is bad enough, with all the dubbing, repetitive inane lyrics and bland accompaniment. (Disco is tolerable, having a catchy accompaniment. Some was even good, having decent lyrics like Midorikawa Hikaru's 'Niji o Mitsukerou'.) Praise music goes Britney Spears one worse by making the accompaniment blander, the lyrics more inane and repetitive and playing it in all of these newfangled, shoddy 'non-denominational' churches. Three strikes against it.

I infinitely prefer more traditional forms. Most of the older music played in mainline churches by composers such as Charles Wesley is pretty good stuff, if a trifle pedantic. I suppose it all depends on the Hymnal you get. My favourite would have to be Hymnal: A Worship Book by Brethren Press, 1992, and that not just because I used to be an Anabaptist. There is actually some harmony writ in for the bass and tenor lines (oh glorious day!) and it actually sounds good when sung a cappella, as the Madison Mennonite Church often did (and, I would assume, still does).

[otseng]

All that hand waving and accompanying singing drives me crazy. Why can't people love god quietly?

And all that shouting and screaming and hollering at football games drives me crazy. Why can't people just watch football quietly?

When you say something like, "There's no proof than any miracles have ever occurred," and the other person spontaneously bursts into "Nearer my God to Thee," that's annoying.

That's a new one for me. I would certainly be most surprised, even annoyed, if such an occurence happened, even for me as a Christian.

I infinitely prefer more traditional forms.

Me too. I guess cause I can actually play some hymns on my harmonica, but can't play any of the modern stuff on my harp.

[Corvus]

When you say something like, "There's no proof than any miracles have ever occurred," and the other person spontaneously bursts into "Nearer my God to Thee," that's annoying.

That's a new one for me. I would certainly be most surprised, even annoyed, if such an occurence happened, even for me as a Christian.

Particularly if they are singing offkey. But I'm not exactly sure what the article is referring to. Why would singing merit instant annihilation specifically to atheists? Most unusual.

At the moment Handel's Messiah is playing on the television. I find it quite enjoyable. (Though not enjoyable enough to watch all two hours of it.)

Edit: But hold, there is a Jesus with hairy chest exposed, wearing tracksuit pants and standing in the midst of a bustling modern city! This intriguing development draws me back!

[The Happy Humanist]

I'm mainly addressing atheists, but anyone is welcome to offer an opinion.

From How to irritate an atheist:

And these merit instant annihilation:

187) Sing.

I would guess that most of you do listen to music with vocals (whether it could be called "singing" is debatable ), so what kind of singing is that referring to, and why do you hate it?

Beats me. I'm a singer myself, and enjoy belting the heck out of "Because", "I Believe", "I'll Walk With God," and at Christmas, "O Holy Night." The fact that I'm an atheist doesn't make these numbers any less catchy to me.

Now, as someone else said, if they're sung at me in an attempt at conversion, that's different....

[Nyril]

Well, although I haven't seen this myself, on the Simpsons one time the plot spent a good amount of time having Ned Flanders and his family follow Homer around and sing some sort of religious song at him for reasons that escape me. I think he was trying to leave the church or something. It could possibly be a reference to that.[/b]

[Dilettante]

I had never heard of atheists trying to ban singing (that's what I would expect of the Taliban) but I guess some people just hate the human voice.
I'm not an atheist, and I don't hate singing. It would have to be really bad singing for me to hate it (imagine this: I actually like Bob Dylan's voice). But having said this, I'll add that pop-sounding religious music sounds rather lame to me. It doesn't move me at all. I enjoy, however, old recordings by the Staple Singers, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and of course Mahalia Jackson. Ironically, my favorite American gospel piece is not sung, but hummed /played on the guitar with a bottleneck by Blind Willie Johnson (you guessed it, its "Dark Was the Night...")
As for religious music from my part of the world, I find Gregorian Chants wonderfully relaxing, and a few hours ago I was listening to the Miserere on TV as part of the Holy Week broadcasts and I was certainly moved. And what can beat Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion"? If I ever felt spiritual it was listening to J.S. Bach.

[JamesBrown]

Well, although I haven't seen this myself, on the Simpsons one time the plot spent a good amount of time having Ned Flanders and his family follow Homer around and sing some sort of religious song at him for reasons that escape me. I think he was trying to leave the church or something. It could possibly be a reference to that.

I know the episode of which you speak. Not only was it assault by singing, it was a camp song that most campers find annoying:

"The Lord told Noah there's gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord told Noah there's gonna be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy muddy
Children of the Lord

The Lord told Noah to build him an arky arky
The Lord told Noah to build him an arky arky
Build it out of gopher barky barky
Children of the Lord

Chorus: So rise and shine and give God the glory glory
Rise and shine and give God the glory glory
Rise and Shine
And give God the glory glory
Children of the Lord

The animals they came on they came on in twosies twosies
The animals they came on they came on in twosies twosies
Elephants and kanga- roosies roosies
Children of the Lord

It rained and poured for forty nights and daysies daysies
It rained and poured for forty nights and daysies daysies
Almost drove those animals crazies crazies
Children of the Lord"

For some, this is borderline criminal behavior.

I get the episodes mixed up in my head, but I believe this was also the episode when Homer insisted on staying home from church. Marge grumbles and drags the whining kids out into the snow to church. Meanwhile, Homer eats waffle batter on the couch in his underwear, whizzes in the bathroom with the door open, and even wins a philosophical argument with the Almighty.

Meanwhile, at the church, the boiler has broken down, and the inside temperature hovers just above freezing. As the parishioners sit shivering with their teeth chattering, the pastor intones that God will cast sinners into the fires of Hell, where they will burn with a holy fire (Bart rubs his hands in rapturous joy at the thought of all that warmth.) When the front doors freeze shut, the people panic as they rush for the exits. Lisa falls to her knees and prays, "Our Father, Who art in Heaven..." Bart scowls at her and says, "Lisa! This is neither the time, NOR the place!"

That line makes me laugh everytime I think of it.