Oct. 16, 2006
I’ve been reading some of Steve Kilbey’s blog entries lately. If you don’t know who Kilbey is, I’ll tell you. He’s the main singer and lyricist/songwriter in The Church, one of my longtime favorite bands. He is incredibly prolific in several areas and posts frequent, thoughtful blog entries. I was moved to reply to one and I thought I’d share my response with you:
I hope your tour went really well. I’ve read some of the blog entries and know that it wasn’t all the cream, but on the whole I expect it was great. Part of me hopes that the poem doesn’t imply that you won’t be doing another Church tour, but then, based on your output, I’m sure that whatever is to come will be rewarding for you and for us.
Speaking of the poem, have you ever read “The Night Life of the Gods” by Thorne Smith, the guy who wrote “Topper” and “Topper Returns”? “Topper” was great, “Topper Returns” not so great, but NLOTG is quite interesting, probably in between.
On a more substantive note, I must say that I have no problem admitting that I can’t know whether there is a God or no, or gods or no, but I certainly don’t believe it. I don’t want to argue or to present my arguments. I’m happy enough that it’s working for you. I do feel compelled to point out that those who claim that they know there is a god know that those who don’t believe as they do are wrong. It becomes easy to justify things in the name of the god you know and in the way you know God wants things to be. It is impossible to tell who is right. It is no more possible to prove the existence of an authority for morality than it is to prove that you know what the authority says we all must do. It is not necessary to believe that God is an authority for morality, but if God is the creator, it is tempting to believe that God has a purpose and perhaps a plan, if not a rulebook. If God is not the creator, but rather one of the creators, one of our brothers, so to speak (as we are created in God’s image, we must be creators), then what is the significance? What is the relationship? What are the implications? If God is a sort of New Age-y “energy” then I suppose we must accept that destruction, chaos, and violence are part of the energy we are and the energy that is God. In that case, I’d say it becomes even more important to create; to find, to imagine, and to build beauty where we can.
– GL