All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom.
He made their horrid wings.
All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.
God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)
Randy Newman
Cain slew Abel Seth knew not why
For if the children of Israel were to multiply
Why must any of the children die?
So he asked the Lord
And the Lord said:
Man means nothing he means less to me
Than the lowliest cactus flower
Or the humblest Yucca tree
He chases round this desert
Cause he thinks that’s where I’ll be
That’s why I love mankind
I recoil in horror fro the foulness of thee
From the squalor and the filth and the misery
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me
That’s why I love mankind
The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV
They picked their four greatest priests
And they began to speak
They said, “Lord, a plague is on the world
Lord, no man is free
The temples that we built to you
Have tumbled into the sea
Lord, if you won’t take care of us
Won’t you please, please let us be?”
And the Lord said
And the Lord said
I burn down your cities-how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That’s why I love mankind
You really need me
That’s why I love mankind
Surely any music that doesn’t involve a mythological magic man as a theme, is “atheist” by default?
In which case, vast swathes of popular music are “atheist” in this sense.
Likewise, for all those pieces of classical music that don’t involve a mythological magic man as a theme ranging from the Kaffeeleid (once attributed to Mozart, now thought to have been written by Karl Gottleib Hering) and Bach’s Coffee Cantata, to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Of course, other mythological entities apart from gods feature in various pieces of music, with Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun being an example, but once you start trawling the ballet catalogue, the subject matter can start to become surreal rapidly. Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals is whimsical in parts, while Coppelia is an exquisite piece of silliness on the part of Delibes.
However, there are comparatively fewer works that are ‘athiest’ in the polemical sense, though I see a few have been brought here already.
Found this recently on Youtube. Even though some christians have claimed it, as far as I know the lyrics are intentionally ambiguous. Call me a boring old fart, I think this group is terrific.
There is a land rover defender that I’ve seen being driven around where I live, it’s got stickers plastered all over it, two of the ones I remember distinctly are, “one life live it” and “you can go fast, I can go anywhere.”
You don’t see many bumper stickers on cars in the UK, normally they are generic and uninspiring.
There is one giant privately owned riot type vehicle, that gets a good laugh among my peers, it has a massive flat earth society logo on the side.
I think you’ll find, Atheists don’t really get offended by anything as such, to be offended would imply something is an affront to a person.
Well, atheism is just choosing not to believe in God, due to a lack of evidence.
So, to say something is offensive to Atheists is a nonsensical statement, anything that an Atheist chooses to be offended by, would more than likely just be plain offensive to any moral person.
We aren’t offended by religious music, anymore so than religious statements, we just maintain the position that there is no evidence for the claims held in the music/statement.
If somewhere to outright say, “all atheists are inherently immoral or stupid” for example, this could be considered offensive, but again, a person chooses to be offended.
I’d wager, in my opinion, that an Atheist is more likely to have thicker skin than a Theist of any major religion, because they have felt the fire of unwarranted ignorant persecution from oppressive Theists amongst their peers; of course this is pure conjecture and is entirely dependent on individual experiences.