"Imagine" rewritten as a Gospel song

Phil I have to agree with you. The song Imagine is a beautiful composition of intriguing music, however the lyrics are IMHO a representation of a desire for a new world order wherein there is a totally secularized government that has banned any religion. It is IMHO a form of artistic proselytizing, much in the manner in which I visualize some of the non-theists on this forum... and of course the Theists also do their own version of proselytizing.

 

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one


Nothing about no deity. Just no religion screwing up what a deity may inspire.
And nothing to war about is also a good thing. For religions who worship the same God are into killing other religions.

A world of peace and harmony, oh the anarchy.

 

So, which deity is it that will inspire people to live in such peace and harmony and which would dissolve world government and bring in a Theistic government? Will it be one of my choosing, your choosing or the choosing of someone else?

 

Each can have their own. No one else telling anyone how they must live based on their own. Accepting each and being tolerant of what they want as their own special deity.

Imagine, if you can.
Imagine a muslim and a christian, one has the holy spirit for a guide and christ as a savior, the other does not. Agreeing with each other's posts.

 

What would he think of this?
Yesterday
Things got worse and they're worse still today.
There was a patch of blue mid sky all gray
Now that blue's gone, and gone to stay.
Back in May,
Things were bad but in a different way.
Compared to now those times seemed quite ok.
Things were never worse than today.
Just last year,
I had pains and debt but never tear.
Now I cry my eyes out every day.
Though I started every day with fear,
Things were so much better last year.
2012 was better in every way.
Until that man came and pulled my car away.
I got real mad,
Mourned what I'd had
But not as bad
As i feel today.
2010
There was hope I could begin again.
There was pain and bugs and lots of debt,
But today, it is worse yet.
2006
I was victim of so many trick.
One day I had a riotous time
Then arrested for a silly crime!
How I cried my heart out that day
In mid-July!
Still if I could trade now for then, I might just try.
2004
We were fighting the Iraqnam War.
Gave that dumb President four years more.
There was much to fear,
But not like this year.
Back then I had hair and not much of it was gray.
I had debt but not much. Now my soul's for sale on Ebay.
I had hope!
Now I've lost my last little strand of rope.
I may not live to see another day
Half as good as yesterday.

 

This is the final portion of a comedy routine called songs that make Phillip sick. The others are worse but this had to be last.

I’m getting really sick now, and the one that guarantees the ending is Imagine by John Lennon.

Imagine there’s no Heaven.

Brilliant! all these years of virtue and good deeds get you no reward!

It’s easy if you try. Maybe.

At least there’s a Hell so the bad people can suffer forever, even if the good are just dead.

No Hell below us, above us only sky.

Well at least we have the government to arrest killers and thieves.

Imagine there’s no countries!

Now there’s a toker at work!

Imagine all the people living for today.

Yes,no one planting, no one working (gulp). no one cleaning up.

These things are barely possible but then…

Imagine no possessions!

He needs to add a line right there!
NO DIGESTIVE SYSTEM!
Because we can’t share what’s already in my stomach.

Well, there’s one way and here it comes
(vomit sounds)

 

I see no such problem with such imaginative daydreams or even imagining such. The imagination is a very handy tool... especially to the scientific community, or even in the planning of a ten year goal in ones personal life. Now here is the problem with your suggestion: who or what is going to inspire the whole world to make such drastic changes in their manner of thinking?

 

You and I and our neighbors.

 

Well, considering that I don't have the finances to launch a campaign capable of reaching the population of the entire world (and I am guessing that you might also be short of funding) that would leave it up to our "neighbors". So, who or what is going to motivate or inspire our "neighbors" (who are likely in the same financial situation) to bring together the necessary funding that would support such a campaign? If your suggestion is "you and I", then I will give you permission to speak on my behalf on such a campaign only because such a campaign would serve a noble cause outside of 'religion' and would be purely secular in its approach and presentation.

 

Just live your life in that kind of way, if others see the benefits, it should self perpetuate. I imagine.

 

Imagine is not and has never been a atheist anthem.

Lennon may have wrote about no heaven or religion in the song but most of the lyrics are about collectivist utopian clap trap which most atheists are too smart to fall for

 

Like I said: Imagination is a great tool.

 

Look at post 81. There is no way a person of any persuasion can embrace all the lyrics without some modification. Still no Christian should ever endorse any of the song.
The man broke laws, committed adultery, swore, posed naked, smoked and was bad at math. Others are worse, but his songs blend more tightly to himself than most.
Someone mentioned U2. I know nothing about the members and pay no attention to their list of songs. I don't recall anything vaguely religious about the song cited or any other.
Understand that when I bother to pay attention to any form of art I don't want to be confused about the message and I often am. I watched shows like Touched by an Angel waiting for any bias towards one religion or another. I was disappointed in one way that I found none and in another way that I didn't.
Consider for instance Norman Lear and All in the Family.
He wanted the number of liberal atheists to increase by exaggerating Archie's bigotry, but the demands of making the show popular forced him to declaw Archie just enough to have the opposite effect.
Archie wasn't vicious in his bigotry, just severely unenlightened, so his view of the world gained popularity in the 70s making Lear rich but frustrated.

 

I've got a long list of Beatles adaptations. I wrote a new one moments ago as I read about the Nobel Prize for Medicine:
Youyou, Youyou Tu,
Half a Nobel goes to you.
You worked long and True.
Malaria's gone like the dew.
So thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks, Youyou Tu
ooooohh oooh ooh Youyou Tu.

 

But.... perhaps the characteristic of humility

that is required for certain types of prayer......
perhaps it could be????