I sometimes find it a shame...

[Fireball]

^ Hm. Didn't see that coming.

[Paleophyte]

...that people compose so much classical music about an imaginary God. Why not write music about the real world? It's beautiful enough.

There's music about nature I admit but I want more. I composed a choral song about a towering oak tree once and I think I also have one about winter and snow. I also have quite a few about birds.

I just sometimes find it a shame that there's no songs about what a gift the eye and optic nerve are or how spectacular it is that flight evolved in so many species - yet we have umpteen songs about God.

Gustav Holst - The Planets
Vivaldi - Four Seasons
Rimsky Korsakov - Flight of the Bumblebee
Strauss - The Blue Danube

And for good pagan fun we have:

Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries
Grieg - In the Hall of the Mountain King

Amongst many others. I'll admit that I enjoy some of the religious music too but that's in spite of the religiosity. Also, you'll note that with the exception of a few abominations that went nowhere, there's bugger all for religious rock and roll.

[brewer]

...that people compose so much classical music about an imaginary God. Why not write music about the real world? It's beautiful enough.

There's music about nature I admit but I want more. I composed a choral song about a towering oak tree once and I think I also have one about winter and snow. I also have quite a few about birds.

I just sometimes find it a shame that there's no songs about what a gift the eye and optic nerve are or how spectacular it is that flight evolved in so many species - yet we have umpteen songs about God.

The blind people and penguins are gonna be pissed when they read this.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Humans are a part of nature as well. Whatever the topical concerns of our songs, the songs are themselves a bit of nature.

[Belacqua]

...that people compose so much classical music about an imaginary God. Why not write music about the real world? It's beautiful enough.

There's music about nature I admit but I want more. I composed a choral song about a towering oak tree once and I think I also have one about winter and snow. I also have quite a few about birds.

I just sometimes find it a shame that there's no songs about what a gift the eye and optic nerve are or how spectacular it is that flight evolved in so many species - yet we have umpteen songs about God.

Sometimes we atheists treat religion as a set of propositions to be proved or disproved logically. But I don't think that's how most people in history have experienced it. 

It's largely about ceremony, ritual, and the expression of beauty and values. In other words, most people's experience of religion is a kind of aesthetic experience, and the art that comes out of it is a part of that. Most or the art that we value -- from China or Japan or India or Europe or anywhere -- is rooted in religion, and there's certainly a reason for that. The creation of objective correlatives for unseen things seems to be a crucial part of civilization.

And I understand why religion is losing its popularity in our own time, but the values that replace it -- quantifiable facts, technology, economic success -- are not going to inspire the same kind of beauty. 

I mean, there's a reason that Elon Musk spends his money on machines, while the Medici spent theirs on splendor.

[syntheticadrenaline]

Aaargh I can't use the reply function for some reason. Oodles of great responses here

[arewethereyet]

...that people compose so much classical music about an imaginary God. Why not write music about the real world? It's beautiful enough.

There's music about nature I admit but I want more. I composed a choral song about a towering oak tree once and I think I also have one about winter and snow. I also have quite a few about birds.

I just sometimes find it a shame that there's no songs about what a gift the eye and optic nerve are or how spectacular it is that flight evolved in so many species - yet we have umpteen songs about God.

What comes to mind for me is that so much of the classic art and literature was created by people who had benefactors (I think that's the right word, not enough waking up quite yet).  These benefactors obviously needed to have the means to employ someone in this capacity so it fell to the wealthy - which included churches.

[The Grand Nudger]

I mean, there's a reason that Elon Musk spends his money on machines, while the Medici spent theirs on splendor.

Power, influence, and propaganda in both cases.

[TheWhiteMarten]

...that people compose so much classical music about an imaginary God. Why not write music about the real world? It's beautiful enough.

There's music about nature I admit but I want more. I composed a choral song about a towering oak tree once and I think I also have one about winter and snow. I also have quite a few about birds.

I just sometimes find it a shame that there's no songs about what a gift the eye and optic nerve are or how spectacular it is that flight evolved in so many species - yet we have umpteen songs about God.

I feel the same way about churches and cathedrals, I mean I am always awe struck at the engineering, the energy, resources and ingenuity committed to and executed in building them, but imagine what those could be have been dedicated to.

Such as what?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I feel the same way about churches and cathedrals, I mean I am always awe struck at the engineering, the energy, resources and ingenuity committed to and executed in building them, but imagine what those could be have been dedicated to.

Such as what?

Speaking for myself, I’d like to see a 100 000 square foot Gothic cathedral-type monument dedicated to the thousands of men and women who devoted their lives to combating religious idiocy. It could have, for example, a Robert Ingersoll memorial non-chapel.

Boru