Lennon, the totalitarian.

[Cartoonist]

https://nypost.com/2021/07/25/imagine-blared-at-the-olympics-is-a-totalitarians-anthem/

The Olympics opening ceremonies in Tokyo featured one of the worst pop songs of all time: Yes, I’m speaking of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” sung by a large children’s choir and a bevy of celebrities.

As a fan of the Beatles and Lennon especially, it pains me to say this, but it’s true: While its melody and arrangement are ­indeed beautiful, the lyrics are an invitation to moral and political chaos.

Consider the opening verse: “Imagine there’s no heaven / It’s easy if you try / No hell below us, above us only sky / Imagine all the people livin’ for today.”

I frankly can’t imagine anything worse. To say that there is no heaven or hell is to say that there is no absolute criterion of good and evil — no way of meaningfully determining the difference ­between right and wrong, no standard outside of the subjectivities of each moral actor by which to say any one agent is better than any other.
__

Of course, it was written by

Robert Barron is the auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles.

Twitter: @BishopBarron

[Journeyman]

1. Lennon doesn't say there is no heaven or hell, he merely asks us to imagine such a state . . .

[SCantiGOP]

2. What a crock

1- give me some hint of proof that there is a heaven above us, bishop;
2- give me a couple of reasons of how that belief is good for humanity, when most wars - both historical and current - have at least some relationship to religious belief.

I think the bishop is either scared to have to develop and live his own moral code, or he’s afraid Lennon’s philosophy threatens his job security.

From what I know of the statements attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, I think he would likely approve of the lyrics.

[MiHale]

3. It's an attempt to strip the labels off...

accept life for what it is and enjoy the day. No fears.

[Thomas Hurt]

4. The Bishop overestimates the weight all us sinners give outside standards.

If they worked he would be out of work.

[tirebiter]

5. All Hail Marx and Lennon

[edhopper]

6. Hey Bish

everything you believe is a lie and your Church is a ring of child rapists.

Tell me how heaven and hell has stopped the Catholic Church from all the evil it has done.

[guillaumeb]

7. "Imagine all the people livin' for today."

Meaning what exactly? No thought for tomorrow? No thought for others?

It is a song, and the demands of rhyme and meter are present.

[demigoddess]

8. religion has been killing people for centuries. Sometimes over minor details.

Imagining no heaven or hell might make people want a better life on earth, while they live. I do not believe in hell. I do believe in an afterlife because I have been visited by people who have passed.

[Major Nikon]

9. God is the ultimate arbiter of what is good and evil

But since he is evidently not around to tell us, thankfully we have the holy Roman Catholic Church to tell us those things by His proxy so long as we pledge complete subservience to them. Nothing totalitarian about that.

So how exactly do we know which side god is on?

[walkingman]

10. One only has to study the history of the Catholic Church

to understand the hypocrisy that they represent. A pretty scary group.

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. "Heaven is real!"

...says man whose livelihood depends on people thinking heaven is real.

[autumnmaunabliss]

12. What I notice in this forum

is a left-brained mentality that is too literal. Art is something in which one must transcend their intellect and tune in on an intuitive level. So that means understanding that the concepts of Heaven and Hell in and of themselves creates chaos! People fearing one fate and clinging to the other do things right here on the Earth plane that are very upsetting to life as we know it. I love the line: "Above us only sky."

[uppityperson]

13. Art is a good hobby.

[TexasTowelie]

15. It certainly is.

[old as dirt]

18. So you think you can tell, heaven from hell?

What I notice in this forum is a left-brained mentality that is too literal. Art is something in which one must transcend their intellect and tune in on an intuitive level. So that means understanding that the concepts of Heaven and Hell in and of themselves creates chaos!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. The bishop doesn't seem all that knowledgeable about the teachings of his own religion

The whole "sinners in the hands of an angry God" stuff is Calvinism, not Catholicism. The authentic teaching is that one does good out of love for God and other people, not out of fear of Hell.

[old as dirt]

17. This is a weird thread.

Happiness is a warm gun.