Paul McCartney:". . . none of us believes in God."....wait, what?

Paul McCartney said, "We probably seem to be anti-religious. . . none of us believes in God." (Hit Parader, Jan 1970, p.15)

This quote struck me as rather strange...Judging by John Lennon and especially George Harrison's music, they seemed rather spiritual and religious, especially George Harrison and many of his albums seem to be about God.

I'm not saying I would change my mind and not like their music anymore if they don't believe, but what was Paul talking about?

 

Spiritual =/= Religious =/= Christian.

 

No

 

I love John Lennon.

 

Not believing in God=not religious=in many people's opinion=could be construed as=anti religious

Therefore

CuppaJoe's proposition=reasonable

But

I don't=have=an answer of my own

 

No being spiritual doesn't mean you're religious and christian or No, being spiritual does mean you're religious and christian?

 

Well, John Lennon was pretty anti-fundamentalist religion, or I would assume.

 

Do you happen to have a link to the article where he says that or the interview?

Being an obessed Beatles fan that I am...I don't recall that bit of history. But I'm sure if he did say it, it was probably a refrence to that time period. And it being 1970 it could of been a refrence to him and Linda and not the Beatles. Because If memory serves me right, they broke up in 1969 though it was never officially announced till 1970. Again my memory isn't to remembering to that time period at the moment.

So I need a refresher so a link to the article would be great!

~PK~

 

Then I suppose Bhuddists aren't religious.

And many people = unable to realize that Christianity isn't the only religion out there and that just because it's different doesn't mean it's evil.

 

Errr, You do realise that it was over 35 years ago when he made that quote? He may be very spiritual now, or a compleate athiest.... but 35 years is a lot of time to contemplate one's belief system.

 

I'm confused. What did you mean, Voija? What I meant was that no, you don't have to believe in the Christian God to be religious or spiritual. Didn't mean to cause confusion there. But that Paul McCartney quote just made me wonder...I mean, even in George Harrison's more religious sounding songs he refers to "God". Even if it's not the Christian God. That quote just struck me as odd.

 

Paul being raised in Liverpool means he was raised in a very Prostitant(sp) famiy. So God in his terms there is probably refering to the Christian God.

Not to the Hindu belief or anything of Middle-Eastern culture. Consider they spent the mid 60's as a group trying to become enlightened. So I think he was meaning the Christian God in his statement.

~PK~

 

When you smoke a lot of dope and do a little acid, the pyschological constructs that have defined and given meaning to your life crumble to dust and blow away.

The Beatles were existential heroes.

 

I hope that's not what you think I meant!

It wasn't much of an article, just random quotes from musicians.

And I think George Harrison was interested in both Buddhism and Catholicism at the same time, there's plenty of references in some of his songs, particularly the album Brainwashed.

 

Voija, all the stupid equals signs doubtlessly confused things. But it was fun to write the post like that.

In proper english, here is what I was trying to convey:

"This question is not so much about what is actually true as what its perceived to be true. As you have pointed out, in the minds of many people, spirituality is tied in with belief in deity of some form or another. Even in religions like Buddhism, where belief in a deity isn't necessary, there are a fair number of adherents that do so in any case. Given this fact, someone ruling out belief in a deity would, in the minds of the aforementioned "many people" imply a lack of spirituality, whether or not this was actually the case. Further, a lack of spirituality might well be construed as anti-religious sentiment, so that a lack of deistic belief could lead to a perceived lack of spirituality which could in turn be interpreted as perceived anti-religious sentiment. Thus, the question that CuppaJoe proposed has some validity, regardless of the actual spiritual position of any or all members of the Beetles."

 

John Lennon's "religous" lyrics:

"Imagine there's no Heaven, it's easy if you try".

"God is a concept By which we measure Our pain... I don't believe in Bible... I don't believe in Jesus"

Uh-huh.

And Harrison was very spiritual, definitely, certainly influenced hugely by eastern religion. I doubt he'd be considered a Christian at the time of the Beatles breakup.

 

My original post basically meant you don't have to be spiritual to be religious or christian. They're each mutually exclusive but often conflated by ignorant people.

My second post was asking you to clairify whether or not "No" meant you agreed or disagreed. It appears you do

I wasn't sure. That's why I asked

Didn't confuse me at all, but then again, I'm working on a dual major in Physics and Astronomy so I'm used to it.

However, while I did follow your statement, it makes the (possibly erronious) assumption that the "god" in question was indeed the Christian God. This is why I included my first statement: to preclude such limiting assumptions.

 

And let's not forget that RELIGION doesn't equal FAITH.

 

Harrison seemed to have adopted more of a Hindu type belief system later in his life. I recall hearing that he had his ashes spread in the Ganges and was a devotee of a Hare Krishna group of some kind up until he died.

Lennon was also into the Eastern religion thing. Dunno about Paul or Ringo. I don't see why it's of any importance. Just because some singer said something 30 years ago doesn't mean I'm going to abandon my faith and do what this guy tells me to simply because he's famous. Even if someone were to do such a thing, it would say quite a bit about them.

 

*is impressed*

 

I'm gonna be off topic here, but I study Physics, too, and will most likely major in Solid State Physics. And I, too, use a lot of mathematical terminology in real life... It's weird.

//end off topic

 

You know...humanity must suck pretty badly when it takes a group of musicians has to pay a guru thousands of dollars to figure out that they aint livin right.


And just for the record: The Beatles will forever be overrated.

 

What? Were you expecting rock musicians to be rocket scientists and brain surgeons too? It's almost a given that as a musician becomes all the more popular, the likelihood of them embracing some other religion and then paying some high ranking muckety much in said religion a boatload of cash, becomes greater with each passing day.

Famous people are often and very easily lead into most anything. Witness Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Britney Spears, Madonna, and Michael Moore.

 

The Beatles were all filthy Communists who should've been mercilessly firebombed like Cambodia.