Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (235302)	1/20/2008 5:38:38 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793891

That doesn't follow logically for me. Music need not be religious. It is a natural and wonderful way to express your emotions- in fact, I think of it as the language of emotion-- whether for God or for another person or for nature. But the existence of music doesn't prove the existence of God; God is the object of emotion for certain people and this emotion is expressed in music. I have two books I ordered last year- one called Your Brain on Music, the other The Singing Neanderthals Both approach the love of and making of music from the scientific point of view. Music has existed for a very very long time, far before organized religion, and is found in almost all extant cultures and among animals as well. It is organized sound, related to language, rhythms, expression, sometimes serving in very practical ways in seduction and courting among animals and man. None of the scientific explanations take away from the power of music. As Robert Sapolski wrote, "I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it." The statement that more Christians were won by music than by a minister makes absolute sense to me. We are wired to respond emotionally to musical expression, and we have acquired certain cultural musical overlays that appeal to us. I would venture a guess that these religious conversions were in response to familiar Western religious music, and not the sound of an Indonesian gamelan orchestra, or a muezzin calling them to prayer, or to a Shintu ritual.