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  • Viewer Cynthia asked:

  • Can I still be an atheist and appreciate gospel music,

  • religious architecture, and religious paintings?

  • Absolutely. I mean,

  • when you think of all the bad, bad things religion has done, and the sort of things we critique online, and

  • through this YouTube channel,

  • we talk about all the bad things religion has done,

  • but when it comes to their expressions of arts and music and architecture,

  • those are some of the high points of religion. That's some of the good stuff they've done. And I think, "Absolutely, we can appreciate what it is."

  • And we can appreciate it as art,

  • and music, and--

  • You don't have to necessarily

  • like why it was created. You don't have to

  • buy into the purpose for why it was created,

  • but you can look at a painting and say, "Wow! That's beautiful"

  • without saying, "I now believe in Christ."

  • You could still appreciate it for what it's worth.

  • You know, it's as much history as anything else.

  • And, you know, hundreds of years ago, if you were an artist,

  • the people who paid your wages, who commissioned your work, were the religious leaders of their time.

  • So, of course that's what they did. That's how they expressed their talents.

  • And so, to me, the fact that where their money was coming from, the subject matter of their paintings or music...

  • Irrelevant.

  • You can sing it, you can like it.

  • You know, I was in choir in high school. I remember we sang some religious

  • old ancient, like, religious music, too. And it was beautiful music.

  • It didn't matter what-- that it was religious cuz this wasn't about preaching.

  • It was about appreciating the sort of thing that--

  • that they composed way back when. So, yeah, you can appreciate this stuff. In fact, if you ever go to Europe, if you ever go overseas,

  • a lot of the big things that you've got to see, a lot of the big tourist attractions

  • are some of those ancient churches. If you ever go to India,

  • one of the things you have to see as you're traveling across that--

  • that subcontinent are all the beautiful temples that were built hundreds, thousands of years ago. If you ever go to Greece,

  • you know, you can appreciate the Parthenon that was built as, you know, an homage to the goddess Athena,

  • even if you don't buy into Greek mythology.

  • You can appreciate the works for what they are, and how long they've been around,

  • and the sort of history that's taken place there,

  • without having to be religious to appreciate them.

  • My name is Hemant Mehta and I write for FriendlyAtheist.com

  • Please, leave a message below, and we will check it out.

Viewer Cynthia asked:

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