Believe or Imagine

Recently, a group of 25 celebrities patched together a cover of John Lennon’s famous song, “Imagine.” The clip moves through the song as each of the singers records a lyrical line from their place of self-quarantined. The song went viral but the response was mixed at best.

Jon Caramanica of the New York Times writes, “The actress Gal Gadot assembled celebrities singing John Lennon’s anthem on social media. The result is far from inspiring in a time of crisis.” His title for the article, “This ‘Imagine’ Cover Is No Heaven.” Caramanica concludes his rant stating, “Their genial naïveté is blinding them to the grossest sin here: the smug self-satisfaction…. The presumption that an empty and profoundly awkward gesture from a bunch of celebrities has any meaning whatsoever borders on delusion — what you see in this video is nothing more than perspective-fogged stars singing into a mirror.” Even Joe Rogan, notably irreligious himself, blasted the video as tone-deaf.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep the globe, does humanity want to Imagine a world with no heaven or hell, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too? Or does this global crisis expose a deeply-embedded longing for eternal life and hope beyond the grave?

There has been a growing trend over the past half-century, as prominent atheists have become harsher in their criticisms of religion and the belief in God. The reoccurring attack is that the world would be better off without any religion. In 1971, John Lennon first sang those famous lyrics. While the atheist regimes of his day found plenty of reasons to kill and die with no religious impulse.

The secular humanists and atheists have adopted “Imagine” as the sacred anthem of the new world. Within this song is their simple invitation, “You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will be as one.”

In light of the current state of the world, it is important for us to consider the importance of how to test our beliefs. Continuing in our series “Why Believe,” this Sunday we will consider whether it is better to live by a belief in God or to live by imagining a perfect world without God.