{"id":3854,"date":"2021-09-13T15:32:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T20:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=3854"},"modified":"2021-09-13T15:32:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T20:32:46","slug":"why-john-lennons-ode-to-humanism-still-resonates-at-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=3854","title":{"rendered":"Why John Lennon\u2019s Ode To Humanism Still Resonates At 50"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Zuckerman<\/a>, Pitzer College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Fifty years ago, John Lennon released one of the most beautiful, inspirational<\/a> and catchy pop anthems of the 20th century: \u201cImagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gentle and yet increasingly stirring as the song progresses, \u201cImagine\u201d is unabashedly utopian and deeply moral, calling on people to live, as one humanity, in peace. It is also purposely and powerfully irreligious<\/a>. From its opening lyric, \u201cImagine there\u2019s no heaven,\u201d to the refrain, \u201cAnd no religion too,\u201d Lennon sets out what is, to many, a clear atheistic message.<\/p>\n

While most pop songs are secular by default \u2013 in that they are about the things of this world, making no mention of the divine or spiritual \u2013 \u201cImagine\u201d is explicitly secularist. In Lennon\u2019s telling, religion is an impediment to human flourishing \u2013 something to be overcome, transcended.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of secularism<\/a> and a devout fan of the Beatles, I have always been fascinated by how \u201cImagine,\u201d perhaps the first and only atheist anthem to be so enormously successful, has come to be so widely embraced in America. After all, the U.S. is a country that has \u2013 at least until recently<\/a> \u2013 had a much more<\/a> religious population than other Western industrialized democracies.<\/p>\n

Since being released as a single on Oct. 11 1971, \u201cImagine\u201d has sold millions, going No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K. charts. And its popularity has endured. Rolling Stone magazine named \u201cImagine\u201d as the third greatest song of all time<\/a> in 2003, and it regularly tops national polls in Canada, Australia<\/a> and the U.K<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Countless recording artists have covered it, and it remains one of the most performed songs throughout the world \u2013 the opening ceremony<\/a> of this year\u2019s Olympics Games in Tokyo featured it being sung by a host of international artists, a testament to its global appeal.<\/p>\n