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Art is the only realm of real soul - the expression that we are simultaneously unique to and indivisible from ... everything.

Atheism can often be seen as the realm of the rational, just the facts ma'am skeptic. But I think that the atheist artist has a leg up on both the superstitious theist and the hard-boiled non-believer. Speculation and love of mystery are the key to new discovery and the death of useless superstition.

Where the religious look for a creator - even in their own work - the atheist artist is the creator. And yet, there is an intuitive understanding that, while many speak of art as an expression of their unique contribution and identity - under it all, art outlives us, it spans the gaps between us, it maps what it is to be human and alive, and it transcends the illusion of our isolation.

I pluck a guitar string and you dance. You write a book and fill my head with ideas. I tell a joke and we both have a good laugh. You point at the moon and I want to go there.

To me there is little wonder that so many artists use the word 'soul' to describe their experience while creating. I now call it 'quintessensualism' - the highest blend of essence, sensibility and sensuality we can achieve. Some call it 'the flow' - others 'peak experience' - but our best creative acts seem to come through us rather than out of us ... as if the key is to get out of the way. So, how do we not think that we are moved by forces greater than ourselves? Well, of course we are. They just aren't supernatural forces. They are as remarkable as the ongoing evolution of consciousness itself.

A footprint becomes a cave drawing becomes a hieroglyph becomes a dictionary. A howl at the point of orgasm becomes a mating call becomes a love song becomes an opera. A deer track becomes a footpath becomes a road becomes a highway. And on and on - traceable all the way back to the first spark of intelligence.

And, even while we attempt to capture the moon in a bowl of water, we discover the telescope and envision the starship. Today we map in great detail or broad brush strokes - with our imaginations, our talents and our crafts - the questions that tomorrow's scientists will answer - without god, without ghosts, and without mumbo jumbo.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mindcore on March 23, 2010 at 6:22pm

I couldn't agree more.

Permalink Reply by michele ricketts on September 20, 2012 at 8:53pm

There is so much badart out there which is pretty soulless. Art should be educating people to develop better taste whether that's musically or visually or in other ways. I think music underlies visual art in that as an inspiration it is tangible. The better music is the more intuitive it is. Listening to all the good stuff develops intuition not in sound but of what is sound.
I think belief in God is like wearing an over-coat when mankind should be naked towards his Own Being. The old fig leaf in Adam and Eve not such a bad idea until they bit the Goddamn apple. Religion is sublimation of Self and diffusion into what others believe as more important which is why badmusic is the sound of consensus to me and badart too. Not the deeper intuitive truths of Nature or man in a more medative relevance .Meditation is guided by intuitive stepping stones; looking or listening to real art is proof of that coherence to people.
It seems hopeless when a great musician like Sun Ra is hopelessly theist. Didn't all those stepping stones make him sound in the atheist sense? !But werds are symbols for what a thing is so we don't have to worry about the details and subtleties. Each werd is an axiom of itself so we can get to the point. Axioms are wide open to assumptions.The beauty of music is it could take one werd and define the details and sublties of its symbol. And we'd understand it intuitively. If Sun Ra uses the word God I could be assuming he means it in its absurd sense when for him it comes down to the ultimate in his intuitive sense. The interpretation is not literal when its musical.
The inner space inside an atheist is not sublimated. To thy own self be true I think is the start base for any artist

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