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5 questions everyone should ask themselves before its too late:

1) Is there a God?

2) Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

3) Is getting married and/or having kids something I really believe is right for me, or even truly want to do? In other words, am I doing it just because I’m ’supposed’ to?

4) What brings me joy, comes naturally to me (is easy), and I would do for people whether or not they paid me?

5) Do my actions show that I am truly concerned about anyone other than myself?

Ready. Go.

I am new to this, and have been at least mildly resistant to it for at least one reason: blogging seems to be terribly narcissistic.

As if everything else I do isn’t: MySpace, personal website, just being on stage in my band, etc.

So Doug and I discussed it yesterday. Blogging seems to be, at its best, Broadcast Journaling. That’s the best phrase I can think of to describe it.

And on a grander scale, it is a new method of communication between people that will undoubtedly affect the course of humanity and all of our social paradigms in a way that will be historically monumental.

If nothing else, its fun.

And all art might be, for that matter. But I will stick with Music as my example since it is what I know best.

From Wikipedia: Religion—sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system—is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices and institutions associated with such belief.

If you have spent any significant time with me, you are most likely (and possibly somewhat painfully) aware of my many beliefs and platitudes on the subject of music. How it works, how it truly affects people, what makes it good and bad, right and wrong, etc. I am well known to discuss these things at great length, and freely offer my views, whether you are interested or not.

Recently, it hit me: Music is a religion.

In further discussions with my fellow thinkers, we have fleshed out this concept, and met with very few dead ends. The parallels of what we know to be a life of music, and a life of religion, are abundant.

So, I am short on time, but I challenge all to ponder that statement. Music is a religion.

And for those who might be squirming, this is only a dangerous thing to your other faith(s) if it supercedes your faith in your heart. If God is the biggest circle of your worldview, then Music (the religion) is just a smaller circle within that one. It all depends on who you think is the true creator of all things.

Spend any extended period of time with a musician, analyze their behavior and statements, and you will quickly see that there is merit to this concept. However, the deepest practices of gear worship are sometimes hidden from those outside of the ‘faith’, so you may not be privy to the depth of these practices unless you are a musician yourself (or married to one). Nonetheless, you can be sure that any musician who takes the religion seriously, will reveal themselves at some point, usually by saying something ludicrous like, “for the sake of the rock,” or, “i’m a tone chaser.”   For those who know, these are reasons that justify many otherwise irrational and impractical behaviors.

For those who don’t, they just sound silly.