The Tallis Scholars sings Palestrina

I seem to find ignorance and stupidity wherever I go on this site, even on the comment boards of the best music ever written performed by the best musicians of our day.

A shame really...

@jivanmukta7 - I'm with you. music is most definitely NOT for the exclusive enjoyment of the pious or religious. But it can bring us together and share in moments of compassion and beauty.

I have to say though, I certainly feel religious when I listen to this stuff.

the melody fits the lyrics, the lyrics fit the religion.... if the religion doesn't fit you, your appreciation will be superficial compared to the pious.

Humans suck.

Are we so bent on creating conflict that even listening to beautiful music sets us off into disagreement and argument?

Can't we just close our eyes and hear this music; let it soothe our souls, or spirits...or minds ? (if you have no such belief in souls or spirits- certainly you believe in minds).

How about considering for a moment that this could be just Music, polyphony and harmony, free from any philosophical or religious connotations, just plain old music, not from heaven but made down here on earth, sung by contemporary men and women in love with musicology. Would that diminish its beauty in any degree? To say it in religious terms, if you have ears, listen.

@jivanmukta7 no, i don't think so. "listening" is not so passive when you have "ears," if you know what I mean.

@jivanmukta7
----sir

This is music from Heaven

You phrase it as if religion created Jesus and God. A nifty athiest arguement. Religion - the Christian variety, anyway - is founded in people being bound together by their common belief in Jesus & God (from the latin religare) and living the way we understand Jesus & God wanting us to live. Does religion telling us that slavery, which it once supported, is now wrong categorize it as useless? And what makes you think that God is male and is or ever was a sadist? Who taught you these things?

I'm not going to argue over the gender of a being that, even if it existed, would have no phyical attributes anyway. I call him male for convenience because history depicts him as such. I'd be more than happy to perceive God as feminine as the pagans did. I call him sadistic because of the pointless devastation throughout history leads me to imagine that destruction delights him. Who "taught" you about God? The Bible was written by visionary prophets, not God. God is indifferent to man.