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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  2954 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What makes an atheist love religious music?

So, I'm an agnostic atheist. Formerly something very much like a fundie, in most of the bad senses of that word. Now I regularly sing lots of classically religious music. Over my years in choir I've noticed that good directors address the theological component of the music. REALLY good directors give historical perspective that gives emotional weight to the music. The people who were performing this piece felt this way, the audience had this amount of religious education and the composert was trying to make this emotional statement with their work. Having sung the full Messiah as an atheist, and enjoyed it, I am comfortable saying that one does not need faith of any kind to appreciate good music that happens to have religious themes.