Is Something Happening to our Youth?

[Kenny]

I'm not sure if you really answered my question... It's kind of ambigous.

It's a yes / no question really: does that (such a drum session) count for you, as a "spiritual" experience?

If no, why not?

Not trying to be ambiguous. Any music can be a spiritual experience as it can be a non-spiritual experience (I'm not the judge of each person). Like I said, "La Cucaracha" is a song but definitely not a spiritual experience.

So, for an example - as a Christian:

150 Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

I know of many people that worship God on the drums so it can be a spiritual experience... and, as I said, you can play drums and not have it be a spiritual experience.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Not trying to be ambiguous. Any music can be a spiritual experience as it can be a non-spiritual experience (I'm not the judge of each person).

It's actually not really about the music.
It's about the experience of "closing off" from the outside world, entering some kind of "trance" and expressing myself (my emotions, frustrations, hatred, love, anger, compassion,...) through a medium, which happens to be a drumset.

I can easily imagine having the same type of experience while painting warhammer models.

Or even just jogging.... where there is just the road, your breathing and the sound of your feet.

Like I said, "La Cucaracha" is a song but definitely not a spiritual experience.

Why couldn't it be?

So, for an example - as a Christian:

150 Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

I know of many people that worship God on the drums so it can be a spiritual experience...

So for you, having a spiritual experience is not possible unless it includes some type of "worship" of some god?

Does that mean that you think that my "trance drum session" doesn't count as a "spiritual experience"?
Because I can assure you that no worship of anything at all comes into it.

and, as I said, you can play drums and not have it be a spiritual experience.

Sure. But I described a rather specific type of drum session.

I also don't "achieve" that every time I sit behind the drums. Sometimes, it just doesn't come out.

As I said, and I do have trouble to bring it into words, the best way I can describe it is a "trance". I call it being "in the zone". It's a rather distinct feeling as opposed to just smacking the drums.

It's that moment where the rest of the universe virtually ceases to exist and it's just me, the music and the "flow" of movement. To the point that I stop thinking even. Almost as if I'm playing on automatic pilot.

In any case, cause I don't wish to drag this out...

As I said, if people ask me if I had "spiritual experiences" in my life, that is the kind of thing that comes to mind. If that doesn't count, then I guess I don't have spiritual experiences in my life.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Generally speaking, there's an overall downturn in religious affiliation and attendance by percent within all religions worldwide, and surveys indicate this is due to a variety of factors.

In the Scandinavian countries, for example, weekly attendance is under 10%. As one theologian remarked, "In Europe, Protestantism is dead and Catholicism is dying".

An increasing number of people when asked simply do not believe attendance at services is all that important. Some others have an ax to grind against "organized religion". Some others just prefer resting for the weekend because of our rapid pace of life. Here in the States, the busiest shopping day of the week is now Sunday.

Also, there's far less social pressure to belong to a religion and attend services. One thing that I have seen locally is that the only churches "holding their own" tend to be those of the "health & wealth" variety that seems like going to a rock concert. Luther warned against doing that as people would likely attend services for the wrong reason, namely just for entertainment and socializing. IMO, I have mixed feelings about that approach even though personally I'm not fond of attending services like that-- too loud and too "busy"-- probably a byproduct of my age.

Many European countries have an "official" religion, so the leaders don't have to proselytize because they get tax money. People get married and buried in church, but that's about it. Maybe we should do that in the US.

 

[metis]

Many European countries have an "official" religion, so the leaders don't have to proselytize because they get tax money. People get married and buried in church, but that's about it. Maybe we should do that in the US.

I don't believe we should have a state religion nor have any of them supported by taxes.

 

[Shad]

Many European countries have an "official" religion, so the leaders don't have to proselytize because they get tax money. People get married and buried in church, but that's about it. Maybe we should do that in the US.

That would be a violation of 1a. A lot of people that became Americans left Europe as those official religions went nuts in making sure everyone followed "the right religion". Europe is still centuries behind the US when it comes to the entrenchment of religion in the state regardless of how many evangelicals **** people off. Which denomination do you think would become the official religion? It is either going to be Catholic or Baptist not some moderate group. Keeping in mind your examples from Europe are denominations not some generalized form of Christianity.