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Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
—- Imagine, John Lennon
Forty-one years ago today — October 11, 1971 — Imagine was released in the U.S. It has since become one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved songs the world over.
How often can we say that we hear something very different, something that is new, fresh, different, unique, and that has nothing to do with the advancement of technology or science?
But for some of you I suspect, the song is, well, a bit problematic.
I’m thinking of those of you that are Beatles fans or John Lennon devotees but also men and women of faith …
Because, through a simple set of words, put together with a simple set of notes, and sang by a simple single voice, it expresses a worldview that challenges like no other.
Athieism … communism … and when we add John’s idealism and political activism into the mix …
Oh boy.
I wonder if you can enjoy the song as art, putting aside the ideology it espouses.
According to Yoko Ono, who controls the rights to John Lennon’s music, the most frequent request she gets comes from musicians who want to record this song but change the “No religion, too” line – a request she reportedly has always denied.
But that didn’t stop Cee Lo Green last New Years Eve, who just before the ball dropped sang the song and changed the lyric to “Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion’s true.”
Cee Lo immediately responded to the backlash (justifiable, IMHO) by claiming peaceful intent. Well… okay. I can’t help but suspect that Cee Lo took the easy, politically correct route. Imagine that.
* * * * *
There’s one sentiment in the song though that I think Lennon just plain got wrong, though I suspect it wouldn’t be the sentiment that would top most people’s list of wrongs in the song —
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
I don’t think so!
I think it is very, very, very, very hard to even imagine a break away from convention. To believe the unbelievable. To imagine the unimaginable.
And when great minds do, it is very, very, very, very hard to get others to follow.
Ask Copernicus. Or Galileo.
Who could have imagined that the earth really does revolve around the sun? I mean, every single day we see it rise in the east and set in the west …
* * * * *
There’s one sentiment in the song that I think Lennon got exactly right.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
Imagine that.
.
johnponders 
strange days indeed.
Most peculiar mama…
To me what John meant with the line “Imagine there’s no Heaven” was not about thinking the unthinkable, but he was asking people to let go of their beliefs. To many people are taught they are never good enough, that thing will get better at some future date and if not for sure when we are dead. Imagine there is no Heaven, that you are perfect now. Everyone is special and life is a gift. Enjoy it as best you can. “Imagine all the people living for today and the world would live as one.”
Mike, isn’t asking people to let go of their beliefs rather unthinkable? Interesting how you interpret with a more individualistic slant; I don’t draw that from the lyric, but perhaps that’s what makes great lyrics great; we can take away different messages!
Remember singing Beatle tunes on stage with you. I don’t think we did “Imagine”, but probably should have.
Yes, indeed, Mike; yes we did. I don’t really remember what song we sang. I do remember you were half in the bag before we got onstage; once we started singing, I thought the audience reaction was for what a good job we were doing … and then I glanced back and saw you shirtless; seems you were doing an impromptu striptease! The audience reaction suddenly made sense… 🙂
This is a beautiful song. My daughter knows that “the Beatles are the best rock band ever”. How’s that for a full education! 🙂
I don’t have any stripper stories as good as Mike’s…well at least not that relate to John Lennon or the Beatles…!!!…but I think some perspective may be in order in the “science vs. religion” topic. If one looks at the span of history, there is no “religious war vs. science” as people may be lead to think.
For example, Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated his most famous work, ‘On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs’, to Pope Paul III, so certainly he was not an enemy of religion. As for Galileo, when he met with the pope, Urban VIII, in 1623 to present his case, they were old friends. Galileo presented his findings as the absolute truth, not as a scientific theory, which caused friction. And, as it turned out, his theory was wrong; he presented the sun as the center of the universe, not the solar system.
The vast majority of time in the western world, religion and science have worked together for the good of humanity.
Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, as well as 229 of the first 247 colleges is the USA, were founded by religious institutions. So was Oxford.
Sir Francis Bacon: “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion; for while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”
Rene Descartes: “I experienced in myself a certain capacity for judging which I have doubtless received from God, like all the other things that I possess; and as He could not desire to deceive me, it is clear that He has not given me a faculty that will lead me to err if I use it aright.”
Isaac Newton: “The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”
Albert Einstein: The Encyclopedia Britannica: “Firmly denying atheism, Einstein expressed a belief in ‘Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the harmony of what exists’.” “I want to know how God created this world, I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details.” And my favorite: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
Medical science? Google the list of hospitals in Illinois, about half were founded by religious institutions.
Astronauts? Many of them believed in a God. A little known fun fact is that the first liquid and solid food consumed on the moon were communion elements.
There have certainly been countless atheist scientists; and none of what I just wrote proves anything towards the existence of a God. And I acknowledge that there are some small but vocal religious groups today that believe that the world is only 6000 years old (instead of 4 billion, which it actually is) who make me grimace.
My point is that there does not seem to have been a concerted, sustained anti-scientific effort through the centuries on the part of the religious community. If anything, statistically, the opposite is true.
Thanks again for another thought-provoking article! Your blog is amazing.
Yowsa, Pete … Not sure what you saw in the lyric or the post that moved you to a science vs. religion rant … But, as usual, your historical citations are impressive! Have you ever thought about teaching?
Good to know that you (and family!) can enjoy the song as art …
Hi John, sorry, I didn’t mean it as a rant. I reread my post again and I didn’t make my final point, which is: “Imagine there’s no religion” is indeed impossible, but not just for the “religious people”. Belief in a deity is so ingrained in the history and formation of our western society over the past 2000 years, in our political, educational, medical, and legal systems that is most likely impossible to accurately imagine what the world would look like without it.
As for a society that eliminates and outlaws belief in a god, we’ve seen what that looks like with the atheist USSR, a country that killed 50,000,000 (give or take!) of their own people from 1917-1989. My in-laws are some of the lucky ones that were rescued. I’m guessing Mr. Lennon may have had a different take on life if he would have grown up in Leningrad vs. Liverpool in the 1950s. Now that is something to imagine!!!
And YES, I think it’s silly for people to request to change the words to the song. Are they that insecure in their belief, I wonder? And how about “no possessions”? We should meditate on that more often.
On the plus side, my temporal lobe will always associate you with this song. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Jamie & Jesse
We’re not on the same page here Pete.
Imagine there’s no religion is hard … it certainly does go against the grain … but it is not impossible! For you to assume to know what is impossible for me to imagine is pretty interesting in and of itself, don’t you think?
There are so many things that years and years ago were “impossible to imagine” that are now everyday reality. Just look around the room that you are in reading this and you will no doubt find numerous technologies that were at one time “impossible to imagine” …
Nowhere and no how am I advocating eliminating and/or outlawing belief in a god … and while your hypothetical regarding where Mr. Lennon lived does not really hold for me, it doesn’t make any sense to me to elaborate on that point.
Your temporal lobe will always associate me with this song? Ha! Imagine that! That’s pretty funny! (I’m hoping you meant it as funny!)
Happy Holidays — no; Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year) to you and yours!