Hymns for the Heathen

We need a purpose in life, a survival guide
We need an explanation for how we arrived
There was this big bang once
Now we're standing on our own two feet

In a world of entropy
Why can't we just simply be?
And don't feed me lies (intelligent design)
There was this big bang once
Why are we back down on our knees?

Cursive has put to music my thoughts on the human invention of religion and whether we can live without it. Their 2006 release, Happy Hollow, is constructed as a hymnal, a collection of parables from a small American town haunted by religious hypocrisy and oppressed by commercial-confessional norms. Once again the songs — Cursive's own jazzy post-hardcore creation somewhere between Bright Eyes and the Blood Brothers — are all in heavy service to the concept, which has expanded in scope over the last three albums. 2000's Domestica seemed to take place entirely in a darkened bedroom abyss, the autopsy of a young marriage lately rent; so searing that I couldn't bear to listen to it for several years. In '03 The Ugly Organ stepped backward into a sinister vaudeville dancehall, revealing the sordid art of exposing your private pain for pay and being expected to perform your misery for a jeering crowd again and again. Happy Hollow steps back further to take in an entire David Lynch town full of darkened bedrooms, as well as darkened taverns, clinics, chapels and confession booths. The anglophonic strings of Ugly Organ are replaced by an alternately infernal/esoteric horn section that suits the American fixation on Old Scratch and the cosmos.

Last week I had occasion to visit a rather impressive and well-to-do suburban church on a sizable and green piece of property. Stunned by the carpeted gymnasium, industrial kitchen, high-end sound boards with thunderous amplifiers and the surplus of game consoles in the Dave & Buster's rec room, I thought, why doesn't the American Legion have this? Or your local VFW? Even nominally faith-based organizations like the YMCA and the Boy Scouts are far wealthier than any similar secular entity. The sad truth is that there is no secular equivalent to the beneficial social structure of a church, the gathering and strengthening of community, of people diverse in appearance but united in purpose and belief. Atheists hold no bake sales. Atheists have no community center, no facilities happily acquired by charity and lovingly maintained by like-minded volunteers. No place to call their own in each and every town. And that fucking sucks, and makes me hate churches even more.

Which is why I so welcome Happy Hollow. A public voice advocating for atheism says to me personally: You are not alone in recognizing that we are all alone.

Newsweek carried a provocative (and satisfying) cover story in April: The End of Christian America. Since 1990 the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled, from 8 to 15 percent. The number identifying as atheist or agnostic increased fourfold in that same period. The number of Christians declined by 10 percent. I am heartened by the approaching reality of a post-Christian America, in which I am not marginalized.

Reverend, sir, I don't wanna seem malevolent
My teenage angst is far behind me
But father certainly it's troubling to see
All these people kneeling instead of dealing
With the fact that we're all we have
So rise up! Rise up!
There's no one to worship
But plenty of life to lose

Please forgive me for questioning divinity
It's an ugly job
But I think I'm up for it