Similarities in Atheism and Christianity, or How I Learned to Be Wrong

In the United States, for a middle-class white youth, there is essentially a single line that illustrates the religious spectrum. It runs from atheism on one end to Christianity on the other. That is, of course, an oversimplification of the religious diversity in the United States, but unless you grew up in a household that already had differing religious beliefs than those, then you will grow up somewhere along that line.

Over the course of my youth, I walked that line from one end to the other. I never got very militant on either side; I was never Evangelical in my Christianity, never militant in my atheism. But I definitely went over and back on both sides of the divide. I think that's natural, in a way. Spirituality is an uncertain thing in its very nature. Faith is an opponent of logic, and logic is hard-wired, primordially, into us.

No, I Am Not High

One of my favorite bands is Okkervil River. Discovering them first through their 2007 album The Stage Names, I likedit enough to work my way through their back catalog. I really enjoyed the way frontman Will Sheff wrote, lyrically. A track like "The President's Dead," which was released as a single late in 2005, took both a widescreen and microscopic view to the reactions towards the assassination of a President - any President. It had a subtle depth to it that deftly related the issues that would surround an event of that magnitude without turning into melodrama. And it was a good song, too.

The album that touched me the most was their 2005 album Black Sheep Boy. Loosely, it was a concept album based on the "black sheep boy" character, inspired by a 1967 song of the same name by Tim Hardin. Lyrically, it may be the record I most relate to in my entire library. Sheff sang with furious emotion about hearing of a female friend's abuses with her father on "Black," pained a simple, yet nuanced look into unrequited love on "Song of Our So-Called Friend," and created interesting fairy-tale allegories on "A King and A Queen" and "A Stone."