RESPONSE TO Jackie's Post: Do Zombies Make Us More Religious?

       Jackie, you raised an interesting question in asking: why do some people turn to religion during crisis, and others not?


       It's hard to predict exactly how people would react during a zombie apocalypse, but my guess is that there would be both religious peoples and some taking violent action. However, I think that there would be an over abundance of people looking for something to hope for and pray to, in what would be perceived as a helpless situation. This is where God comes in. Although we are ashamed to admit it, some of us who call ourselves 'religious' or 'kind of religious' only really do our praying when we need something from God. Some do not see the significance in spending the time praising and thanking God for all that he has already given us. Would it be right for us to continue calling ourselves religious if we only pray to God when we need something?


      Musician Regina Spektor brings this into question in her song "Laughing With." The song is about laughing at God, but the minute something bad happens, no one laughs anymore. She starts it off by listing situations in which people do not laugh at God and look to him for help:

*No one laughs at God in a hospital  

No one laughs at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God

When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

In the chorus, she then goes on to sing that God can be funny in our everyday lives and when he is presented as something that is greater than us:

But God can be funny

At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or

When the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head

you think that they’re about to choke

God can be funny

When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way

And when presented like a genie

Who does magic like Houdini

Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious

Writing a song about laughing at God is significant because it illuminates the fact that some people to do not take religion (specifically Christianity) seriously enough. She ends the song with the words: "No one's laughing at God / We're all laughing with God." I take these words to mean that the joke is really on us. We laugh with God because some of us do not take ourselves seriously enough when it comes to religion. So I ask the question: has the significance of religion always been this way, or has it been slowly corrupted over time?

*Lyrics from: http://www.lyrics-celebrities.anekatips.com/laughing-with-lyrics-regina-spektor