Why Certain Types of Music Make Our Brains Sing, and Others Don’t
“our prediction of musical events remains inexorably bound to our musical upbringing. To explore this phenomenon, a group of researchers met with the Sámi people, who inhabit the region stretching between the northernmost reaches of Sweden and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.” - Neroscience News
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[RajeshG]I’m not sure that God actually has “volume commands” when it comes to corporate worship. Yes, singing needs to be out loud rather than just in our thoughts while listening, but since you yourself made note of people who can’t sing aloud, you must realize that a particular volume is not a hard and fast rule with God.In a very telling statement, CCM has been characterized in this thread as a “genre” where “somebody whispers out the lyrics.”
Ironically, the most “pure” art form might well be CCM, because of that genre’s habit of taking $5000 instruments and basically using them as a metronome while somebody whispers out the lyrics.
To the extent that this statement is true, it shows plainly just how unbiblical CCM is because Scripture makes it plain that whispering out lyrics (excepting, of course, those who are physically incapable of singing aloud) has no place in acceptable corporate worship:
Psalm 81:1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Several other related passages clearly support this command from God:
Ps. 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Ps. 59:16 But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.
Ps. 149:5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.
If we think that a certain range of vocal techniques and volumes are mandated, and alternatives are excluded, it’s worth noting that a quick word search finds a number of examples of “sighing” in Psalms, and of course in 1 Kings 19, God comes to Elijah with a ….whisper. I can certainly imagine composing a hymn about the matter where the approach of the Lord would rightly be communicated that way. Really, if we are to sing of God’s goodness and return our praise to Him, shouldn’t the ordinary range of human expression—whispering, speaking, singing, shouting, etc..—be in play? That’s certainly what Scripture records.
Really, Rajesh, this is a basic logical error on your part, where you’re asserting that because God tells Israel to praise Him a certain way in some places, that other ways of praising Him are proscribed. Hasty generalization, among other things.
Regarding the question of the testimonies of unbelievers and “professional occultists”, Ron’s comment here says it all. To take the testimony of Gene Simmons or Mickey Hart (or whoever) at face value without considering the possibility that part of what they’re doing is just part of the schtick, and not a genuine conviction, is a really basic mistake of interpretation. Any lawyer skilled at cross examination would be simply incredulous at that, as would any journalist who says “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
By the way, Rajesh, I see no attempt on your part to present any genre of music as being uncontaminated by the occult. There’s a reason for this. There isn’t any.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Kevin Miller]
[Kevin Miller]
[RajeshG]
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[Kevin Miller]
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[Kevin Miller]I have never done what you wrongly claim in these comments. You are the one who has misread over and over again what I have said to incorrectly repeatedly suggest my holding things that I have never said.It seems to me that you use the biblical data about occultists when someone even suggests that occultists today might be mistaken or even lying at times. But how does the biblical data refute that possibility? I’m not sure, but that doesn’t stop you from repeating it over and over again as if someone shouldn’t even suggest that occultists might be wrong. Does an inspired account of a truthful occultist really show that all occultists are truthful? No one is saying that all occultists lie all the time, so you wouldn’t need to be refuting that illogical claim that no one is making. No, you bring up the “biblical data” when someone even suggests that occultists might be wrong.
Holding a particular position concerning whether occultists can or cannot lie, etc. has never been my point.
[Kevin Miller]
The Spirit reveals that Pharaoh’s magicians used enchantments to effect demonic miracles (Exod. 7:11, 22; 8:7). Those magicians were fully authentic professional occultists (there is zero basis for anyone to hold that they were merely shysters, charlatans, fakes, etc. who just pretended to be magicians, etc.).
When those fully authentic professional occultists used their enchantments to effect those miracles, they engaged in fully authentic occult practices. No one has any basis to legitimately hold that what they did was just sleight of hand, smoke and mirrors, trickery, or any other such thing.
When those fully authentic professional occultists used those enchantments, they had all the fully authentic information that they needed to do so, and they knew fully authentically how to do everything that they needed to do to use those enchantments to do those miracles.
These fully authentic professional occultists did not get any of their information about how to do those fully authentic miracles from the Bible, from God, from any godly prophet, or from any other godly source.
They did not need to have anything from the Bible to fully authentically know what they needed to know and to do what they fully authentically did when they used those enchantments.
These fully authentic professional occultists were fully authentically able to transmit all the fully authentic information about how to do those fully authentic occult practices that they engaged in when they used those enchantments to do those miracles.
In this manner, not just in their case, but similarly also in many other cases in Scripture, we can know with absolute certainty that fully authentic occultists engaged in fully authentic occult activities without any need for any information from the Bible.
Moreover, they could and undoubtedly did transmit all that fully authentic information to others about those fully authentic practices without any need for anything from the Bible.
Discussion