I’m not religious, but…. This type of person often comments on beautiful pictures, or on beautiful pieces of liturgical music. The older I get, the less the word religion means to me, because we all take part in it. “I’m not particularly religious, but I was raised on this and to this beautifully sung carols in an echo-y church gives me chills, so beautiful :)” — Commentary from YouTube
We moderns fool ourselves thinking we choose between “religious” and “normal” when the entirety of our being is prone to rituals, values and structure.
If you “opt-out” of it, it ONLY means that you worship other things, and probably lower things (sex, technology, are very sacred for the modern “non religious” type if you pay close attention, not to mention ephemeral meaning seeking riots, political brain washing, twitter shaming, whatever group rituals we get pulled into like angry animals with no sense of where is up or down.
Especially in the arts, it seems that the idolatry you speak of manifests itself in two ways: an obsession with the creations of human hands, and a glorification of self-expression. The first takes the form of endlessly analyzing, studying, and preserving the slightest scraps of an artist's creations (quick pencil sketches by people like Rembrandt get put in museums, and unfinished musical pieces by major composers get "restored" and performed). The second is seen in how anything an artist does is considered valid and worthwhile. There are few voices telling artists that they need to study their craft, edit themselves, or otherwise curtail their own self-expression.
As you say, God is the ultimate source of being, but when artists begin to venerate self-expression, and when the critics, collectors, and museums start to venerate the artists, it can seem like God has been forgotten. There need to be more Christians in the arts, pointing towards the Creator, who is the only true object of worship.
Further, religion is simply not an option.
We moderns fool ourselves thinking we choose between “religious” and “normal” when the entirety of our being is prone to rituals, values and structure.
If you “opt-out” of it, it ONLY means that you worship other things, and probably lower things (sex, technology, are very sacred for the modern “non religious” type if you pay close attention, not to mention ephemeral meaning seeking riots, political brain washing, twitter shaming, whatever group rituals we get pulled into like angry animals with no sense of where is up or down.
Especially in the arts, it seems that the idolatry you speak of manifests itself in two ways: an obsession with the creations of human hands, and a glorification of self-expression. The first takes the form of endlessly analyzing, studying, and preserving the slightest scraps of an artist's creations (quick pencil sketches by people like Rembrandt get put in museums, and unfinished musical pieces by major composers get "restored" and performed). The second is seen in how anything an artist does is considered valid and worthwhile. There are few voices telling artists that they need to study their craft, edit themselves, or otherwise curtail their own self-expression.
As you say, God is the ultimate source of being, but when artists begin to venerate self-expression, and when the critics, collectors, and museums start to venerate the artists, it can seem like God has been forgotten. There need to be more Christians in the arts, pointing towards the Creator, who is the only true object of worship.