Music Is Evidence Of God

I am still reading Dennis Prager's book The Rational Bible: Genesis. It is not a quick read, or an easy one, even for an inveterate reader like me. Prager's insights on the revolutionary nature of the book, Genesis, just keep coming. As an example, the biblical injunction to punish with an "eye for an eye," was a command to make the punishment fit the crime. In the time of the writing of Genesis, people were incredibly brutal to each other. They would kill not only the perpetrator, but his wife, children, and grandchildren, all because of an eye. If more evidence that Genesis was inspired by a loving God, I don't know what it is...

Oh, yes I do.  One of the insights that Prager points out is our human capacity for making music.  Music is one of those things that is so important in our lives, whether it is just listening to the radio, or playing a musical instrument, or singing.  And in my church, music and singing is a central part of our service.  Indeed, it is so central that we have had music directors and composers in our churches since the beginning.  Johann Sebastian Bach was one such.  You might have heard of him.

But, as Prager points out, there is no evolutionary purpose to music.  One can see an evolutionary purpose to drawing for example.  Incidentally, no other animal makes, or understands music.  Interestingly, music is part science, part mathematics, and part art.  The science part comes in because sound is a wave traveling through a medium such as air, at a specific frequency.  The standard frequency for "A" is 440 Hz.  It is mathematics because each octave is twice or half the previous frequency.  So, the next "A" is either at 880 Hz, or 220 Hz.  In between say 440 Hz and 880 Hz, there are 12 notes including the half step sharps and flats. Then there are the duration of the individual notes.  Some notes are held longer, while some are quite short, some music is played fast, while other is played slow.

Beyond  the science and the mathematics is the art or music.  It touches our soul in ways that nothing else does.  We have just 12 notes with which to work, but we can produce happy sounding music with major scales, haunting music with minor scales, the blues, jazz, Country and Western, as well as the classics, Baroque, and all the other music humans have created.  Funny, but we don't run out of ideas.  Music evokes emotions every time we hear it, so much so that when we hear certain words, or see certain scenes, or even eat certain foods, different music comes to mind.  We may even sing the music we hear in our minds.  It is so important that music figures in most advertisements on radio and television, in most movies and television shows.  If fact, every show has a theme song.  Pretty strong reasons to believe that music is important to people.

I played the piano at my parents insistence, grudgingly.  I played the organ badly, if joyfully.  At 40, I finally learned the trumpet and played that in church. It was a bucket list thing, as I had wanted to play the trumpet as a child, but as I said, my parents insisted on the piano.  Lately I have been learning the guitar.  I am also taking the opportunity to learn some music theory at long last.  Strangely, you don't have to know that a chord you are playing on the piano is a G maj 7, or a C min chord.  You play what you see.  But along with playing the guitar comes that wonderful thing called "improvisation."  But one can only improvise if one first knows the "rules of the road" so to speak.

But, back to the original premise, Prager notes that music is evidence of God, not proof.  I don't think our Creator wants us to have proof of his existence.  That would make it too easy.  Rather, he wants us to have faith in his existence, to develop faith that he will keep and protect us, and that we will be with Him in the next life. He wants us to want to get to know Him through His inspired Word, and through religious services.  Israel means to struggle with God.  It does not mean to submit to God, though in the end, everyone who wants to live a happy life will have to submit also. Most of all, God wants us to know that He loves us.