Decrystallizing Reason

Reason
This demigod
Unto which you cluster
Sacrilege
You sacrifice the purity
Of the air beneath your wings
A slow and painful ritual
To burn the youth you lost

Demigod
Blasphemers walk among your flock

Despite your blindfold
Proudly you carry the stone on your back
Disillusioned
You plant your feet safely to the ground

Demigod
Blasphemers walk among your flock

As the stone
You have become

Not once did you cry
For the lost ones of your world
Your care is limited
To this demigod
Onto which you cluster

Reason
Decrystallize me
Demigod
I do blaspheme

The fallen you condemn
Your heart even free of hate
Yet, scared to death by their disbelief
To ordinary common sense

And with autumn closing in
Forcing life away
No mercy will impale your sin
Dead are your tears

- Emperor (1999)

Black metal represents the the most of extreme of a genre of music that is considered the most extreme. Over-the-top dark (and often Satanic) imagery, blast beats, and demonic vocals are all hallmarks of the genre. Hailing from Norway, Emperor built on the work of Venom in bringing forth this extreme subgenre of heavy metal and helped pave the way for many of today's younger black metal acts. Emperor is probably the only band I know that can boast of having a convicted murderer (Faust in an act of extreme homophobia) and a convicted arsonist (Samoth acting out his hatred for Christianity) as members.

There have always been those who cry that reason should be the basis of everything. Indeed, it is by reason that we advance and only reason will solve our troubles. Many, if not most, of the people calling for the triumph of reason are atheists. Atheism holds no belief beyond that of the human being.

It is also worthy to note that most subscribers to reason also believe that human nature can be overcome by the use of reason.

To those people reason becomes god. Just a quick glance through some blogs where atheists are known to congregate can almost make my theory into scientific law. The attacks on anyone who does not believe as they do are swift, vicious, very severe, and almost always ad hominem. I myself have been on the receiving end of some this venom. Let's just say that an acknowledgment of something beyond reason is the equivalent of blasphemy in Christianity.

Thus we have the profile of a follower of reason. Their lives seem hollow as they can't see anything beyond themselves. The follower of reason cares nothing for the lost, takes no risk, and lives in fear of those who believe in something beyond this universe. Their lives, in a nutshell, are empty and meaningless. The singer once lived among them but now has committed blasphemy against the demigod Reason. It's almost as if the singer has thrown down the gauntlet and wants to take on the followers of reason.

While I have had my questions, I have always believed there is something beyond this world that we do not yet have the ability to understand. Perhaps someday we can understand, perhaps humanity may never understand, but that should never deter us from the quest. Besides, reason, just like religion, has yet to answer the ultimate questions of existence.

What do you think, Mardi?

PS - St. Anselm postulated the following - God is that which nothing greater can be thought. If something can exist in the mind, then it also must exist in reality. If it does not exist in reality, then it is not which nothing greater can be thought. Since God exists in the mind, He exists in reality and nothing greater can God can be thought. St. Anselm wrote this argument as a believer seeking to understand his own faith, but then I wonder how the followers of reason can use reason to refute the argument.