It’s hard to believe it’s been more than three decades since the release of Gary Numan‘s The Pleasure Principle, the electronic-pop masterpiece that spawned massive hit single “Cars,” one of the defining tracks of the new-wave era. (The song has since been covered and sampled numerous times and been used in countless commercials, movies, TV shows, video games, etc.) To celebrate the highly influential album making in into the Billboard top 20 in 1980 and the recent multi-disc, 30th-anniversary reissue, Numan just kicked off a three-week U.S. tour that features him playing The Pleasure Principle in its entirety, along with songs from his entire career as well as tracks from forthcoming album Splinter. Numan will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Numan: I am not opposed to religion in general but some people really do take it too far. When I was a little boy, my Dad’s friend Joe was killed in a car crash. Joe’s mum believed absolutely that not only would she see him again one day but that he heard her when she went to the church to talk to him. How lovely is that? To believe something so deeply that even death itself, with all the sadness that comes with it, is just a step on a road to a better place, where everything is fixed and everyone you love reunited. It made the rest of her life without Joe bearable. It made life worth living still, even without him. I don’t believe in any of it, but for her, it was a beautiful and comforting thing. And yet some people can’t just leave it at that. They have to knock on my door and bother me with me with all kinds of well-meaning information about this, that and the Holy whatever. And that just puts me in a bad mood.
I have seen people say that those of us who don’t believe are inherently wicked people, that without faith we cannot stay on the path of righteousness. Utter bollocks. I know perfectly well what is right and wrong and my own decency as a human being is all I need to stop me from hurting others, stealing or any other “sins” that may come to mind. Unless I’m in a bad mood.
I find it offensive in the extreme to suggest that without a belief in God I am somehow wayward. On the contrary, I believe that my understanding of right and wrong, good and bad, is felt even more deeply than many of those of a more religious nature, because my values are secure enough that I do not need to be preached to on a weekly basis. I do not need to be “reminded” from the pulpit what I should and shouldn’t do to be a good human being. Unless I’m in a bad mood.
If I’m in a bad mood, I’m a complete shit. So don’t knock on my door.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNsn-4Lkn-c
2 replies on “Gary Numan’s Fascination: Faith”
Thanks for a great week of well thought out and honest posts, Gary. This guest editor spot is more hit than miss, but occasionally someone like yourself nails it.
I could not have stated more eloquently my own beliefs than what you have stated.