GOD by John Lennon.

God is a Concept by which
we measure our pain
I'll say it again
God is a Concept by which
we measure our pain
I don't believe in magic..I don't believe in I-ching..I don't believe in Bible..I don't believe in Tarot..I don't believe in Hitler..I don't believe in Jesus..I don't believe in Kennedy..I don't believe in Buddha..I don't believe in Mantra..I don't believe in Gita..I don't believe in Yoga..I don't believe in Kings..I don't believe in Elvis..I don't believe in Zimmerman..I don't believe in Beatles..I just believe in me...and that reality

The dream is over
What can I say?
the Dream is Over
Yesterday
I was the Dreamweaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus
But now I'm John
and so dear friends
you'll just have to carry on
The Dream is over

Needless to say, a song by John Lennon is inevitable to become a part of the popular culture. Since this text deals with the omniscient and omnipotent originator and ruler of the universe, it is hard to not talk about  these verses sung by Lennon. While it seems clear that Lennon is taking an atheist approach to life and rejecting the existence of any form of the supernatural, it is at least important from the reader's and analyzer's point of view to derive a meaning out of the lyrics of the song, that have become quite ubiquitous considering Lennon's honorable name and world-wide followers.

By describing "God as a concept by which we measure our pain", I believe that Lennon is attacking the people who use the excuse God for a variety of their personal purposes. These purposes could be as positive as self-help, yearning for hopefulness, abiding by a morale life, and can be as negative as a misinterpretation a religious texts and ideas, and using the arguments of misinterpretation in order to enhance torture against other human beings. There are always pros and cons of religion. Some could even interpret these first two lines of the lyrics to be akin with Nietzsche's belief that morals are for the weak. Also, the saying that "God is Dead" can be infused here in order to be analyzed what Lennon meant. In my final outline paper (which was initially meant to be a part of the final), I wrote, "similar to what Barthes has argued against the way readers depend on fantasies about the author in order to decipher a meaning in the work, Nietzsche has argued against the way people use God to

understand the meaning and purpose of life. This correlation between theological philosophy and

literary theory and criticism is provocative in making me think deeply about our societies, cultures, and

the role of religion in shaping human beings." Similar to this argument, Lennon's song is making me feel compelled to correlate "The Death of the God" with "The Death of the Author" ( In this case, the author is Lennon). 

The sentence that actually caught my attention in Lennon's song is, "I just believe in me..and that is reality". This statement seems to be leaning towards an existential stance towards life. Now that we know that Lennon has rejected supernatural forces, it is quite believable that Lennon probably considered himself to be a person who took control of his own destiny by simply believing in himself. 

There are multiple ways of decoding the lyrics; however, my study of literary criticism--whether accurate or not--has allowed me to infer Lennon's song as akin to the notion of the 'Death of God' and the term of Existentialism.