John Lennon Beliefs

On a June day in 1971, ex-Beatle John Lennon sat before an upright piano ready to record a song he had recently composed. Based upon the poetry of his companion, Yoko Ono, the song Imagine was a philosophy for the ages. The decade prior to Lennon’s composing of his ballad had seen abundant turmoil. The world had seen over fifty different armed conflicts take place. Furthermore, the United States was continuing the fight against communism in Vietnam. Several religions had attempted various reforms, only to see many of those developments rejected by the people. The socio-economic landscape was beginning to transform with the divide between the rich and the poor beginning to widen. Utilizing the lines; no countries, no religion, and no possessions, Lennon described a utopian society in which the citizens would live in harmony with one another. In an article for

To the contrary, Frick revealed that contemporaries of Lennon felt that he was a spiritual person (5). Songwriter Jimmy Webb was cited as pronouncing “God doesn’t want us to do this stuff to each other. The most important thing Lennon said in that song was this: Anything that divides us, that causes us to be violent toward one another, doesn’t come from God” (Fricke 4). Lennon’s belief in God would therefore lead him to be a human being interested in the concept of morality. The morality of life in the world envisioned within the lyrics of Lennon’s hit song, would be an objective morality. The divisiveness we witness in modern society often results from the fact that countless people feel that their own standards are adequate. Scores of attitudes and opinions about right and wrong exist to the detriment of mankind. Lennon was envisioning a Kantian world, where citizens would wholly agree on what was correct comportment, and what type of behavior would result in sanctions. Maybe this is what heaven will be