pretension

Art has always been a natural expression of people's concept of the divine. Painting, plays, music - it's always been so. Movies combine those forms of expression - sight, sound, music, beauty.

From here.

As an artist and an atheist (alliteration!), I find this whole topic fascinating. It's something you hear a lot, that art is a way to communicate the "divine" or is a way of "touching the face of God" or whatever. "Spirituality" is another word that gets used quite a bit. What do these words even mean? "Divine," "spiritual," etc. Do the people who use these words even know what they mean, or do they just say them because it makes them look good? Some definitions of the word "spiritual" sound like how I feel when I have sex or play music, but those emotions have nothing to do with "spirituality." They're chemical reactions in the brain, a result of external stimuli. And what's wrong with that? What is wrong with finding meaning in the corporeal? What is wrong with the physical? Why are still so hung up on the body and its image? Why assign "higher" meaning to things? Is sex itself not good enough? Is music itself not good enough? Is life itself not good enough? If you believe in god or consider yourself "spiritual," are you reading my words, thinking, This guy's life is empty and meaningless? If so, why? Do you think I'm immoral because I lack belief in god?

In a way, "spirituality" is the ultimate in pretension—assigning life all of these properties that it just doesn't have. One of the things I would like to get across with my art is that "spirituality" is not necessary and that art is not intrinsically "spiritual" and none the worse for it.