I was never a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, but I could at least appreciate their music. It was angsty, raw and very emotional. Lead singer and songwriter Billy Corgan obviously had some personal demons (which he attributes to being abused by his step mother as a child), but these usually channeled into moderately entertaining music. That, of course, was before he became born again and created the monstrosity that is Zwan. If you want to know just how much God is on his mind now, take a gander at his Twitter.
If God is Love and Love is Truth than anything not born of Love or Truth is not born of God.
What the hell does that even mean?
Sometimes God is as simple as saying I AM. Love is only complex if you will not forgive
What is this, some fortune cookie caption contest? Lame dosn’t even begin to describe this man’s “poetry”. He was better when he was depressed.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Oh billy, I used to love you so…. I don’t think I ever got through the Zwan album.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I still dont get the first twitter
April 30th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
you guys have no sense of humor.
April 30th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I have been accused of many things in my lifetime, but having no sense of humor is not one of them. Ugly and hate filled, maybe.I put the fun in fundamentally ungodly
May 1st, 2009 at 12:05 am
Just because you are stuck in your way of thinking that, believing in god is lame doesn’t discredit Billy Corgan’s art. Case in point, Danielson. The most cutting edge band around in my opinion and completely devout of faith in God, which I admire because even believing in God is apparently a career killer in our backwards culture. The fact that believing in God upsets atheists so much and the fact that everyone and their mom is an atheist and a non-conformist, it is pretty cutting edge to believe in God,
You don’t have to agree with someone about their faith, but I could also write a blog about how much of a clown I think you are for being an atheist, I was one for 15 years. You can believe in God without believing Jesus was divine, or hellfire or any bullshit the bible says.
I’m sure you also believe that being a parent is lame and somehow being an atheist is hip and cool. Not saying you are in any threat of burning in some ridiculous afterlife, you are not, but artists like Corgan and Danielson are preaching God, love, family and forgiveness which are some of the absolute hardest things to commit too.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:11 am
Do I think raising kids is lame? No, not really. What an odd thing to say…
May 1st, 2009 at 12:12 am
Who gives a shit if he believes in God? His music and art is as valid now as it’s ever been. Perhaps not as “publicly acknowledged,” but that doesn’t equate to artistry.
So I suppose you hold your personal entertainment higher than he holds his happiness? Well I’m just glad to know that your opinion about what he believes means absolutely nothing to him.
I am completely non religious, but I don’t go out of my way to insult other people for believing in what they believe in, especially if it is their method for being happier.
And doesn’t his art stem from his belief? How is this any different? I’m just glad that he’s found a way to be content. If I want the angsty Billy, I’ll listen to the 5 previous angst filled albums.
I’m tired of all this paparazzi blog garbage about The Pumpkins and “what they mean.” At the end of the day, it’s all about the music, right?
“And a fuck you to those who will never understand…”
May 1st, 2009 at 12:45 am
seriously, i am not religious either, at all, but i fully support anyone who has SOMEthing to believe in to get them thru this life, after all NO ONE KNOWS THESE ANSWERS…you can smirk all you want when you die and MAYBE youll realize you were right, until then yr wrong and right and unique just like everyone else Billy amkes his art and lives his life with his beliefs for himself, and if anyone agrees or wants to share, he is welcoming, even if someone doesnt share his beliefs im sure he’s accepting of them as well, but thats just my impression, my opinion of him, which is more than i get from yr dumb ass
May 1st, 2009 at 12:47 am
I agree with most of the comments made here. Billy’s belief in God should not discredit his music. If any atheist does not want to read it then just don’t follow him. I don’t think as an atheist we should be “outing” people for his religious beliefs. Does the author of this blog really have nothing better to do than try to make fun of others?
May 1st, 2009 at 8:45 am
I really don’t understand why non-atheists get on here and chastise the very people this site was made to entertain/inform. There isn’t something else they could be doing? Does getting on here and defending god really stand any chance of converting someone who has no taste to be converted? Let alone doing it with weak, unfactual arguments. It seems like a waste of time to me.
May 1st, 2009 at 11:18 am
Shut up!
May 1st, 2009 at 11:23 am
Apparently if a guy once wrote decent music he becomes immune to criticism about the stupid shit he writes.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Our drummer is going to be pissed when he hears about this!
May 1st, 2009 at 3:14 pm
You’re fully entitled to call his new shit lame, but religous wacko O.o??
He hasn’t earned enough shit for brains points to be entitled to that title.
If you attack anything christian it will make your attacks less effective when you really have a point (yes fighting christians is like fighting the Borg from startrek).
May 4th, 2009 at 11:58 am
“it is pretty cutting edge to believe in God,”
LOLLOLL
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:27 pm
What’s really strange is how the atheists do not understand that they are the exact same religious fanatic as the fundamentalist wackos. Here’s why; they imagine an anthropomorphic god and then pat themselves on the back for realizing their concept could not exist. But in creating this anthropomorphic god they have just done the same mental acrobatics as any religious fanatic. The only difference is that the atheist knows her imaginary god is false while the religious wacko thinks her imaginary god is real. How is that the same? They both create a god in their mind and think that is what God is, both worship their own personal ineffable infallibility to discern fact from fiction. That’s how it seems.
June 2nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
those weren’t examples of his “poetry”, they were two insights he had. experiencing what some people call god is to me a state of being, of perception and attention that is easy to lose and can be hard to find. maybe his lyrics suck more now, i dont know, they he got all boring.
to explain the first quote:
“If God is Love and Love is Truth than anything not born of Love or Truth is not born of God.”
when you come to “know god” authentically, you have an experience of overwhelming, universal love. people to choose to call this god cause it feels bigger than anything you’ve ever experienced. some people just get glimpses or leech off others’ experiences and hasn’t experienced “god” in the way the Billy corgan apparently did. he obviously had a profound personal transformation from one of suffering to being a more whole person. maybe the more extreme emotions are gone, leading to crappier music. either way, he experienced big love when he experienced god, which one sees to be the truth, because at that transitional moment/period, you are opened up through that “god” experience to see the aspects of the world that you were missing in your suffering stage. that new, wider perspective gives you the potential and motivation to suffer less, since you see how and why it is possible. he’s clarifying what this experiential state is, whatever the fuck you want to call it.
You’re not a wacko just because you had an indescribable experience that you will trying to be understand for the rest of your life that you decide to call GOD since it has been the word in your life that means the highest thing you could think of. but maybe he is. not based on these qutes though. someone said he’s christian, hope he’s gnostic.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
He is not the most intelligent of men, but he is a great artist. I don’t listen to his music for his views on theology, i listen to it for its beauty.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Religious people are funny. They always bring out how atheists are just as fundamentally wack as religious fundies. That’s impossible because we don’t believe that there’s no God, we KNOW that there’s no God. That’s the biggest difference. The mere fact that we don’t believe makes us wackos in the eyes of the religious fundies and since they are so extreme in their views they see atheists as extreme in theirs. It’s just not accurate. Now there are atheists who are more vocal about their non-belief than others, but the underlying anti-theism is still the same. Atheism isn’t denominational, but people are people so that’s where the extremes come into play. Religious fundies are always good for a laugh though.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Oh, and Billy Corgan is a religious wack job as is anyone who is “born again”. The mere claim to be born again qualifies you as a wack job. Deal with it. The truth hurts.
June 14th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
I’ll still see him in concert any day of the week.
June 20th, 2009 at 7:06 am
“it is pretty cutting edge to believe in God,”
I so agree with you “Lifer.” That statement is pretty much backwards.
Ijostle’s tired idea that atheists are somehow fanatical about their “beliefs” really just reveals a total lack of understanding. If you don’t understand what atheism is, don’t comment on it. Atheism is about a refusal to get fanatical.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:33 am
What about Joseph Stalin? I would describe him as fanatically atheist.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Quoting wiki, regarging stalinist soviet oppression of religion: “The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the Russian Orthodox Church, which had the largest number of faithful. Nearly all of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labor camps. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited.”
The Steven Weinberg quote “Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things—that takes religion.” isn’t entirely right. The atrocity mentioned above was caused by fanatical atheism.
Some people are naturally vulnerable to fanaticism, be it ideological, religious, or anti-religious.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
So you’re saying Stalin was a good person?
June 25th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
She’s the one for me
She’s all I really need
Cause she’s the one for me
Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness
And cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me
Intoxicated with the madness, I’m in love with my sadness
June 28th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Ah… so that’s why his music turned to shit…
June 28th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
When I was a kid my mum didn’t like me listening to The Smashing Pumpkins because she said their music was ungodly. I pointed out that Billy Corgan showed great faith in god through his music. He just didn’t seem to like the big guy in the sky very much. Now I’m an atheist I still love listening to the Pumpkins and recapturing some of my angsty youth. I haven’t heard any of Corgan’s new stuff but I think that Christian music should be held to the same standards as regular pop and rock. It shouldn’t get to be rubbish and popular just because the singer loves Jesus. Even though I’ve left the faith of my family, I still hold on to some of the Christian music that I used to like, because some of it is actually good musically and lyrically. Sadly this is not true for most modern Christian music.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I’m a huge fan of Billy Corgan, and this religious stuff he’s gotten himself into is really bumming me out. I’ve seen the Pumpkins in concert back in the early 90s and as recently as last year, and Billy has not lost a single step. They’re still awesome, but I can’t look at him in the same light.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
do you people hear yourselves?
you are hating on this guy because you don’t like the fact he believes in god. it’s so hypocritical of people to say “i think religion is bad and religious people are wackjobs. being athiest is the right thing to be cause you care more about people and acceptance”
Does anyone else see the huge contradiction in thinking like this?
just shut up and let him believe what he wants. i’m an athiest and couldn’t care less if someone believed in god, buddha, or vishnu.
July 18th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
well said rose!
com’n guys leave the man alone! musical interest is based upon your own personal perception, and billy corgan has accomplished more than you atheist haters will ever do in your life time!
you can say and argue all you want about God, we’ll all find find out if he’s real when were dead. if your any kind of human at all, you’ll have questions about existance, purpose, relevance ect. and some people take the time to search for the ansewers and find it in God/Religion, so why hate on someone who tries to tell you what they found. if your going to disagree, just disagree! why call us hypocrites? no one is perfect, why call us crazy? you just think your ansewers are better than ours.
if your really just a hater, go write a song about how much u hate billy, his new music, and how he may/or may not have found God. maybe it’ll come on the radio…
July 21st, 2009 at 1:33 am
“That’s impossible because we don’t believe that there’s no God, we KNOW that there’s no God.”
God is spirit, not matter; hence not confirmable or refutable through empiricism.
When atheists say they KNOW there is no God, they are claiming that all things unknowable do not exist. This is the epistemological error with materialism.
Some religious scientists and philosophers equate God to the vacuum state in quantum physics — a field of potential out of which energy fluctuations pop in and out of existence.
July 28th, 2009 at 2:46 am
your -> you’re
u -> ue -> you
Everyone has already been dead, dolt. We never met God[s] then, and we never will. God is not breath, JB; by the way, the soul /is/ empeiric and fýsical. There is loads more proof for ghosts and astral planes than gods. My loghic and mathematic proof against Gods is on Wikipedia, from Beliefnet, from eGroups, from YouTube, from Google Groups, from Twitter.
August 1st, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Whatever happened to “God is empty, just like me?”
August 7th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
“Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known… Because of Jesus”
*Shudder*
August 10th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
I see some people are assuming Billy’s talk of “God” makes him a Christian, just like them. Dangerous assumption. You hear talk of “God” from many other sources, such as Swamic traditions, or Deists, or even physicists with reference to the Universe. The guy’s a poet, he uses poetic license whenever he says anything in public, and has a track record of screwing with our heads ..!
August 25th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Last time I saw them in Palm Beach there were many ambulance runs out of the mosh pit, the rain came and went magically by the hands of mother nature before the show… the lady I was with said man I hate many of the old songs reminds me of the classmates all lovey dovey with SPmkins…
And then there’s Greydon Square, KAPOW!
out of work here, screw celebrity, screw god(s), screw the private sector(s), screw coke/crack/meth dealers and smugglers
I need a job, check my nexus for resume
atheist nexus mccall
btw
Pro-Rock.com is better than any smashn’ blah blahs
August 30th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
you have no idea what the first quote means?? its as simple as first grade math
August 31st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I am atheist but I have to say that stuff like the article you just posted gives us a bad name. Billy is an amazing musician and whether or not he is religious has nothing to do with the quality of his music. With some of the music he has published as well as live concerts where he has worn a shirt that says 666 on it he is not the crazy fundimentalist type. All you bring with you in your post is unnecessary hate. Also Corgan’s qoutes although I do not believe them to be fact both make perfect since.
September 14th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Spiritualty is adjective. Atheism is an absence of belief in God. I see no reason not to respect either way of being. Just because you have no understand, or empathy, for spirituality, does not mean it is not a worthwhile endeavor for the people who participate in it. And the argument religion is the cause of all the world problems is fallacious. If religion did not exist at all, people would be just as insane. If we had no religion in the world at all, there would be the same number of wars and the same amount of killing.
Spirituality, and religion, is just a way of attributing meaning to our experiences in our life. Or, if you want to choose atheism, everything in the World is just meaningless patterns of atoms with no pattern any more meaningful than any other. Or, if you want to be argumentative, you can choose meaningful atheism whatever that means. Meaningful or meaningless, sacred or mundane, who am I to judge you based on how you choose!
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:41 am
Wow do you ever come across as nit picking for something to dislike. You seriously need to lighten up.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 1 John 4:7-9
January 8th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
And trumpets blew, and angels flew on the other side
And you’re all I see, and you’re all I’ll need
There’s a love that God puts in your heart …”take me down”
Steeple guide me to my heart and home…”thirty-three”
These are just a few times in his older stuff that he spoke of his belief…he just wasn’t screaming “I love Jesus cuz I’m saved” like the newer stuff seems to be. Was I the only one that caught this? I think before, he knew what he felt, he just was lost and depressed and so angry that he was singing about the other side of it. Alot of his songs referred to the “underground”, hell, “secret destroyers holding us up to the flame” ie. demons and temptation for hell. HELLO, he’s always been a believer, maybe you guys just chose to not HEAR it. I’m glad he found happiness. Some of you sound so unhappy and judgemental….maybe you need Jesus too!
January 20th, 2010 at 12:35 am
You athiest have a way of trying to force your thoughts down our throats. every single one of you. There are some overly nice christains (aka me) that will listen because im interested in your ideas. Billy IS a great artist. if you dont like how he lives or what he believes then dont READ o his personal life! THAT EASY!! I think it is cool to believe in God. Our society has become soooo screwed up and hate filled that its nice to come across a nice person that has beliefs and morals! We really need more “wackos” in our world to rid the hatred, violance and anger in our society. We really need more people in our world with positive ideas!! My ex boyfriend was once a believer and hes athiest now. He tries to shove his “ideas” down my throat and i dont do the same. But hes soo damn negative and angry in his life! and it sounds like the author of this blog is pretty negatie and judgemental himself. We arent meant to judge what we didnt create. So leave Billy alone!!!
January 20th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
A hen laid three eggs. Just before the eggs hatched the mother hen walked out.
The three eggs hatched. One chick believed it just happened to have existed so it never bothered with its creator. The second chick could care less. And the third chick logically reasoned that existence requires a birth, a beginning, a CREATION.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Here is a dialogue of a conversation I had with an atheist:
Me: What is a human?
Ath: A highly intelligent and advanced animal.
Me: What life for did we advance from then?
Ath: Apes, …
Me: Where did the apes come from?
Ath: Years of evolution from lower forms of life.
Me: Where did these lower forms of life come from?
Ath: Cells spawned from the Big Bang.
Me: Who banged what?
Ath: The Universe imploded.
Me: What is this universe? Where did it come from? How does it exist? Who created it? Where did IT evolve from?
Ath: (Silence)
Science answers many questions such as what will —- substance do when heated to —- degrees. Don’t get me wrong science is a very important and necessary study. SCIENCE MAY CLAIM THE ANSWERS TO 99% OF EVERY QUESTION EVER ASKED BUT IS IT NOT QUITE OBVIOUS THAT SCIENCE WILL NEVER ANSWER QUESTIONS LIKE: What is the depth and nature and purpose and origin of this universe? There is this one little contrivance that has circulated for thousands of years and transformed billions of lives, and it can answer these question quite certainly and confidently. And it is called Religion
January 25th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
@Ryan
Um hello? read a damn science book
Science was the reason humans became aware of the solar system, it was science that made us aware that the solar system was inside a universe. But that is as far as your knowledge goes i assume. Beyond that is multiverse filled with quantum fluctuation, there is a infinite number of universes with an infinite number of possibilities in them. Beyond that is the ‘membrane/m theory’. our universe is a grain of sand on a infinite beach. All of which sits in 11 dimensions, existence is infinite there is no need for god(s). Science is a pursuit of truth such as the pursuit of happiness, The journey is the reward not the end result. But if it’s to complicated for you i guess you can believe in god(s).
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:25 am
I don’t get why anyone would discredit an artist for believing in God. You athiests are just as “fundamentalist” as any Christians I’ve met. You not only don’t believe in God, but you take it upon yourself to attack anyone with a different belief to your own, and are arrogant in your “knowledge” that you are right – unable to accept that almost everything in all of our heads is just an opinion, sometimes solidified into a belief, or a non-belief. If ever you come to know the concept of God, you will be overwhelmed. And Billy’s quotes will be a lot less cryptic.
As for Billy’s music getting crappier “as a result of his beliefs” – that’s a bit of an assumption. He’s been around a long time and got really experimental after Mellon Collie, so it’s not all gonna work for everyone. As for Zwan, I think “Jesus I/Mary Starfish of the sea” is one of the best songs he ever recorded, but that’s just my opinion.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:33 am
S1CKB01: “existence is infinite there is no need for god(s)”
Hah, you sound as spiritual as anyone. Is existence of the individual eternal? Or it’s consciousness? If so, then what do you call this essence?
Anyway, I digress. It’s not necessary to abandon science to accept God, only some of the man-made institutions designed to worship God. It’s not an either/or choice. We have been given the ability to think and to discover and to create, and it is one of the wonderful gifts we should indulge in. Organised religious institutions have held scientific discovery back in ages past, but not anymore. On the flip side, science is now holding spiritual development back. Athiests push science as a way to discredit God’s existence. A philosophical argument could also use it as a way to prove it. Whatever mental gymnastics you play to hold your belief, just realize that it’s no different to what’s being done on the opposite side of the fence.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:40 am
… I just want to reword when I said “science is now holding spiritual development back”, I didn’t mean science itself, I meant athiests who cling to science as their argument that anything spiritual is bullshit and ridicule those explorers who are more open minded and want to find out for themselves, or even just those who simply take comfort in that belief.
March 14th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
does that mean since my parents were not in love and not of “truth” or whatever when having conceived me, i’m going to hell? oh well. god doesn’t exist or he wouldn’t have created people that destroy his own animals, torture them and minds like mine to near suicide, and are money driven rotten pieces. because if i am supposedly not born of god then what am i? I’m not like those people. I’m not a hell spawn…. i’m not evil or mad. okay a little mad but i have good intentions. Or maybe god does exist and is the one who is making man dissipate because he realizes that he shouldn’t have created so much testosterone. nooo… i’m just happy to eat healthy so when i die i become part of the soil, and don’t add toxins into it.
March 14th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I still love billy corgan. i shouldn’t even have to say that. I’m just saying…. i don’t have the same faith.
March 14th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
ryan
yes but who created “god” to create things?