In the lyrics to the song entitled, “God”, John Lennon begins by twice saying, “God is a concept by which we can measure our pain.”
He then gives a list of things he doesn’t believe in (including "Bible, Jesus, Hitler, Buddha, etc.) ending with "I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me, after which he segues into the “Dream is over” part of the song.
That opening line has always been a bit puzzling to me. What is he actually trying to impart. It sounds kind of cool, and I can hazard some guess, but does anyone know if he ever actually explained the line in an interview or does anyone have an interpretation that makes sense?
I don’t know of any Lennon-provided interpretations and would be interested to read any if they can be found.
Given Lennon’s lyrics in Imagine “Imagine there’s no heaven,” etc. - I would guess his position is similar to Freud’s: religion is an illusion held onto by the masses which captures the oldest, strongest, most urgent wishes of mankind - and organized religion is used by those in power to manipulate those wishes and keep the masses in line. So the more you depend on “God” to control the masses or ameliorate your own pain, the more pain there must be - and the more likely that you have not “dug into yourself” and taken ownership of your own destiny. Lennon, on the other hand, claims to believe in NOTHING but his own existence and his love for his partner. (to be clear - I am not saying I agree with any of this; just giving interpretation a shot). So he is arguing that he has done that work, cut through the crap and is grounded on the important stuff.
I think Lennon fought through all of his dysfunction and ended up thinking that it was all up to him. Life is what happens in between making plans…
I take it to mean that we value and measure our suffering as if it imparts some moral worth. That our suffering is what makes us a good person and allows us to enter the kingdom of heaven. It is as if one lives their life by the saying “The meek shall inherit the Earth” only to find out that there is nothing really to inherit.
That’s my take. I also don’t know the answer to the GQ part of your OP – whether Lenon offered an explanation.
From the epic 1970 Rolling Stone interview, republished as Lennon Remembers:
RS: What is your concept of pain?
JL: I don’t know what you mean really.
RS: The song “God” starts out by saying “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
JL: Our pain is the pain we go through all the time. You’re born in pain, and pain is what we’re in most of the time. And I think that the bigger the pain, the more gods we need.
RS: There’s a tremendous body of philosophic literature about God as a measurement of pain.
JL: Oh, I never heard about it. See, it was my own revelation. I don’t know who wrote about it or what anybody else said. I just know that’s what I know. Amazing.
Yoko: You just felt it.
JL: Yeah, I felt it, you see. So when I felt it, it’s like I was crucified. So I know what they’re talking about now.
Not the most rigorous explanation, and maybe a trifle self-important, but there it is.
The song is about how worshipping Elvis, God, The Beatles, Zimmerman, etc. isn’t going to make you any happier and that overdoing it will cause pain. Lennon didn’t believe in God or The Beatles. He just believed in Yoko and Me. And not really Yoko so much.
That pretty much explains the line, though. Do a lot of drugs, spend time with Yoko and you wind up spewing out pretentious vapidity and getting congratulated for your profundity.
I always think of that line along w/ Vergil’s line from the Aeneid: “sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt” One of my favorite lines in the whole book.
Pretty much when Aeneas is standing in front of a Temple and looking over the murals and such depicting the history of the people whom he’s never met, but is about to encounter- he sees their history depicted on the walls, and their sufferings and triumphs, and states that line.
“There are tears in things here, and mortal woes touch the heart.” Basically, he feels kinship with these people, as he can see the sorrows they’ve gone though, and basically he shares in that moment of shared experiences- that which makes us all human if you will- he shares in their pain, because he too can understand the pain.
That sort of how I view the God quote above. Humanity in itself creates religion out of a necessity to explain the world around it, and to help with the concept of pain and suffering- many people turn to religion because it is a way to offer comfort against the mortal woes we all experience in being human.
His view is also interesting from a Buddhist aspect, as one must admit the world is full of suffering and pain, but yet Buddhism manages to deal with the pain without the need quite for a full “God” and such, so I view the Lennon quote as basically a way of him pointing out- religion seems to be in general a way to help people deal with the everyday pains of living this life, and thusly- God himself is a concept by which we can use to measure a group of people’s pain. IE: What does that society believe in, and how does their idea of Heaven/Hell/God make sense when you consider their culture- there are many diff. views of what “God” is, and basically I think it’s an anthropological statement- that you can get an idea of a society’s beliefs and how they experience joy/sadness and such by looking at their religious views as well.
And then he goes on in the song to basically point out how people seem to have views on things and concepts that seem greater and bigger than the simple truth- we’re all the same, and all that you’ve got is yourself in the end. And if you can’t believe in that last guy first, why believe in all of the higher stuff? (That last parts my interpretation but still).