Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

I realize they’re possibly some of the most clichéd words in history.

Things become cliché for a reason though. They’re also some of the most profound words ever written.

Imagine no heaven and no religion. John Lennon wasn’t begging you to abandon your faith in his 1971 song. He was asking you — yes, you — to imagine a world without it, even just for a moment. Imagine the good that would come out abandoning the “us and them” mentality.

‘Imagine’ is played globally as an international anthem of peace. Still, we have wars being waged in the name of religion (and religious wars disguised as something political).

So you’d think this would be the most appropriate time to imagine no religion and to cut down those barriers that divide us.

When The Freedom From Religion Foundation, an Atheist and Freethinker’s organization, decided to place signs around Phoenix asking passersby to “imagine no religion,” it made a few of them uncomfortable.

Arizona’s Republican Senator Linda Gray told The Arizona Republic, "The FFRF fails to acknowledge history which recognized the strong Christian commitment of those who attended the Constitutional Convention."

But limiting this kind of speech is exactly what those “strong Christian” American forefathers would be against.

The signs went up on five major crossroads in Phoenix. Although in very visible and public places in those locations, the signs weren’t originally meant to be put there.

In an attempt to prevent churchgoers and children from questioning their own beliefs, CBS Outdoor, the company responsible for placing the signs, censored itself — or rather, covered it’s own ass. The company deemed that the signs could not be placed within 1,000 feet from schools and churches.

The fact is that the beloved lyric “imagine no religion” is not what CBS Outdoor is afraid of. It’s who is asking us to do so.

I can’t imagine if a church used the lyric the opposite way, in favor of religion, that I would even need to write a column addressing any controversy around it.

Take a trip through the South at any given time and you’ll see literally thousands of signs proclaiming that the end is near. Signs with Bible passages bombard you and church officials politicize God by simply stating his stance on government, gays and sex — all without the slightest bit of controversy.

But at some point in American history, God and religion were deemed untouchable.

We can debate politics, pop culture and current events until were blue in the face, but when someone brings up God and religion, like robots, we’ve agreed to say “I respect that.”

Unless, of course, that person takes an Atheistic position.

So when an Atheist organization asks you to “imagine no religion,” it’s not the message the public is against. In fact, “Imagine” is used across this country and others, in churches and schools. Sometimes the lyrics read a little differently, though.

“And one religion too.”

If anything is to cause a controversy about this song, it should be the fact that some organizations completely change the artist’s original intent for the song for their own personal religious and political gain.

I’m not asking you to abandon your religion today, tomorrow or at any point down the line.

I do, however, ask that you imagine a life without it for just a few moments.

Lennon wanted you to do your own thinking, but let me lay this out for you.

Imagine no Al-Qaeda, no cults, no FLDS marrying and impregnating 14 year-old girls for religious gain, no religious martyrdom, no war in Iraq or Afghanistan, no fighting in the Middle East. I could go on and on, but I only have 600 words to convey my ideas to you each week.

In other words, “imagine all the people living life in peace.”

Christina Caldwell doesn’t want to enlarge her penis, so fill her e-mail inbox with something worth reading at christina.caldwell@asu.edu