ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates Frank Zappa's opinions of Catholicism, evangelical Christianity, and Eastern religions, and demonstrates his view that music serves as a more valid means of spiritual communication than that which any organised religion can provide. It places particular emphasis on the texts of One Size Fits All, Joe's Garage, You Are What You Is, and Broadway the Hard Way, and examines the ways in which Conceptual Continuity and his Big Note theory resonate in the intersection of science and faith. Throughout all of these instances, Zappa is critical of three elements: greedy and manipulative preachers, believers who 'got their minds all shut', and the fact that these religions have such a weighty and unwelcome impact on US politics. The themes and totems that wind through Zappa's 62 albums touch on concepts of belief and transcendence, but do so in ways that straddle satire, reportage and inquiry.
