Now Mrrzy, I'm confused too. I originally thought, of course you can sing gospel without belief. But then, I had another thought.

I believe it was Izak Perlman (maybe Zuckerman) that said you just had to be older (40ish) to perform the Beethoven or Brahms (violin concertos.) I think he meant that regardless of talent, passion, skill, etc., you just had to have a certain maturity that only life experiences can bring. Now I'm wondering if this applies to all areas of the arts and expression or if it varies with genre, audiences, performers, whatever. And is it a correct analogy?

Then, on the other hand, I know that a good actor can live a role and make it very convincing.

This gets curiouser and curiouser.