| David Bazan – Bearing Witness Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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As an agnostic, I usually see the world in fairly non-spiritual terms, but this song always brings to me the possibility of belief. I hear the song and think he's saying that the bible and the rhetoric of the church do not have to be the definition of his faith (either faith in god or faith in a secular reality.) There is no outright denial of god here, just the statement that it doesn't lie in the trappings of the church, but in the personal observance of the world. Bearing witness implies that you bring the proof to the table through your own existence. Atheism and Agnosticism need not be so offending to people who have faith in god and their church. Especially because so many of us develop our worldviews in a society whose rules and structure are completely the making of those who believe in a specific doctrine, I have always found true agnostics/atheists to be people who respect the right of the individual to choose for themselves. I think his point "let go of what you know and honor what exists" is celebratory of life, and a testament that religion and faith are divergent systems. Or put another way, that if you come to faith, let it be through the miracle of your own life, and the world around you, not because it was put to you the way it was put to him. |
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