Belief

I think its less about how blind faith drives people to to terrible things and its more about the effect of a person or a group of people with any type of faith (blind or not) insists that another person or group of people should believe the same exact way. this also answers billthecat's question of what those lines could mean: believe is a beautiful armor and makes for the heaviest sword kinda implies that when you have a belief no one can rightfully tell you that you are wrong about it... or it makes it harder for people to...

I think its less about how blind faith drives people to to terrible things and its more about the effect of a person or a group of people with any type of faith (blind or not) insists that another person or group of people should believe the same exact way. this also answers billthecat's question of what those lines could mean: believe is a beautiful armor and makes for the heaviest sword kinda implies that when you have a belief no one can rightfully tell you that you are wrong about it... or it makes it harder for people to tell you that youre wrong about it.. when you believe a certain way and get that security from it you at times may be proud of this armor that u see as so beautiful. like punching under water u never can hit who youre trying for kinda means when you go to try to tell someone theyre wrong about that they think you will in most cases disagree with another person's beliefs... the reason for the most part is that many different beliefs or ideas overlap with many others. this song implies that ones faith (blind or not blind) is not what is harmful; it is when the person tries to force someone else to believe the same thing. and how any argument rooting from this is pointless... explained in the line: were never gona beat this if belief is what were fighting for

The punching underwater part; He's saying that religion seems to be aiming to make people behave themselves and act morally by having the bible to tell them what to do. But in reality, since the bible is open to interpretation, they do whatever is in their nature anyway. Violent ppl will pretend that religion is saying that its ok to do the things they wanna do. So "you never can hit what your trying for" because in the end ppl are just following their nature still. I've even known a mentally ill girl who thought she had seen demons leave her...

The punching underwater part; He's saying that religion seems to be aiming to make people behave themselves and act morally by having the bible to tell them what to do. But in reality, since the bible is open to interpretation, they do whatever is in their nature anyway. Violent ppl will pretend that religion is saying that its ok to do the things they wanna do. So "you never can hit what your trying for" because in the end ppl are just following their nature still. I've even known a mentally ill girl who thought she had seen demons leave her and what not when she was at church. She was that religious and yet still did not follow the religion when it was hard too. ie. when sex money or drugs were involved.

I think Jbox's answer is barely skimming the surface.

I think Jbox's answer is barely skimming the surface.

Belief is a beautiful armor, but makes for the heaviest sword. Here John is talking about how beautiful belief truly is when you wear it. Belief can make you into a better person, if you let it. But when used incorrectly, belief can be weilded as a weapon, used to hurt others. Obviously there is a big anti-war message in this song, and I believe John is speaking out against our nation's policy makers deciding that it's okay to force our way of life, our beliefs, on other people - and not...

Belief is a beautiful armor, but makes for the heaviest sword. Here John is talking about how beautiful belief truly is when you wear it. Belief can make you into a better person, if you let it. But when used incorrectly, belief can be weilded as a weapon, used to hurt others. Obviously there is a big anti-war message in this song, and I believe John is speaking out against our nation's policy makers deciding that it's okay to force our way of life, our beliefs, on other people - and not only force it on them, but kill innocent people in the name of it.

Like punching underwater, you never can hit who you're trying for. In general, when there is violence in the name of belief (and God is not always involved in these beliefs) many innocents are lost. Take current affairs right now. We have invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, we are bombing Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen, and we are meddling in Syria. We attempted to assassinate Gaddafi, but instead killed part of his family. We have drones bombing in Pakistan that kills innocent people every day. If not for all this buzz about Bin Laden (which really just depends on if you trust the government/media anymore) people who be questioning whether or not our military can hit ANYONE they're aiming for. John sums up this doubt in only a few elegant words.

When it comes to Mayer's songs, there's a lot under the surface. I don't really listen to any of "today's hit music" because in my opinion, it's all crap. Singing about days of the week or doing blow or having sex with all sorts of people. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll take John's common sense/political views with a nice helping of sweet, sweet crooning over Britney Spears any day.

the cool thing about these lyrics are that they can mean different things to different people. obviously if you have faith in something, be it God or communism or both, you will take the words to mean that belief is good but that we shouldn't use it as a reason to attack others.

the cool thing about these lyrics are that they can mean different things to different people. obviously if you have faith in something, be it God or communism or both, you will take the words to mean that belief is good but that we shouldn't use it as a reason to attack others.

if you claim not to believe in anything, you will most likely share the view of those who consider belief systems to be at the root of all the problems in the world, including terrorism, poverty and genocide.

if you claim not to believe in anything, you will most likely share the view of those who consider belief systems to be at the root of all the problems in the world, including terrorism, poverty and genocide.

i would just like to highlight a few things...

i would just like to highlight a few things that I've noticed by looking at the actual words and language.

first of all, did you notice all the question marks (lines starting with "is there anyone who...")? this indicates his own uncertainty about the power of beliefs and the effect they have on people. he is questioning, not suggesting.

secondly, the metaphors he uses, like "the paint on a sign" and "belief is a beautiful armor" makes the concept of beliefs universal, i.e. he's not referring to any one group of believers, either political activists or muslims.

there are two aspects of the meaning that i think people here have got wrong. when he says "(belief) makes for the heaviest sword" he cleverly refers to Paul's description of the christian weaponry in Ephesians. according to Paul however, belief (or faith) serves as a shield to protect us, not a sword to defend ourselves with.

he goes on to liken it to "punching under water" which does not imply that belief is a dangerous weapon but rather that it is completely ineffective as a weapon when used to, eg. justify wars.

lastly, when he says "is there anyone who really recalls ever breaking rank at all..." i think this could also mean: when was the last time we believed so strongly in something that we were willing to take risks to effect change? for example struggle heroes during apartheid who risked their lives because they believed in democracy.