Belief

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.

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.