Anybody There

I totally agree with LiseyDesReese, the first time I heard this time I was a little confused. As a christian I felt it was really sad that they think that heaven is only for people who are 'perfect'. No one is perfect! and clearly they know this but they need to realise that God sent His only son Jesus to die for our sins and Jesus can forgive you if you ask for forgiveness. All He askes for back is for us to dedicate our lives to Him. And as a christian I know I still make mistakes, but I know the God who loves us all will forgive me for my sins. and to lbackert, God wants our recognition because He loves us and gave us free will to either believe in Him or Not, and He wants us to show that we love Him through the lives that we live....

well that's my opinion, I know everyone won't agree with it but it's just another christian perspective :)

I don´t like to take this lyrics so literally, maybe the intention is to question if religion and heaven are really the way we´ve been told it is. Since every man is a sinner, and the rules to be accepted in heaven are so severe, probably nobody would be enough pure and saint to live there.
For me, the song wasn´t made to deny the existence of God, or to encourage people to live their lives recklessly, but to question the rigidity that some religions impose to people. Maybe God himself is more forgiving than the interpretation men gave to his word.

The lyrics to this song have been ringing through my head non-stop the past few days. They just really hit me hard and shocked me that there are people who think this way. Its really been getting to me lately.

the song starts off by talking about temptations: "My head keeps saying "no", But my heart keeps giving in. So hard to let it go When it's there, under my skin." but the thing is we're all going to give in to temptations sometimes. and as long as we recognize that we've given in and that it was wrong, then its okay. God will forgive us no matter what, all we have to do is ask.

"Well if this is the face of a sinner, And if heaven is only for winners, Well I don't care," okay yes, we're all sinners. but again, God will forgive anyone who asks. often we're harder on ourselves than God himself, God forgives us but we stay mad at ourselves. If God can forgive ours sins then we need to forgive ourselves too. and who ever said heaven was only for winners? heaven is for anyone who knows Jesus Christ as their saviour.

"'Cause I won't know Anybody there." out of the whole song, this is what upset me the worst. just knowing that theres even one person on this earth who thinks they don't know anyone who they can say is going to heaven is a really sad thing to think about. and it means that all of us christians need to reach out to people we wouldn't normally reach out to and show them that we care about them and pray for them, we need to reach out to people who don't know our God as their saviour and help them with any questions they might have and pray for them, and we need to stop "hiding" our faith, many of us don't let everyone we know know of our faith we tell the people that we're sure share our faith but not the ones were unsure about and i'm guilty of this too. our lives don't always show off what we're all about and we need to change that. if more people see how great what we have is, more people will become curious to learn more about our God and live for him too.

"Thought that I'd let it slide, But it's me that's slipping in. Thought that I'd go for a ride Before this crash I'm dying in." this verse kind of stumped me. i'm not really sure of what theyre saying here. i'm guessing its about temptations and sins again.

"Well if I'm judged on the life I've been living And if heaven is not so forgiving, Well I don't care, 'Cause I won't know Anybody there." we are judged by the lives we live, but God is forgiving of all of his children who are saved. all God asks of us is to accept him as our saviour and live this short life for him. that isn't much considering all that he does for us. He accepts us, He forgives us and loves us no matter what, Jesus died for us so that we could sin, He puts up with all of us and all of our cries, He listens to all of our prayers, He guides us with His word, and He created a home for all of us in heaven where we will stay with him for ETERNITY versus you know living with the devil for all of time. So when you remember who created heaven and who chooses whether we will go to heaven or hell, heaven actually is quite forgiving, because God is forgiving.

the song ends by repeating the same phrase three times: "Is there anybody there?" once again, all of us christians need to reach out to people we wouldn't normally reach out to and just let them know that we're there for them and that we care about them.

I really like this song. It may not have the exact meaning that I give to it, but it does seem to fit the lyrics well. Most of the song has been explained here in a way that agrees with me, but the chorus has not been fully explained.

There is an idea that I have come across that says that for the descriptions of heaven, such as eternal bliss, constant happiness, or nothing bad ever happening, to be true, humans can not exist in their current form. Humans, by their nature, will make mistakes and mistakes can lead to people not being happy. Since happiness is constant to heaven, these errors must not be able to exist. The only way to stop humans from making these errors is to make them not human. So when the singer says he wont know anybody in heaven it would mean that there is nothing of our family or friends in heaven that we would recognize. Also it would be hard for me to be happy if I knew that people I loved were being tortured, or separated from god, or whatever the opposing outcome to going to heaven is. To solve this would mean either doing away with this "not heaven" or removing my memory of everyone who had not made the cut. Not only would you not know anyone in heaven, they would not even remember you.

hmm..but i think what he was trying to say with the lines 'Well if this is the face of a sinner, And if heaven is only for winners, Well I don't care, 'Cause I won't know Anybody there.' is that as far as he's concerned and where he comes from,he doesn't quite now anybody who is perfect enough to enter heaven,therefore even if he's not allowed in there,he won't mind cause as far as he's concerned,no person exists whom he knows to be the way christians want people who will enter into heaven to be...just my thoughts..i can kinda relate there. .)

yeah I also agree with LiseyDeReese and Abbi. I so like this band, the Script but some lyrics of their songs makes me sad though. one line in their song breakeven and now this. I really hope that people will come to realize that God is a forgiving God and all those who will enter heaven are not holy people. We are all sinners but because of God's grace we'll be able to enter his kingdom if only we believe. :)

As an atheist, I really relate to this song. It reminds me of my thoughts on religion when I was younger, wondering why if "god is great" then why are the people who believe in him so judgmental. I think that they are saying that,the insane standards most religious preach about, are completely impossible to live up to, and that he can't think of anyone who would make it into heaven under those standards.

PS. to those of you so "shocked" that the band would write a song like this...remember that some of the band members are atheist, and the band as a whole has proved that they have doubts about religion in other songs.

Coming on here and seeing that people are saying that some of the members of The Script are atheists is really agitating me. None of the member are, okay? In most cases when you're writing a song you write what flows, you also have to keep in mind when this song was most likely written.

This song was written by the guitarist Mark Sheehan and singer Danny O'Donoghue most likely when they were living in L.A. writing and producing songs for other artists. They were hardly making any income and came to the point where they were stealing bags of ice from local gas stations so they could keep their milk cold in the bathtub so they could have a cup of tea in the morning. In times like this you start to question a lot of things, and religion being no exception. At the time they were doing things that they knew weren't right but felt like they had to to live from day to day and this is most likely what the lyrics to this rather beautiful song spurred off from.

If you don't agree with me on this then that's perfectly fine, I can't make you, but just seeing comments like this was really bugging me, and has been for quite awhile. I am not sure if this is entirely true but this is my hypothesis of the song based on what I've heard was going on at the time this was most likely to have been written.