Science & Faith

this song is amazing. the lyrics are beautiful i was watching mtv or some music channel ( forgot sorry ) and the script were on it talking about their new albumn and it was explained that this song was about the guitarist guy ( the one thats bald ) had an argument with his wife about being in love and how he argued love can be broken down into science and she disagreed saying that love has faith you gotta have faith in love.

By the way, I think the lyrics are actually:

Tried to break love to a science In an act of good defiance I broke her heart

As I pulled apart her theories As I watched her growing weary I pulled her apart

First comment - This song is damn deep - at least to me... lol as I really relate to this as the way this is the ways I feel at the moment with my girlfriend. Sorry for being long winded too :D but hard to express the meaning concisely... here goes

Tried to break love to a science In an act of pure defiance I broke her heart As I pulled apart her theory As i watched her growing weary I pulled her apart

To me, they have had an argument - a fight about their personalities & perhaps about the things they do that their partner doesn't approve of - and the boyfriend being angry over something she has done, has decided to angrily describe the things she does & the way he feels - and most importantly also the "theory" or reason he thinks she does this stuff for (e.g. "u do this shit because you dont give a shit about me at all, you do it just to piss me off!" - I'm sure we've all said it b4 :D) She becomes sad & and the more he says the more her heart breaks as the reasons he has said are not her real intentions at all.

The next verse - having heavy conversations about the furthest constellations of our souls. oh

I believe is them sitting down and explaining their feelings towards the issues they have, and both of them trying to justify how they feel and why they do what they do... but as we all know - we often can't accept the partner's justifications.

we're just trying to find some meaning in the things that we believe in

These two lines suggest that, after all this - they are both just think about their relationship & whether there is any meaning to it anymore.

You won't find faith or hope down a telescope You won't find heart and soul in the stars you can break everything, to the chemicals but you can't explain a love like ours,

The chorus - to me is no longer directly about the couple, but the band expressing that sometimes love can't be explained & no matter how logically you analyse your feelings & your relationships - you just cant explain everything down logically.

The line that I love best in this song is, "You won't find faith or hope down a telescope You won't find heart and soul in the stars", because I know that when your trust in your partner is tested, it doesn't matter how you try and find a good reason to make yourself feel better - it doesn't change the unease you feel inside.

i tried pushing evolution as the obvious conclusion of the start. but it was all my own amusement saying love was an illusion of a hopeless heart.

This verse is about the guy, who after failing to improve the direction of the relationship (i tried pushing evolution) has gone into denial - & and has told himself that he isn't really in love with her & these feelings of love are just because he is feeling weak/lonely/desperate. (love was an illusion of a hopeless heart). And now he has realized that these thoughts were just his own effort to make himself feel better (but it was all my own amusement).

of all of the things that she's ever said she goes and says something that just knocks me dead

And these key lines - to me suggests she gone and said it - "lets break up".

:D finished - tell me if anyone agrees!

This song is a portrayal of an argument between the rationalist, logical and scientific thinker with a more spiritual thinker, who is often referred to as 'her,' indicating the likelihood that this person is the singer's lover. The rationalist confesses that he enjoyed 'pulling apart her theories,' by stating that calling love an illusion was all 'for my own amusement.' He almost enjoys watching his lover's ideas becoming nullified and she seems to concede to many of his points as she 'grows weary.' But with what seems as a last throw of the dice she makes a more personal statement and says that reducing everything to chemicals and physical laws will not necessarily lead to happiness. She draws upon four points: first, she claims faith and hope cannot be found by simply looking at the laws of nature, here implied by 'down a telescope.' The effect of this is clear on the singer and the reason for this is that within his lover's claim it is first implied that faith and hope are irrespective of scientific discovery as they are not tangeable concepts. Indeed, faith is belief without evidence by definition. When the term faith is used it is likely to have been referring to a god, as the more spiritual thinker in this interchange is likely to be a believer in god, while the scientific thinker does not believe in ideas without them being backed up by evidence. The singer's lover adds in the idea that without faith (with the implication being faith in a god) there is no hope. Hope in this sense is possibly used to mean hope in an afterlife or reward for having lived a good life. By saying this she raises the question 'if there is no god, why do we bother?' The last straw which makes the singer crumble is the idea that if everything is simply chemicals and laws of physics, how does he 'explain this love' between them. She plays upon his emotions as he feels as though his scientific explanations are not adequate enough to explain their love.

Just a disclaimer: I am merely trying to portray the views of the two parties, mainly the woman, in this song. I disagree with the woman on many levels because as it happens I do find faith and hope in the beauty of science and I also find heart and soul in the wonders that are the stars. Also, it is actually possible to break love down to chemicals, but why does that make it any less special? Regards.

i'm pretty sure the lyrics for the chorus are "You won't find faith or hope down a telescope You won't find heart and soul in the stars you can break everything down to chemicals but you can't explain a love like ours"

("down to chemicals", not "got the chemicals?")

This song was definitely one of my favorites from my first listen as well. :)

And according to the digital booklet I got in my itunes download the beginning goes:

Tried to break love to a science in an act of pure defiance I broke her heart and as I pulled apart her theory as I watched her growing weary I pulled her apart

and it also says

Having heavy conversations about the FURTHEST constellations

Simply putting it.

I think it's about the fact true love can't be explained. Your fall head over heels for someone and you can't explain it like you can everything else.

It pulls you through every argument, it makes you stronger and you will probably feel like it's a myth till you have felt it.

I'm pretty sure it says "You can break everything down to chemicals", makes more sense in the context of the song anyway. This song was my instant favourite on first listen of the album, it's just that magic word called L O V E that one just cannot describe in words.

I defs agree with Sempfy - instant favourite. This song confuses me a bit, how he talks about her being heartbroken. Maybe he's a person that will only believe in what can be proven. And maybe they are having a conversation about their feelings and what they have between them and he's trying to show her how it can be broken down to different theories, where eventually she gets sick of it and bursts out saying 'you can say whatever you like but nothing will explain how amazing this thing that we have is'.

reminds me of The Scientist by Coldplay. scientists only believe in what they can prove etc, so this song is saying that the person can use their science to break everything down to chemicals, but they just can't explain love