I think that the "I" in this song is turning the "you" from a thiest to an athiest.
There are really only two ways to know this for sure. First, the name of the song is doubt. Secondly, and more importantly, there is this verse:
i've come to plant the seed
of gradual decay
swallowing your faith entirely
The only time that the thing that's decaying is mentioned is here - and it's your faith.
This is supported by ideas like poisoning safety (religion is often a safety net), confidence dying (you were wrong about something as important as religion, so you feel like you know nothing now), the fact that you feel "it" burning (that is, the truth is taking root in you and you're trying to fight it, but you know it's right). Furthermore...
Self-sycophant
Grotesque arrogance
Bursting with shallow conceit
All 3 of those ideas above are often associated with those who are religious. Well, to be fair, they're really just associated with anyone who's really, really sure of their position. However, these three lines were said from the position of the "I" in this song.
Now, for whatever reason, this "I" is malicious. The "I" is clearly aggressively trying to destroy the other person's faith and is being really harsh about it (this should be obvious). I think that the opening paragraph is really good actually:
You'll know when this is done
If you comprehend
The calculated hate in subtlety
The "I" is extremely hateful because he's gone through meticulous calculation in order to do what he's done to the "you". It's like the difference between premeditated murder and spur-of-the-moment murder...premeditated murder is much more evil.
I'm not really sure what Blue Stahli's position on faith is. The athiest here seems to be correct in his views, but he seems to be malicious and hateful. Of course, for all we know, the religious person is a really bad person too. Stahli mentioned "self-syncophant", "grotesque arrogance", and "shallow conceit" earlier. It's hard to tell who is the good guy and who's the bad guy in this song. That difficulty could be a statement on the inherent badness of humanity regardless of who knows what is actually wrong or right...but then again, maybe I'm starting to dig too deeply.
Overall, in my opinion, this is a fantastic song with very well-written lyrics.
I think that the "I" in this song is turning the "you" from a thiest to an athiest.
There are really only two ways to know this for sure. First, the name of the song is doubt. Secondly, and more importantly, there is this verse:
i've come to plant the seed of gradual decay swallowing your faith entirely
The only time that the thing that's decaying is mentioned is here - and it's your faith.
This is supported by ideas like poisoning safety (religion is often a safety net), confidence dying (you were wrong about something as important as religion, so you feel like you know nothing now), the fact that you feel "it" burning (that is, the truth is taking root in you and you're trying to fight it, but you know it's right). Furthermore...
Self-sycophant Grotesque arrogance Bursting with shallow conceit
All 3 of those ideas above are often associated with those who are religious. Well, to be fair, they're really just associated with anyone who's really, really sure of their position. However, these three lines were said from the position of the "I" in this song.
Now, for whatever reason, this "I" is malicious. The "I" is clearly aggressively trying to destroy the other person's faith and is being really harsh about it (this should be obvious). I think that the opening paragraph is really good actually:
You'll know when this is done If you comprehend The calculated hate in subtlety
The "I" is extremely hateful because he's gone through meticulous calculation in order to do what he's done to the "you". It's like the difference between premeditated murder and spur-of-the-moment murder...premeditated murder is much more evil.
I'm not really sure what Blue Stahli's position on faith is. The athiest here seems to be correct in his views, but he seems to be malicious and hateful. Of course, for all we know, the religious person is a really bad person too. Stahli mentioned "self-syncophant", "grotesque arrogance", and "shallow conceit" earlier. It's hard to tell who is the good guy and who's the bad guy in this song. That difficulty could be a statement on the inherent badness of humanity regardless of who knows what is actually wrong or right...but then again, maybe I'm starting to dig too deeply.
Overall, in my opinion, this is a fantastic song with very well-written lyrics.