im sorry to the folks here that think that this song is advocating having a religious view of life, but its not. i talked to brandon after a show in chicago il at lincoln hall and asked him specifically about this song, since it is my favorite song from this album. they were touring on the release of negotiations. he told me that while he was happy that the song was being interpreted in different ways that he wrote it from the point of view of "someone who wishes they could be religious but knows better". think of the work hes done with modest mouse, a staunchly atheist band. look at these lyrics in particular:
What surely said, "We wrote a book"
And rearranged the signs and forms to look like something understood
Like something we had seen before
these lyrics suggest that people wrote the bible and other holy texts in order to give themselves meaning rather than face an unknowable existence. this song is not in support of a religious view, but rather the lack thereof. open your eyes please.
@bombsmrh I got the sense it's about not being able to believe in religion and the simultaneous freedom and longing that causes. Looking in on those groups that can believe in god gives a nonbeliever some sense of personal displacement, sadness that we don't have such community.
@bombsmrh I got the sense it's about not being able to believe in religion and the simultaneous freedom and longing that causes. Looking in on those groups that can believe in god gives a nonbeliever some sense of personal displacement, sadness that we don't have such community.
It's not strictly true that atheists feel this way. I think back to the self-reinforcing, brainwashy community I had as a kid, and I both miss the people and am so glad I escaped. I've found a new community among technologists, scientists, and engineers, for a while even adopted the idea that science...
It's not strictly true that atheists feel this way. I think back to the self-reinforcing, brainwashy community I had as a kid, and I both miss the people and am so glad I escaped. I've found a new community among technologists, scientists, and engineers, for a while even adopted the idea that science and philosophy can be a direct substitute for religion. But, although I think we can embrace community outside, it's not quite the same, not as close-knit. And though science and philosophy have much wisdom to give us, believing that anything is infallible can be troublesome, so they can not provide the same kind of assurance as blind faith.
But people are prone to blind faith everywhere, even in this new community. We want that assurance. But when people have the wrong ideas, they do the wrong things, regardless of where those ideas come from. I'm particularly concerned that science, despite recent failures (e.g. suggesting genital cutting is positive or suggesting fats are worse than sugars and that exercise can cure obesity) is increasingly given license to do whatever it wants in our world, because people don't understand that it can still go awry due to interpersonal politics, biases, or human shortcomings.
In the end, I'm left feeling like I'm hurling through space, constantly in existential crisis, secure in nothing and always grasping for something I can never reach. This song well-characterizes the sort of empty, ambivalent feeling a true skeptic carries with him everywhere.
im sorry to the folks here that think that this song is advocating having a religious view of life, but its not. i talked to brandon after a show in chicago il at lincoln hall and asked him specifically about this song, since it is my favorite song from this album. they were touring on the release of negotiations. he told me that while he was happy that the song was being interpreted in different ways that he wrote it from the point of view of "someone who wishes they could be religious but knows better". think of the work hes done with modest mouse, a staunchly atheist band. look at these lyrics in particular:
What surely said, "We wrote a book" And rearranged the signs and forms to look like something understood Like something we had seen before
these lyrics suggest that people wrote the bible and other holy texts in order to give themselves meaning rather than face an unknowable existence. this song is not in support of a religious view, but rather the lack thereof. open your eyes please.
@bombsmrh I got the sense it's about not being able to believe in religion and the simultaneous freedom and longing that causes. Looking in on those groups that can believe in god gives a nonbeliever some sense of personal displacement, sadness that we don't have such community.
@bombsmrh I got the sense it's about not being able to believe in religion and the simultaneous freedom and longing that causes. Looking in on those groups that can believe in god gives a nonbeliever some sense of personal displacement, sadness that we don't have such community.
It's not strictly true that atheists feel this way. I think back to the self-reinforcing, brainwashy community I had as a kid, and I both miss the people and am so glad I escaped. I've found a new community among technologists, scientists, and engineers, for a while even adopted the idea that science...
It's not strictly true that atheists feel this way. I think back to the self-reinforcing, brainwashy community I had as a kid, and I both miss the people and am so glad I escaped. I've found a new community among technologists, scientists, and engineers, for a while even adopted the idea that science and philosophy can be a direct substitute for religion. But, although I think we can embrace community outside, it's not quite the same, not as close-knit. And though science and philosophy have much wisdom to give us, believing that anything is infallible can be troublesome, so they can not provide the same kind of assurance as blind faith.
But people are prone to blind faith everywhere, even in this new community. We want that assurance. But when people have the wrong ideas, they do the wrong things, regardless of where those ideas come from. I'm particularly concerned that science, despite recent failures (e.g. suggesting genital cutting is positive or suggesting fats are worse than sugars and that exercise can cure obesity) is increasingly given license to do whatever it wants in our world, because people don't understand that it can still go awry due to interpersonal politics, biases, or human shortcomings.
In the end, I'm left feeling like I'm hurling through space, constantly in existential crisis, secure in nothing and always grasping for something I can never reach. This song well-characterizes the sort of empty, ambivalent feeling a true skeptic carries with him everywhere.