# Agnostic songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121 "2008-02-18T17:15:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/21 "2008-02-19T00:48:01Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] The Anthony Quinn movie was certainly the starting part but I interpret the song as a lampoon of those who unthinkingly believe and wait for a messiah of some sort to arrive and set everything right. The apparent incongruity of an Eskimo named Quinn is used to demonstrate the folly of blind faith. [/quote] Hmmmm. I like that. Well put. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/22 "2008-02-19T01:01:14Z")
[QUOTE=hajario] My girlfriend was singing this song right as I was reading this. Weird. [/QUOTE] Obviously, its a sign from God. Presumably he’s trying to tell you he doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/23 "2008-02-19T01:50:13Z")
My vote: Rush. _Freewill_ [QUOTE=Rush] You can chose a ready guide in some celestial voice You can choose not to decide, you still have made a choice You can choose from phantom fiends or kindness that can kill I will choose a path that’s clear, I will choose freewill [/QUOTE] And arguably, _Roll the Bones_ [QUOTE=Rush] Why are we here? Because we’re here Roll the bones Why does it happen? Because it happens Roll the bones [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/24 "2008-02-19T02:15:29Z")
[I Will Follow You Into the Dark](http://www.lyricstime.com/death-cab-for-cutie-i-will-follow-you-into-the-dark-lyrics.html) - Death Cab for Cutie [(Video Link)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNIS0cuDOMw) _Love of mine Someday you will die But I’ll be close behind I’ll follow you into the dark No blinding lights or tunnels to gates of white Just our hands clasped so tight Waiting for the hint of the spark_ ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/25 "2008-02-19T02:41:02Z")
One of Us - Joan Osborne ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/26 "2008-02-19T03:00:02Z")
[Flies on the Windscreen - Depeche Mode](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b_cy7nrUXI) More Nihilist than Atheist but still fun, fun, fun! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/27 "2008-02-19T09:24:13Z")
Joan Osborne’s _If God Was One of Us_, which has poor, tired ol’ God riding a bus like the rest of us slobs. And the biggie: _Superstar_ from _Jesus Christ Superstar_: _Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Who are you? What have you sacrificed? Jesus Christ, Superstar Do you think you’re what they say you are?_ ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2008, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/28 "2008-02-19T10:30:04Z")
There aren’t many blues songs that question God’s existence, since the blues is very much intertwined with gospel, sort of its ‘evil twin’. However, there is one remarkable verse sung by Mississippi blues singer Son House in a couple of different songs in the same ‘tune family’ (Walking Blues, Death Letter Blues): _There ain’t no heaven, no burnin’ hell Where I go when I die, cain’t nobody tell_ House had been a preacher before he became a blues singer, and he gave blues up in his later years for religious reasons (and to stop drinking). His questioning of dogma is impressively honest. ---
**Author:** ![eliV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8797f3/32.png) [@eliV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eliV)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/29 "2012-02-22T05:10:13Z")
_Machine in the Ghost_ - The Faint _I Don’t Know_ - dredg two agnostic songs. hearing someone yell “i don’t know” is great! ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/30 "2012-02-22T09:34:13Z")
[When I’m Gone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB-BBVQLnxI) by Phil Ochs may be close to what you’re looking for, although I think it’s more of a humanist song than an agnostic one. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/31 "2012-02-22T09:34:37Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Joan Osborne’s _If God Was One of Us_, which has poor, tired ol’ God riding a bus like the rest of us slobs. On the same line, Shakira’s Octavo Día (Eighth Day). ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/32 "2012-02-22T10:24:01Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Of course I meant _Imagine_ :smack: “Imagine” leans a lot more towards atheism than agnosticism. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/33 "2012-02-22T17:24:55Z")
Maybe “[The Second Sitting For The Last Supper](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M-yhoCpNuU),”\* by 10cc. It is angry and skeptical about religion, but I don’t think it is exactly atheist. They would _like_ Jesus to turn up again and fix the world, they have just lost the hope that He actually will. \*Sadly, I could not find a version by the _real_, full Creme and Godley, 10cc. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/34 "2012-02-22T17:51:08Z")
For what it’s worth, this is a four-year-old thread that has been revived, though I don’t remember seeing it the first time around. I can’t think of any songs that really count as agnostic songs, but a few lines spring to mind that are explicitly noncomittal about the existence of God, heaven, etc. From “Is This The World We Created?” by Queen: “If there’s a God in the sky looking down what can he think of what we’ve done to the world that he created?” From “The Verdict” by Joe Jackson: “We don’t know what happens when we die; we only know we die too soon.” At the other end of the scale from some of the atheist-leaning examples given earlier, there are Christian songs that are in some sense agnostic, not about the existence, but about the nature or knowability, of God—for example, “[Half Light, Epoch, and Phase](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sTQZUp2D0c)” by Daniel Amos: > [@](#): > > These are the images I arrange > To fill in my report on you > Holiness, mystery, disturbing and strange > Obscuring the point of my view > > Everyone seems to know just what you are > But I never seem to break through > Forgive me please if I can’t see that far > Life’s dulling the point of my view ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/35 "2012-02-22T17:56:47Z")
Best I can do. “We sit outside and argue all night long About a god we’ve never seen But never fails to side with me Sunday comes and all the papers say Ma Teresa’s joined the mob And happy with her full time job” [Primative Radio Gods, Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money in my Hand.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJxFAoiWSY) ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/36 "2012-02-22T18:14:31Z")
“Over Our Heads” and “Knock Yourself Out” by Jon Brion, off the “I \<3 Huckabees” soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121/37 "2012-02-22T18:18:07Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#): > > “Over Our Heads” and “Knock Yourself Out” by Jon Brion, off the “I \<3 Huckabees” soundtrack. Good one! Love the song “[Knock Yourself Out](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z500MGW-WNw)” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-songs/438121.md?page=1)