# Non-religious songs about God
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 7, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319 "2006-03-07T00:04:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/1 "2006-03-07T00:04:27Z")
Now, this could be a thread about Jesus rock, if you choose, I just don’t find that stuff all too listenable myself. No, this thread is about God in lyrics, or songs - be it an entire song, or just a description.
I was listening to Styrofoam Boots for the googol-billionth time, when I realize what a great God song it is. Maybe post lyrics, or something, or anything, as long as it’s God or religion and music.
(Yea, I’m not too good at starting threads.)
Mine:
[Modest Mouse - Styrofoam Boots](http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=15932)
“I’m in heaven
Trying to figure out which stack
They’re going to stuff us atheists into
When Peter and his monkey laugh
And I laugh with them
I’m not sure what at
They point and say,
‘We’ll keep you in the back’”
Another is a simple, angry song by The Mountain Goats.
[Cold Milk Bottle](http://www.themountaingoats.net/lyrics/sweden_lyr.html#cold)
“Well despite your best efforts, I feel alright
Against my better judgement, I feel alright.
Despite your random acts of violence, I feel alright
Despite the force of your fury, I feel alright.”
It’s not too great lyrically, but fun as hell to sing.
---
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/2 "2006-03-07T00:26:48Z")
The first thing that comes to mind is “Hey Jesus” by the Indigo Girls.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/3 "2006-03-07T00:27:10Z")
The classic of anti-god songs is XTC’s [Dear God](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/x/xtc/147941.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Dear god,
>
> I can’t believe in,
> I don’t believe in,
> I won’t believe in heaven and hell.
> No saints, no sinners,
> No devil as well.
> No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
> You’re always letting us humans down.
> The wars you bring, the babes you drown.
> Those lost at sea and never found,
> And it’s the same the whole world ’round.
---
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/4 "2006-03-07T00:28:09Z")
Does Spirit in the Sky count? (Norman Greenbaum)
> [@](#):
>
> When I die and they lay me to rest
> Gonna go to the place that’s the best
> When I lay me down to die
> Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
> Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
> That’s where I’m gonna go when I die
> When I die and they lay me to rest
> Gonna go to the place that’s the best
---
### Author:  [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/5 "2006-03-07T00:32:38Z")
I believe Ian Hunter had a song called **God, Part 1** on the All-American Alien Boy album.
I’ve heard two different stories about Peter Gabriel’s **In your eyes** ; one being that it was about God, the other being that it was about Rosanna Arquette. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on that.
---
### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/6 "2006-03-07T00:41:59Z")
Well, how’s about a song with the line: “God is good, God is great, God’s a big invertibrate.”
The Microorganism, by [Trout Fishing in America](http://www.troutmusic.com/bio.htm)
---
### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/7 "2006-03-07T00:46:40Z")
Joan Osborne, If God Was One Of Us.
---
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/8 "2006-03-07T00:56:23Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> The classic of anti-god songs is XTC’s [Dear God](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/x/xtc/147941.html)
Along similar lines is John Lennon’s [God](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/lennon-john/82452.html).
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/9 "2006-03-07T01:04:12Z")
Various songs from George Harrison’s **All Things Must Pass** album: “My Sweet Lord,” “Awaiting on Your All,” “Hear Me Lord.”
There’s also **Jesus Christ Superstar**.
---
### Author:  [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/10 "2006-03-07T01:32:44Z")
[dinosaur alert]
Jethro Tull, \*\*[My God](http://www.elyrics4u.com/m/my_god_jethro_tull.htm) \*\* and a lot of the rest of the Aqualung album. It includes:
_He is the god of nothing –
if that’s all that you can see.
You are the god of everything –
He’s inside you and me._
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, **[The Only Way (Hymn)](http://www.houseoflyrics.com/d/artists/emerson_lake_palmer/songs/hymn_the_only_way.html)** , which includes, simplistically enough:
_Can you believe
God makes you breathe?
Why did he lose
Six million Jews?_
[/dinosaur alert]
---
### Author:  [@ayalabmaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ayalabmaj)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/11 "2006-03-07T01:57:36Z")
Modest Mouse actually has quite a few of these:
**Bukowski:**
> [@](#):
>
> Well we sat on the edge of the river
> The crowd screamed, “Sacrifice the liver!”
> If God takes life, he’s an Indian giver
> So tell me now why, you’ll tell me never
> Who would wanna be?
> Who would wanna be such a control freak?
>
> . . .
>
> If God controls the land and disease
> Keeps a watchful eye on me
> If he’s really so damn mighty
> My problem is that I can’t see
> Well who’d wanna be?
> Who’d wanna be such a control freak?
**Ocean Breathes Salty:**
> [@](#):
>
> For your sake I hope heaven and hell
> Are really there, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
> You wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste death?
**Jesus Christ Was An Only Child:**
> [@](#):
>
> Jesus Christ was an only child
> He went down to the river
> And he drank and smiled
> And his dad was oh-so-mad
> Should have killed that little fucker
> Before he even had
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/12 "2006-03-07T04:10:03Z")
Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz . . . 🙂
---
### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/13 "2006-03-07T06:08:55Z")
> [@Kilvert's Pagan](#):
>
> [dinosaur alert]
> Jethro Tull…
“Hymn 43”
[
> [@](#):
>
> …If Jesus saves – well, He’d better save Himself
> from the gory glory seekers who use His name in death.
> Oh Jesus save me!..
]([http://www.lyricstime.com/jethro-tull-hymn-43-lyrics.html](http://www.lyricstime.com/jethro-tull-hymn-43-lyrics.html))
CMC fnord
---
### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/14 "2006-03-07T07:09:13Z")
Great German New Wave band **Wolfsheim** are good for this - my faves are T_he Sparrows and The Nightingales_:
“and God is on your side
dividing cruelty from tenderness
watching all the time
dividing fiction from reality”
and there’s\* Once in a Lifetime\*, where the singer directly addresses God, (after his character’s pregnant wife has drowned):
“When distance fades to stormy grey,
Washed out from the deep of the ocean,
Here I will stand to face your wrath,
While all the others are praying
Calm down, my heart - don’t beat so fast
Don’t be afraid, just once in a lifetime
…
I don’t pretend that I love you
Cause there is nothing left to lose”
---
### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/15 "2006-03-07T07:11:38Z")
> [@Bomzaway](#):
>
> I’ve heard two different stories about Peter Gabriel’s **In your eyes** ; one being that it was about God, the other being that it was about Rosanna Arquette. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on that.
Maybe Rosanna Arquette is God?
---
### Author:  [@Foolonthehill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foolonthehill)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/16 "2006-03-07T07:38:14Z")
Randy Newman’s _“That’s why I love Mankind.”_
Depeche Mode/Johnny Cash _“Personal Jesus.”_
The Beat Farmers _“God is here tonight.”_
As mentioned above; everything on **Aqualung**
And for off the wall: Dan Bern’s _“Aliens fucked the monkey.”_
---
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/17 "2006-03-07T08:41:47Z")
Here’s one I forgot: “With God on Our Side” by Bob Dylan
---
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/18 "2006-03-07T09:28:57Z")
_God_—Tori Amos
_God is a DJ_—Pink
_Jesus Built my Hotrod_—Ministry
And a little ditty my Dad recalled recently, sung to the tune of _Battle Hymn of the Republic_:
_My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He is crashing down the alley in a '57 Ford,
With one hand on the throttle and the other on a bottle,
Of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer!_
😃
---
### Author:  [@DonCorleone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonCorleone)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/19 "2006-03-07T09:55:29Z")
I don’t believe in an interventionist God…
---
### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2006, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-religious-songs-about-god/347319/20 "2006-03-07T10:01:52Z")
Laibach has their CD _Jesus Christ Superstars_ which is fun.
> [@Laibach - God is God](#):
>
> You shall see the walls crumble
> Walls built of pain
> And above the cries of man
> Hear one voice saying:
>
> I am Alfa and Omega
> The begining and the end
> I am the fist and
> I am the last
>
> God is God
> God is God
> God
> [@Laibach - Jesus Christ Superstar](#):
>
> Tell me what you think
> About your friends at the top
> Now who d’you think besides yourself
> Was the pick of the crop?
> Buddah was he where it’s at?
> Is he where you are?
> Could Muhammmed move a mountain
> Or was that just PR?
> Did you mean to die like that?
> Was that a mistake or
> Did you know your messy death
> Would be a record breaker?
I also personally like the song _Lifeboy_ by Phish.
> [@Phish - Lifeboy](#):
>
> But God never listens to what I say
> God never listens to what I say
> And you don’t get a refund
> If you overpray
> And when the line is breaking
> And when I’m near the end
> When all the time spent leading
> I’ve been following instead
> When all my thoughts and memories are
> Left hanging by a thread
> God never listens…
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