# Skeptic Songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 5, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021 "2003-08-05T00:55:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/1 "2003-08-05T00:55:29Z")
It would be really cool if there were as many skeptic songs as religious songs, but, since most folks are religious, I suppose that will never be the case. Still, there are some good ones out there. For example:
**Dear God** by XTC:
“Dear God, don’t know if you noticed, but
Your name is on a lot of quotes in this book,
Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look,
and all the people that you made in your image,
Still believing that junk is true.
Well I know it ain’t, and so do you, dear God.”
**Opiate** by Tool:
“If you want to get your soul to heaven
Trust in me, now
Don’t you judge or question.
You are broken now
But faith can heal you.
Just do everything I tell you to do.
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow.
Let me lay my holy hand upon you.”
Anyone else have any suggestions? The song could really be fighting any kind of ignorance, but I guess anti-religious songs would be the most common. I’d love to hear of ignorance fighting songs on other subjects, though.
Perhaps this thread could be better titled: “Songs Cecil Might Like.” 🙂
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/2 "2003-08-05T02:13:24Z")
“My God” & “Hymn 23” by Jethro Tull
“He’s got him fixed!”
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/3 "2003-08-05T02:50:55Z")
My favorite is _When I’m Gone_ by Phil Ochs. You can find the lyrics [here](http://www.lyricsfind.com/lyrics/5634/54312.php).
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/4 "2003-08-05T04:18:12Z")
Just about anything by Bad Religion…
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### Author:  [@MusicJunkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MusicJunkie)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/5 "2003-08-05T04:28:45Z")
Frank Zappa had a nice one. The Make Shall Inherit Nothing. It segues into Dumb All Over which has this great line: “if we were made in God’s image then God must be dumb (and maybe a little ugly on the side)”.
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/6 "2003-08-05T04:36:32Z")
**MusicJunkie** ’s post sent me on this tangent…a quote from Mark Twain “I was created in the IMAGE of God; but not enough like God to be MISTAKEN for him; except for the very near-sighted man.”
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/7 "2003-08-05T05:23:34Z")
“Cathedral” - Crosby Stills & Nash
“Hymn-The Only Way” - Emerson Lake and Palmer
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” - Nat King Cole
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### Author:  [@TeaRoses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaRoses)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/8 "2003-08-05T08:07:13Z")
Let’s see, I’m not even such a skeptic but I did think of
[Free Will](http://my.erinet.com/~stealthy/2112/FreeWill.html) by Rush.
And I always thought there were hints of… something… in [Spellbound](http://www.lyricsfind.com/lyrics/5037/49472.php) by Souxsie and the Banshees.
Even I should be able to do better than that though, I’ll think.
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### Author:  [@TeaRoses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaRoses)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/9 "2003-08-05T08:10:42Z")
Wait, sorry, I just have to say that, even as a non-skeptic… that Zappa quote is one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen. I think I have a new sig line. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/10 "2003-08-05T10:54:36Z")
Roll the Bones by Rush.
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### Author:  [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/11 "2003-08-05T13:31:36Z")
_Tom Ames’ Prayer_ by Steve Earle:
“Well, you don’t owe me nothin’, and as far as I know, Lord, I don’t owe nothin’ to you.
I ain’t askin’ for a miracle, Lord, just a little bit of luck will do.
And you know I ain’t never prayed before ‘cause it’s always seemed to me
That prayin’ is the same as beggin’, Lord, and I don’t take no charity.”
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### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/12 "2003-08-05T13:35:11Z")
Dave Carter and Tracey Grammer have a hymn to evolution called _Gentle Arms of Eden_.
"The moon feel on the breakers,
And the morning warmed the waves,
And a single cell did jump and hum,
With joy as though to say,
This is my home . . .
The day shone bright ‘n’ round her,
'Till the one turned into two,
And two into ten thousand things,
And old things into new.
And on some virgin beachhead,
One lonesome critter crawled
And he looked about
And he shouted out
In his most astonished drawl,
This is my home . . ."
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/13 "2003-08-05T18:01:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Labdad \*
> \*\*_Tom Ames’ Prayer_ by Steve Earle:
>
> “Well, you don’t owe me nothin’, and as far as I know, Lord, I don’t owe nothin’ to you.
> I ain’t askin’ for a miracle, Lord, just a little bit of luck will do.
> And you know I ain’t never prayed before ‘cause it’s always seemed to me
> That prayin’ is the same as beggin’, Lord, and I don’t take no charity.” \*\*
Hmm… compelling lyric, from a brutal song. But not NECESSARILY an anti-Christian song. Indeed, if Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor had been a songwriter, she could have written those very lyrics.
Steve Earle isn’t anti-Christian, after all. He’s sung some explicitly religious songs in his time (though, politically, he’d have absolutely nothing in common with most “contemporary Christian” musicians).
The song, which was written by Robert Earl Keen, is told from the point of view of Tom Ames, a murderous outlaw. Now, I have no idea what Robert Earl Keen believes or doesn’t believe, in terms of religion. But this particular song wasn’t written to espouse or refute any particular faith. It was written to tell the story of one particular type of man- an angry, violent man who’s lived most of his life on the run. In a moment of weakness and fear, he attempts to pray… before finally deciding that praying is a stupid waste of time.
Keen and Earle don’t present Ames as a hero, nor are Ames’ conclusions necessarily theirs. There’s no clear “moral” to this song, and neither Christians nor atheists can neatly claim it for their side.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/14 "2003-08-05T18:17:47Z")
the OP-cited songs aren’t Skeptic Songs. Ya might as well cite Tori Amos. They’re too angry at God (not just His human reps) to be truly Skeptical.
Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing- at least they have a relationship with God.
and I bought Sarah MacLachlan’s Rarities just for her cover of XTC’s Dear God
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/15 "2003-08-05T18:19:30Z")
Going for the obvious here. John Lennon’s _Imagine_ certainly stirred up the religious types.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/16 "2003-08-05T19:35:40Z")
“Deconstruction” by the Indigo Girls:
“and as for the truth
it seems like we just pick a theory”
“and though it seems grand
we’re just one speck of sand
and back to the hourglass we’re going”
This really impressed me as a song much more heavily grounded in scepticism than any of their previous stuff I’d heard from them. Granted, not as sceptic as can be, but it made me rethink my image of them as less mystical than i previously did.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/17 "2003-08-05T19:41:51Z")
Here’s one I just made up (apologies to William Blake):
\*\*And did those feet
In ancient times
Walk upon England’s mountains green,
And was the holy lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon these clouded hills,
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?
Er… no.\*\*
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### Author:  [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/18 "2003-08-05T19:47:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FriarTed \*
> **the OP-cited songs aren’t Skeptic Songs. Ya might as well cite Tori Amos. They’re too angry at God (not just His human reps) to be truly Skeptical.**
Eh? From the liner notes of Tool’s AEnima CD:
“Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing.”
That doesn’t sound like “angry at God” to me. Even if it was, it’s possible to be angry at something you don’t even believe in (don’t ask me how; it just is!) and at the people who do believe.
And from the XTC song, there’s always the line “If there’s one thing I don’t believe in, it’s you… Dear God.” Granted I’m not the best at interpreting song lyrics, but it seems pretty clear.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/19 "2003-08-05T20:13:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Biggirl says:_ Going for the obvious here. John Lennon’s Imagine certainly stirred up the religious types.
I think that song is 100% optimism, not skepticism.
The obvious Lennon song would be _ **God** _.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/skeptic-songs/193021/20 "2003-08-05T20:29:53Z")
The Comedy Channel used to run song bites. There was one that went something like: “My girl ran off with a guy named Jesus; I can walk on water too, when it freezes”.
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