# Songs with an atheistic perspective **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616 "2017-09-29T22:38:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/41 "2017-10-01T06:10:58Z")
> [@Dobbs](#): > > There’s this one guy, Tim Minchin, who has several songs that fit the bill. I’d start with [this](https://youtu.be/IZeWPScnolo) because he explains his point of view prior to the song. I rather like his [Pope Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHRDfut2Vx0) (aimed at Pope Ratslinger, not the current one.) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/42 "2017-10-01T13:43:41Z")
This one’s more against pharisaical hypocrisy than atheistic, but all the same… [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbvrRct-TXc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbvrRct-TXc) While this one’s more anti-clerical [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvhYqeGp\_Do](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvhYqeGp_Do) I suspect thoughtful Christians would enjoy them as much as anyone else, likewise: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Dm7sQ1C1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Dm7sQ1C1E) ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/43 "2017-10-01T17:13:57Z")
Randy Newman’s _Old Man_: “Won’t be no God to comfort you, You taught me not to believe that lie.” ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/44 "2017-10-01T22:24:00Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > David Bowie’'s ‘Quicksand’ from album Hunky Dory is rather bleak, beautiful and godless. A tad Nazi-ish, annoyingly, too, if I remember rightly. But what if it was [Charles Darwin channelling Bowie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZETITM2IPg)? One of my favourite Horrible Histories songs. Unfortunately its just audio and lyrics. ‘_The idea that we came from ch-ch-chimps Questioned my Christianity_’ ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/45 "2017-10-01T23:44:04Z")
Not sure if this counts, but “White Punks on Dope,” by the Tubes, has someone screaming “Fuck you, Jesus” in the background at one point. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2017, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/46 "2017-10-02T00:32:12Z")
There’s a blues lyric in John Lee Hooker’s song “Burning Hell”: ‘Ain’t no heaven, no burning hell, where I go when I die, can’t nobody tell’. It’s in an earlier song by Son House, the name of which escapes me. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/47 "2017-10-02T00:40:29Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I’m doing my Friday night routine listening to music, XTC’s\* Single Collection 1977-1992\*, and [Dear God](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk41Gbjljfo)comes up. Now, I really love XTC and find most of their lyrics quite clever, but this is not one of them, though I’m sympathetic to the message. But this is a naive and juvenile way to tackle the subject, though typical for an angry young man with a guitar. I used to be this young man, sans guitar, but I got wiser. The song has just too much of a atheist-being-angry-with-god vibe for me now. A very courageous song for a single in 1986 nonetheless. > > A, well, tad better and cleverer example of the subject is Randy Newman’s [God’s Song (That’s Why I love Mankind)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0TvfqmWf4M). Interestingly, there’s a song with lyrics that mirror somehow Dear God’s on the same Newman album, [He Gives us All His Love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrJsFpmG2w), which you could mistake for a song about being angry at God too, but the dead-pan way in which Newman delivers it leaves not doubt about being deeply sarcastic. > > These are three examples, and to get it out of the way, obviously John Lennon’s _Imagine_. I’ve read that Jethro Tull’s whole album \*Aqualung \*is one big critic of religion, but I’ve never had time to listen through it. What else it there? The song that gave the album its title – **He Gives us All His Love** – was written for the 1971 Norman Lear film **Cold Turkey**. It was Newman’s first motion picture score. The song is played over the closing credits, and its clearly ambiguous. It might be referring to God, but it could as well refer to the president (Nixon at the time), flying over the town that has won the big military contract (to its regret, because the industry turns out to be a major polluter). ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/48 "2017-10-02T02:40:56Z")
It’s subtle, but Neko Case’s “I Missed the Point”. Or maybe not . ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/49 "2017-10-02T02:45:12Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Not sure if it qualifies, but how about Todd’s “God Said”? I assume you are referring to Todd Rundgren? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/50 "2017-10-02T03:38:00Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Not sure if it qualifies, but how about Todd’s “God Said”? On the other hand, Todd Rundgren wrote _Hawking_, about Stephen Hawking’s plight: Whenever I I close my eyes Then I don’t mind being the way I am But whenever I try Explaining why I know I never can Now that it’s Gone, paths I used to travel Gone, things I used to handle Gone, once I had a choice what to be But then God kissed me And I lost it when I fainted in his arms ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/51 "2017-10-02T04:06:15Z")
Ben Folds Five, on their album @ _The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner_, have a song called “Mess,” which includes the line, “but I don’t believe in God, so I can’t be saved.” ---
**Author:** ![golffan1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@golffan1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/golffan1963)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/52 "2017-10-02T04:22:17Z")
In regards to the song “I Believe In Father Christmas” both Greg Lake and Pete Sinfield, who contributed to the lyrics of the song, have said that the song is neither anti-Christmas nor atheistic. Said Sinfield (from [Songfacts.com](http://Songfacts.com)): “It’s not anti-religious. It’s a humanist thing. It’s not an atheist Christmas song, as some have said.” It is also stated in the the Wikipedia article on the song that in the end, both Lake and Sinfield also called the song a “protest of the commercialization of the holiday and…about the loss of innocence”. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/53 "2017-10-02T13:43:14Z")
[Sturgill Simpson (Kentucky’s own!), “Turtles All The Way Down”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gBV-Nzq7Pg). Rejects religion, in favor of experiences of universal love brought about via drug use. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/54 "2017-10-02T14:19:18Z")
Roy Harper - [The Spirit Lives](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5uVB7sdiuU). He’s been a pretty blunt atheist over the years. A snippet… “The history of religion is the history of the State Incestuous exploiters of a catalogue of hate. The man of peace was over-run by armies of the Lord Who signed their names to any war And sang to praise the sword.” ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/55 "2017-10-02T15:49:14Z")
Many mentions of _ **I Believe in Father Christmas** _ - but no one mentions The Emerson, Lake & Palmer song _**The Only Way (hymn)**_ - a sample of lines: “People are stirred Moved by the Word. Kneel at the Shrine Deceived by the wine” and “Can you believe God makes you breathe? Why did he lose SIX MILLION jews?” YouTube link: [The Only Way (hymn)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPVgKAmaghI) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/56 "2017-10-02T17:26:02Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > On the other hand, Todd Rundgren wrote _Hawking_, about Stephen Hawking’s plight: > > Whenever I > I close my eyes > Then I don’t mind being the way I am > But whenever I try > Explaining why > I know I never can > > Now that it’s > Gone, paths I used to travel > Gone, things I used to handle > Gone, once I had a choice what to be > > But then God kissed me > And I lost it when I fainted in his arms That would be the [Hawking who said](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/551152-when-people-ask-me-if-a-god-created-the-universe): > [@](#): > > “When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise. We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe,and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization; There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.” … would it? ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/57 "2017-10-02T18:07:36Z")
Two that come to mind are Rush’s “[Ghost of a Chance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLTFbtOfmxk)”: _I don’t believe in destiny Or the guiding hand of fate I don’t believe in forever Or love as a mystical state I don’t believe in the stars or the planets Or angels watching from above But I believe there’s a ghost of a chance we can find someone to love And make it last…_ and Assemblage 23’s “[God is a Strangely Absent Father](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ_CeS-4J6E)”: \*Believe in me It won’t make me exist No matter how That rumor may persist Your Kingdom is The earth on which you walk Reap your reward Before it’s too late God is a strangely absent father His back is turned perpetually All the orphaned sons and daughters Abide in their suffering\* ---
**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:** [October 2, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/58 "2017-10-02T19:29:02Z")
[When I’m Gone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB-BBVQLnxI) by Phil Ochs ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/59 "2017-10-02T19:54:46Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > These are three examples, and to get it out of the way, obviously John Lennon’s _Imagine_. [Values.Com](http://Values.Com), a public service group with strong religious ties, has been using almost all of Lennon’s _Imagine_ in their ads lately. [Guess which part of the song was cut?](https://www.ispot.tv/ad/AjlU/values-com-imagine-song-by-john-lennon) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616/60 "2017-10-02T23:21:30Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [Values.Com](http://Values.Com), a public service group with strong religious ties, has been using almost all of Lennon’s _Imagine_ in their ads lately. [Guess which part of the song was cut?](https://www.ispot.tv/ad/AjlU/values-com-imagine-song-by-john-lennon) You know, I was always willing to defend Yoko Ono against sometimes very mean and undeserved criticism by Beatles fans, but fuck her for allowing that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-an-atheistic-perspective/797616.md?page=4)