Father Christmas is British for Santa Claus.
Phish’s Lifeboy could fit.
Isgodaman by Arthur Comix [solo artist], later in the Snivelling Shits, is at the more puerile end of the spectrum, but a fine song nonetheless. Enjoy listening while you stare at a shot of the LP cover.
[Moderating]
Evan, your first sentence is on-topic and a contribution (albeit a small one, without naming any specifics), but your second is not, and verges on threadshitting. Let’s leave out the snide remarks.
[Not moderating]
Yes, we all know that, but have you ever paid attention to the lyrics of the song in question? It’s all about how none of that Christmas stuff actually exists, and we’re all screwed.
U2’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” arguably works: It’s not completely atheistic, in that the narrator is still looking for some sort of spiritual meaning in life, but hasn’t found it, and it’s not religion.
Another one is Edie Brickell and New Bohemians’ “What I Am”, which says “Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box; religion is the smile on a dog”
I’ve always taken it to be a song about class difference and Christmas. Sinfield (sp?) wrote some songs in this vein (Hallowed be the Name). Also, Prokofievs Lt Kije Suite in the bed of the song evokes Troikas and the seasons. Just my 2cents.
How about Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Shallow Be Thy Name’:
To anyone who’s listenin’
You’re not born into sin
The guilt they try and give you
Puke it in the nearest bin
mmm
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
I think the message is stronger and clearer than “believing in whatever makes the most sense to you”. It pretty clearly indicates that the singer/author doesn’t believe in God:
*You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will
Kicked in the face
You can’t pray for a place
In heaven’s unearthly estate *
Or in fate or pre-ordained destiny:
*There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance
A host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance
There are those who think that
They’ve been dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them
They weren’t born in Lotus-Land
All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate *
And seems to pretty clearly suggest no divine or supernatural component to life, or at least that we have no way to know:
Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt
That’s far too fleet
Hey thanks for this; that album has a track from John Cooper Clarke on it that I don’t own yet! Well, I didn’t own it; I do now (or I will when the LP arrives).
And that Arthur Comics track totally fucking rocked! This is kinda off-topic, but you might like a guy who records under the name of Christian Fitness. My favorite song title from his last album was Bruce Hated Puppies.
Mentioned in the OP. And “God” was mentioned in the first reply.
And then there’s "God Part II, their followup to the Lennon song.
U2 are a Christian band. Certainly, believers in God can write songs that talk about what they don’t believe or that express doubts, uncertainties, or the fact that they’re still searching, or skepticism about or hostility toward religion (either specific religions or specific religious ideas specific things religions do or even just religion in general).
On the other hand, a “song with an atheist perspective” might just be a song that doesn’t have anything to do with God or religion; it just presupposes a world without a deity. If you do believe in (worship, love, fear) God, it’s not to hard to see why you’d want to sing about that; but if you don’t, why mention God at all? Which I think may have been the point of Evan Drake’s comment, as an explanation of why there aren’t more “atheistic songs,” so I think it was more than just thread-shitting.
The lyrics of “I Believe in Father Christmas” tell of a child who learned that Santa Claus wasn’t real, and later came to think Jesus and God are also fairy tales.
I would say that for a true atheist perspective, not colored by anger at religion, Skating Away (on the Thin Ice of a New Day) by Jethro Tull fits the bill rather well. One might argue for a humanist/atheist message in Nirvana’s Come as You Are. There is also Empty Frame by Brian Eno and John Cale, but that one seems particularly existential while Spinning Away offers a clearer atheistic message.
I didn’t know that U2 were Christians. But I’m not even sure that that’s relevant: Songwriters, like any author, frequently write from a perspective that they don’t personally hold.
It’s more “I don’t believe in God, but it’s OK if you do.” Not all nonbelievers feel that way, believe me. Some of them even post on the Dope. :o
That line, BTW, is “Kicked in the face/you CAN pray for a place…”
There’s this one guy, Tim Minchin, who has several songs that fit the bill. I’d start with this because he explains his point of view prior to the song.
I would also suggest that his poem Storm should be the official poem of the Straight Dope.
Not sure if it qualifies, but how about Todd’s “God Said”?
How about Susan Werner’s Probably Not?
David Bowie’'s ‘Quicksand’ from album Hunky Dory is rather bleak, beautiful and godless. A tad Nazi-ish, annoyingly, too, if I remember rightly.