Dedicated to the memory of Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)
pop
love
acoustic
folk
country
classic
california
heart
melody
traditional
australia
sydney
comedy
finger picking
london
atheist
philosophical
satire
tyler
natural
cornelius
charles
religion
agnostic
mendocino
relaxed
satirical
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Story behind the song
I wrote this song while I was travelling in China a while ago - I had the melody before I left and a couple of ideas - wrote the lyrics on the road and recorded it about a week after I got back.. on 21 July 2007.
Perhaps being in China - one country where religion is decidedly on the back foot - had something to do with the way the song came out. It is refreshing, after travelling in many parts of the world where religion dominates society, to walk through streets full of people who see the world essentially as it is - without the weird distortions that religious views impose. China may have its problems, but at least women have equal rights for the most part and can walk around freely in tee shirts and shorts if they want - and I don't feel threatened there that if I upset someone's religious feelings they might kill me!
As you may notice the lyric was influenced by reading Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) and Christopher Hitchens (God is not great - How religion poisons everything). Really what I have tried to do is capture the essence of these books in three short verses....
For the record, although I do not believe in the God of the Torah, the Bible and the Koran - the personal God watching and judging us - I am deep down a bit of a mystic... and my kind of mysticism gets along fine with science. Something is happening here after all... and we are part of it.
Lyrics
The land is just the land
Like the sea is just the sea
No land is ever promised
No land is ever holy
These are just words people say
Just thoughts that lead them astray
These are just myths of history
Just ignorance and stupidity
Religion poisons everything
Religion is the original sin
The pedophile priest
The suicide bomber
The plane into the tower
The daughter killed for honour
And a child is just a child
Not a Muslim or a Jew
Not a Shiite or a Sunni
Not a Christian or a Hindu
These are just labels we sell
To those still innocent and free
When they are much too young to tell
Reality from fantasy
Religion is the great mistake
Religion is the trust we break
The poison in the playground
The suspicion of the other
The faith school and madrassa
Brother killing brother
And a book is just a book
Just words upon a page
There is no holy scripture
All writing is man made
There is no afterlife to fear
No god to which we have to bow
The simple rule for living here
Is just kindness in the here and now
Religion paralyzes minds
Religion is the past that binds
The idiot evangelists
Disputing evolution
The crusade and the jihad
And the final solution
Religion poisons everything
Religion is the original sin