anonymous October 31st, 2005 02:21PM  

This song is basically about the dispute between faith/religion and science. The first half of the verse is in favor of science "predicting the future of things we all know" shows the accuracy and usefullness of science.. "fighting off the diseased programming of centuries" refers to the large belief of religion in the past and how scientific theories are beggining to challenge them.. religion is the diseased programming that was "programmed in our head for centuries"... the second half of the verse seems to be in favor of faith..

"Science fails to recognize the single most potent element of human existance" which means that not even science can fully explain our existance. "Letting the reigns go to the unfolding is faith" THis means that faith does not demand reason or explaination for occurances, and kind of just goes with the flow.. "spirit moves through all things" refers to the ability for science to be proven wrong, but faith is more flexible and ultimately more powerful... moving through all things means that with faith you'll have to power to deal with evil and other problems.

anonymous December 31st, 2006 08:32AM  

I really agree with Jack.
when they say "predicting the future of things we all know" they not make a good point to sciences, it's just sarcastic. If we all know that things, predicting them is just losing our time.And making two possiblilities of one reality is just useless to us.

The clue is "Spirit moves through all things". It not reffers to religion, but to everything that science can't explain, that make us be humans, and not machines. Our spirit, our feellings are the strongest things on earth

anonymous June 27th, 2007 07:39PM  

Unfortunately, this song is creating arguments. for the fact that it's about science vs religion. Religion works in faith, and hope, not facts. Science has less answers, more theories, but also more facts. A lot of religion contradicts itself. But people put there faith in there being a higher power. Religion offered answers long ago when there wasnt technology to prove facts. The world has moved through time believing in religion, and now science comes along and contradicts it completely. There is no one to prove the big bang theory is correct, but even less proof of a god that exsists. Science is the reason this world is dyeing but science is also the cure for disease. Science is a new thing to us all, and the facts that's its now contradicting beliefs people have had for millenia's is taking away our faith.

anonymous October 14th, 2007 12:20PM  

I think this is a fairly simple one to interpret. It is quite clearly anti-religious. 'Fighting the diseased programming of centuries.' To me 'programming of centuries' is clearly religious indoctrination, by qualifying that phrase with 'diseased' they clearly put a negative stance towards religion. Outlining the science vs. religion.

The second verse is more tricky. In my opinion, given the nature of the band, they believe that is is faith which is out of control, rather than science('letting the reigns go'). 'Science fails to recognise....faith' means that although science can disprove religious beliefs as inaccurate, it still has not found a way to combat faith. In this respect 'science has failed our world' because religious faith is having such a detrimental affect on many parts of the world.

anonymous February 6th, 2008 04:42AM  

The fact that serj repeats "spirit moves through all things" is most likely what he is trying to get across and is the centre of the whole tune. "spirit" Meaning the obvious spirit or soul or maybe energy?? Light??? religions believe this and even science has made fact that everything is essentially energy and made of the same stuff. Trees, concrete, me, stars its all the same so maybe that's what he means by spirit moves through all things. or I'm possibly horrendously wrong. Horrendously

anonymous November 24th, 2008 09:35PM  

Well... ...Youtube up Science live at the Lowlands Festival. I haven't seen it for a year or so, but Serj speaks a little introduction for it. With his statement, and the lyrics, I think we can safely interpret the song to mean that, although science has helped us so and saved lives, it is science that has polluted our earth, and it is science that renders philosophy moot. Because of science and its progressions, we do not think of why we are here. - Josh S

anonymous May 11th, 2009 05:30PM  

I think it's about how we must not let faith get in the way of what we can be. For example stem cell research can save many people but religious groups feel we should not persue it. Alot of the words are in favor of faith but system is always sarcastic and takes the other side alot. For example War? is actually an anti-war song but alot of the lyrics glorify fighting and cigaro rejects the machoism of the government but includes lyrics like "my cock is much bigger than yours"

anonymous May 19th, 2009 04:01PM  

Although this song seems to be supporting faith and /or religion (it never stated religion, just faith which is belief in things that we have no evidence yet to prove are there), all this "letting religion and faith guide us" rubbish is not the way to go.
If we let faith and religion guide us, and start living in a society governed by religion, we would all be rendered slaves to higher ranked priests and zealots who are given power by our persistent beleif that they can somehow interpret messages from a deity/force/consciousness for which we have no evidence actually exist .
Science is not a way of controlling the outcome of life. I is the finding and understanding of matierial laws that govern the world WE perceive around us. Whether we use this KNOWLEDGE(keyword) to try and change the outcome of life is up to you, bearing in mind we try to do just that by BELIEVING IN RELIGION ANYWAY! Sacrificing a sheep or food etc is TRYING TO ALTER THE OUTCOME OF LIFE by asking for DIVINE INTERVENTION, aka, you are hoping that by wasting a needed resource (seemingly unnescesarily) you will be granted a re-imbursement (winning a fight, winning the lottery etc etc.).
To this end, if indeed this is what the song is about, I must disagree with serj on this matter.

anonymous May 19th, 2009 04:11PM  

It is true that science can do two things, allow us to understand the world we know and change our perception to better see out rules and laws like gravity, or close our mind to thinking creatively and only look for things that we think make sense at first sight. But, bear in mind religion does exactly the latter , teaching us to live in fear of a supposed 'higher power' and NOT THINK about how the world was created. One thing people tend to overlook about religion is how it is manipulated to reach the ends of priets, and popes and presidents ang princes. The crusades? IN THE NAME OF RELIGION. Bush on the iraq war? GOD TOLD ME TO! Religion creates a lot of unnessecary conflict, as do all ideas, but does not open our mind to thinking as some people contradictively try to defend it by saying. In this respect science is a better choice. also, religion is a very broad term to use, people mainly think about islam, christianity and judaism when they say religion, but remember buddhism and Sikhism etc as well!

PopCornMan June 25th, 2009 08:24PM  

this song is about how if our society didnt have science, we would all probably die. seriously. science is the 2nd most important thing to our society. soooo yaa

anonymous August 5th, 2009 02:42AM  

I'm not going to speculate as to what the true meaning of this song is. In my opinion all music is to be interpretive and mean something different to each person that listens to it. That's why it's so universal and moving. Clearly this song is written about science versus faith, as everyone before me has stated. But I'm not religious, so I like to look at it a completely different way, personally. Humor me for a second. My favorite line in the whole song is "Letting the reigns go to the unfolding is faith." To me this line helps remind me that sometimes you just have to take that leap, put your heart and soul into someone else's hands, have faith in human kind, and let yourself unfold to others and let them see who you truely are. What's life if you guard yourself constantly and never let anyone in? You have to let go and realize that you can not control everything in your life, and if you try to you will be miserable. Just let things happen the way they are supposed to, and yes bad stuff is gonna happen sometimes, but great things are going to happen to. It's all part of life and it's unpredictable and scary and amazing, all at the same time. Take whatever comes your way in stride, and know that it's all going to happen the way it's meant to be. Hope maybe now you can see another side to it instead of arguing as to which is better, science or religion.

anonymous November 17th, 2009 12:45AM  

Making two possibilities a reality – TWO possibilities says to me that one does not disclaim the other. Science and faith (religion) can coincide. The animosity between the two is what holds both back. Faith – I can only speak from my Christian faith and I must say that through the teachings of my saviour Jesus Christ I am not to turn a blind eye to science. My Lord does not want ignorant follows. We were given intellect not to sit idle but to expand our world views. In the Old Testament times there is no point God revealing Himself through advanced science therefore I think faith is in itself evolutionary. Science has failed our world - Science cannot (should not) ignore the spiritual aspect of humanity. There is a code in everything that makes up life. Together with a spirit seemingly bound to each self creating diverse interpretations and interactions with all that surrounds us. We have scientists who are blessed with the ability to read the codes leading to the wonder of scientific discovery, most notably medicine. We cannot externally however read or break down to the atom of spirit.