Atheists Don’t Have No Songs

June 1, 2010 By Guest Contributor 22 Comments

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers sing about atheism.

I laughed :)

(Thanks to Shannon for the link!)

Filed Under: Fine Arts, General, Humor 22 Comments
  • http://yetanotheratheist.net Yet Another Atheist

    Absolutely hilarious! My favorite line is “The H is always lower-case”. ;)

  • JulietEcho

    Nice :-) I like that we’ve got rock & roll, unless of course, you consider Creed to be rock & roll, in which case, I guess it’s not so cool after all.

  • Toni

    Oh, how wonderful! Thanks, Hemant! :) )

  • http://www.myspace.com/youreundoingmybeltwronghun Tim D.

    Meh. It was alright.

    Is it bad that the whole time I was watching, I was thinking, “Um, Bad Religion?” The vast majority of their songs are pretty much nothing but “godless existentialism.”

    I do admit one thing, though, and it’s quite a problem for me — there are too many atheistic songs that center around rage or despair, like those written by AFI and Bad Religion. There aren’t any “happy atheist” songs that were written for anything more than the novelty of the concept. Nobody writes about how atheism has impacted their life positively….hell, nobody even writes about the implicit positives that go hand-in-hand with atheism/agnosticism.

    I just feel like that kind of plays into the Christian-perpetuated stereotype that all atheists are “hurt” or “angry.”

  • Dan W

    I thought it was funny, though I know several songs that are fairly atheistic. Many songs by Bad Religion come to mind. Another song I like which I found on Youtube is called “Godless and Free”- sung to the tune of the song “Under the Sea”, which was in the Little Mermaid movie. There’s also some good atheistic rap by Graydon Square.

  • Fundie Troll

    @ Tim D.

    Nobody writes about how atheism has impacted their life positively….hell, nobody even writes about the implicit positives that go hand-in-hand with atheism/agnosticism

    Things that make you go “Hmmm…”

  • http://www.awkwardcore.com dan

    in response to tim, “styrofoam boots” by modest mouse is a fairly happy athiest ditty. another that springs to mind is r.e.m.’s “undertow.” happy isn’t the right word, but it’s certainly not a bleak or angry track, despite being about, um, a man drowning himself (perhaps metaphorically? heh). it’s kind of joyous — “brother can you see those birds? they don’t look to heaven. they don’t need religion, they can see.”

    ooh, another good one might be “if you’re feeling sinister” by belle & sebastian. it’s a bit hard to interpret (its author IS religious, but the song seems to conclude that there’s more solace in masturbation than there is to talking to a priest).

    and of course, they might be giants’ wonderful “science is real.”

  • Mak

    And, of course, there’s “Why Don’t Bees Go to Heaven?”, which is fairly upbeat.

  • Litha Cim

    stop thinking so hard and enjoy a good laugh:-)
    Thank goodness for Steve Martin!
    Wish he was my uncle:-)

  • Valhar2000

    I like that we’ve got rock & roll

    We also own pretty much all Metal.

    Not that some people haven’t tried to put even that through the Christ-machine.

  • http://wings1295.blogspot.com/ Wings

    Hah! I laughed, too. Fun stuff.

  • http://krissthesexyatheist.blogspot.com krissthesexyatheist

    Saw dude last year at Hardly Strickly Bluegrass and he was awesome.

    Kriss

  • Angie

    Epica has done some fabulous heavy metal songs about atheism that aren’t necessarily angry or bitter.

  • Alexis

    Two of my favorites are Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and the Austin Lounge Lizard’s “Jesus Loves Me (But he Can’t Stand You)”

  • Dan W

    There’s also “Imagine” by John Lennon.

  • cassiek

    “Free Will” by Rush is my one of my favorites. Geddy Lee is pretty open about his atheism.

  • runmore4

    I’ve always liked “I Come From the Water” by the Toadies, a rocking tribute to evolution.

  • Brian Macker

    People who don’t believe in leprechauns don’t have any songs either, uplifting or otherwise.

  • TychaBrahe
  • George Tudor

    As an atheist, I think this is one of the funniest videos I have seen. Loved it and laughed my butt off. Unlike the “religious,” we can laugh at ourselves. Good job.

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  • Mary

    I just listened to They Might Be Giants “Science is Real.” ON MY GOODNESS! I can’t wait until my baby girl can understand that one. :)