System of a Down – Science

• 0
  My Interpretation:The very subject of the song is in the title: Science. It's in some ways a praise for science, yet also Serge is being very critical about it. Some people in this section have related it a lot of things, e.g. science is the cure to religion, science isn't helping the world at all, science has holes that are filled with religion, and so on. I think that in some ways, yes, Serge is telling people that science to the greatest extent is causing more problems for the world than solutions. Serge himself is also attuned to nature, and considers it divine. The line "Spirit moves through all things" could pay homage that belief. What I also drew from the song is that science isn't killing religion, it's only drawing more people to it. Serge himself has expressed a dislike for organized religion, like Christianity or Islam. I think that he believes in the Christian god, but denounces most aspects, like going to church and following the word of the Bible. Instead, he entwines it more into his divine concept of nature. Or he could just love nature alone. But the point is, he's talking about how science and religion work as a team to corrupt the world, both harmful when used to a radical extent.

  Flag shalayahonon February 16, 2013   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• -1
  General Comment:"Making two possibilities a reality,
  Predicting the future of things we all know,
  Fighting off the diseased programming
  Of centuries, centuries, centuries, centuries"
  
  This is explaining what science has done for us so far. "Making two possibilities a reality" could either refer to simply discovering things that we thought could never be, or it could relate to two specific scientific discoveries.
  "Predicting the future of things we all know" refers to science's usefulness and it's ability to predict the future (weather, behavior, etc..).
  "Fighting off the diseased programming of centuries, centuries, centuries, centuries" clearly refers to fundamentalist religion. It seems like Serge wanted to put an emphasis on how long and dragged out this "diseased programming" of religion has been going on. Finally science arrived to help fight it, so I don't believe SOAD believes it to be a bad thing at all.
  
  "Science fails to recognize the single most
  Potent element of human existence
  Letting the reigns go to the unfolding
  Is faith, faith, faith, faith"
  
  When Serge says "Science fails to recognize the single most
  Potent element of human existence", I think he might be referring to human emotion here, and maybe love in particular. Love = morality. Even if there is only a small bit, all humans seem to have at least some morality, one way or the other. Most people seem to want the feeling that they're individually special in some way. Science doesn't recognize this feeling, it being another "potent element of human existence". Because of this, people tend to stray away from it blindly because they are afraid. So, "letting the reigns go to the unfolding is faith, faith, faith faith". In other words, people often like to reject science and turn to faith (in religion or an external god) because they want to feel special.
  
  "Science has failed our world
  Science has failed our Mother Earth"
  
  Science has given us some truth and understanding but hasn't given us enough to undo the brainwashing of religion.
  
  "Spirit-moves-through-all-things
  Spirit-moves-through-all-things
  Spirit-moves-through-all-things"
  
  Here I think SOAD is referring to the complete "oneness" of the universe. We are all the same energy (spirit). All things are one.
  
  Just my opinions! This song is badass. =D

  Flagged Bioshock32on November 29, 2012   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• 0
  General Comment:The meaning is quite straight forward here, no hint of sarcasm anywhere. I too have similar thought on how science is fucking the things up, developing and selling things we dont really need. It has become more a drug, making you rely on it and leaving you physically immoblie eventually. Not to mention the horrendous weapons of destruction we created in the name of progress. Science is good, but commercialized science is bad. I think we developed enough, we must take a break now and try to find the way nature works with science, more than trying to make lives anymore easier.

  Flag Nirajkumaron October 09, 2012   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• 0
  My Opinion:i love this song amazing metal riffs and its dissing the U.S. Government im sorry but i don't agree with a lot of things that the u.s. government does to its citizens its a bunch of bull shit too bad they broke up though they couldv'e been huge WHY DO ALL THE AMAZING BANDS BREAK UP!!!!!!!

  Flag rokk123on November 11, 2011   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• -2
  My Opinion:This song can't be about faith in a deity is more important than science. That's just wrong. Faith in a deity has caused so many of the world's problems and science has solved so many of these and it has improved human life a lot.
  I think this song is about how faith in Nature is more important. The only thing science has failed is nature with all the CO2 emissions, deforestation.
  However, today science has had so many new innovations since this song was written which have benefited the environment. Science is beginning to solve all the problems it created for Earth.
  I think having faith in Nature and in science is a great thing to have. Faith in any religion is not (I won't elaborate why because it is a lot of information and it is easy to just Google it).

  Flagged metalrockson October 29, 2011   Link

  • 2 Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
    0

    Stop rating your own comments up, especially when they suck

    Flag spinachsaladon October 29, 2011  

    0

    Right and scientific advancements in weaponry haven't hurt anybody. Every hear of napalm? The atomic bomb? Bio-warfare? Guns, bombs, flamethrowers etc? How about the horrible experiments performed in the name of "science" by the Nazis and Japanese during WW2?
    
    I'm not saying to stop or slow scientific research and advancement at all but acting like it's never caused any harm is pure idiocy. Faith in a deity is fairly benign by itself and is the cause of very few, if any, of the world's problems today.
    
    Stop posting your opinion as fact. It IS possible that the artist doesn't agree with you.

    Flag 93cianon August 15, 2012  
• 0
  My Interpretation:Yeah I get the part where science has caused harm to the Earth. For one, deforestation was less of a problem when the axe was the only tree felling tool and it took several men several days to fell one tree. Still, science has helped mankind; it would be hypocritical to say otherwise. I'ld say this song is about how science benefits man (self-centered man!) at the expense of Mother Earth

  Flag TheNextBestThingon February 28, 2011   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• 0
  General Comment:oop.. make that 8 pages back (hell)
  morko made some nice points on that page too- inspiring (even to a current athiest)

  Flag faceofbearon February 12, 2011   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• 0
  General Comment:I think it would be more fair to say that WE have failed our mother earth?
  Science doesn´t decide how we choose to use new knowledge and technology.
  
  I think ImIranian (sp?) nailed the song meaning though (about 6 pages back) although I am not sure if I agree with his anti-everything stance..

  Flag faceofbearon February 12, 2011   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• 0
  General Comment:I believe that simply reading the lyrics of this song will imply that SoAD is saying that God trumps science.
  
  But I think we need to consider the possibility that there's an undertone of sarcasm or mocking in this song's lyrics.
  
  Think about their other song, Tentative, which is on Hypnotize. "No one's gonna save us now, not even God"
  
  I don't think SoAD is pro-God or pro-faith by any means.

  Flag Hockeydawgon December 23, 2010   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.
• 0
  Song Meaning:I think that this song is about how a lot of us have given up our spiritual selves to blindly follow religions. The way I see it, science is just a nu-religion. It's part of human nature to believe in something. If there is no belief, there is no purpose, and if there is no purpose, there is no point in living. People flagging themselves as atheists don't really believe in nothing, they believe in science, because they believe science has the answers. Really what science is is another faith because in reality, we've just begun to be able to describe the way things work. To sum that up, I don't think that this song is about substituting faith for science, rather, I think they are saying that science has become the new faith.
  
  Don't be fooled by science. Your scientist of today holds just as many certain answers as the priest of yesterday.

  Flag Arson44on September 20, 2010   Link

  • No Replies Log in to reply
    
      There was an error.

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!