God is filled with love!:

http://www.truechristian.com/atheists.html

--This is one of the reasons I'm an atheist.

I thought about the ending of this song as well and considered some of the same things that wrinkledphole mentioned. But i'm going to have to say I think crazy punk girl is correct. The lyrics go back in forth from the perspective of the narrator and the person he is critisizing. when he says "if it's real for me.. etc" and "it came to me" it is as if it is in quotes from someone else. someone who he is critisizing.

I have to say evms made a valiant effort in trying to interpret an anti-capitalist message in this song, but I think it was really a stretch. The song's about the fallacy of epiphany. That's it. Particularly relating to religion and philosphy - a common theme in Bad Religion music. I've never noticed emphasized marxist ideals coming through in BR lyrics before and I've listened to a lot of them. They don't tend to hide their messages so much, they seem to want the listener to understand. I'll have to read up on what the band members political ideologies are. Or does anyone know so I don't have to? :)

The (international) noise consipracy who claims BR as one of their top influences is clearly marxist, you might like their stuff. (I do). Though, if that's your thing i'm sure you've listened to them already.

PS a key lyric is "Only to discover that our minds have led us away so far from the painful truth of who we are"

OUR MINDS led us away, not society, not the media. Epiphany comes out of nothing.. there's no basis for it which is why it's absurd to base our beliefs on it. I think it's important to know what epiphany actually means so here's the definition.

A. A revelatory manifestation of a divine being.
B 1. A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.
2. A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization: “I experienced an epiphany, a spiritual flash that would change the way I viewed myself” (Frank Maier).

I also suggest looking up manifestation if you don't know what it means.

The process of belief is an elixer when you're weak.. I must admit at times I indulge it on the sneak.. (quote from another BR song) wouldn't you guys agree that having an epiphany is awesome regardless of it being essentially meaningless? I mean, it feels awesome. I think I've had a few. In this case I mean a sudden realization that gives you a new perspective on your way of thinking.

One of my friends decided he believed in God a few weeks ago because of something that happened to him. While I'm disappointed in my friend, that must be a pretty cool feeling to have. Anyway, I guess this is irrelevant to the meaning of the song hehe.

Here is what I think: this song is about how some revelation, epiphany, comes to a person. This person then shares this with others, wether through a religious book, a philosophy, a manifesto, whatever. As the idea 'travels' from person to person and, especially, down the river of time, it becomes distorted, abused and fades.

Jesus' condemnation of dogmatism & advocacy of tolerance becomes a dogmatic religion

Marx' essentially economic system becomes a totaliarian political system. (Animal Farm, BTW, describes the process in this song wonderfully)

Nietzsche's Ubermensch becomes Nazi Ubermensch (In a slightly different context, Nazis went out of their way to corrupt things as opposed to gradual corruption over a long period)

I just realized something today: this song makes a lot of sense if you know Richard Dawkins' stance on revelations. He considers them to be one of the bad reasons for believing in something, and also says that it is a bad reason for believing in it due to a lack of evidence, the basic point of the song. Given Graffin's scientific background, I'm not really surprised that he either knows about it, or agrees with it. It's also interesting to note that there is some social commentary also to coincide with the notions on belief. I don't know if this makes much sense, but that's what I'm getting from it.

I'd say that the lyric "all thats benign corrupts in time" has alot of significance. An epiphany is of no harm, its benign. Whether a politcal, social or religious idea initially its harmless. However after it gains ground and spreads from person it "corrupts in time"

i think its about how evreyone take thing in there own way

This is a good song, I like it.

The human mind is vulnerable to hallucinations, anyone who has studied the human brain can tell you this. These hallucinations can easily be misinterpreted to be religious experiences. Once we've had this "experience" we think of it as an epiphany. We think we are more enlightened by it, but it's basically just a psychological way for anyone who wants to believe in a religion to have justification for their beliefs that hold no value. Many of the people who say they've seen God or that God has talked to them, actually are fooled by this false hallucination and full heartedly believe that what happened to them can not be explained. A Christian might tell you that he spoke to Jesus, a Muslim might tell you that he spoke to Allah, etc. "it's all so relative."

"see the profit from your loss"..

great double meaning... your prophet... you will realize is the profit... the one who profits from your loss.. thats mainly directed at religion..

realization that your whole outlook on life up until now has been false... and youv been led astray..
the fallacy...