The meaning of this song is pretty straightforward. It is not an atheist or anti-religion song like the other well known Heresy. This is about a man who is teetering. His whole life is collapsing around in and his faith in the god he believes in is slipping. It gets to the point where he is hopeless in life to the point where he surrenders himself entirely to his god, but his belief is slipping away permanently as the logical fallacies inherent in religious beliefs become clear. With everything gone, he begs on his hands and knees for salvation and to retain his belief "I want so much to believe", "don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to (the idea of god)".
Pretty powerful song, once you get the meaning behind it. If you are an agnostic, atheist or deist who was raised in a religious household like I was, and at one point in time you were forced into realization, then you know these feelings just as I and Trent do.
It should be noted that the emotion here is uncertainty, as opposed to condemnation or satire in most god or religion oriented NIN songs (Heresy, God Given, i.e), in that he realizes logically he does not believe in that idea of god anymore, yet he does not want to let it go as he well be entirely alone in the world.
It should be noted that the emotion here is uncertainty, as opposed to condemnation or satire in most god or religion oriented NIN songs (Heresy, God Given, i.e), in that he realizes logically he does not believe in that idea of god anymore, yet he does not want to let it go as he well be entirely alone in the world.
The meaning of this song is pretty straightforward. It is not an atheist or anti-religion song like the other well known Heresy. This is about a man who is teetering. His whole life is collapsing around in and his faith in the god he believes in is slipping. It gets to the point where he is hopeless in life to the point where he surrenders himself entirely to his god, but his belief is slipping away permanently as the logical fallacies inherent in religious beliefs become clear. With everything gone, he begs on his hands and knees for salvation and to retain his belief "I want so much to believe", "don't take it away from me, I need you to hold on to (the idea of god)".
Pretty powerful song, once you get the meaning behind it. If you are an agnostic, atheist or deist who was raised in a religious household like I was, and at one point in time you were forced into realization, then you know these feelings just as I and Trent do.
So yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
It should be noted that the emotion here is uncertainty, as opposed to condemnation or satire in most god or religion oriented NIN songs (Heresy, God Given, i.e), in that he realizes logically he does not believe in that idea of god anymore, yet he does not want to let it go as he well be entirely alone in the world.
It should be noted that the emotion here is uncertainty, as opposed to condemnation or satire in most god or religion oriented NIN songs (Heresy, God Given, i.e), in that he realizes logically he does not believe in that idea of god anymore, yet he does not want to let it go as he well be entirely alone in the world.
I take it someone lied to him about "on the down low" too ;)
I take it someone lied to him about "on the down low" too ;)
@LyricallyAnonymous What do you mean?
@LyricallyAnonymous What do you mean?