God Given

What i got out of listening to this track (also the only track off the album ive felt the imediate need to put my opinion in on) is that its a realization of how rediculous and close minded religion has gotten in present day society and how carried on the current path organized religion and its effects on its followers will soon enough tear apart the civilization we have spent thousands of years evolving into what it is today.

best song on album. does anyone else get a "Sexy Back" feeling around a minute into the song...? first time I heard it I made that connection, unfortunately...

Rolling Stone said that this song is about the Government controlling the church 15 years from now. Similarly, Survivalism is about how the military controls the government in the future.

Man, why do these songs always have to turn into religious debates? Although I must say (with moronic ignorance like syko227 aside) this is perhaps the most polite religious debate I have seen on here, no one has called anyone a fag yet, way to go!

Anyway, I personaly did not see this song as mockery because like the whole album, it is telling a story. This is the point of view of someone else, not Trent going "oooh, look at meee, I'm a christain and I believe blah blah blah" it's the corrupt and incorrect views of characters in the story.

In my opinon, I agree with the one who said it is more about the goverment than christains. Seriously, I never had to think about it, I heard it and it just made sense to me (being as many of the songs from Year Zero are from the viewpoint of the goverment or a soldier) that it was the goverment trying to justify what it is doing by saying it is God's will. I mean, seriously, this is something that has been done millions of times in the past. So in all honesty, I see mockery or blasphemy in this song, just a goverement trying to trick the people into following them by saying this is God's will and we are His chosen people, like the Muslims before them and thousands of religions before them.

So, in all honesty, I think it is the Anti-Religious people here that are trying to claim a song that doesn't mean what you want it to mean. Seriously, there are pleanty of anti-religious songs out there, just go listen to a Marilyn Manson cd (not just because of the anti-religious content, I mean come on... they are fucking amazing) or any death metal cd (if thats your thing), but understand that this song and CD is not anti-religious, it is anti-goverment.

I would always get the idea of some new religious sect.

The start of the song makes me think of some back-alley recruitment.

"...How hard is it to see Put your faith in me..."

The last part, starting as

"Wait Step into the light how can this be right?"

makes me think of some goverment/spy operation preparing to destroy the sect.

The artists themselves would be the prophets

"And He gives us sight And we'll see the light And it burns so bright Now we know we're right It is kingdom come And Thy will be done We have just begun We're the chosen ones"

...Way too much flaming of Christians going on here. I don't really think that's what the songs totally about. This is about people who think that they're better and have a "holier-than-thou" attitude, that either stuff it down your throat or tell you you're gonna burn in hell. Let me say, I'm actually a Christian, so I guess you could say I'm partially biased, so whatever.

Listen to the beat of God Given.

Got it?

Okay, now listen to the beat of Zero-Sum

SAME THING, different tempo.

This man is a genius

In my opinion...

I don't think the song has much to do with christianity. Anyone who knows anything about the setting of Year Zero knows that there is no longer any seperation of church and state. Instead Church and State now are the same. So in reality, this song could be about the new government that was established. The religious government.

Alright, I have to say something.

I don't believe it is fair what some of your are saying. Someone said that "Christians make it hard for me...", and how "Christians recurit..." People always say that we Christians are judgmental and unaccepting towards others.. Well, that's being judgmental right there. When you say that about a Christian, you're being a big hypocrite. And it makes you look stupid. Not all Christians try to shove religion down your throat, and not all of them are the stereotypes that you all seem to believe. I am a Christian myself, and I am no judgmental, and I accept a lot of people. Even if I don't agree with what they believe in or what they do, I don't rant about it, because it's not my life. But I really get angry when I see people talking about us Christians like this--accusing us of discriminate against other people. You need to know that not all Christians are like that. Some are REAL Christians who are loving and try to be like Jesus as much as they can. The ones who are rude and critisize other relgions, people, etc, are not doing their best to glorify God.

I am sure I will get a lot of nasty comments from some people, but I don't really mind. Not very many people know the term 'civilized'. Anyway, I actually like the beat of this song, personally. Very good tempo.

These are the lyrics to the fast whispering part of the song, I'm not sure if they are 100% accurate, but they are the best I could do.

"We'd never tell you anything that wasn't absolutely true, that hadn't come right from his mouth and he wants me to tell you."