Atheist Songs

[Rev. Rye]

Here's two of the best:

XTC: Dear God





(Note: This is a lot more dour than most of the band's output)

Randy Newman: God's Song





Imagine being the sort of person who only knows Randy Newman's Disney-adjacent work (and maybe "Short People" or the second theme for Monk) and finding out he wrote a song as absolutely brutal as this. I'd highly recommend the album Sail Away. Quite a few of the songs on that particular album touch on religion, from the title track using it as part of a sales pitch for America... to a bunch of Africans the singer's helping to enslave, to "Old Man" (which explicitly rejects a deity), to "He Gives Us All His Love". The last one is particularly interesting, because, while it's ambiguously worded enough that even some born-agains have actually earnestly covered it, the actual lyrical content boils down to "God watches us. He sees the struggles we go through, and gives us his love." Notably, He doesn't intervene in any way, rendering this love kind of hollow. You expect to hear him drop the Epicurean Paradox at some point, but he doesn't. At least it's less saccharine than that "From a Distance" song.

"My God" by Jethro Tull.





Fun Fact: if you never bothered to pick up Jethro Tull's Aqualung album, I'd request you do so. The entire second side (or at least Tracks 7-11) make up a suite of anti-religious (though, admittedly, more deistic than atheistic) songs. And this one in particular is one of the best. The flute solo is one of the best in the band's catalogue (perhaps second only to "Bouree.")

[Thumpalumpacus]

Interesting to note the use by both Newman and Tull of dissonance as a basis for their songs. Plus, that riff in Tulls slays. I've long loved Martin Barre's guitar playing, too.

I do think that Anderson's sarcasm comes through when he spits out "He gets his kicks!" and the next few lines.