Neighborhood Atheism (Feat. Greydon Square)
from The Rap Guide to Religion by Baba Brinkman
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about
The journey from faith to atheism, and why some people find it threatening.
Further reading:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-atheists-we-distrust/
Further reading:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-atheists-we-distrust/
lyrics
Okay, so if belief in a supernatural monitor god
That supervises morality
Is a cultural evolutionary adaptation
That spread because it incentivized cooperation
In large scale socieites
Giving them an adaptive edge in competitions
Well then that predicts that religious people
Should really mistrust atheists, huh?
I used to call myself an agnostic
But that was just me bein' politically correct
What's my name? Baba! The B-A-B-A's a
Mystic honorific in south and west Asia
Named for my contemplative demeanour at the scene of my nativity
My folks were hippies in the seventies
They thought a baby with the face of a Buddhist monk
Must be a reincarnated Buddhist monk, who’d've thunk?
I grew up around a lotta new age woo
Deepak Chopra, Yoga, What the Bleep Do
We know, holy Eckhart Tolle, it was a heady brew
And yeah, I went through a woo phase too
I'm still cool with the yoga stretchin’
But not with supernatural forces, nonexistent
No gods, no heaven, no hell
No karma, except for the kind we forge ourselves
And loads of heathens have told me that even though they don't believe in
Them, they think that other people need them to be moral creatures
If gods don’t exist, they needs to be invented
‘Cause without them everything is permitted
We live in your neighbourhood
Don’t be afraid of us
For facing the world without faith
Get used to us, we’re stayin’ put
And if you try livin’ without god
You might find it liberates
My atheism’s intellectual
Faith-based claims are either untestable
Or testable and evidentially contemptible
But then I learned that atheists are unelectable
And trusted somewhat less than child molesters
Damn, I thought it was an epistemological question!
You’re thinkin’ just because I don’t believe I’m bein’ watched
When I’m alone, that I’m about to go turn into Ghengis Kahn?
Or pull a Sandy Hook on ‘em? Get a grip man
Morality is like a bike, religion’s like a kick stand
You can’t imagine somebody being honest
Without the aid of a crutch, because you’re leaning on it
I get it, but god is not the only scaffolding
That props you up with tough choices when you’re grappling
It may come as a slap in the face to republicans
But atheism increases under stable governments
In other words, people don’t need gods
When they feel they can trust cops to keep the laws
You think trust is earned by showin’ up for church?
I trust an Uber driver first, you can check his work
My grandfather thought religion can save us
But I place more faith in digital reputations
Besides, religion isn’t always ethical
Je suis Charlie Hebdo
We live in your neighbourhood
Don’t be afraid of us
For facing the world without faith
Get used to us, we’re stayin’ put
And if you try livin’ without god
You might find it liberates
All my nonbelievers
All my godless heathens
Ask us why we’re not just bein’
Evil, we got lots of reasons
And if you stopped believin’
Would you be choppin’ people up?
What’s keepin’ you from slaughtering?
I hope it’s not just preachers
Greydon Square:
I used to believe in a god just like fools
Before The Compton Effect, The Scale, and Type 2
Before the physics
The christian god was the lord of wisdom
I was the same and abhorred the different
As a black dude I ate it up
I would shuffle into the pews and pray for stuff
Stay for what?
The girls with the amazing butts
Of course I’m an ape, being forced a bible but the fables sucked
Slave lineage
They taught us to shame the knowledge and praise ignorance
After grace
The methods were just insidious
But believe it even though it’s hideous,
Cuz “masta say”
I thought “no way this could be heaven sent”
So I started doing research, looking for evidence
Inspect theology and afterlife
Stepping into vivid color from a simple life of black and white
Now when I’m smashin’ the mic
My appetite is disruptive facts on wax that you happen to like
They say we're less moral
Naw, we just sniff the bullshit out like it’s fresh floral
We actually test thorough
We live in your neighbourhood
Don’t be afraid of us
For facing the world without faith
Get used to us, we’re stayin’ put
And if you try livin’ without god
You might find it liberates
That supervises morality
Is a cultural evolutionary adaptation
That spread because it incentivized cooperation
In large scale socieites
Giving them an adaptive edge in competitions
Well then that predicts that religious people
Should really mistrust atheists, huh?
I used to call myself an agnostic
But that was just me bein' politically correct
What's my name? Baba! The B-A-B-A's a
Mystic honorific in south and west Asia
Named for my contemplative demeanour at the scene of my nativity
My folks were hippies in the seventies
They thought a baby with the face of a Buddhist monk
Must be a reincarnated Buddhist monk, who’d've thunk?
I grew up around a lotta new age woo
Deepak Chopra, Yoga, What the Bleep Do
We know, holy Eckhart Tolle, it was a heady brew
And yeah, I went through a woo phase too
I'm still cool with the yoga stretchin’
But not with supernatural forces, nonexistent
No gods, no heaven, no hell
No karma, except for the kind we forge ourselves
And loads of heathens have told me that even though they don't believe in
Them, they think that other people need them to be moral creatures
If gods don’t exist, they needs to be invented
‘Cause without them everything is permitted
We live in your neighbourhood
Don’t be afraid of us
For facing the world without faith
Get used to us, we’re stayin’ put
And if you try livin’ without god
You might find it liberates
My atheism’s intellectual
Faith-based claims are either untestable
Or testable and evidentially contemptible
But then I learned that atheists are unelectable
And trusted somewhat less than child molesters
Damn, I thought it was an epistemological question!
You’re thinkin’ just because I don’t believe I’m bein’ watched
When I’m alone, that I’m about to go turn into Ghengis Kahn?
Or pull a Sandy Hook on ‘em? Get a grip man
Morality is like a bike, religion’s like a kick stand
You can’t imagine somebody being honest
Without the aid of a crutch, because you’re leaning on it
I get it, but god is not the only scaffolding
That props you up with tough choices when you’re grappling
It may come as a slap in the face to republicans
But atheism increases under stable governments
In other words, people don’t need gods
When they feel they can trust cops to keep the laws
You think trust is earned by showin’ up for church?
I trust an Uber driver first, you can check his work
My grandfather thought religion can save us
But I place more faith in digital reputations
Besides, religion isn’t always ethical
Je suis Charlie Hebdo
We live in your neighbourhood
Don’t be afraid of us
For facing the world without faith
Get used to us, we’re stayin’ put
And if you try livin’ without god
You might find it liberates
All my nonbelievers
All my godless heathens
Ask us why we’re not just bein’
Evil, we got lots of reasons
And if you stopped believin’
Would you be choppin’ people up?
What’s keepin’ you from slaughtering?
I hope it’s not just preachers
Greydon Square:
I used to believe in a god just like fools
Before The Compton Effect, The Scale, and Type 2
Before the physics
The christian god was the lord of wisdom
I was the same and abhorred the different
As a black dude I ate it up
I would shuffle into the pews and pray for stuff
Stay for what?
The girls with the amazing butts
Of course I’m an ape, being forced a bible but the fables sucked
Slave lineage
They taught us to shame the knowledge and praise ignorance
After grace
The methods were just insidious
But believe it even though it’s hideous,
Cuz “masta say”
I thought “no way this could be heaven sent”
So I started doing research, looking for evidence
Inspect theology and afterlife
Stepping into vivid color from a simple life of black and white
Now when I’m smashin’ the mic
My appetite is disruptive facts on wax that you happen to like
They say we're less moral
Naw, we just sniff the bullshit out like it’s fresh floral
We actually test thorough
We live in your neighbourhood
Don’t be afraid of us
For facing the world without faith
Get used to us, we’re stayin’ put
And if you try livin’ without god
You might find it liberates
credits
from The Rap Guide to Religion,
released October 23, 2015
Written by D. Brinkman, J. Simmonds, and G. Square
Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Mr. Simmonds
Additional Keys by Simon Kendall
Guest Verse by Greydon Square
Written by D. Brinkman, J. Simmonds, and G. Square
Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Mr. Simmonds
Additional Keys by Simon Kendall
Guest Verse by Greydon Square
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about
Baba Brinkman New York, New York
Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.
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