God, fact or fiction -The Sequel. ( Archived) (777)

oh goody, Dylan is my favourite! and I believe he did go through the finding God stage, as many do. I have no idea where he stands on the issue today though but maybe somebody reading this has more current info.

However, the song below is widely considered to be one of his best.


Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

well said Kid, what you say sounds spot on to me

in my late teens I went through a period where I couldnt understand Dylan's words too, simply could not get to grips with the things he was saying and didnt even listen for a couple of years then when I was back on track, a little older and wiser, his diction began to make sense once more.

I stopped listening again when he got to his 'search for God' years as I found it difficult to find clarity in a lot of the things he was saying - maybe Im going through another spiritual growth period just now as Im thinking of reviewing all his stuff again as I have the notion that his references to God do not involve monotheism.

A few weeks ago I posted Mark Twains Ultimate Indictment of Christian Hipocracy which speaks of The Long Prayer and in which, one of Gods right hand men comes to listen in to a prayer being said for protection in war - the whole thread was a bit long but I think this excerpt says much ;

O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells;

help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;

help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;

help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire;

help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;

help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee,

Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. (After a pause.)

"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

well of course you are entitled to your opinion but I reckon there are many, many people who resent words being put into Gods mouth - at the end of the day, words are a man made concept, an aid to communication. All they can ever come close to in describing God is the representation of a 'feeling', a hunch. The rest is man made.

The many interwoven premises which He purportedly represents are nothing more than 'words put into his mouth' by mankind - if you want an example of this have a look at the Calvinist work ethic or the many repentances called for in Lutheranism - all man made forms of population control and constructed in the name of God