The 'I Am Theist, You Are Humanist' Song Lyrics Were Written By Meg and Scott Bassinson Of Davies Memorial Unitarian*Universalist Church, New York
The lyrics of the Unitarian*Universalist aka U*U parody song 'I am Theist, You are Humanist' were kindly sent to me by JMan via a comment submitted to my initial blog post about this U*U parody song that deals with some "less than pleasant" aspects of the Theist/Humanist divide in U*Uism in a lighthearted and good-natured manner. It was however not clear who the songwriter aka lyricist aka author of the 'I am Theist, You are Humanist' song was. One could easily assU*Ume that it was JMan himself since he was the one who first brought the song to my attention, and provided me with the lyrics, but I did not make that assumption. Because U*Us know what they say about making assU*Umptions. No U*Us? ;-)
Well, to be *perfectly* honest, I actually *did* make that assumption based on the foregoing facts *but* aka however. . . to be equally *perfectly* honest I understood that that particular assumption could be a false assumption and potentially make an ass out of U*Us and, much more importantly*, *me* so I did not hold onto that quite reasonable assumption or, to use Rev. James Ishmael Ford's terminology, I let *that* thought go and tried aka made an effort to find out who the original composer(s) of the song was/were. I started by asking JMan if he was the author but got no response from him to date. Quite serendipitously, someone somewhere in the U*U.S of A. ran a search for theist humanist song lyrics today and following in their finger-taps I found this low quality aka amateurish U*UTube video of the 'I am Theist, You are Humanist' song which not only provides the complete lyrics of this parody song but also gives credit where credit is due, aka a little honest attribution, to Meg and Scott Bassinson of Albany, New York for writing the lyrics and pianist Nancy Delzel of the Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church for playing the piano during this performance. There is at least on other U*UTube video of a performance of the U*U parody song 'I am Theist, You are Humanist' posted to YouTube and, since it has much better production values I will embed *that* video below along with the complete original lyrics which have been slightly modified in JMan's version.
Lyrics:
You are theist I am humanist
I think that you're naive
You have no proof to offer as truth,
You simply say "I believe"
New age bubbles get you in trouble
Lost in a feel-good fluff
True understanding is quite demanding
Praying is not enough.
Totally unprepared are you
To make a case that's plain
Maybe the incense, chants, and drums
Have ruined your poor brain.
You need someone older and wiser
Telling you what to do,
You are theist, I am humanist
I--will think--for you!
I am theist, you are humanist
You're locked inside your head.
You're existential, self-referential
Claiming that God is dead,
Occam's razor, Pascal's wager
Soul-less tautology
Wisdom, traditions, not erudition
Make much more sense to me.
Totally unprepared are you
To let go of your mind.
How 'bout a leap of faith, my friend
You might like what you find.
When you find that you're out of answers
You won't know what to do
I am theist, you are humanist,
I -- will pray -- for you.
We cannot agree on anything
Each has a point of view,
I am theist --- I am humanist
That's why we're UU.
by Meg and Scott Bassinson of Albany, New York.
Thanks to pianist Nancy Delzel & Davies Memorial UU Church www.dmuuc.org
* I'm just being honest to quote Rev. Ray Drennan. Obviously I have few qualms about making asses out of U*Us who in my ever so humble opinion thoroughly deserve to be made asses. . . :-)
Well, to be *perfectly* honest, I actually *did* make that assumption based on the foregoing facts *but* aka however. . . to be equally *perfectly* honest I understood that that particular assumption could be a false assumption and potentially make an ass out of U*Us and, much more importantly*, *me* so I did not hold onto that quite reasonable assumption or, to use Rev. James Ishmael Ford's terminology, I let *that* thought go and tried aka made an effort to find out who the original composer(s) of the song was/were. I started by asking JMan if he was the author but got no response from him to date. Quite serendipitously, someone somewhere in the U*U.S of A. ran a search for theist humanist song lyrics today and following in their finger-taps I found this low quality aka amateurish U*UTube video of the 'I am Theist, You are Humanist' song which not only provides the complete lyrics of this parody song but also gives credit where credit is due, aka a little honest attribution, to Meg and Scott Bassinson of Albany, New York for writing the lyrics and pianist Nancy Delzel of the Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church for playing the piano during this performance. There is at least on other U*UTube video of a performance of the U*U parody song 'I am Theist, You are Humanist' posted to YouTube and, since it has much better production values I will embed *that* video below along with the complete original lyrics which have been slightly modified in JMan's version.
Lyrics:
You are theist I am humanist
I think that you're naive
You have no proof to offer as truth,
You simply say "I believe"
New age bubbles get you in trouble
Lost in a feel-good fluff
True understanding is quite demanding
Praying is not enough.
Totally unprepared are you
To make a case that's plain
Maybe the incense, chants, and drums
Have ruined your poor brain.
You need someone older and wiser
Telling you what to do,
You are theist, I am humanist
I--will think--for you!
I am theist, you are humanist
You're locked inside your head.
You're existential, self-referential
Claiming that God is dead,
Occam's razor, Pascal's wager
Soul-less tautology
Wisdom, traditions, not erudition
Make much more sense to me.
Totally unprepared are you
To let go of your mind.
How 'bout a leap of faith, my friend
You might like what you find.
When you find that you're out of answers
You won't know what to do
I am theist, you are humanist,
I -- will pray -- for you.
We cannot agree on anything
Each has a point of view,
I am theist --- I am humanist
That's why we're UU.
by Meg and Scott Bassinson of Albany, New York.
Thanks to pianist Nancy Delzel & Davies Memorial UU Church www.dmuuc.org
* I'm just being honest to quote Rev. Ray Drennan. Obviously I have few qualms about making asses out of U*Us who in my ever so humble opinion thoroughly deserve to be made asses. . . :-)
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