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" I got interested in palaeontology and vertebrate history - sparked by books on human evolution - then vertebrate evolution. Studying with palaeontologists kindled my interest in fieldwork. "
Greg Graffin
History
Got
Evolution
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" I was in a choir as a kid. It was from those early days that my outlook on harmonies and arrangements were nurtured. I always took that with me, even on the earliest Bad Religion record, which strangely was only about six years after that. "
Greg Graffin
Religion
Me
Kid
" As a scientist, of course, we have to believe there is no supernatural. There are only natural entities in the universe. And those are the things that we study as natural scientists. "
Greg Graffin
Believe
Natural
Universe
" I was never raised with the traditional story of creation in religion, and because of that I think I had a lot of questions. And evolution, the evolutionary narrative, helped provide some of that for me. "
Greg Graffin
Think
Religion
Story
" I wouldn't say there's a need for the Spice Girls, but I'd say there's a place for the Spice Girls. There's certainly a place for them, but you don't promote the Spice Girls at the expense of promoting what I think are good role models for girls. You need to create some kind of equality. "
Greg Graffin
You
Place
Good
" Whether you reach a lot of people or have a profound impact on a few people, their memories of you are your afterlife. "
Greg Graffin
Memories
Reach
You
" I grew up playing football since the day I could walk; some of my greatest memories of childhood are playing touch football in all kinds of weather with my best friends. That's a part of the American experience that no corporation can destroy. "
Greg Graffin
Memories
Football
Day
" Every place has its own punk flavor, but they all borrowed ideas from SoCal. It's still a vibrant scene creeping into every crevasse of youth culture. When you hear grunge, you think of the '90s, but when you hear L.A. punk, it's timeless. "
Greg Graffin
Think
Youth
You
" The naturalist worldview is a good way to feel grounded and feel part of something that isn't based on fairy tales. It's based on observable facts in the human and in the biological history of the planet. I think that can be a source for comfort. "
Greg Graffin
Good
Comfort
Think
" From a very early age, I was in tune with pop radio, and most of this listening was done driving. We had an old '67 or '65 Buick LeSabre, and whenever we would drive around, I would actually stick my head right against the speakers in the back and sing along to the music. "
Greg Graffin
Driving
Listening
Music
" The thread of culture that runs through the entire history of punk is also a dedication to challenging the authoritarian. "
Greg Graffin
Culture
Dedication
History
" It's not a random chance that we have Alanis Morissette. She didn't evolve out of a null and void. She came from a former template. She borrowed styles and sounds from a very limited set of other artists. "
Greg Graffin
Void
Chance
Evolve
" One of our great thematic traditions in Bad Religion has been to question human nature. "
Greg Graffin
Human Nature
Religion
Nature
" It's been an objective of mine since I started writing songs to include both intellect and energy. "
Greg Graffin
Intellect
Started
Writing
" We delude ourselves into believing that morality comes from somewhere else, whereas in reality we behave as we've been told to behave. "
Greg Graffin
Somewhere
Reality
Morality
" Academic scientists aren't generally interested in books for the public. So when one comes out, the authors can't expect much praise from scientists. My goal both as a singer and an instructor is to educate through provocation and entertainment. "
Greg Graffin
Entertainment
Praise
Out
" I bill myself as a naturalist because if you say you're a naturalist, it gives people a conversation point to talk about what you actually do believe in, instead of when you say you're an atheist, and it's really just a statement of what you don't believe in. "
Greg Graffin
Myself
People
Conversation
" Unfortunately, science cannot be reduced to short, catchy phrases. And if this is all that the general public can comprehend, it's no wonder that we spend so much of our time in the interminable debate about belief in God, or lack thereof. "
Greg Graffin
Science
Short
Debate
" Bad Religion took a long time to develop into gold-record-status artists. Along the way we learned and applied our knowledge, and Atlantic helped us every step of the way, since 1993. "
Greg Graffin
Time
Religion
Long
" You can't take up all the music bins at a CD retail outlet with Spice Girls CDs and leave nothing for the Joan Jett catalogue. "
Greg Graffin
Nothing
Leave
Up
" If you go back far enough and get a wider enough picture of history, we have let go of many things that follow a religious narrative. We don't burn witches anymore. Most people would consider that barbaric. We don't sacrifice human beings, which was a religious act practiced by numerous cultures on this planet. "
Greg Graffin
History
Picture
People
" I don't bill myself as an atheist but as a naturalist. Naturalism is a belief system. A lot of scientists bristle at that. We all have to believe we can find the truth. Evidence is my guide. I rely on observation, experimentation and verification. "
Greg Graffin
Find
Believe
Belief
" I don't mind if other people call me an atheist, but I call myself a naturalist. Atheism doesn't tell you much about what I do believe in; the term naturalist opens up the discussion better. "
Greg Graffin
You
Believe
Me
" Almost everyone shuts down when science becomes too technical; you've got to infuse it with entertainment and storytelling to make it effective. From high school on, science is taught in a very dry manner, which isn't as potent. "
Greg Graffin
Down
You
Science
" Bad Religion's tradition has always been to try and provoke people but hopefully lead them to a better sense of who they are and what they stand for. That's supposed to make them feel better. "
Greg Graffin
Stand
Religion
People
" I'm trying to champion the naturalist's worldview and show it's not as heathen as most religious people would make it out to be. "
Greg Graffin
Most
Trying
Show
" Folk music usually has an emphasis on the lyrics and melody. And those lyrics are usually relevant in some way. And it's populist in scope, which is also true of Bad Religion. So it's more meant to draw some parallels between the two. And I think even my voice and my delivery can be thought of as a little bit folky. "
Greg Graffin
Music
Voice
Think
" I would say there's a lot of similarity between folk and punk. It's written for the common man. "
Greg Graffin
Common Man
Folk
Man
" I definitely was attracted to similar things in punk and science. They both depend on a healthy dose of skepticism. "
Greg Graffin
Science
Punk
Healthy
" I've written almost 200 songs with Bad Religion. No matter where you look in our history, the focus has been trying to instill some of these disturbing realities about the world, some of the implications of evolution into an artistic format that can be interpreted by people who may never study evolution. "
Greg Graffin
History
Focus
People
" So much of the habitat destruction and pollution is based on the simple principle that we somehow have been given free license over other species to degrade the planet. "
Greg Graffin
Over
Pollution
Simple