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" 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
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" My science teachers always encouraged their classes to 'go out and discover something' because all scientific endeavors depend on observation and experimentation. Through such pursuits, anyone can find something new to science, and if it's truly novel, the entire edifice of science might have to be restructured. "
Greg Graffin
Find
Depend
Always
" When I was a teenager, science meshed with my developing ideals - such as the challenge to authority that was central to punk rock. In science, anyone from any walk of life could make a discovery that would overturn prevailing hypotheses. And that was a cause for celebration among scientists. "
Greg Graffin
Rock
Challenge
Life
" I view music as entertainment. When I'm on stage, I don't look at that as a platform for sharing ideology. Otherwise I'd be a zealot myself. That's why, when people ask me, 'Do you think you can change the world through your music?' I say, 'I doubt it.' "
Greg Graffin
Myself
Music
Change
" It's been an objective of mine since I started writing songs to include both intellect and energy. "
Greg Graffin
Intellect
Started
Writing
" 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
" 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
" 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
" Let's face it: There are people who are extremists in every corner of society, and whatever flag they're waving is something Bad Religion has stood against. "
Greg Graffin
Face
Flag
People
" One of the things that all religions have is a narrative of doomsday. There has to be some kind of overarching fear of the future. If there wasn't, none of the religions could invoke this important thing - that science has no evidence of, by the way - called free will. "
Greg Graffin
Free
Future
Important
" 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
" A fossil is so powerful. It's moving. This is my ancestor. The naturalist is moved by the fossil... not the cross. "
Greg Graffin
Naturalist
Cross
Powerful
" I think English punk died in '79 or '80. Maybe '82 at the latest. As far as American punk goes, it wasn't the same as English punk. It wasn't a working-class movement that was protesting the conditions under which this class had to work. I don't think American punk ever died. "
Greg Graffin
Movement
American
Think
" 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
" I've known a lot of people who were punkers who went on to get academic degrees. Very few of them, however, continued their active role in the punk community. Most of them hung up their leather jacket when they did so. "
Greg Graffin
Community
Leather
People
" Science is very vibrant. There are always new observations to be found. And it's all in the interest in challenging the authority that came before you. That's consistent with the punk rock ethos that suggests that you should not take what people say at face value. "
Greg Graffin
People
Science
Value
" 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
" There are so many ways to characterize evolutionary success. If one criterion is the number of millions of years that the species persists, we're still just infants. We're way too young of a species to tell if we were a creative fluke or if we have any staying power. "
Greg Graffin
Creative
Power
Success
" You can look at Bad Religion, and, really, almost everything I've ever done was an exercise in creativity. I've always had a desire to challenge and question authority, and that's where the fire inside comes from. I challenged authority out of a desire to make things better, not to be nihilistic about it. "
Greg Graffin
Fire
Religion
Challenge
" Unfortunately, the average guy on the street believes that studying evolution leads to atheism. "
Greg Graffin
Evolution
Street
Studying
" 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 guess rock stars are role models for the kids who listen to that music. My role models have all been geologists - you know, the guys who are doing fieldwork until they're 70. "
Greg Graffin
Know
Doing
Music
" In the family, in interpersonal relationships, even in friendship, faith is tremendously important. If you have a partner who you believe is a good person, then it is your duty to have faith in them until the end, despite the fact that they might have done some bad things. And you have to support and believe in your children. "
Greg Graffin
Family
Support
Faith
" 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 struggled to keep one foot in music and one in academia. I had worked on my Ph.D. for three years full time before I realized Bad Religion could be a legitimate career. "
Greg Graffin
Religion
Music
Bad
" One of our great thematic traditions in Bad Religion has been to question human nature. "
Greg Graffin
Human Nature
Religion
Nature
" 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
" 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
" The trick is: how do you talk about natural selection without implying the rigidity of law? We use it as almost an active participant, almost like a god. In fact, you could substitute the word 'god' for 'natural selection' in a lot of evolutionary writings and you'd think you were listening to a theologian. "
Greg Graffin
God
Listening
You
" 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