I love lurking about on conversantlife.com. The other day I read Tamb's Faith and Reason blog on Physicalism vs. Substance Dualism ("Is Life After Death Even Possible?"). It seems to me that these days, any argument for the Christian faith must begin with establishing the possibility of some sort of transcendence -- the idea that there are realities we cannot see beneath a microscope, and that there is something about us that will outlive our earthsuits.

I was mulling over such things the other night, and lo and behold, a song arrived. Given that I've only written three songs in the past two years (and that my primary job is supposed to be that of "songwriter"), I was most grateful. So thanks, Tamb!

Here's a draft of the lyric. This may be ill-advised -- posting a lyric without the music -- but let's try it and see!

Here goes:


Molecules and atoms
Just like Eve and Adam
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Even still I wonder
When we are six feet under
Will that truly be the end of us

‘Cause why beauty, why poetry
Why “no! no! no!” to every tragedy
Why laughter, why lullabies
And why this asking why

I have a body, but I am a soul
I see a fraction, it's not the whole
I cannot prove it, but still I know
I have a body … I am a soul

A sculpture or a canvas
Can speak a private language
Telling secrets hidden in the heart
About a world of spirit
I swear sometimes I hear it
Playing like a piper in the dark

In love songs, in symphonies
In funeral marches and in liturgies
In whispers and in rally cries
In dreams that won’t say die

You have a body but you are a soul
You see a fraction, but not the whole
I cannot prove it, but still I know
You have a body … you are a soul

World without end, amen
World without end, amen
World without end, amen
World without end, amen

I have a body, but I am a soul
I see a fraction, but not the whole
I cannot prove it, but still I know
I have a body … I am a soul

c 2008 running arends music/ASCAP