Mike Peterson

and his

Virtual Progressive Rock Band

How Can You Know That It's True

Words and Music

Mike Peterson

Notes

At the time it was first released, this was the most ambitious and complex thing I had ever attempted. It is non-repetitive and uses very odd time.

Lyrics

How can you know
How can you ever know
How can you know that it's true

With lies and confusion
Obscuring the facts
Yeah how can you know that it's true

Can you believe what you read
How do you know if the author
Is a genius or a fool

Or a skilled propagandist who uses his words
Like a finely sharpened tool

Is the reasoning easy to see
Or wrapped up in jargon and mystery
Yeah how can you know that it's true

Can you believe what they preach
Are all those old books
Really written by god
Or were they really written by man

From ignorant people
In primitive times
Miraculous legends began

They grew through the years
Retold and revised
Embellished improved and refined

And after the wars
The victors decide
How heresy will be defined
Yeah how can you know that it's true

Can you believe what they teach
They say that the universe
started its life
With a bang that still echoes today

But nobody saw it
So how do we know
It actually happened that way

We made some equations
That seem to explain
This small bit of spacetime we know

We stretch end extend
And assume they apply
To what happened a long time ago

And when the results
Make no sense at all
Creatively patch up the flaws

Cosmological constants
Inflation and more
Accepted as physical laws
But how can you know that it's true

Can you believe anything at all
The work of the mind
Can be wondrous indeed
Speculations and theories
Can inspire and lead

But without confirmation
You can never be sure
If you dreamed up a breakthrough
Or a pile of manure

The key to the mystery
Waits in disguise
You grope through the darkness
And then realize
The truth is right there
Right in front of your eyes

Yeah nature never lies
Nature never lies
Yeah nature never lies