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