I recall I once heard Frank 'explaining' this song. I think he said that he'd sung christian rock songs on stage before, but he thought there weren't many songs that 'put across the other side of the argument' and that he 'isn't necessarily atheist' (I think he declined to expand on that.
When I saw him play live the other month, he made a point of saying he didn't want the song to be divisive (obviously he knows it will be, but I think he was trying to minimise this).
Also, I think there is a section of this song ("...together we'd believe in all the wondrous things that mere mortals can achieve") that is actually trying to say that being atheist can be as bad as being religious - i.e. why are we, as humans, wasting our lives away believing or not believing in religion, when we can use that time much more productively achieving many other things that will actually make a difference to our short lives.
I find it really interesting how this song gets so many different reactions. It's seems it's kind of a love-it-or-hate-it song, if you look at the comments below. Being both an atheist and a huge Frank Turner fan, I love this one loads. I think that since so many people sing about god, it's perfectly alright for someone to sing about there not being one. Honestly, it's refreshing to hear someone sing about this - because not many people do, fearing they would offend somebody. I think that this song has a powerful message that many atheist hold dear - "I now you're scared of dying, man, and I am, too, but just pretending it's not happening isn't gonna see us through. If we accept that there's an end game and we haven't got much time then in the here and now we can try and do things right." To me, it explains nicely and incredibly simply how I am getting through life without believing in a god or an afterlife. I'm glad he wrote this song. More people should speak up about this.
"There never was no god" - - - "Discussing English grammar, the term "double negative" is often though not universally applied to the non-standard use of a second negative as an intensifier to a negation" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative)
I like Frank but this song's pretty lame. The only reason it's on the album is to try and drum up a bit of publicity in America where they're more sensitive about things like this.
This makes me so happy. Love the irony in having the church-style choir and organ backing him up as he's singing those lyrics. The wit isn't in the lyrics, it's in the instrumentation!!