Greg Graffin Wants to Provoke People to Think - Cityfiles - Fall 2015 - San Diego 2/5/16, 3:40 PM Subscribe Now Current Issue Digital Edition BEST OF SD RESTAURANTS THINGS TO DO FEATURES GETAWAYS PEOPLE FITNESS & HEALTH PHOTOS + VIDEO Issue Archive The Weekender Homes Blogs Calendar SD Mag Events Find a Doctor Neighborhoods Best of Coronado Blogs / Around Town / Fall 2015 / Greg Graffin Wants to Provoke People to Think Greg Graffin Wants to Provoke Subscribe to the Blog Email Address Subscribe People to Think The SoCal punk legend is coming to San Diego this week BY SANNA COATES 1 Published: 2015.11.09 05:52 PM GREG GRAFFIN | PHOTO BY PADU_FOTO / SHUTTERSTOCK Press | Advertise | About Us | Issue Archive | E-Newsletters What do evolutionary biology and punk rock have in common? A whole lot, if you Subscribe | ask Greg Graffin, zoology PhD and frontman of legendary Los Angeles punk band Bad Religion. In his first book, Anarchy Evolution, published in 2010, Graffin examined the tensions between science and religion. The book is filled with personal anecdotes from Graffin’s life and music career, making it a fascinating http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/Blogs/Cityfiles/Fall-2015/Greg-Graffin-Wants-to-Provoke-People-to-Think/ Page 1 of 5 Greg Graffin Wants to Provoke People to Think - Cityfiles - Fall 2015 - San Diego 2/5/16, 3:40 PM read for science geeks and punk fans alike. His new book, Population Wars, which Cityfiles came out in September, offers Graffin’s view on ecology and competition within our species, and the need to rethink the reasons for human warfare. About This Blog This week, he’s one of the featured speakers at the San Diego Music Thing music San Diego Magazine's editorial staff (Erin and media conference. We caught Graffin on the phone from New York to talk Chambers Smith + Erin Meanley + Kimberly Cunningham + Archana Ram + a handful of smart, about his new book, his relationship to San Diego, and the formalities of teaching thoughtful contributors) and web designer (Sanna evolution at Cornell University. Coates) blog everything from restaurants and bars to behind the scenes gossip to the best events I read Anarchy Evolution whenwhen itit camecame out,out, butbut II havehave toto admitadmit I’mI’m happening this weekend. Looking for foodie and feeling a little intimidated by Population Wars, especiallyespecially sincesince II don’tdon’t restaurant guru Troy Johnson? He's got his own blog here. have a science background. Recent Posts There are a couple of chapters that I would say are a bit hard to get through, the 2016 Valentine’s Day Guide | Comments chapter on the immune system and on viruses particularly. There’s no real easy More Bucket List! | Comments way to tell that story, except to make it kind of academic. But what this book San Diego Minute at Torrey Pines Gliderport | expands upon, and what I find engages a lot of people, is the fact that I’m not just Comments talking about other species. I’m talking about humans, and why these examples Top 10 Photos of the Year | Comments from nature are important to human beings. For instance, there’s a chapter in Top Workouts to Lose the Holiday Weight | there about first contact between Europeans and Native Americans and the kind Comments of struggles that went on culturally. And I think it draws people in who are Top 10 Restaurant Photos from 2015 | interested in American history and cultural anthropology. It draws a lot more Comments diverse interests than just biologists. The Best Homes of 2015 | Comments Top 10 Desserts of 2015 | Comments So who do you think should read Population Wars? A Conversation with Psychic John Edward | Everyone from second grade to college. [Laughs] Look, it’s hard to answer that Comments question, because I know there are probably a lot of authors who are super Yoga Mat Giveaway | Comments targeted in who they’re writing for. But do you know what the answer is? I am Archives writing for myself. It takes a lot of arrogance to say something like that, but think Winter 2016 about anything you really love—your favorite book, your favorite movie, your Winter 2015 favorite song – I can guarantee that the writer, the creator, was not writing it for Fall 2015 you. You felt a sense of discovery and you felt something that you bonded with, Summer 2015 and you can’t predict those things. As a writer, as a content provider, as an artist, Spring 2015 you cannot predict those things and still produce anything of real quality. Fall 2014 There’s lasting quality, I think, in the art and even in the sciences that come from a Summer 2014 personal motivation. So, in a sense, if that opens me up to criticism, I’m willing to Spring 2014 take it. Some people would say that this book is just a patchwork of science and Winter 2013 cultural anthropology and anecdotes about music. Well, yeah, but that describes Fall 2013 who I am. I’m trying to do what I’ve always done, and that is provoke people to Feed think, and provoke people to make intellectual connections in this world. You Subscribe to the Cityfiles Feed » don’t have to be a college graduate to read this. You still have an intellect, and I’m trying to get people, no matter who they are, to use that intellect to address some of these very difficult questions. In Anarchy Evolution youyou drewdrew aa lotlot ofof parallelsparallels betweenbetween evolution,evolution, oror naturalism, and punk rock. As a professor, do you have people taking http://www.sandiegomagazine.com/Blogs/Cityfiles/Fall-2015/Greg-Graffin-Wants-to-Provoke-People-to-Think/ Page 2 of 5 Greg Graffin Wants to Provoke People to Think - Cityfiles - Fall 2015 - San Diego 2/5/16, 3:40 PM your classes because they know you’re the singer of Bad Religion? It’s funny, because you would expect more of that, perhaps. But the truth is, because of the formalities of taking classes in college and the formalities of enrollment, most of the people taking my courses take them because they need to graduate. [Laughs] So you actually wouldn’t find that many students who take it because of who they think I am. And I’m happy about that, because it frees me up to be more formally academic. When I’m lecturing, there’s a formality to it. When I’m singing at a concert, there’s a formality to it. If you don’t stick to that formality it becomes contrived. It can look like you’re trying to accomplish something you’re not really trying to accomplish. And I feel like the same person whether I’m on stage at a concert or on stage lecturing, because it’s coming from the same part of my brain, and I have the same motives for getting up there in the first place. I just Newsletter Sign Up want to provoke people to think a little bit. * Email Your songs have catchy melodies and lyrics with concepts that are fairly easy to grasp. Is Bad Religion a "gateway drug" to getting into the heavier * First Name stuff, which would be your more academic writing? [Laughs] That’s a good way of looking at it. I would hope so, even though it’s your * Last Name opinion that it’s kind of academic and hard to read. My goal, just so you know, is to write for anyone who’s interested. And I think there’s a large body of people, not * Zip Code only in this country, but in the world, who are interested in this concept of warfare. Where does it come from? Why are we as a species so prone to war? Why does it appear as though we can never end war? That’s the kind of person who I Choose from our e- think would find this book interesting, regardless of whether they’re a biologist or Newsletters: not. Best of San Diego This Week The Main Dish You are an atheist in a religious country. It seems a lot of your opinions, Getaways VIP which are viewed as truths in more secular parts of the world, are still Exquisite Weddings considered controversial here. Do you feel like we should have gotten Join Now! further as a society by now? I live in the real world. I live in a world where I can recognize and understand statistics. And the truth is that an unusual number of people in the United States San Diego Magazine fear atheism. They think it’s some kind of a cult or something. I’m not at all 31,829 likes prepared, nor do I really care, to fight those people. And I always say, I refuse to get into a battle of wits with an unarmed person. I’m not going to get into a punching match with someone who challenges me on an absurd notion—but I am Liked Share very happy to point out the absurdity of it. You and 36 other friends like this So am I surprised? Yes, I’m very surprised that people are still unwilling to consider a naturalist worldview. Or consider a world that is not controlled by gods. I’m very surprised about that. But then again, I understand where it comes from. People are holding on to deities because they’ve been taught since they were Sponsored born not to question these things. So I think it’s understandable. These people don’t need to be battled, they need to be educated.