[Verse 1] You keep calling it a creed But it’s a working frame A way to test the world Not a holy name It has rules for doing What it sets out to do Build a better map Of rock and rain and you [Pre-Chorus] Philosophers ask why And philosophers ask whether That’s their long debate They hold it all together Scientists just work By a learned, living line Passed from hand to hand Across the edge of time [Chorus] Best available lens Best available lens Not the final word Still the way we learn Best available lens Best available lens Useful, tested, made For the world as it turns [Verse 2] Don’t wrap it in a banner Don’t make it some new church A methodology Is not a sacred perch Neopositivism Pragmatism too History left its fingerprints In all we say and do [Pre-Chorus] And that shiny little brand That called itself a thunder Wasn’t a doctrine Just a label dressed as wonder New atheism fades When the slogans lose their spark A package, not a philosophy No torch, no ark [Chorus] Best available lens Best available lens Not the final word Still the way we learn Best available lens Best available lens Useful, tested, made For the world as it turns [Bridge] There are saints and skeptics In the same white coat Christian, Jew, and Buddhist All of them afloat Some chase rigor hard Some chase the subject first Some bring sloppy hands And some bring a sharper thirst Laypeople can twist it Till it fits their tune Truth when it flatters them Then doubt beneath the moon But a work in progress Never asks to be divine It asks to be improved By the next in line [Breakdown] Not a religion Not an ideology An enterprise with a purpose A method with a key Not ultimate truth But the best we’ve got To learn what’s there And what is not [Final Chorus] Best available lens Best available lens Not the final word Still the way we learn Best available lens Best available lens Useful, tested, made For the world as it turns Best available lens Best available lens Take the better map Over every false concern
