I think its pretty simple, It's about how religion causes all this violence and pain in the world and the world would be better without religion.

In my opinion the song is about the relaxed breath of fresh air you get from not being fed guilt anymore from doing or saying something, or even thinking something that is against your interpretation of GOD and religion. "With the faith that you release comes an Atheist peace". It is about the peace you get from realizing that you don't have to feel the way you do.

The song I feel is a lash out at the hypocrisy and destruction caused by religion.
Religion has become the biggest weapon of mass destruction the world has seen. The destruction caused by religion in the far past is coming back in a bad way because as the world advances some religions are seemingly making less and less sense. It is scaring people and in turn people are leaving religion faster then ever before.

I believe this song is an idea on how to change the world, to bring peace to the world. The only way. The true problems in this world appear to be caused by two things:
1. Overwhelming Greed- Which is inherent in human nature. Even the most generous of us still desire things, they just have self control.
2. People trying to mix religion and politics.
The first problem can not be solved. It is in our nature to want things. Hell, without this trait, we wouldn't have an economy.
The second problem, however, could be easily solved if people all over the world would just use their brains. Religion is a very personal thing. It is deep within our beings. Frankly, it does not belong in the arena of society. If everyone in the world acknowledged that, it would leave only greed to cause unrest.
Basically the idea of "Atheist Peace" is that if everyone looked at each other through the eyes of an atheist, if diplomacy where left to the mind and religion to the heart, then the world would begin to see some semblance of peace, love, and understanding.

I think it's about how the original idea of ALL religions, to live in peace, has been completely forgotten and how religion nowadays is based on fear and in fact always caused more bad than good. And that many rules are based on dogmatic prescriptions, but the original reasons for 'em are long forgotten: "Tell me what we're fighting for! - I don't remember anymore"

I think this song is a solution thought by Greg, and by many others. If we all were atheists there would be no conflict in world, such as the judish and israeli. It is because of religion that they're fighting and it will never stop.

I suppose that that's what Greg tries to say in this song, but if we go deeper, we'll see that the religion of any person depends on his way of thinking. That leads us into another theme; this record (TESF) was entirely made against the Bush administration, so with that in mind, we can freely think that this song goes against Bush' way of thinking. This song tries to tell us that everybody have a different way of thinking, maybe correct or wrong, but in fact it also depends in our religion.

I don't believe that this has much to do about religion. It does however seem to be about belief, mainly the beliefs some have in the evidence that the American government used to back going into Iraq. The theism in this case would be that faith and to bring about an atheist peace is to bring down that blind faith in our president and the conflict and see it for what it is, a terrible decision with a terrible execution. Atheism also can be associated with truth based on strict facts, so it also calls for the truth to come out.

I heard an interview with Greg where he says that Atheist Peace is a "2 minute attack on the idea that if you're an atheist, you're somehow combative or you wanna fight with relgious people". He also says "I don't think there's any atheist that I know who's a violent person or a combative person"

In an interview Greg explains that this song deals with the fact that most religious people take atheists or agnostics to be combative people, creating vicious attacks on religion or religious institutions, whereas most of the suffering in this world is actually caused by religion and godly causes.

I think it's simple. Wars are started mostly on religious beliefs. The Middle East is filled with religious zealots that start conflict because of their religion, as do we. Bush believes that God's on his side, putting religious connotations on terms like enemies, calling them "evildoers", generally a religious term. I think the song is supposed to mean, that if religion were put aside, we could all feast on atheist peace...meaning without religion driving most people's will to die and fight wars would be gone.

As has been pointed out, this song looks to a hopeful future of an atheist peace. The implication is that religious faith is at the root of war. If it is not too late for an intellectual debate, if we are not too far trapped fighting for who knows what anymore, then maybe we can feast on peace.
Part of the song, in my interpretation, refers to the hopeful days after World War II, with the creation of the UN and people like Eisenhower warning of the military-industrial complex and then the peace movement of the 60's, etc. This era was far from perfect but "the modern age emerged triumphantly" as it was akin to a modern progressive enlightenment. But "now it seems we've stalled and it's time to de-evolve and relive the dark chapters of history." This is a reference to the general right-wing movement in this country (as opposed to most of the world) and the Bush doctrine of unprovoked attack and endless war.

I remember reading a quote from either Jay or Brian about Greg's belief system, and they said something along the lines of, "Greg would consider himself an agnostic long before an atheist. He's a scientist, and so he thinks, 'this is how I view things. If you think I'm wrong, prove it to me.'" It may be that Brett wrote this song, and since he's an atheist, it makes sense. But I think regardless of who wrote it, atheism in this case is a metaphor for apathy. This song strikes me as somewhat sarcastic, and that Greg is singing about how this world is where it is because people have chosen to become apathetic, have chosen not to take a stand on either side and are letting others do it for them. The problem is that, when everyone is waiting for someone else to decide, no one will ever decide. For some reason, I think the faith talked about in the song isn't religious faith, but faith that the world can be changed if we work toward it. Atheist peace is another way of saying blissful ignorance.

I believe Atheist Peace represents what the world needs: an atheistic peace-time. The world is in strife with many sides believing they have their god on their side and they are determined to please that god. If you look at the last line, I believe it sums up my point: "And the world won't wait for the truth upon a plate, but we're ready now to feast on an atheist peace." I think many people in the world would enjoy a time in our history when we can have peace and not worry about religious beliefs or obligations some people think they need to fulfill.

One thing I noticed which may help to convey the song's meaning is that if you take the opposite words of "Atheist" and "Peace" you get "Theist War", or if you prefer, "Holy War".

The forces that oppose the United States in the middle-east are for the most part Muslim zealots, who believe themselves to be fighting a holy war of sorts. They know what they're fighting for, they're fighting because it is "Allah's will" that they do so - this religious zealously we see today has been around for millennia, and is nothing new.
But in the present day, we have the exact opposite as well, instead of a holy war, we have an atheist peace.

"Tell me what we’re fighting for, I don’t remember anymore": how many people in the United States know why their country invaded Iraq? Sure, we can use the WMD and terrorism thing, but as time progresses, we are gradually learning that both the former and the latter are blatant lies from the Bush administration. Most people don't know, and at the time when the war was occurring, most people didn't seem to care.
So now we see the contrast; a holy war is founded on religious zealously and the stalwart, convicted soldiers who buy into it. An atheist peace is the opposite, no one knows why the war is being fought, and not too many people care either.
Terrorists fight holy wars, Americans respond with atheist peace.