I agree with badreligionsf on this one. I think this song is completely sarcastic. It's saying, "I'm SO SORRY the world doesn't meet your exacting specifications. Next time I'm in charge of creating the universe, I'll be sure to consult with you, so you aren't so HORRIBLY disappointed. In the mean time, I guess you have no choice but to kill yourself, because the world isn't exactly what you want."

THIS SONG IS NOT ABOUT GOD and this is why: . i strongly believe it is a relationship song dedicated to a loved one he misses. the first time i heard this song, i always had a notion of a heartbroken realtaionhip to a woman. As for the lyrics that symblize God, I guess in this case, Brett acts as God and borrows his creations of sun, moon, world to satisfy her, but in the end she leaves him. so he waits for the next love he will find and to make sure he will create a universe in which they can be together and participate as being together. But unil then he is better off dead, for failing to please her first loved one and he will never make the same mistake in his next relationship.

wow how the hell can anyone think this has a thing to do with god..

My mother even understands this song! And she quotes it when my brother and father and I blame her for something she had no control over
She turns and says "the next time i create the universe ill make sure you participate"
This has no god in it.. its all a tongue in cheek fling toward people casting blame and responsibility off onto others and having the others say WTF you want me to do about it! its up to you.. and if you dont look to yourself you might be better of dead. Since you arent really living.. you are looking to someone else for answers..

Song reminds me of "the answer" in partial meaning

Brett is right of course .. though go ahead and feel free to add god to everything.. im sure it fits haha

It's Skyscraper part 2 this time from God's perspective. This is God's response to the people of Babel's arrogance.

Brett says the song is about responsibility. Personally I think this song is definitely about organized religion or religiosity and the need to take responsibility as human beings for ourselves. Not to hope and wish for a god to craft a universe for us but to realize that we have a responsibility to ourselves to make our time in a universe of which we are not the center as good as we can make it. It's about humanity growing up and not thinking that everything was made just for us.

I always thought that this song was being sarcastic of allowing something that one can't see, smell, touch, hear, or taste to dictate the actions or inactions one chooses to take. Its as though the song implies: "THINK DAMN YOU! THINK!" Haha.

I agree that the two best of all being the relationship and the God but I do not think that the song is about one or the other, I think that it is a metaphor for both, a HYBRID. Brett is good with things like that. But this is just my opinion.

i just read brett's interview and i was a little surprised it wasn't written from gods point-of-view. another supporting argument for that would be" i'll never make the same mistake" could mean there are no two people alike.

And another thing .... the first time I heard this song, I coulnd't stop laughing. The sarcasm is brilliant. One of their best songs ....

Just imagine you were a God, and had to listen to all the people complaining about everything everyday? Wouldn't that be annoying? And wouldn't you just give them answer the same to shut them up? (That you are sorry and take their problems into consideration the next time you create a universe, and that the only thing they can do in the meantime, is to kill themselves.) Have it done and be over it, but please stop complaining ......

I think this song does make one feel better. It reflects for the the situation when one is stuck in life. I personally am not too happy here, but I believe that I am stuck, it's out of my hands. Of course, there's suicide, but I don't consider that, I'm here, I have to deal with it. Maybe by not washing my hands and not taking the weigh of the world off my shoulders, but by assuming it, taking it in and suffering I am in purgatory. Did I have a choice? Nope, I didn't. It makes me feel better in that god or whoever, or whatever, is actually feeling empathic towards me. He sees and is telling me that he/she fucked up. Have any of you ever felt good after receiving an apology? even if it didn't fix anything? I thought so. Then people tell me "well, you're not that worse off" and I think to myself, then is this is the best, the best won't do. I am not trying to get people to feel sorry for themselves, nor me, but I do think some people overlook the fact that in its majority, this world is not a happy place. If the guilty party is apologizing, I'm all about listening...

I think this songs about blaming everyone and everything else for what's wrong in your life except yourself... your better off dead!

maybe it's about kurt cobain.. since he died earlier that year

I find this to be one of the most uplifting songs ever. In my humble opinion we hear a somewhat sarcastic voice of reason. Maybe God, maybe a friend, maybe conscience.
Because the world isn?t perfect we complain too much - this is the answer to our sometimes silly and irrelevant complaints.
No matter how sad you may feel there's always someone feeling worse. And though we cannot always have it our way we can have LIFE for a limited amount of time - we should be grateful.

This song is fairly obvious. It is mocking the type of people who sit around and complain all day to others about every little thing. "The next time I create the universe I'll make sure we commuicate" is the guy they are complaining to saying that he didn't make the universe and complaining to him won't accomplish anything. Some people think it is a suicide song. it is in fact just the opposite. It is criticizing those who would commit suicide over something minor.

This isn't really an interpretation, but whoever is monitoring this site needs to listen to this song again. There are some major wrong lyrics written here. Listen to the song and please rewrite the lyrics.

i notice a trend of Captain taking these songs very literally, at face value and looking no further than the surface meaning. no offense, its ur personal interpretation, however i think this one is filled with the usual sarcasm and satire that makes BR songs what they r. its basically saying "ooo... im sorry i didnt make the world exactly the way u want it, i guess u should all jus die, shut the hell up and stop ur whining."

I see a lot of different interpretations that have been made as being correct. The two that I can agree with the most are the one about God and the one about the personal relationships. I never thought about the second one, but in that sense, it's a pretty scathing attack on someone. However, I prefer the God version: everyone always bitches that God doesn't fix anything, and how can there be a God if bad things happen, and God's response would be this song: Maybe you'd just rather be dead, maybe you'd just rather I didn't create you in the first place. It's still very sarcastic, especially when God says, "hey, maybe I should have talked to you before I created the universe so I could make sure it was good enough for you. Since you can't just accept the favor and realize that YOU fucked up the world, not me." I think God is also saying that creating the world was in itself a mistake, and he sure as hell is never gonna try that again.

It has to be the personal relationship. To me the better off dead part refers to someone who is always complaining, hence his/her partner is responsible for all the mega-ills of the world.
The key to the lyrics for me is the cool intensity of the song. When he sings, "I'm sorry about the sun" etc. the rhythm is sweet and uplifting. When he emphatically shouts, "The next time I create the universe..." it is very empowering to the listener. I feel like God singing along: powerful, creative, responsible, with a chance to do it again. The music brings the lyrics to life and give them an extra-personal meaning for the listener.

I'm not totally sure it's about a relationship at all. To me it's from the perspective of God looking down upon a lonely or desolate person who has lost all faith in him. He believes there is no purpose for them in the world, and they would just be "better off dead", because why include such futile searching of a nothing cause of life in the world (possibly science?) When brett says "the next time i create the universe i'll make sure we communicate as least" he refers to her lack of contact and reliability to God.

I have always thought this song was about how people sometimes try to take the blame for everything and how hopeless that can be. I'm talking about going to bed at night and crying about world hunger. These things are very sad, but we cannot just sit around and go crazy feeling bad. We have to take action. Whenever I hear this song it reminds me to stop saying "I'm sorry" and do something or I'll start wishing I was dead. I don't think that Bad Religion is always trying to paint such a literal one-sided picture with their songs, but maybe sometimes they take on views that they may disagree with just to let you hear it and get a reaction. To make you think.

I think that better off dead is about how we complain about the little, petit problems in life, when what we should really worry about it the larger problems. it doesn't literally mean the sun and the moon but they represent the larger things ion life and the world in general.

I don't think this song was intended to relate to God or religion. I think this is about two people in a relationship where one is blamed for everyone and is sarcastically saying 'the next time I create the universe...' I think the song, like much of Bad Religion's work, is extremely sarcastic and not literal ion any sense. 'I'm sorry about the Sun, how could I know that you would burn' basically translates to 'Oh, I'm sorry it's too hot outside, I'll go turn down the temperature on the Sun!' It would be like if you made someone breakfast and they said 'Man, these Frosted Flakes suck' so you replied with 'Oh, I'll just go tell the CEO at Kellogg to change the recipe for you.' When blamed with something completely out of their power, people often tend to be extremely sarcastic and patronizing. That's what I think is the literal interpretation of the song but I think on a note connecting with the guys, it's their BR-ish way of saying "Just because we are against common ideological beliefs doesn't mean we're destroying the world.

Better off dead? We can dissect many times over. I dig all your interpretations. Here's mine. IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A PATSY WHY DON'T YOU TRY THE HUMAN RACE.. JUST TO PLAY IT SAFE...Being safe too blame us is a collective accusation. We are all apart of this worldly organism of a yielding and recycling planet. The writer is speaking in unison with the god. NEXT TIME I CREATE THE UNIVERSE I'LL MAKE SURE WE COMMUNICATE AT LENGTH...We have to live in this world and sometimes we're not happy GOD'S not happy so he would like our pro's and cons about our home before we're placed in it. It's about the world it's about a break-up it's about take it as it is or just shoot yourself if you don't like it.. It's about everything.

Brett comments specifically on this song: (check out 'Brett' in The Answer) ''I'm sorry about the world' is just about the feeling you have...it's almost literal...no it's not literal...I don't want to demean it by saying it's facetious, but it kind of is in a way. It's saying that we can't control the events in our lives. It's saying there are certain events we can control, but there are certain ones we cannot. An individual's will can only do so much to affect an individual's destiny, so one has to in a sense let go. Like the feeling of anger against injustices, in a way you have to let go. I have to understand what has nothing to do with me. Sometimes I'll take the weight of the world on my shoulders, but I have to get the weight of the world off my shoulders or I'll die, because it has nothing to do with me. I'm sorry about the song, I'm sorry about the world, the next time I create the universe I'll make sure you participate. 'I didn't create the fucking universe,' that's what it's saying. I didn't do this. I'm a cog. I'm a leaf in the torrential river of time. And I'm okay being that. I'm not going to try to control things I can't control, and please don't expect me to do that. The song is cathartic, and it makes you feel better. Sometimes songs can do that, and that's what it did for me. I really like that song.' Check out the above link - in the interview he comments on several other major songs he wrote....

I think this is song is about anti-suicide, it's saying that there are some things u cant change, like sun&moon, and things won't get better when u die either, it's sarcastic too, saying 'next time I create the universe' means that certain things should have been changed by God, if there is one, (it also doubts god by this) from the beginning.

So far, I think some people are getting it, and some just aren't. I think its pretty obviously a sarcastic message from God to anyone who takes the world and life for granted. He apologizes for the sun, which is obviously ridiculous since with out the sun, we wouldn't exist. The next object is the moon, which I believe is probably symbolic of paganism. Wiccans especially have a very strong bond with the moon. As u probably know most Christians look down on paganism and Wiccans, and think it little more than 'witchcraft'. So, here I think god is apologizing for there being all this difference of opinion. that next time, he'll tell everyone exactly what to think, and there won't be all this confusion. The third object, the world, is said to have been taken 'bad'. I think this kinda talks about how people bitch and complain about the rain, the weather, and natural disasters and what-not, and ask god with this stuff happens. The chorus is basically hilarious, I mean, here is god telling everyone that they're better off dead. Basically saying he totally screwed up, and he apologizes, and that people should just kill themselves and get it over with. I mean, I'm not saying I know exactly what this song is about or anything, but i think a lot of people, especially anyone who thought this should be taken literally, and its god actually apologizing, and anyone who missed the satire of it, kinda missed the point.

There's a lot of crap talking about what this song has to do with, but there's too much 1st person talk for it to be 'from God'. When he says 'The next time I create the universe', he is obviously being sarcastic, and , while it is not a love song, I feel it is about a very bad relationship, and his tell-off letter to her. btw, didn't Brett get divorced?

In my opinion this song is simply anti-suicide. The speaker of the song is God...and using sarcasm he argues that the living world is much better than 'a hole in the head'.

This song really touched me, besides it's great song, its lyrics are just....amazing.
I often read a dozen times the lyrics of BR because they are not simple, they are even damn complicated (we all visited The BR lexicon, huh?). Well, about the song, the lyrics are totally true. I share that thought with 'Mr. Gurewitz', because God is only a feeling of people who don't want to be alone, I think that if we could have a religion, it could be the Religion of the family and the friends....and no more.
We don't need an untouchable entity who never talks or helps us; we can do everything for ourselves. In fact, I think 'God' is just a made-up thing created by us, the human beings.
Well, I'll end this hoping that you could discuss this, I invite all the BR fans to speak up about this!. Till next time!

I think this song is more about a broken relation than a 'god's message' and when they say 'the next time I create universe i'll make sure we communicate' I feel like he's talking about the universe of 2 lovers and not the universe in the common sense.

I think this song is basically doubting the existence of God. I think it's saying if their was a God then why the hell is there so much bad shit in the world, and why does he let bad things happen. That's just what I think though.

The song is about a relationship and its basically an 'Fuck You' apology to the person he was in the relationship with. He 's making huge exaggerations about the aspects of the relationship that were beyond his control, yet was still blamed for them. 'I'm sorry about the sun, moon...world,' this constitutes everything that he's blamed for. The real punch line is 'Next time I create the universe...,' like he's really in charge of that or has anything to do with it. He does mention communicate often, so it stands there really may have been a problem that was some of his his fault. He acknowledges that, but whatever the rest was outweighed it and the only solution was to end the relationship, 'better off dead.'

It is certainly true that this song is not a genuine apology. To say that the narrator is apologizing about the sun or moon is clearly ironic as in reality they are both such enormous elements that they could never be construed as worthy of someone's disapproval. To be better of dead than receive this gift the narrator has worked so hard on is sarcastic in the extreme. However, it can be said that the song is dealing with the idea of someone's hard efforts being dismissed or being received ungratefully. The link to a relationship is an obvious connection, and there are many reasons to start drawing comparisons to the human race's treatment of God's creation. It is working on many levels.

I think the best interpretation lies in a mix of the first two posted here. I think he's talking about God and he is being sarcastic. The three things God is sorry about are the sun, the moon and the world, which are things we should have made better or used in a better way. But we didn't and since we're blaming God for it, he replies to us: 'well I'm sorry about that, how could I know you'd waste what I've given you'. One more interesting thing is when he says 'next I create THE universe'. He doesn't say a universe or anything else, so he's talking about ours as if it happened every once in a while that he has to clean it up. And he'll wipe us out someday.

I heard from somewhere that this song is about a broken relationship, and not having anything to do with God. The interpretation where it is God talking was my first impression of this song, but it could also be also be about a broken relationship, where someone is trying to apologize. Please feel free to argue this.

I think the previous interpretation was too literal. I think this is actually a very sarcastic song, in my opinion its about people whining and blaming the problems of the world on others. However much we'd like to think we're better that we are more accepting people than the rest of society we ALL contribute to the state the world is in. I think its about the way some people would rather just sit back and whine than take an active role in trying to improve society. Anyway the main part of my point is that I think this whole song is full of sarcasm, there's little other evidence in the BR catalogue (excepting the early stuff) to think that this is the way the band think.

I think in this song God is apologizing to the human race for how many awful things there are in the world; 'I'm sorry about the sun, how could I know that you would burn,' and that next time he creates the universe he will try to make things better, but until then, we are better off dead.