This song is about the mind-body problem: Asking the question "What does it mean to come alive?" is asking about whether or not consciousness is some kind of spiritual, non-material presence, or whether it's purely physical. To put it another way, does life spring from something immaterial or something organic?

The "poor science in the service of a faith" line refers to people believing, despite scientific evidence, that there's an immateriality to life, or consciousness. "Who will bear the mark of Cain?" is asking the question "Who will come out victorious?"

The title, "The Quickening", obviously refers to something springing to life, which can be confirmed by looking the word "quickening" up in a dictionary.

Guests wrote: I don't think this an anti-abortion song, but the opposite. "What does it mean to come alive?": especially when you're "not wanted", but authority forced it. "The way that she bleeds is in the law that he reads": law dictates if we will have kids or not. "Poor science in service of a faith": we can't use the science available to us because a religion says so.

Interesting take, but the title of the song does give it away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickening

I don't think this an anti-abortion song, but the opposite.

"What does it mean to come alive?": especially when you're "not wanted", but authority forced it.

"The way that she bleeds is in the law that he reads": law dictates if we will have kids or not.

"Poor science in service of a faith": we can't use the science available to us because a religion says so.

Brett said on the official message board that it's his take on abortion. The first verse seems to just be about the broad definition of the term 'quickening'. The second verse is about conception (the Thomas Wolf quote perhaps representing the new embryos calling out to the life-spirit about to come into being) and the 'confusing words and deeds that result'. The bridge seems to address the stem-cell research controversy invoking 'poor science'.