Greg Graffin

Gregory Walter Graffin (usually only briefly Greg Graffin, born November 6, 1964 in Racine, Wisconsin) is an American singer, songwriter as well as a PhD in Evolutionary Biology.

Life

After the divorce of his parents, he moved with his mother to Los Angeles. There he founded in 1979 along with his high school classmates Brett Gurewitz, Jay Bentley and Jay Ziskrout the band Bad Religion, in which he is a singer and songwriter, and which to this day is an institution in the punk rock and was formative for the direction of Melodycore.

In 1997 he recorded his first solo album, American Lesion. Musically, he shall, as with his band, much emphasis on melodies, but it is much quieter than the music of Bad Religion. Graffin played all the instruments except for the drums themselves. With Cease the CD also includes an already published by Bad Religion song.

The same time he studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, and later at Cornell University, from which he received his doctorate in evolutionary biology in September 2003. The thesis is entitled Monism, Atheism and the Naturalist Worldview: Perspectives from Evolutionary Biology. He interviewed about 150 leading evolutionary biologists on subjects such as free will, the belief in a personal God, worldviews. Result of the study was that less than ten percent of the evolutionary biologists disclosures, among other things, to believe in a God. Graffin marveled this self-reported, however, astonished him that the majority of evolutionary biologists stated, but to keep religion in principle compatible with the theory of evolution.

His second solo album Cold as the Clay appeared on 10 July 2006, ANTI-, a sister label of Epitaph Records. It was produced by Brett Gurewitz. Three members of the Weakerthans are involved as Graffins backing band on the album. Graffin Cold as the Clay says about it was an " honor the legacy of American music."

Already in May 2006, also the book Is Belief appeared in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant: A Professor And a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity, which consists mainly of Graffins e- mail correspondence with the Christian history professor Preston Jones and published by it. It documents their discussion on topics such as religion, God and evolution. Graffin also commented several times to naturalism. According to him, one should not stop at the atheism, but must go on, just to naturalism.

2008 Greg Graffin from the Harvard Secular Society, a student organization at Harvard University, which awarded Rushdie Award for Cultural Humanism.

2012 graduated Graffin a guest appearance on the anniversary concert of the band Die Toten Hosen Rock am Ring.

Political commitment

Greg Graffin is said to have announced on several concerts during the " The Gray Race Tour 1996 " by Europe that he intends to stand for the post of President of the United States someday. In some interviews and talks with fans, he is said to have confirmed that it was his absolute seriousness. The Jungle World quoted him in 2007, however, with the words: " this plan I never had. I never wanted to be a politician. I once said that I would feel obliged to run for President, when the majority of Americans would be convinced that I am a good candidate. "

Discography

See Bad Religion # Discography

• American Lesion (1997)
• Cold as the Clay (2006)

Publications

• Gregory W. Graffin: Evolution, monism, atheism and the naturalist world -view; Polypterus Press, Ithaca, NY. (2004)
• Greg Graffin; Preston Jones: Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant? A Professor and a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity. (2006)
• Greg Graffin; Steve Olson: Anarchy and Evolution: Faith and science in a world without God. (2011)