Originally Posted by holotrope

hmmmm... i don't know where to start with this one, but I'll keep it simple:

I think what Maynard is talking about is the simple sense of wonder that there is something beyond what we see, hear, taste, and smell. Experience is an important part of life, but there is more to think about than that. The song is (on one level) about people overlooking ideals while satisfying their gross desires/impulses. I think this does have its reflection in many religions/faiths/creed/spiritual disciplines, but it's limited to that. Basically, "lifting an eye to heaven" is considering possibilities outside our individual desires and recognizing a common humanity between us that transcends our petty selfishness.

We're not repugnant because we don't look up to God, but because we don't stop to consider the bigger picture before satisfying ourselves in our own little image of the world. Think of 'heaven' here as a Platonic heaven- it's where the ideals of all our imperfect concepts live, but if we don't look up to them, we are bound to dwell in ever increasing cycles of imperfection rather than striving towards those ideals and perfecting ourselves.