wearethestories

And I may be way off here (feel free to flame), but Maynard has an intergral understanding of the pillars of the Christian faith. It's not about God not allowing humans to be drunk, there's just no basis for that in the song. He's saying something along the lines of religion (especially the Christian religion) being so concerned and consumed with guilt that it prevents its followers from being able to think.

"Jesus won't you fucking whistle, something but the past and done"
"Mother Mary won't you whisper, something but the past and done"

Both these lines are about two figureheads for Christianity (more specifically, Catholicism) being obsessed with what has passed (i.e. sins) so much so that the narrator of the song is so completely overwhelmed, he just wants a break from it.

"Why can't we not be sober?"

This line is constantly misinterpreted as "Why can't we be drunk/high/intoxicated?" It's not saying this at all. If you remove the double-negative, it's saying "Can we be sober?" The idea here is that the focus on what's past and done (emphasized through the religious references to Catholicism) is intoxicating - it controls minds and warps the perceptions of reality as we're trying to live it.

The song is attempting to ask why it is that those of us caught in a cycle of obsessive guilt can't stop being obsessed with it. Why can't just be SOBER for a minute and take a look; seeing what the guilty focus on sin does to us all.

"There's a shadow just behind me,
shrouding every breath I take,
making every promise empty,
pointing every finger at me.
Waiting like a stalking butler
who upon the finger rests."

These lyrics are often forgotten in discussions of "Sober", and its important to get the perspective from the narrator here who is being choked to death by this overbearing and utterly creepy entity that stalks his mind - he is not SOBER, he is not in his right mind and its due to the obsessive-compulsive nature of Catholicism (i.e. being made to feel guilty for every moment of life)

__________________
Away with our explosives then! Away with our destroyers! They have no place within our better world... But let us raise a toast to all our bombers, all our bastards, most unlovely and most unforgivable.
Let's drink to their health, then meet with them no more.

9.30.2006 - Washington, D.C.
6.07.2007 - Richmond, VA