The Band Bad Religion

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Greg Graffin

The band Bad religion was formed in the early eighties and has now been around over 15 years and has released over eight albums, the lead singer has continued his schooling and now has one bachelors degree ,a masters and is working on his Ph.D.

Greg Graffin was born in 1965 in Wisconsin. His mother and father were divorced after his birth. In 1976 his mother his brother and him moved to San
Fernando valley California, which is now the punk rock capital of the world.
"Like millions of other victims of divorce in the seventies I had to deal with the fact that my father was now living far away(In Racine, Wisconsin) and that I would not get to see him very much." While his father was in Wisconsin he began work at the university of Wisconsin as a professor. He still works their today.
Greg was often picked on in high school because of his "Punkness". "There were three people at my high school who were punkers, I mean I got beat up everyday by long haired people who listened to Rush and would beat me up because I didn't.
When he was fifteen he started a band with other social outcasts who didn't quite fit in. They settled on the name BAD RELIGION.

Bad Religion does not pertain to any kind of sacrilegious activities or the like. Instead it is a statement against any establishment that promotes dogmatic thinking or punishes individualism and rewards followers. Greg once said in an interview "Instead of rewarding uniqueness we, for some reason probably because of cultural and social necessity, we chastise unique behavior and reward conformity". On 15/10/93 Greg said BR has 108 songs and 5 or 6 are about religious issues.

Greg has a very different view point about education then most punks.
When the band broke up in 1983 he moved back to Wisconsin and attend the university of wisconsin-madison. soon the administration had found out that he was not an official resident any longer so he was kicked out. (he had recently spent several years as a California resident) He traveled back to California where he was a resident and attended school at UCLA. in 1987 he received his masters degree in geology. He had previously received his Masters degree in
Anthropology and a his B.Sc. in geology. This work was very field oriented since he had to study fossils to get the degrees. In 1990 he transferred to
Cornell University (in Ithica where he currently lives) for a Ph.D.. It will be a biology degree, but since he studies fossils it will be evolutionary biology-

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