This is so American, man: either make something your God and cosmos and then worship it, or else kill it.

For these cultures, getting rid of the pain without addressing the deeper cause would be like shutting off a fire alarm while the fire's still going.

We're kind of wishing some parents would come back. And of course we're uneasy about the fact that we wish they'd come back - I mean, what's wrong with us?

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away.

We often read the Bible as if it were fundamentally about us: our improvement, our life, our triumph, our victory, our faith, our holiness, our godliness.

My father hates organized religion, probably because he hates the God who killed his little girl back in 1968. I find religions variously bemusing.

We need a new order of ministers to stand in pulpits. It's not enough to sing and praise God in worship services. Any religion that doesn't encourage us to work together to end the needless suffering all around us is godless.