Hey, don't knock the big-haired Alabama preacher. Mormonism started under circumstances that were not so different from that, and they are Christians. Reminds me of "Joan of Arcadia"--you never know how God might appear (if you believe in Him).

I've resolved--again--not to get my shorts in a wad over what my various acquaintances "know" to be true about religion, but I have to confess that I've tired myself out in the past arguing the difference between knowledge and belief. In such a case as religion where there is no empirical method by which to prove or disprove the existence of . . . any of it, really, what we have is belief. I believe (meaning that I think I know) that there is no God. Slag and Georgiansilver obviously believe very literally that there is. Fine. Whatever works for you.

The ancient Greeks "knew" that Zeus would zap them with a lightning bolt if they screwed up. The ancient Egyptians "knew" that that horrible chimaeric monster was waiting to eat their heart at the scales if they had sinned too much in life. Maybe Trekkies "know" that something awful will happen to them if they take the name of Spock in vain; I don't know. The popularity and pervasiveness of Christianity does not make its cast of characters any more literally real than any other mythology or value system. It's belief, it's not knowledge.