Notice his use of the word "absolute," and then explain to me the difference between his "absolute" beliefs, and the "absolute" beliefs of the born-again believers.

There's too damn much absolutism around here for me. It makes me gag, all these arrogant chaps and all their certainty.

Going from Joe's recent track record I can hardly say I was surprised to see this egregious misrepresentation. Sailor Boy has clearly been giving him lessons. However, enough has been said by several thoughtful contributors since I hit the sack last night for me to let it go. I do like this, however:

Pure glorious funk in the best sense of the word. Life is splendid. And all the things the religious people think of as God - even in his more 'subtle' forms - are INTEGRAL to everything and every single one of us, bar none, only we might have different names for it.

The world and the universe out there are so lovely and so normal. So ordinary. So lovely, joyous, normal and ordinary that the concept of adding God simply diminishes everything. We've got to get ourselves back into the garden because the garden is lovely, and doesn't need fairies at the bottom of it to make it lovelier. Thanks, Douglas!