Yes, Susan, I do like to gaze at the stars and wonder. And share beauties and mysteries with friends.

Neither I nor any other non-believers I know of want to nail down the clouds or bottle the sunshine. We just like to know more about them without having them couched in terms of "God's breath" or "God's smile."

When I was in the USAF I was trained in meteorology. I learned what causes a lot of things — from ice crystals to tornadoes to hail balls five inches in diameter — but that didn't diminish my awe at a tornado (I saw many of them when I was in Oklahoma) or the beauty of ice crystals glittering in a perfectly clear, sunny day (Illinois).

The point I'm trying to make is that belief in god doesn't have any positive bearing on my world, but it could certainly get in the way if I imbue everything with an importance tied to a diety.

I realize that much beauty —— buildings, music, paintings, etc. —— have been "inspired" by people's god concept; I just don't think that that is the only thing capable of it. I even suspect (though there is no way to prove it) that a lot got done our a pure urge to create beauty and then got taken over by the church(es) because they like to have a lock on everything inspirational.

david