how on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash?....the acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. it is a way to fight loneliness. any time i see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, i think to myself, 'there goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore'. (kurt vonnegut)