God is a presence that I can never define but I could never deny.

I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter.

I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. He sees himself against nature. He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile.

You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.

When I look back at the Christian faith, I see that we have had to retranslate, almost reinvent ourselves a number of times.

I don't think much about my physical body going off into the long, green fairways of heaven to play golf.

The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.