The way that I see Christianity is that its role is to enhance the life of every person.

Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. It doesn't. That's magic, that's not God. Sometimes, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I don't want a God that would go around killing people's little girls. Neither do I want a God who would kill his own son.

To have a great university library near you with plenty of archives of all the journals that you want to research in the twentieth century is a remarkable asset, and I spend a day, maybe two days a week in that library. I just plain love it.

You don't take your newborn baby, put that baby on your lap, and say, "Now listen, kid, you were born in sin, you're not worth anything, and you've got to pray for mercy." That's not going to raise a healthy adult. And that's what we do Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

So much organized religion, in my opinion, ends up being life-denying.

The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.