We modern people like to think that back hundreds or even thousands of years ago, it was a lot easier for people to believe in God. You know, we tend to think they were a little primitive, they didn’t know very much about science, they thought the world was flat. You can name a wide variety of things they believed that we now know are wrong. They attributed to God all sorts of things that happen that we now don’t see God as particularly involved with at all. So they must have been more open than we are to various ideas about the way God is and what God does.…

I don’t have to commute into New York every single day, but I do it often enough that my heart goes out to those of you who do. I take an early train in several days a week, and maybe you’re among those who have encountered what I did recently. Usually people waiting for these early trains around 6:20 are extremely quiet. Maybe it’s because they enjoy listening to the morning birdsong. No, I doubt that’s it. Maybe they’re just in deep mental preparation for the ruthless grab for territory that starts once the train decides it’s going to stop and open the doors. But recently this scene of quiet…