It is becoming clear that the old platitudes can no longer be maintained, and that if we wish to improve our morals we must first improve our knowledge.
My primary school teacher once poured a bottle of curdled school milk forcefully down my throat. Then I threw it up all over her suede shoes. I'd rather have drunk from the spittoon in Barney's barber shop.
Our understanding of god is the answer to prayer; getting things from god is god's indulgence of us. When god stops giving us things, he brings us into the place where we can begin to understand him.
