Do you want to tell the truth, or do you want to tell a story? - Robert Charles Wilson

But you're a Philosopher!" Julian exclaimed at one point. "This is Philosophy, not Religion, since you rule out supernatural beings—you know that as well as I do!"
"I suppose it is Philosophy, looked at from one angle," Stepney conceded. "But there's no money in Philosophy, Julian. Religion is far more lucrative as a career.

The afternoon is too tempting to be denied. It isn’t Paradise here, or even close, but the mimosa is in bloom and the air from the sea is cool and pleasant. On days like this I think of poor old Magnus Stepney’s evolving Green God, harking us all up to Eden. The Green God’s voice is faint enough that few of us hear it clearly, and that’s our tragedy, I suppose, as a species—but I hear it very distinctly just now. It asks me to step into the sunshine, and I mean to do its bidding.

Don't tell me. It changed your life." I was smiling.
She smiled back. "It didn't even change my mind.