Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of any… - Robert A. Heinlein

At that point I realized that I had been thinking in Russian. It’s a wonderful language for paranoid thoughts.

Never own more than you can carry in both hands at a dead run.

“I’m a hard case. I don’t believe in table-tapping, astrology, virgin birth—”
“Virgin birth isn’t difficult.”
“I mean, in the theological sense; I’m not talking about genetics laboratories. —virgin birth, numerology, a literal hell, magic, witchcraft, campaign promises. You tell me something that runs contrary to horse sense; I’ll be at least as hard to sell as I was about your ancient years.”