The thing as I see it, the thing that’s been central to the development of my worldview ever since I maxed out not believing in gods and assigning things human causes – growing up during the Jesus Seminar –

I had to deal with the fact that when you dispelled primitive myth there was still an actual human that corresponds to the mythic figure Jesus Christ, and there was an actual human that corresponds to the mythic figure Gautama Buddha, and there was an actual human that corresponds to the mythic figure Muḥammad, and closer still there was Joseph Smith and there was L. Ron Hubbard

and even if there weren’t divine powers there – especially if there weren’t divine powers there – that shit is within the range of human capacity and you’ve got to account for that