Oh, God...

Whenever anyone asks me if I believe in God, I usually rely on one of Einstein's famous quotes:

I believe in the God of Spinoza.  The God who presented himself in the harmony of all being.  I do not believe in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and actions of men.

This usually got me a blank stare.  Recently I came across an interview with Dave Matthews in Rolling Stone. He's more eloquent than I could ever be...

Rolling Stone: You've talked publicly about being an agnostic, which is pretty daring these days. Politicians are falling all over themselves. . . .

Dave Matthews: Yeah, "Get out of my way so I can get into the church." It's so small a view of things. Obviously, there's a source of all things, however big or small it is. But if you give it consciousness, it just gets smaller. If you give it concern for us, it gets smaller.

I use the word "God" in my songs all the time, because I don't know what the hell's going on. So that's God – everything that I don't know. But the idea of God as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries how we're doing or takes sides when we have fights – it's more irritating than Santa Claus. The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there's not a puppet master.

That says it all.