Don't know if Jacob Stone's statement in "On Authority, A New Apologia"(Friends Journal, June/July 2013) is mountain or molehill(cf. "The Busy Body" blog) for Quakerism. As for Stone, he writes, "This is the heart of my dilemma: I want to know WHY something is holy." Allow me, Friends, to add two cents to the collection plate of possible reaction/response.

Pascal warned that what we make natural we destroy. Quakerism is religion, not science, because we refuse to give ourselves over to either materialism(historical or otherwise) or evolutionary determinism. We honor the in-built aspiration for a supernatural connection, via prayer and worship, and seek the validation that supernatural/unconditional love can provide for both the individual and the world.

In fact, prayer and worship, at their best, are a validation of and for the supernatural power of unconditional love. All creation, as opposed to production, is alive to and with the glory of God; and so is WHY. Evolutionary nature, far from being our God, is becoming our greatest concern/threat/enemy as Pascal warned so long ago.

Do I hear a caped-crusader's "Holy folly, Batman!"?