"If it were always beneficial to have a certain number of friends and a certain number of connections between our friends, then our social world would look like a boring, predictable lattice or the atoms locked in a salt crystal. We would all have the same kind of network." (235)

"If God were seen as a node on a network, large groups of people could be bound together not just by a common idea but also by a specific relationship to every other believer. People could perceive a specific social tie to others, and everyone would be one degree removed from everyone else. People who felt a connection to God would have a way of feeling connected to others, because through God everyone is 'a friend of a friend.'" (244)