Gardner explained that what makes Ron Lafferty’s religious beliefs “so striking is not that they are somewhat strange or even irrational, because all religious people have . . . irrational ideas; what makes them different is that they are so uniquely his own.” And although Ron had constructed his own idiosyncratic theology, Gardner insisted that he did so “in a very non-psychotic way. . . . He created it by whatever feels good to him. He says, ‘It just gives me a sense of peace, and I know it’s true,’ and it becomes a part of his own unique article of faith. That is not a product of a
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