And so I came to realize that my belief in God and in Christ had its own meaning for me, personally, outside the words of the Bible; which, for the very devout, is tantamount to heresy. I once read that Thomas Jefferson came to the conclusion that the Bible was simply a compilation of the memories and thoughts of any number of people, some of whom had far more knowledge and far more wisdom than others. So he excerpted from the four Gospels all those passages he considered to be the most worthy and compelling, and used this considerably shortened version for his inspiration.
