Why I originally called it the Therapy metaphor

It's because of people like Sally Quinn (who -- why am I not surprised? -- thinks Elaine Pagels is a fine scholar):

What I think is particularly refreshing about Karen Armstrong's view is the idea that The important this is not what you believe but how you behave. This seems to me to be seminal in terms of religious thought. So many of the problems we have today are because people don't respect the beliefs of others. My feeling is, whatever helps you make it through the night.

You know what I think is the most characteristic sentence? The last one -- because she uses "my feeling" rather than "my thought." How very American.

By the way, Sally, one of the most widespread religious beliefs in America is the belief that beliefs about religion matter and can be true or false; and that believing something false about religion can be disastrously self-destructive even if that particular false belief helps you feel good temporarily. I wonder how much respect you have for those people's religious belief?

This, in case you're not one of the three or four old-time readers of this blog, refers to an old discussion about the metaphors that underlie how we think and feel and speak about religion. Some of the posts:

The metaphor wars -- in which I introduce the core concepts
Defusing religious conflict -- in which I explain why I'm really interested in the metaphors (because I want to help my kids understand and get along better with people who don't come from the Truth metaphor like my kids do).
OneTrueGodBlog -- the metaphors applied to a problem raised on the OneTrueGodBlog.
Time to meet the new guest blogger -- in which my friend Jim, who does not come from my own religious metaphor, politely points out that I'm being a jerk.
Okay, not Therapy, then -- in which I accept that "Therapy" probably is not the term I want.

There were other later ones but I seem to be having some archive problems in finding them.