A Ringing Endorsement (Well, Almost)
For the Benefits of the Amateur Spirit

'In any amateur approach to weighty subjects, the perils are obvious. They need hardly be cited. Yet there is one advantage: you are not obliged to be loyal to the expertise you have studiously acquired, and you do not have to confront the displeasure of one's learned colleagues by forcing them to come face-to-face with a radically new concept. Of course, amateurs rarely succeed.'
--from Norman Mailer's introduction to On God--An Uncommon Conversation