Personal preference. The reason I am a Quaker is the lack of dogma - no "thou shalt do this one weird thing every alternate Thursday because the priest/book/tab

Personal preference. The reason I am a Quaker is the lack of dogma - no "thou shalt do this one weird thing every alternate Thursday because the priest/book/tablet says so". Put another way, you have the responsibility for working out your own values, and this leads to a delightful (and healthy, I think) diversity. There are Quakers who don't drink alcohol and those that do (usually only in moderation, but even there you get exceptions!), carnivores, vegetarians and vegans; and they all get along! This acceptance of personal witness extends to our concept of god. So you often get Quakers discussing what each understands by "god". Some are very biblically influenced and imagine some kind of omnipotent "person", but the concept of a shared spirit that comes from ourselves makes more sense to me. For me "god" is not a person's name, and is not an entity that will be hurt if I don't dignify it with a capital letter. But I'm very happy for you to do otherwise.