Lisp is not a functional programming language. Lisp is a multi-paradigm programming language. Functional programming, although awesome, is not the optimal choic

Lisp is not a functional programming language. Lisp is a multi-paradigm programming language. Functional programming, although awesome, is not the optimal choice for everything. Designers of Lisp understood this, so the language tries to get out of your way as much as possible. No programming language is perfect sadly, and Lisp too has its warts, but programming in Lisp compared to any other mainstream programming language, once you master it, is like walking up a hill after losing 200 pounds of weight.