If you ever drop your car keys into a river of molten lava, don't go after them. Trust me, they are gone.

Andrew, I just read your "God with low standards" thing. Very nice. I think of Jesus' views concerning sin. Please allow me to paraphrase: The typical Hebrew way of thinking was "I shouldn't murder, and I haven't so I am good." Not having killed someone, they were outside the sphere of culpability for that sin. Then along comes a Pharisee who tells them, "No, if you have even thought of killing someone, that's bad, because God knows your thoughts!" The Pharisee re-drew the lines so that average people would be inside the sphere of who qualifies as a sinner, but he himself would still be outside it, setting up a holier-than-thou relationship. Then along comes Jesus who says "If you have been angry with someone this is the same sin as if you had murdered them." In other words, the sphere is even bigger, and we are ALL inside it. He has the lowest standards of them all, in this sense. He died for us while we were yet sinners. Amazing.