The Jews, the Muslims and the Christians,
They've all got it wrong.
The people of the world only divide into two kinds,
One sort with brains who hold no religion,
The other with religion and no brain.
--Abu-al-Ala al-Marri, 10th century Syrian poet

      Abu might have changed his mind had he met R. Buckminster Fuller. In 1927, at age 32, after failing in business, losing friends' money, having been "fired" twice as a student at Harvard, he felt his family would be better without him. He would jump off a Chicago bridge into Lake Michigan. Then, a question appeared in his mind: ``Is there a God?" His answer, based on his knowledge of the exquisite design with which nature functions, was "Yes." He then reasoned that humanity, and thus the specific human R.B. Fuller, must have a function in the natural Universe.

      Rather than throw it away, he resolved to make his life an experiment. He would look around to see what humanity needed done, that nobody else was doing, and would work full-time on that task.

      He wondered: what could a person such as he, with a dependent wife and child, with no money or college degree, what could one individual do that great nations and corporations could not do.