Religion as Answer

Salman Rushdie: "Religion answers needs in us."

As the subject of faith comes under consideration, each debate pulses with an undercurrent of humanity. We struggle to reconcile how faith can complement atrocity here, and elsewhere offer comfort and meaning. There's a mad dash to categorize it, to fit it wholly in a box labelled Pathological or Divine.

But Rushdie hits on truth, here. Religion is a mask on the underlying motives. It's not a goal in itself; religious popularity is a function of history, society, and ultimately individual choice. It fills a role, and otherwise would not enjoy such prevalance. The subject of this debate is not god, it is man.

I knew a guy who insisted that no Nirvana song had any meaning. There did not exist a reason for it to be so popular. You're missing the point, I'd say. There obviously is meaning, because it was recorded by someone, and someone listens to it, and puts it out. Doesn't matter if it's the sound of a urinal, as soon as that happens, it's been injected with meaning by humanity itself.

This guy is what's wrong with prescriptive linguists and New Atheism. A bittersweet difference, though: I got to punch him in the head.

Rushdie on democracy:

"One answer to the question is democracy... We don't have an absolute view of what is right and wrong; we have an argument about it... At a certain point, we believe that slavery's okay. At a later point, the argument develops... It seems to me that that argument is freedom."

On 9/11:

"It was a hinge moment, if only because it showed us that we're now inescapably involved with each other. We can't disengage. There's no way, even if America wanted to, to return to a kind of Fortress America, isolationist policy... The world is too interpenetrated..."

On Islamic extremism:

"The IRA is a relevant example, because when the Catholics of Northern Ireland became disillusioned by being represented by the IRA, that is what brought the IRA to the peace table. At that moment their power disappeared. And that's why I'm saying that it is, in a way, incumbent on the Muslim world to reject Islamic radicalism."