I came across this quote from Andrew Sullivan in an article of his in the UK’s Sunday Times on 10th May 2009 and thought I would share it with my readers. I like its modesty, openness and lack of pretension.
“….My own view, as a struggling and doubting person of faith, is that truth matters in whatever mode we find it — but ultimate truth, because we are not ultimate beings, will always elude us. The search for this truth is the point….. Humans cannot live without this search, never have and never will. Our consciousness asks questions to which there will never be a complete answer; we are religious because we are human. And the challenge of our time is neither the arrogant dismissal of religious life and heritage, nor the rigid insistence that all metaphysical questions are already answered or unaskable, but a humble openness to history and science and revelation in the journey of faith….”
Andrew Sullivan is a British-born blogger, author, supporter of gay rights, and political commentator, resident in the USA since 1984. A pioneer in political weblog journalism, his blog The Daily Dish won the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Blog. He takes a moderate approach to religion; as such he vocally rejects fundamentalism of any kind, including both fundamentalist Christianity and Islam, and describes himself as a “dogged defender of pluralism and secularism”.
In his Sunday Times column of May 10th 2009, ‘Light at the end of religion’s dark tunnel‘ from which the above quote is taken, he discusses Robert Wright’s book The Evolution of God which is due to be published in June 2009 in the USA. He describes the book as “….a non-believer’s open-minded exploration of how religious doctrine and practice have changed through human history – usually for the better.” In his affirmation of The Evolution of God, Sullivan states that the book gives him hope by providing a reminder that if we can step back from our current position of religious embattlement, “….the long-term prognosis is much better than you might imagine….”.
“How relieving”, he says, “to have a sane, sober rationalist point this out.”
350 words copyright Anne Whitaker 2009
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