I just got back from seeing/hearing Salman Rushdie read. He has such a exciting imagination; what I mean is that his imagination excites me...it opens up new possiblities. Simple things. Mythical creatures exist when they are conceived by the imagination. He convinces me of this. The word is a powerful thing.
After the reading there was an interview that we could observe (doesn't that sound absurd?) and after the interview he took questions. Brett Dewing asked Rusdie about his position toward religion. Something like a gasp spread through the crowd. (Brett is so good at asking questions.) Rushdie said that religion boils down to two things: origin & ethics. Religion seeks to answer these two things. Since prescribing answers to these two things seems oppressive to Rushdie, he said he has no use, personally, for religion. For the same reason Rushdie held that religion should not occupy the political arena. I found his comments somewhat disheartening; but as I was saying to a friend afterward, "religion and faith are not the same thing". I can't help but think Rushdie has a faith in...I don't know what. His stories are so full of hope so full of the supernatural so full of imagination...it's hard to reconcile his answer with his work. It's funny: when I made this comment to my friend, a security guard was walking by and he got strangely excited; finally he turned around, unable to contain himself: "I've always thought religion was the search and faith the attainment...it's been so long since I've heard someone distinguish faith from religion". I like encounters with strangers.