Though this is a longer piece than others under this heading, I think it is worth the visit. Karen Armstrong’s views on spirituality are condensed here in this Steve Paulson interview. I heard Armstrong speak right before the release of her book, The Great Transformation. It is always an added piece of potential confidence-building for me to see someone in person. She didn’t leave me skeptical of her intent or intensity. I and some friends had started a study group based on her scholarly work, History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and found it rich with insight and numerous parallels from these faiths.

Here are a few quotes from that interview to spark your interest:

I think God is often used by religious people to give egotism a sacred seal of divine approval, rather than to take you beyond the ego.

And very often, the opinions of the deity are made to coincide exactly with those of the speaker.

I think we expect religious knowledge to be instant. But religious knowledge comes incrementally and slowly.