Rushdie On Religion: Unnecessary But Indispensable

The world’s most famous living condemned heretic says, “The world was not created in six days and God rested on the seventh. It was not created in the churning of a giant pot… And regarding ‘how shall we live,’ I don’t want answers that come from some priest. [But] as a writer I find I need [religion] to explain the world I’m writing about. As a person I don’t need it and as person I do. I would agree, that tension is irreconcilable. [But] it’s just there. It’s just so.”