The case for compassion

Renowned religion historian Karen Armstrong, in her new book The Case for God argues that our religious thinking is surprisingly less sophisticated now than it it has been in the past.  She explains how religion was never intended to answer the questions that fall withing the scope of reason or science.  The role of religion was to help people live and cope with realities for which there were no easy explanations.  She fires a shot across the bow of today's fundamentalists, as she shows that prior to the 17th century no one assumed biblical myths were factual accounts, but were meant to be interpreted and then reinterpreted.   My conversation with Karen Armstrong: