Friday, February 08, 2008

Theology or religious speculation bears the same relationship to real experience as pornography does to lovemaking

--- Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen

Source: Jon Pareles, "At lunch with Leonard Cohen: Philosophical Songwriter on a Wire", The New York Times, October 11, 1995, available at: http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/news3.html

In context:

I've always found theology a certain kind of delightful titillation. Theology or religious speculation bears the same relationship to real experience as pornography does to lovemaking. They're not entirely unconnected. I mean, you can get turned on. One of the reasons that they're both powerful is that they ignore a lot of other material and they focus in on something very specific. In these days of overload, it's very restful to know, at last, what you're talking about.