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Western Liberal Humanism Is Not Something That Comes Naturally To Us: Like An Appreciation Of Art Or Poetry, It Has To Be Cultivated. Humanism Is Itself A Religion Without God-not All Religions, Of Course, Are Theistic. Our Ethical Secular Ideal Has It's Own Disciplines Of Mind And Heart And Gives People The Means Of Finding Faith In The Ultimate Meaning Of Human Life That Were Once Provided By The More Conventional Religions.

Compassion Has Been Advocated By All The Great Faiths Because It Has Been Found To Be The Safest And Surest Means Of Attaining Enlightenment. It Dethrones The Ego From The Center Of Our Lives And Puts Others There, Breaking Down The Carapace Of The Selfishness That Holds Us Back From An Experience Of The Sacred. And It Gives Us Ecstasy, Broadening Our Perspectives And Giving Us A Larger, Enhanced Vision.

Even Before 9/11 I Was Gripped By A Sense Of Dread: Our Lack Of Criticism About What We Were Doing In The Middle East - The Slagging Off Of A Whole Religious Tradition.

And Sometimes It's The Very Otherness Of A Stranger, Someone Who Doesn't Belong To Our Ethnic Or Ideological Or Religious Group, An Otherness That Can Repel Us Initially, But Which Can Jerk Us Out Of Our Habitual Selfishness, And Give Us Intonations Of That Sacred Otherness, Which Is God.

I Never Intended To Be A Historian Of Religion. My Aim Was To Become A Professor Of English Literature In A University, But I Had A Series Of Absolute Career Disasters And Found Myself Making Television Programs About The Nature Of Religion And About Christian History And Started To Discover About Other Religious Traditions, And That Was An Absolute Eye-opener For Me.