Tuesday, June 16, 2009

My Favourite Atheist

This evening I heard Camille Paglia speak at the Royal Ontario Museum. The Dead Sea Scrolls will soon be on display at the ROM, and Camille's talk was the final segment of a three part Signature Series, a preamble to the Scrolls display. Her topic was "Hollywood and the Bible".

I like Camille Paglia because, although she's a social commentator who frequently discusses politics, she's more interested in Truth than she is in politics. Although she's an atheist, she sincerely respects those who believe in God, and she sees how vitally important religion is to society and culture. Although she has sometimes described herself as "openly lesbian", she respects the beliefs and freedom of those with same-sex attraction who choose not to build an identity around homosexuality.

Camille shared that her Italian-Catholic upbringing is deeply ingrained in her psyche. It comes through in many ways, and I enjoyed her passionate story-telling this evening and her enthusiasm about her topic. I especially enjoyed the selected clips from The Ten Commandments, along with her commentary. Some elements of her talk even seemed prophetic to me.

There's so much more I could say, but it's getting late and I have work tomorrow. Anyway, I'm grateful for an interesting evening - thank you, Camille, and thank you, God! :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hmm...maybe God can wear the disguise of an atheist, but will never hide the truth.

Mrs McLean said...

Oh, you are so lucky! I would have LOVED to have been there. But, being in Scotland, I couldn't make it.

I agree about Camille. I find her very interesting, and although she is an atheist, she never trashes Catholicism and she even argues that pro-lifers are more obviously altruistic than pro-abortion people.

Tina said...

She's very interesting. Like you, I would love to have a cup of coffee with her sometime!