An ex-nun on compassion and "lazy theology": Karen Armstrong, a former nun, Islamic scholar, and the author of The Spiral Staircase, interviewed in the Sunday New York Times by Deborah Solomon:

Do you believe in the afterlife?

I am not interested in the afterlife. Religion is supposed to be about losing your ego, not preserving it eternally in optimum conditions.

If there's so much similarity among world religions, why have wars been fought for centuries?

Because of egotism. Compassion is not a popular virtue. A lot of people see God as a sacred seal of approval on some of their worst fantasies about other people. With the election coming up in the United States, we'll be hearing a lot about God being either a Democrat or a Republican.

You had a nervous breakdown before you left the convent. I wonder how you feel about the current widespread use of antidepressants.

We live in a culture where we think we shouldn't be depressed and we demand things, including good moods. But you should be depressed if, say, your child dies. It's a shame to miss it by blocking yourself off.

Oh, that's so Catholic of you to ennoble suffering.

No. It's a very Buddhist idea. Suffering in itself can be really bad. It can make you into a psychopath. But if we do suffer, it can help us to appreciate the suffering of other people.

Is there any hope for the future of religion?

We need to rediscover what is in our religions, which has gotten overlaid with generations of egotistical and lazy theology. The current thinking -- my God is better than your God -- is highly irreligious.