Studs Terkel

Author

11-Jul-01 - In this 1979 article, Terkel "characterizes himself as an atheist"

-- submitted by Brian Westley

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In a Rolling Stone interview (issue 874, 02-Aug-01) when asked "do you consider yourself an atheist?" he replied, "I think of myself as an agnostic, but an agnostic is really a cowardly atheist."

He goes on to say "at the same time I envy those who have faith. Well, I have faith, but they have a religious faith. The recurring phrase used by people in my book is 'I am not religious, I am spiritual.' and they don't mean just Buddhism or pantheism, they mean: 'I want to believe, but not in something connected to an institution' -- Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, whatever it might be."

submitted by Nicole Martin

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On 15-Jan-02 broadcast of The Connection on NPR dealing with the topic of death and dying, Terkel called himself an atheist several times.

submitted by Razib Khan

(Does anyone have the actual quote of "Terkel calling himself an atheist?" RayJ)