Mid-Evening Anti-Catechism

"Are you disappointed that more people aren't converting to atheism after seeing your show?" That (loosely paraphrased) was the question that kicked off Ira Glass' conversation with Julia Sweeney on Saturday night. "No. I'm not really that conceited," replied Sweeney. (Again, paraphrased. We did not smuggle in a recording device.)

Glass got first billing Saturday night, but Sweeney was really the star of the show. After a brief pitch for funding from Ross Reynolds, and a stage-setting introduction from Glass, she performed an hour-and-twenty-minute version of her monologue Letting Go of God.

Back in the mid-'90s, Seattlest would not have guessed that Julia Sweeney's career would survive the annoying debacle that was Pat. We definitely wouldn't have expected her to transcend SNL with hilarious monologues about surviving cancer (God Said "Ha!") and losing her faith (Letting Go of God).

An excerpt from the latter show, about how a bible studies class led Sweeney to question her Catholicism, ended up becoming the most popular segment ever broadcast on This American Life. And Glass always wanted to have a conversation with Sweeney about her experience, which is why they and several hundred audience members ended up at the Paramount on Saturday night. (They ended up in Seattle because we love This American Life, public radio, and atheists. Take that, red states!)

Sweeney delivered her monologue with great timing, which made us wish we could see the full version. The sound was a bit echoey at times. Sweeney captures with great humor her journey from someone who could literally feel the healing warmth of God's love to someone who embraces science and ends up discarding faith because she found it unnecessary. She's a bit like the atheist's answer to Anne Lamott, except funnier and able to use her own point of view as a tool instead of a cage. She also does a killer takedown of Deepak Chopra, which we're always in favor of.

After an intermission, Sweeney was joined onstage by Glass, who proceeded to talk with her for about 45 minutes. It made us really appreciate his skill as an editor -- while it was an interesting conversation, Glass tended to ask long questions that prompted one- or two-sentence answers from Sweeney. He led into a long question by mentioning Bertrand Russell's argument that Christianity overall has done more harm than good, which was an interesting premise, but Sweeney didn't have an extensive response -- basically that, given the nature of humans, if it weren't Christianity something else would fill its tribal-identity role.

We liked the conversation more as it went on, developing more give-and-take when issues that were interesting to both of them came up. The highlight was a section where they talked about the cultural role of religion. Glass mentioned that attending temple, even though he's not a practicing Jew, is like going home, or stepping back in time to when he was a kid.

Sweeney said that she'll always be culturally Catholic, and said she's considered attending church without actually believing in the stories behind the rituals. She told a story about attending a Christmas mass recently and talking to the person next to her, who said she'd seen Sweeney's monologue -- "and I agree with you." But there they were, at church together, united in disbelief.