Richard Dawkins

I am watching his documentary on More4 - 'Enemies of Reason and I am in awe of the man, he carries himself with the confidence and civility of a learned gentleman. The way in which he points out the fallacies and follies of religion, astrology and their ilk, and how they undermine civilisation, is a delight to watch. I know that some him accuse him of zealotry, but when you examine the damage that these ideas inflict upon us, then perhaps it is important to ensure that these ideas are presented in their proper context.

I used to believe in God, did a church summer camp which mainly meant I had someone to go to the beach with, and to be honest, my personal experience of churchgoing folk is that they are genuinely nice people, but what I never understood is why God allowed such suffering in the world and why some people didn't have enough to eat.

It wasn't one particular thing that led me to be free of this belief, and to be honest, I tended towards spirituality and fantasy anyway in my interests - horror and fantasy fiction, roleplaying games, comics, anime but I soon came to realise that I didn't believe that there was a purpose to all this, that you could still be good and do good things because it felt good, not because of concern that someone was watching. Since that point, I tended towards ambiguity around other people, not just on religion but also on astrology, tarot etc but as time goes on, I have not forgotten the sensitivities of others, it is called tact, but I state my absence of faith in a calm manner and to be honest, no one objects anymore.

Ideas are damaging in some instances, and it is important that we find the tools to fight these ideas not just for ourselves but for our children and their children. When people use homeopathy to fight cancer, when people destroy others over their chosen God, when we replace the wonder and curiosity with the one size fits all answer of God Made It, we have to fight them without resorting to name calling(not that it doesn't have its place, if done in a playful manner). If you have to ask 'why', you need to look into it.