I agree with Tjj up to a point... hey, if you want to confide in, say, The Honey Monster to help you through the day it's no-one else's business but yours as long as it doesn't have a detrimental affect on anyone else. This is the key point for me.... George Bush and Blair happily telling the world that their imaginary God friend TOLD them to invade Iraq is no more valid than some nutter saying that voices in his head told him to kill 'em all down his local school! Why is the latter deemed insane, the former not. What is the difference? Can't see it myself.

The touble with these organised religions is they simply cannot let everyone else be... it's all about power and money, isn't it? Christians HAVE to save you, whether you like it or not. Muslims say they detest violence and then go about proving the exact opposite over and over again to the infidels. And what evidence do they have that they are right? None. They just KNOW.

Dawkins may sometimes be an arrogant bugger, but it must be bloody difficult dealing with people who are so entrenched that any argument is superfluous. As far as I can see the aethiests are the only people who actually present any evidence whatsoever for their viewpoint, a viewpoint which is incidentally not based upon fear and retribution either, but on logic and balance of probability. A viewpoint that doesn't advocate going back to being children because we can't cope with the adult state.

Religion worked when the medieval lord in his castle worked hand in hand with the church to maintain the monopoly of power through fear. Heh! heh! You stratch my back and I'll scratch yours...Keep the peasants illiterate and they won't find the gaping holes in the bible and start asking awkward questions. Education has been the key in allowing the layman to expose the bible etc for the sham I believe it to be. Didn't Richey Edwards say 'I am all the things that you regret. A truth that washes, that learnt how to spell'?

But I'm ranting, I guess. Ah, 'scuse me... I'll just go and ask Eric Cantona what he thinks. He's making tea in the kitchen, by the way. Takes ages, too. Perfectionist. Yeah, no-one can see him, but I KNOW he's there. Kylie, ask him to get a move on, pet.