Response to Victoria Coren's Observer column on belief, 5th Dec 2010.
Trouble is, 'irrational' and 'illogical' sound like bad things.
Without wishing to imply anything bad, theism cannot be 'logical'. As soon as one starts to say "I believe God is like this and wants us to do that", based on scripture or tradition or feeling, surely you have stepped away from logic and into the realm of pure faith. If I'm right and theism is not logical, that makes atheism the logical position - which is not to say that it is better.
We cannot tell whether doing away with religious faith would be overall good or bad. Certainly, faith cannot be blamed for all conflict, and there is nothing wrong with faith as a comfort, but religious faith does cause some problems - those clever atheists will give you the list. This is why secularism, which defends the freedom of religion, is so important.
