I am still very much an atheist. My sense of logic means that, for me, atheism is the only ‘right’ conclusion to make. For one thing, what is this being known as god, and why did he make the world to look so convincingly like it evolved naturally? And why did he endow us with a sense of logic which could so easily fool us into thinking he didn’t exist? Why is he so ambiguous? For me, religion does not add up.

Yet recently I have been thinking more about it. I used to dismiss it as childish make believe; I now think I was wrong to do so. Religion offers people hope; it can give us reason; it can help inspire great acts. The bible speaks about being kind, about helping others. The bible says god loves everyone, and that we should love our neighbours. These are good values to live by, and if religion – not just the bible but the Torah and Koran and other such texts – can inspire us to live peacefully together, to help others and to help one another, then I am all for it. It recently occurred to me that religion has, at least in part, helped to inspire some of thee most wonderful things in my life. Thing is, religion can also be used to inspire genocide, war, and terrorism, which is why I have condemned it in the past. But I now see it as essentially neutral – religion is a tool which can be used for both good and ill, and to condemn the many for the deeds of the few is wrong.

It wasn’t sitting comfortably in my head. How could I, in the same breath, proclaim myself tolerant and liberal and then proclaim all religious people morons? It was wrong. I used to believe that religion lead always to a conservative stance, but I now think it is politically neutral, and can be used to back up whatever political stance one cares to take. For me, this renders it benign; while I don’t have faith myself, it is something I can live comfortably with, and even respect. Looks like my days of going up to religious people and trying to convert them are over.