On a more serious note, there is something refreshing about the more outspoken stance adopted by atheists in recent times (Richard Dawkins et al). Why shouldn’t non-believers, or infidels as we like to call them, be allowed to speak out boldly against the competition? Personally, and at my advancing age, I think they could be on to something. In my particular case, religion has probably done me more harm than good.
Where I take issue with them is in the second part of their pitch, where they say "Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." I think one worries and finds it difficult to enjoy life for a host of reasons, of which a belief in God is only one. Indeed, many people, such as my wife’s parents, actually appear to enjoy life more because of their religion, and I seem to remember reading a survey showing that actively religious people in the USA are on the whole happier than the rest.
The real question to be asked is “Would the world be a better place without religion?” There is no easy or short answer to this question, but looking at the world and the history of the world as a whole, it takes a bit of a nerve to answer with an unequivocal “yes”.
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