I have long held the view that the concept of a creator who designed the physical laws of the universe – the ratio of the mass of the proton to the electron, the laws of quantum theory, the “theory of everything” - and so on is not totally absurd. I don’t happen to think that such a creator is necessary as the universe simply wouldn’t work if the laws are not precisely as they actually are. However, I am quite at ease with a person who says that his idea of god is one who set up the rules and everything else – including evolution – automatically follows.

What I am desperately unhappy with is the religious who claim that “such and such” is the “will of god” and woe betide those who don’t agree. Contraception is not a god-decreed evil; the prohibition of eating pork might have been a good idea in hot Middle Eastern countries centuries ago (where the meat would go off quickly and produce a risk of illness) but that idea didn’t come from god. Telling primitive people that “god says” was doubtless a good way of getting the naïve to follow the sensible guidelines. Religion might have been useful in the past but it is long past its sell-by date – and dangerous in the modern world.

Jack