I disagree with most of this article in the Irish times, but it makes some amusing points.

THERE IS no such thing as a Divine Being. So get a life, Dermot, or at least stop trying to foist your beliefs on everyone else.

I should apologise for that unseemly outburst: I’ve really no fixed view on whether or not there is a God, and neither could I care less one way or the other.

Which means, of course, if there is a Hell then I’m destined for it. And that’s fine by me. Who in their right mind would want to be stuck forever with the religious crowd anyway?

What could possibly be worse than having to spend eternity in the company of ayatollahs, archbishops, pontiffs, preachers, and their legions of glass-eyed, po-faced acolytes?

The big mistake the author is making, of course, is that the place he is happy to be destined for in the next life will probably be chock full of the clerical salmagundi he, understandably, wants to avoid in this.

I have a soft spot for Anglicanism, and not just because I’m a nominal member. It must be the only Christian denomination where, at least until recently, you didn’t even have to believe in God. Try to live up to the teachings of Jesus and nobody within the Anglican Communion cared whether you were a believer or not just so long as you didn’t make too much noise about it.

Anglicanism, the religion for the nominal atheist.