Somebody pointed out to me recently that by focussing on what I don't want,

namely religion, I'm attracting more of it into my life,

which I agree would be a very unfortunate irony

if not for the fact that I'm focussing on what I do want,

and that's freedom, and lots of it.

You see, I make these videos, not because I despise religion

as humanity's way of poking itself in the eye with a sharp stick for no reason,

although obviously I do, but because I want to live in a free world

full of free people who can say whatever they want to say

and who can be whoever they want to be one thousand percent of the time,

and where nobody is allowed to shut them up because

their crackpot religious beliefs have been offended.

I don't care at all about theology, unless it threatens that freedom,

and then I care about it the way I care about rabies or typhoid.

So you could say that I'm not so much anti-religion as pro-freedom.

Indeed, if religion was pro-freedom I wouldn't have such a problem with it.

But then if religion was pro-freedom it wouldn't exist.

Because religion feeds on a broken spirit, and that's why

it tries to break your spirit the moment you come into contact with it.

Submit. Obey. Do not question.

Those words should be chiselled above the entrance of every church and every mosque.

That's the only message religion has, when it comes right down to it -

Praise the Lord, or else.

The pope spelled it out for American Catholics when he told them:

"Obedience to the doctrine of the church is the foundation of your faith."

That's what he said. There was no mention of enlightenment or spirituality or

any of these things, because he's not in that business.

He's in the obedience business, the only business where the customer is always wrong.

Clergy are the only salesmen who don't have to justify or prove

any of the outrageous claims they make for the product they're hustling,

and this leaves them free to engage in the kind of open fraud

which in any other walk of life would be a criminal offence.

For the level of investment they demand from us

I believe we're entitled to expect actual enlightenment and wisdom in return.

Instead, what do we get? We get dogma, crude coercion,

and endless empty pieties about the love of a god who

clearly loves us the way a violent husband loves the woman

sitting next to him with two black eyes.

If we step out of line we pay in the most brutal way.

And it's this crass violence at the heart of religion

which I believe makes it truly evil, and also furnishes proof, as if proof were needed,

that this is an entirely manmade phenomenon with nothing divine about it,

otherwise it wouldn't be so damn ugly.

The god of the desert is transparently a false god

He's a puppet who speaks with the voice of ignorant men

who are afraid of knowledge and afraid of freedom

and who therefore need desperately to control the thoughts of others

for their own miserable survival.

They need us to believe that we're less than we are

and to diminish ourselves in our own minds,

to feel small and helpless, in need of salvation.

So what do they tell us? They tell us that strength and virtue lie in submission.

Yes, of course they do. With our faces in the dust we are invincible, isn't that right?

And of course we will live forever, either in eternal bliss or in eternal torment,

but that's entirely up to us. Eternal bliss requires that you wear

a straitjacket of blind faith, not permanently, just from now until you die,

whereas living a joyful, humane, compassionate, but godless life

will get you horribly tortured for all eternity.

Fear is religion's currency of choice.

It's the lowest of human emotions because it's the most crippling emotion

and this is why it's religion's currency of choice.

It's pretty obvious when you think about it, but hey, don't strain yourselves.

But actually it's religion that has everything to fear

because it depends on maintaining the illusion, maintaining the spell,

and hoping that nobody manages to burst its artificial bubble of faith,

and this is exactly why it wages such determined war

on our basic freedoms of thought and speech.

But it's losing this war, because every day more and more of us

are waking up to the damage that this nonsense is doing to our world.

We can see our societies being twisted out of shape,

being injected with false values that pander to bigotry and superstition,

and we've realised that this god of the desert has outstayed his welcome

and become a liability, and quite frankly he needs us a lot more than we need him.

Because we've moved on from the desert, and we've discovered

a few things about the world, and the universe, and our place in it

and we're no longer afraid of the thunder and lightning,

our world is no longer populated by demons and hobgoblins,

and we no longer need to be led around by the nose for the benefit of clergy.

And they know this, just as they know that their god's very existence

depends entirely on our belief - belief without evidence

and belief that defies reason - and when that belief disappears,

as one day it certainly will, this ridiculous god will disappear with it,

instantly and forever. He won't be able to vent his wrath

or visit retribution on anyone, because he won't exist.

He'll evaporate quicker than common sense in a creation museum,

and his vast army of controlling parasitical clergy will find themselves

briefly cartoon-like in mid air, before dropping like fleas into a bucket.

That's what I'm looking forward to, and that's what I'm focussed on,

and it's why I make these videos, because I think we're better than this.

And I know we've got the power to withdraw our belief,

and our consent, and put a stop to this nonsense.

All we need is the courage.

Peace, and freedom. Let's not forget the freedom.