People sometimes tell me "I kind of agree with you about religion, "but you can be a bit negative. You should be more positive." Okey-dokey. I'm positive that organised religion is irredeemably evil, I'm positive it exists for the sole benefit of professional clergy, and I'm positive that the only way it can possibly survive is by glorifying ignorance and brainwashing children, which I'm positive violates their human rights. I'm positive that the spiritual guidance you'll receive from a professional clergyman is on a par with the medical attention you'd have got from a thirteenth century doctor, and that finding the meaning of life in organised religion is about as likely as finding a pub in Saudi Arabia called The Shoplifter's Arms. I'm positive that the more we allow clerical opinion to influence public life the closer we get to totalitarianism. Religion's history, past and present, proves this beyond any doubt. But most of all I'm positive that if we put as much effort into engaging with reality as we do in trying to escape from it through religion we might find out a bit more about it, and that would be very positive for all of us, except, of course, for professional clergy who depend on our fear and ignorance for their very existence, and to whom, therefore, knowledge or wisdom or any kind of human enlightenment is about as welcome as a dose of the pox. The most genuinely positive thing I can say about religion is that it's a triumph of the human imagination. But it's also proof that there is no idea so absurd or self-destructive that we aren't capable of enthusiastically talking ourselves into it. And I don't know what this is. Maybe it's some kind of biological need we have to do this to ourselves, to pretend that we've connected with something greater than ourselves, to cheapen it with bone-headed ignorance and righteous hypocrisy, and then to ram it down each others throat. Maybe that's what we're here to do in this life, because, if it is, we can count ourselves a huge success. That's quite positive. Maybe not. There are many things I don't understand about religion, as people never tire of telling me. For example, why somebody would kneel in a church asking to be delivered from evil. Why go in there in the first place? Or why, if God is really so all-powerful and merciful, he doesn't simply forgive Satan, and then none of this nonsense would be necessary. Why can't he let that happen? What is he afraid of? You have to wonder, don't you? But the thing I find most difficult to understand is if you have to worship a god, and clearly some people do, why choose a god of death, a god who wants you to hate yourself, who wants you to deliver yourself to him as a broken thing with wounds that need healing, and to inflict those wounds yourself? It just doesn't make sense. And I know it's not supposed to make sense and that's what faith is all about, but this doesn't make sense on an "Are you insane?" level. Especially when you've got a ready-made god of life shining its light on this planet every day. Because the sun actually is the source of all life on this earth, our creator and our salvation, you might say. And it's the nearest thing to a real god we're ever going to have. Without it this planet would be just a ball of dead rock flying around on its own in the dark. You know, like an Islamist's braincell. If you're a Christian you might as well worship the sun because you do anyway. You just don't know it. Christianity is really nothing more than astrology with attitude. The entire Jesus story has been lifted wholesale from the sun god myth, and not for the first time either. There are many other holy figures with exactly the same life story as Jesus, right down to the details. The virgin birth, the star in the east, the twelve apostles, the miracles, the crucifixion, the resurrection and so on and so on. The story has been told and retold time and time again and it has all been inspired by the sun - the one true god. "Ah," you say, "but what about morality? "The sun can't impart a sense of morality." Well, what a bonus that is. Because the morality imparted by the god of death is not a morality at all. It's a raft of threats. Obey or be punished. That's no morality, and knuckling under to it has no virtue. It's the behaviour of a trained animal. So you can put that morality where the sun doesn't shine, wherever that may be. I'll take the golden rule because it makes rational sense, and I'll take it in the sun. And maybe you should as well. Admittedly the sun is no more than a giant ball of burning gas, so whatever consciousness it may possess is unlikely to respond to your prayers directly, but you're already used to that. And we know the sun is actually there. We don't need to speculate about that or take anything on trust from people with their own agenda who don't know any more than we do, and who, in many cases, know considerably less. We can feel the sun's warmth, and we can see its light breathing life into everything that lives. What more do you want from a god - popcorn? And all we have to do is celebrate it. There's no punishment, no guilt, and best of all, no professional clergy. It doesn't get any more positive than that. Peace, and a happy summertime to everyone, especially in those places where it's winter.