If the atheists are ever to rid themselves of God once and for all, they must first realise that there is no single crushing blow which can be delivered.
Instead, they must be prepared to behave as a swarm of fleas, draining a single drop of blood at a time, until the idea of a petty, interventionist god is fatally weakened.
Then and only then can we push the deity out of its tower and watch it spiral towards a Nietzscheian death. Until religion is sufficiently worn out, though, be content with nibbling away an infinitesimal at a time, and know that you will get there eventually.
Yesterday, another gobbet of flesh was ripped away from Christianity in England when Bristol County Court ordered two religious hoteliers to pay £3600 in damages after they refused to admit a homosexual couple (who are civil partners) to a double room (ie one with a double bed) on the grounds that sex before marriage runs contrary to their beliefs.
If we were unsure before, we are now certain that England is a secular nation - the laws which are passed here are derivations of the minds and pens of lawyers, judges and politicians, instead of emanating from the mouth of god, and we are by now grown-up enough not to pretend otherwise.
Furthermore, we now know that my own private beliefs are superceded by legislation designed with the public in mind. Your god is yours, and if he exists at all, it is only in your own mind, and you cannot invoke him when you intend to act outside the law.
Perhaps this event is the one which will in the long-term be the catalyst for secularism to overwhelm all aspects of our society, swamping all religions, no matter what their basis. In order for the public perception of something to change, first the message has to be internalised that whatever we wish to overturn is in some way unacceptable.
Quite how the pressure to create a negative impression of something is generated and applied is for a different day - what concerns me here is that it happens, and that it (maybe) happened yesterday. Before the smoking ban in public places was implemented here, I remember the refuseniks who said they'd continue with their habit - in my experience, they are very few and far between, and now they (generally) smoke only in the designated places.
Partly, no doubt, this is because it's illegal; but I think of the considerable social pressure which compels smokers not to light up where they shouldn't - this is perhaps as compelling as the threat of being fined for your actions.
As soon as something becomes unacceptable, the memetic propagation across human synapses occurs very quickly indeed, and a kind of self-policing is evident. It's your authors suspicion that we have - or soon will - reach a similar tipping point where religion is concerned, and Bristol County Court on January 18 this year represents the birth pains of a great, broad, sweep.
