WHY GOD IS KILLING RELIGION

WHAT ? I’ve been a confirmed atheist for most of my life so it may seem odd that I have decided to write a book about religion. Normally I write bizarre and funny science fiction novels so maybe I’m writing this because I see the modern Christian church as bizarre and, for that matter, based largely on fiction. What happened is that it recently occurred to me that I am living my life more or less as Jesus Christ said life should be lived. I love my family, get on with the neighbours and love life and existence in general. I’m getting on a bit too so my lifestyle is moderate as well. So I wondered why I am not a member of a Christian congregation and then remembered all the reasons why I abandoned my religion decades ago, thoroughly disillusioned and bored with everything the modern church had to offer. Yes, I would love to belong to a congregation and have friends in it and go to functions, but I would be kidding myself belonging to an organization that, in my opinion, has failed its potential members and stands for what I see as absurd. Up till now I have thought of a religion as an organization for teaching people about weird supernatural figures and unfounded beliefs, a throwback to an earlier time that has passed its used-by date. But on reflection I realise that the Christian religion actually has a lot to offer but that it insists on blocking itself off from mainstream society with its endless mumbo jumbo and groaning subservience to a master figure that almost certainly doesn’t exist—or does exist but not in the form that the church claims. More than that, though. Society needs an organization like a religion to provide a hub for social intercourse and a source of viewpoints that are longer termed than the purely materialistic view. The Christian religion holds to the concept that the universe, in fact all existence, is fundamentally good. I think modern society is now unsure whether existence is good or not and does not necessarily believe in ‘good’ behavior. I want this book to be a very positive look at what the Christian churches could be in a modern society, a huge force for good in society and a centre for much of communal life. I am writing it because I am on the outside looking in, because I left it when it seemed to have lost its way and because I would really love to join it again.