The Big "G" Delusion..

A while back I said that I was going to recount a short tale about my experience reading "The God Delusion" in a public place.

It's not a long story.

Not that long ago I was sitting in a local coffee shop (I won't name the chain here, but think of a Roman Emperor) reading. My book was, as I said, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

Now.... I'm not going to get drawn into a religious debate, the fact that I'm reading a book by Richard Dawkins and consider Carl Sagan a hero of mine should give you a hint as to which side of the fence I am on. So, I'm reading my book when all of a sudden a hand appears out of nowhere and moves the book out of my field of view. I look up and see a rather annoyed woman of the Penelope Keith mold staring down at me.

"Despicable!" she says. (women of a certain age speak like that in surrey)

"Pardon?" I reply.

"He has NO idea that awful man, who does he think he is!"

"Er.."

"I can't believe you are reading such rubbish. Where would we be if we all thought like that?"

And she promptly walked away.

"Where would we be if we all thought like that?" That was my favourite comment. Where would we be?

Atheists and better off is all I can think of.

The fact that she got so wound up by what I was doing that she was willing to walk over and confront a complete stranger is staggering to me. I don't get wound up when I see someone reading the bible and feel the need to walk over and admonish them in public. I don't even get that annoyed when I'm in Piccadilly Circus and there are those Christians with megaphones telling me that I'm going to hell!

Maybe I'm too passive.

It's a great book by the way.