I wanted to write a piece on the Pope’s visit, but I understand that these kind of things can be tricky. I wouldn't want to offend an entire faith, yet I have issues with the man they have placed in charged as their Holy Father. There has been a huge amount of money spent on this trip, and I am sure it gives followers of Catholicism great strength in these trying times. But our continuous deification of these holy men must stop. He is after all just that, a man. A representative chosen by another group of men to be their leader. How can a man who has previously hid allegations of child abuse (for the good of the church), and who was a member of the Nazi Youth, be our pre-eminent link to god? You'd have to wonder about the deity right? This goes for Guru's and Mullahs, and every other faith who place their strength in the word of a man. A man who can have his own agenda. Why, in this day and age, does he, and the church, still refuse to accept that contraception is vital in Africa to stop the spread of AIDS. Ridiculous! They are sentencing possibly hundreds of thousands to their death. That blood should be on their hands. You cannot say it is God’s will, when you as his emissary have the power to change it.

Now I have never hid the fact that I consider myself an atheist (actually humanist is probably a better description of my belief), and I find it offensive that the Pope's aide can attack us as aggressive secularists. Secularism is not the same thing as atheism, it is political movement as opposed to a belief system. I am not Richard Dawkins, who I feel is overtly offensive to those who believe. I think there are a lot of people who get a lot of strength and do a lot of good thanks to their faith, and to them I doff my cap. Good for you. But equally I have known very hurtful, spiteful people who use their faith to judge others, and judge themselves to be better than those who don't believe. A devout Christian once told me, categorically, that 'you are going to hell'. All for not believing in their god. I try to live my life as a good person, but I do so not for a reward at the end of my life, but for the happiness it brings me. That may make it non-altruistic, but I don't care. It is a more honest reason than doing it for some reward in the afterlife, in my opinion.

The Pope blamed the Holocaust on Atheists. WOW! I mean seriously, WOW! During the second world war Nazi Germany's closest allies were Catholic Italy, Catholic Croatia and Catholic Vichy France (while Polish Catholics slaughtered their Jewish neighbours in Jedwabne). In 1941 Adolf Hitler said, in My New Order, "Christianity [is] the foundation of our national morality".

I could go on, but I suppose the point is made. There are arguments that if secularists, and atheists, wipe out Christianity, as is the fear, more aggressive faiths will take their place? Feels like a big brother mind game. Always at war, and what you don’t have is worse. I cannot believe that anyone, scratch a few militant atheists like Dawkins, would want to wipe out all faiths. Who are we to judge? I just think that there needs to be some open dialogue. In the US people are ashamed to admit their atheism. In the land of the FREE, were freedom of speech is a core doctrine, people have to hide their belief in nothing as people will hold them back. In the US, on their money, it says, “In God we Trust” This same God who said money was the root of all evil, I wonder if he sees the irony of it? Yet in this country, we have Charles Darwin.

I could prattle on about this all day, but I am going to leave it there for now. I shall probably touch on atheism etc again in the future. Let me quote a translation of a Hindu prayer to finish: Let us be guided towards the path of truth and honesty,