I heard in a documentary about ‘Whirling Dervishes’ that mysticism is far older than religion, I wouldn’t argue with that, but to be honest, loose or rigid, it’s all still religion to me. I know we all have to believe in something, ourselves, the future, in good government, whatever you like. But to me belief, hope, infact anything in that general area is simply blind and over-optimistic at best.

Most people can’t deal with the terrible truth, the human race is a virus running riot. It isn’t an individual life at stake anymore, it’s a whole race. We’ve only managed to carve a slither of history out of this old planet, and what have we achieved, apart from an awful mess that some poor sods will have to clean up one day, and that’s if they are lucky.

We’ve screwed up, we have, and just about everyone who came before us, but mainly us, the people empowered with language, technology, information, knowledge. We can organize anything, we can communicate instantly, feeding the world a new idea, within minutes, literally. But are we going to save the world? Are we potentially a generation of heroes, or will we simply keep watching the TV in vain hope that someone else does it?

Back to my point (if I have one), belief is unfounded, it simply means ‘I don’t know’ or rather ‘I don’t know everything’. You can believe you are going to be rich for instance. You just bought a lotto ticket and you believe you can win. There, that’s what I call almost religious belief, sure it’s money and not life everlasting, but with the way Hollywood peddles its superstar lifestyles, the difference has blurred. Now what if you’d set up your own highly successful software company and it was about to be floated on the stockmarket and you believe it will make you at least a million pounds in personal fortune. You see that’s not belief, that’s just an estimate, however rough.

All I’m saying is if it sounds too far-fetched, just as with advertising, I tend to ignore it. Buddhism used to escape the glare of my growing objectivity, perhaps a fondness for the whole ‘let’s make reglion more Marxist’ approach. There’s no hierachy as such, you just have to be very good for a very long time, then you win or something. Ok so then you get to meet Kurt Cobain. Sorry. Of all the people out there, I don’t want to knock Buddhists, lovely people I’m sure, best out of a bad lot I’d say, but still, I’m feeling irreligious today.

I once worked as a temporary dustman when I was struggling with college fees and got to work a whole day with a very devout Jehovah’s Witness. He was a nice chap, bit beardy, but very relaxed and friendly. But soon I realized why the council could only get temps to work with him. He was working his mojo, he was actually trying to convert me.

I spent the next hour ‘de-converting’ him, making him deconstruct all his beliefs in a logical progression of deduction and conclusion. By the end his head was in his hands and he was bawling his eyes out. Why? Well, his wife, kids, parents, siblings, friends, everyone in his life were Jehovah’s witnesses. I then spent the next hour reassuring him and joking about my foolishness, explaining I was simply testing his faith, not denouncing it.

Some people need a divine purpose, some don’t. Religion has always exploited that belief. But there are incongruencies in all faiths, contradictions that pull apart any resemblance of logical structure and reasoning. The last religion to let me down was Buddhism. If they believe in reincarnation, then how comes the Dalai Llama is continually reborn? If anyone should set them a good example, it’s him.

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