The use of terms like "militant", "atheist" and even "religion" is an attempt to put people in a box that's convenient for the opinion that the author wishes to express. It's a well-known totalitarian strategy: only when you can classify and categorise people can you criticise and, ultimately, control them. Don't get me wrong, many people like to be in a box – it gives them their sense of identity and belonging. For me, it's the ultimate insult. So, on the very rare occasions when someone asks me my religious beliefs, I say that I'm a free-thinker. Politically, I'm a utopian anarchist. This allows others to form their own opinions, which it's easy for me to refute, whilst, at the same time, it allows me to modify what I think in line with any new information I come across or when I have a 'lightbulb' moment.

And whilst on the subject of modifying your beliefs, one of the most pertinent things I ever heard from a religious person was whilst listening to Thought for the Day on Beeb 4 some years ago. A C of E bishop, whose humanity and intellect I respect (but whose name, unfortunately, for the moment escapes me) said something to the effect that the only people who really frighten him are not those who have no faith or belief but those whose belief is so steadfast that they have stopped searching.