I look at it this way. We have less need for superstition these days. The answers we naturally crave to describe the reality we experience are slowly but surely being provided through scientific research, so ascribing it to a man made deity is rather insulting to those who strive to give us understanding.

The "jam tomorrow" and be poor here so you can be rich in the next life always was seen as a tool of those in charge and what with day time television and YouTube pictures of kittens being cute, we don't need the mind control to keep us happy either. Soap operas have replaced sermons.

Now that isn't good news for the few percent who get a lot out of their faith but just think on. It's the petes of this world who are making the concept of religion irrelevant to normal people. The Irish rejection of bigotry last week had an interesting angle. Priests telling people how to vote and their congregations making it clear that tradition and ceremony, even comfort at vulnerable times is not the same as adherence, a rather old fashioned value from the days of poor education and priests being seen as leaders of society rather than pariahs, as many in Ireland see them after the sexual abuse and influence that led to a woman dying because the bishop leant on the health services to prevent a life saving abortion.

The rise of abusing Islam to force through more temporal aims is perhaps the largest factor in people questioning what religion can offer. Christian leaders speaking of a holy war don't exactly help matters with their inflammatory rhetoric.