Preface

       
This book is an attempt to explore the underlying reasons why people feel the urge to give meaning to life.
It approaches its task by looking at our perception of our place in the universe, and it speculates on how this perception may give rise to such phenomena as spiritual and religious sensibilities.

In recent years there has been a veritable deluge of books published on the subjects of religion, belief and atheism – a genre to which this volume is a modest contribution. The first draught of the book was written in 1998, predating this mushrooming of titles. Since then much has changed in the world, and indeed in the author’s head: the book has evolved and expanded accordingly.

For the purposes of religious classification the author categorises himself as a “non-believer”. Despite this fact, the book that you now hold in your hands is not so much a criticism of religion but rather the distillation of the author’s attempts to understand its existence. The book contains practically no mention of religious dogma or doctrine, and the world’s principal monotheistic religions are only mentioned by name once. The word atheism only appears twice, with both of those occurrences being in the preface that you’re reading now (So that’s got that over with).

The author’s only qualification for writing this book is that he is a cartoonist: a profession that encourages him to stand back and look at life from unusual angles and to think about things in slightly skewed and unconventional ways. While the core of the book is based on current understanding of the topics involved, some parts are purely the product of the author’s own speculation. He would like to apologize in advance for any inappropriate lapses into humour that may occur in the following pages.

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