The French satirical magazine was at it again this week, causing controversy and a difference of opinion that has once more put them in the spotlight and presumably, on high terror alert.

On one side you have people championing the bravery of their journalists, expressing their right to freedom of speech, whilst on the other, people are calling them out and out racists with a prejudice against a religion where a fanatical minority are butchering innocent people.

Whenever I hear people screaming that tabloids like The Sun or The Mail should be banned for their inflammatory remarks, it makes me squirm a bit because where is the freedom of speech if they are taken out of circulation? They are shit newspapers that talk utter shit, so the simple solution is not to read them or report any comments that may be libellous or inciting racial or homophobic hatred.

So, with that in mind, Charlie Hebdo should, as atheists, be able to write whatever they want, whenever they want, shouldn’t they? If it upsets people, they shouldn’t bother reading it but an atheist or an agnostic should have the same rights to express themselves as any religious group, surely?

I hate talking about religion in public as it can cause all sorts of trouble with people you like and respect but personally, I can’t bring myself to indulge in ancient mythology which in my opinion, has about as much credence as Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Despite this, it still gets used as a tool to wade into alien territory with missiles that are about as near to a nuclear holocaust as you can get without having one.

The UK is pretty bad at this with both Theresa May and Tony Blair bashing their bibles as they drew their righteous paths to highly damaging wars or some Brexit agenda that is a satirist’s dream and an economist’s nightmare. Fortunately, some of the British public woke up and Theresa May lost her majority, meaning her and God couldn’t drive us off a cliff quite as easily as she hoped.

However, our closest allies after Brexit, Trump’s America, love God and believe that they are God’s country, which with God’s acceptance of course, they can blow up whoever they want when they want. I am a fool because the bits I have read claimed that religion was all about peace, not trespassing and respect etc etc etc.

However, with Tony Blair getting his and George Bush’s God to arrow missiles into Iraq and Afghanistan, we are still paying the price, reaping what we have sewn as the ‘War on Terror’ continues to increase terror attacks across Europe (That’s ironic you see, Alanis Morissette). Yet, as I write this, we are having another go at Afghanistan, the unbeatable foe with an enviable list of high profile victories behind them.

Most people I know don’t care what religion or race anyone else is and anyone with the tiniest degree of sense must find it hard to deny that blowing people up because God told them to, is about as lame as an excuse as you can get; we should really grow up and stop doing it as they only come back at us backed up by their own God who tells them to hack the heads off people going about the blasphemous business of enjoying life.

Fortunately, religion is on the wane courtesy of physical and mental abuse scandals, wars and the growing acceptance that brilliant scientists have more knowledge about the universe than some kiddy fiddler in a weird dress. One day, if God hasn’t asked Donald Trump to end human life with a ‘Mother of all Bombs’ the human race might look back with bemusement and amusement that schools, governments and even workplaces, had a religious bias.

Someone said to me recently that many people take comfort in their religion as they feel protected by their beliefs. I am absolutely dandy with that, just don’t bludgeon me with preposterous nonsense unless you have proof to back it up; then I’m all ears, I open to enlightenment.

I’ll tell you something now. Someone I know had a family member who tried to kill himself with an overdose and was so ill, their chances of survival were bleak. He pulled through and made a full recovery and do you know his mother said?

“I prayed to the sweet Mary Jesus and she saved my boy”.

Not a paramedic on £21k a year. Not a nurse on an 18 hour shift. Not a surgeon operating under extreme pressure. It was none of them, it was the sweet Mary Jesus. Of course it was, how obvious does it have to be?

Here’s another one for you. Theresa May’s father was killed in a road accident. He was a highly respected vicar, so square that circle if you can. Also, Theresa May, a hereditary bible basher, married a guy who advises on tax evasion, which is essentially, greed. I haven’t seen ‘Thou shalt avoid thou taxes’ anywhere in the 10 commandments have you?

If praying worked, I would pray for a day that people could pray for whatever religion they liked, just as long as any religious bias was absolved from the education system and the government. Let’s face it, If Theresa May told you she was embarking on a war in Afghanistan under the guidance of Santa Claus you would all find it preposterous wouldn’t you?

Its time to be more honest to stop this nonsense. A time to say if you illegally build a house on and deliberately empty your sewage on people below you, you are much as a cunt as someone who detonates himself in a shopping mall.

As for Charlie Hebdo. Let them write what they want, they are atheists after all.