Still, his central point (that the irrational dismissal of logic encouraged by religion often leads to tragically irrational behaviour, such as blowing yourself up on the tube or listening to Christian rock) seems pretty valid from where I'm standing, ie cowering on the sidelines of a fight I didn't pick, and which seems to be escalating out of control. Life on Earth would be simpler and less blowy-uppy if religion didn't drive so many of its followers crazy - so why isn't anyone researching a drug that can cure it?

It can't be that far-fetched. After all, there's no shortage of boggle-eyed drug-guzzling bores out there willing to describe their spiritual experiences at punishing length. They can crack on for hours about the time they took a nuclear strain of hallucinogen they found on the internet. They ran outside in the moonlight, glanced down at a bit of old stick on the floor, and suddenly found themselves journeying inside its mind - suddenly the air tasted of wood, they felt bark growing on the outside of their brain and they slowly realised that when you really bloody think about it, we're all sticks, in a way, and let me tell you that revelation was bloody life-changing, it absolutely was. Do you want some? Do you? Do you want to take some now? Go on. I need someone to talk to, someone on my level. TAKE THE PILL!

If we're smart enough to create drugs that tickle the spiritual node in the brain, perhaps we can create a few new ones that'll shut it down completely. I'd make it mandatory for all schoolkids, worldwide. Actually sod that - I'd pump it into the water supply myself.

Imagine! Nothing to kill or die for! And no religion too! It's amazing, literally no one's ever had that thought before.

Okay, so there's always the possibility that the same part of the brain that handles fuzzy spiritual feelings is the same part that handles love and sorrow and pity and joy; the same part that makes us create songs and jokes and books and art and brightly coloured computer games in which an animated weasel collects starfish in a fountain; so once we wipe it out we might all be left scampering around the planet like thick, bipedal, cultureless mice - rutting, foraging, scratching behind our ears and doing very little else. But look on the bright side. No more religious conflict AND no more novelty ringtones. Two almighty evils erased for the price of one. Bargain.