The trouble is that the secular religion is so grindingly po-faced and dull. A religion really does have to be exciting. And where are the stories? And imagine a religion whose archpoet is Schiller for God's sake.

I always admire the way that you cut through to the core of the idea that you are wrestling with. This column is no exception. But I wonder if you have not stopped on the very last step of the staircase. I agree with you that whether God exists and whether religion is 'true' are non-issues. But that is a conclusion that one can reach from inside the structure of traditional religion as well as from outside it. Doing that leaves one in the advantageous position of not having to construct the whole structure from the gound up (poor old David -- he took on an impossible task). The idea that for something to be worthwhile it needs to be completely different from all that has gone before is (or should be) an outmoded 20th century one. Relax, Alain; join a traditional church, observe those disciplines that you can stomach and build on the scepticism of previous generations of intelligent men and women to develop the construct that is, as you say, a necessary and rather wonderful part of human civilisation. And if the jihadists and the bigots call you a hypocrite, reflect that you have been called worse things in your time. It is in any case a small price to pay for reaping the benefits that our relegious tradition has made available to us.