Twenty years ago Richard Dawkins published a book called ‘The God Delusion’. It basically argued that natural selection explains life’s complexity better than a designer while the existence of God is a scientific hypothesis that can be tested and is highly improbable.

Whether you agree with Dawkins or not if you’ve spent your life living in Western society chances are you’ve seen the role of religion gradually eroded and the explanations of science gaining more credence. If that is true of what’s happening with religion and it’s never ending debates then surely superstition has long since bitten the dust?

Well in my case absolutely not! For example, Magpies are always a problem if I’m out and about. One for sorrow, two for joy etc. So once I’ve seen one I have to spend an inordinate amount of time finding another one. Ladders are a similar albeit less time consuming difficulty. Surely it can’t really cause bad luck to walk under them? Then again why take the risk! And when I’m watching my favourite football team I always have to go through the same turnstiles to help them win. As if that could possibly have a positive influence on eleven millionaires booting a bag of wind about.

As I’m writing this the date is Friday 13th. Personally I will be putting the science aside for twenty four hours and proceeding with a little more caution than usual. Just to be on the safe side of course.