Well the weather has changed a few times since my last entry! Now much warmer, windy and changeable. I'm off to Cornwall with the Xandman tonight and I'm told it's about the same only probably much warmer there, which is causing panic over what to wear - it's obvious I don't get out much these days. Packing puts me in a total spin.

Lack of events and/or lack of time have caused a slow-down in entries. It's a bummer that the iPad won't let me write here for some arcane reason all of its own. I have time to write whilst in the shop although business is doing well and there are more frequent interruptions. A once-monthly Saturday morning stint caused me to buy the Grauniad for a change (I'm otherwise totally loyal to the Independent still.) I was happy to find one of my favourite Inde columnists, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown being interviewed on the subject of the burqa ban in France, which she is in favour of. Hooray for her!

I was even happier to find an interesting article about Percy Bysshe Shelley and the bicentenrary of his 'Necessity of Atheisim" publication that got him thrown out of Oxford.

Stop reading now if you have absolutely no interest in such matters.

His premise was simple: if you have seen or heard God then you must believe in God. If you haven't then the only reason for believing are reasonable arguments and the testimony of others.

The chief argument for a deity is that there must be a 'first cause' but this is an irrational statement in two ways; firstly there isn't any factual imperative behind that reasoning, only the need for human minds to find causes. Secondly, even if there was a first cause it doesn't have to have been a deity.

If one relies on the testimony of others for belief in the existence of God this is unproven hearsay and contrary to fact-based reason. It also supposes a God who commands belief which is irrational of God because belief is involuntary and not an act of God (if it was, and there was a god then everyone would believe in him!)

The article goes on to point out that the stereotypical atheist lacking soul/spirituality is also countered by Shelley's life and work which shows a keen appreciation of aesthetic beauty. I would also say he demonstrates a spiritual awareness of transcendency, which in my world has absolutely has no need of the presence of a deity.

The article was written by Andrew Copson who is, I discover, chief executive of the British Humanist Society. ironically I wouldn't join that club either after an experience with a group of Humanists in a nearbye town who seemed far too religiously zealous about it all!