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In his new book Honestly, Johnnie Moore speaks about his own issues with the church. The basis of the book is that it really is possible to live a vibrant, passionate life in Christ that changes your relation to the world and the people around you. Moore addresses my own questions about how faith in modern life seems to lack any relevance, vitality or ability to illuminate and guide one’s life. He looks at how hypocrisy, suffering, doubt, evil, the frenetic pace and distractions of the digital life, our work, our boredoms, our rebellions and our crises can all be transformed into a real life in Christ that is exciting, alive, and above all, honest.

I can't believe someone, who is religious, would so ironically write a book entitled "an honest look." Not to sound conceited, but my English ethnicity is for once a thing to be cherished, because irony is such a wonderful thing, and America has - on the whole - completely missed out on it.

How can a Christian speak about honesty, when their morality is based on the supposed teachings of someone who has never been proved to exist? Is it honest to believe that for 98 000 years (minimum) God watched the blossoming human race suffer, and then thought, as salvation, he would send his 'son' - in mere human form - to an illiterate part of the middle east, where most people were subsistence farmers, and civilisation was at its lowest. This is not an honest view of history - it is wishful thinking to the point of the absurd.

Faith in modern life has absolutely NO relevance - people have realised that morality is innate, and doesn't require divine commandment. As science has progressed, religion has been pushed out. It is called 'faith' because it is not knowledge. How someone can defend christian values in the 21st century is - as we say in England - 'flogging a dead horse.'

A pope who believes in castrating freedom of expression, morally condemning contraception in Africa, and teaching junk-science to children is schools, is far from honest, moral, or relevant in the 21st century. I'm going to read this book, to see what a hash he makes of something which is entirely offensive to people who believe civilisation is a real thing.