All the madness currently going on drove me to pen these. They aren’t cast in stone. And beer helped.

The Ten Commandments of Shah. (Subject to occasional revision)

1. Faith is when you keep it between yourself and the Creator. Religion is when you inflict it on the people around you.

2. Be careful about beating your chest in the service of your religion. You’re far from being a saint, and you will cock it up. Regularly.

3. Never let your religion get in the way of your ability to be a decent human being.

4. Your religion always falls in behind the guiding values of the society you choose to live in. If you don’t like it, move.

5. Religion is nothing to do with your relationship with the Creator. It’s about your need to belong to a group of people you think you have something in common with.

6. The Creator is the Creator of you, me, the dinosaurs, the slime mould and little green creatures on the planet Zog.

7. The Creator doesn’t care if you’re naked, wear a hijab, or wear a flashing dildo on your forehead.

8. The Creator is infinite in time and space. Don’t presume to claim them as your exclusive property.

9. If a human being claims to be able to intercede with the Creator on your behalf, they want your money or your mind.

10. You’re miraculous, one of a handful in a vast, empty Cosmos; the result of an improbable series of events. You didn’t ask to be here, but you are. Live it to the best of your ability, and try not to be too much of an arse.