Everytime I try to think, my brain tickles.

My two pence. I think we're all afraid to some extent of things that challenge our beliefs. Even those of us in science or secular philosophy. Of course, this is to a lesser extent than in religious folk but I think it is possible if you're really honest to associate with that fear, perhaps not to do with your beliefs about God or religion but with other beliefs you hold dear to you.

I don't think its just religion though. We all believe in things without scientific evidence. For example in the social sphere of life we might believe someone to be trustworthy, and find it hard to accept when he is shown not to be. The drummer in my band is the Godson of the late Dr Harold Shipman, one of Britain's most infamous serial killers. He was telling me the other day that he thought Shipman was actually a good guy but couldn't comprehend why he did the things he did. Indeed Shipman had even saved his life.

Another example is my vegetarianism. I started being vegetarian when I was 5 years old when I found out what meat was. For years it was a moral thing. It wasn't till I was 18 that I decided actually there were no good moral arguments for vegetarianism and yet, more than three years on from that I'm still a vegetarian and I still find the notion of eating meat actually disgusts me, I don't care about other people doing it, I don't care that animals get killed for it, but I do believe that I will never give it up.

We all have habits and steady norms we like to fall into for our own comfort, whether they be religious beliefs, beliefs about people or lifestyle choices, we all desire to continue in our habits even when it is no good for us.

You can tell your co-worker that whatever punishment he might imagine lies in wait for those who think, it is nothing compared to that meted out in reality to those who don't!

But I for one feel a certain optimism when I hear similar remarks being made by people presented with a concept they have never previously taken on board. We all know them;

"That's just too much to think about"

       or "That's beyond me"

          or even "You think too much" (and others of similar ilk).

What they all share is a trepidation on the part of the speaker to entertain something that has already begun to be perceived by them, and that is the reason for my optimism. In other words, even though they have encountered a concept that is alien to them, or represents a mental leap in terms of their ability to understand the world around them, they have begun to visualise it mentally or at least accept its validity as a concept. It is this that sets off the alarm bells in the religiously indoctrinated mind just as it triggers excitement in the inquiring mind - the realisation that one stands on the threshold of comprehending something other than that which one has assumed up to now.

The path of scientific study is paved with such moments, and the fact that these moments are intellectually challenging is indeed relished by the person whose pursuit of that study was embarked upon in the full expectation and hope of finding them. This of course is the antithesis to the religious mindset, where the same threat to previously held assumptions threatens also to force their host to abandon whole chunks of the personality that they feel they have acquired through investing belief in them.

But whether they are welcomed or despised these moments occur, and your co-worker is simply demonstrating (albeit in a very negative way) proof that the human mind, even despite religion's imposition of irrational fear upon it in an attempt to control it, is blissfully dogged in its determination to understand. Whether he himself will ever derive benefit from his ability to perceive things outside the parameters he has imposed on himself is anyone's guess. But you can tell him, whether he appreciates the fact or not, that his comment is actually an inspiration to the rest of us who value rational thought!