When i became a skeptic

I've sometimes wondered whether I've ever had faith. Ever believed in God. I don't think I ever have. I don't have any memory of faith. I went to a church pre-school, to Sunday school, to state schools that did the obligatory Christian service each morning at assembly. But I don't think I ever believed it.

I do recall though, the first time I thought faith was bollocks. It was in an R.E. lesson with Mrs Stone, aka Ol' Ma' Brick. She explained faith in terms of the chairs the class was sitting on. That we had unquestioning faith in each chair's ability to support us. I couldn't articulate why I thought this was bollocks at the time, but bollocks it most certainly was. I'd have been 11 or 12, I think.

We don't have blind faith in chairs. We have years of experience of chairs and knowledge of the physical world to inform us that the chair will support our weight. Sometimes a chair will break. A old and brittle plastic garden chair might lose a leg. A wooden glued chair may have joint that's worked loose and come apart.

Sometimes we might see a new design of chair that seems impossibly flimsy, perhaps made of wire, that becomes stronger when we sit on it. Or that appears not to have a full complement of legs. When we sit on these, we don't do so with blind faith, we do so tentatively, half expecting it to collapse, preparing for it to break, and being pleasantly surprised when it doesn't.