I am not a clever person, and I know it. That makes me cleverer than most. I am also not at all vain; in fact, once I was almost wrong about something.

But that's what I think religious faith is all about: vanity. What else can be the cause of so many people refusing logic against all odds and insisting there is a god -- especially theirs?

What else makes people advertise slogans of god this and god that on their cars and homes, proclaiming to anyone that will only listen, that this or that is what god really meant -- if they honestly didn't believe they had inside knowledge of the deity. In my book, that makes them incredibly vain.

Isn't it just plain vanity when so many people swear and bullshit their way through the week, only to humbly dress up and go to church on Sunday so one and all can see how dedicated they are?

Or what about the boxers / football teams / opposing armies that sincerely pray and believe that god will be on their side during the upcoming confrontation? Is this not vanity par excellence? Ever notice how they thank their god if for some reason they actually won the confrontation, but never denounce him when they didn't?

But in my view, the biggest vanity of all is the religionist's view of self-importance, in the face of the size and age of the universe. To really think that a god would even be remotely interested in one specific human being amongst the trillions and trillions and trillions of stars and galaxies over a time span of billions of years goes even beyond my limited mental capacity.

But then, I am not a clever person.

I was nine years old when, as a one of the 'privileged white minority' in South Africa, I read a poem by a black man, the gist of which was "the dice fell wrong for us, that's all, that's all…." I guess it was then that I started questioning everything I was taught.

I was nineteen when I went into the army and joined the Jewish faith as well as Seventh Day Adventists just to have Fridays and Saturdays free…and started learning about religious manipulation.

Then I went to university and learned that everybody had a "right," and that what's right for me may not be right for you -- but we both have the right to believe whatever we want.

Then I saw the movie Gandhi - and heard him say "an eye for an eye just makes everybody blind." Then in rapid succession, my very religious father committed suicide, my very religious mother remarried, and I was told by the doctors that I had six months to live.

So, much as Winston Churchill reputedly said on his deathbed when he was asked why he didn't renounce the devil, I thought by myself, "this is no time to make new enemies," and so I did some serious investigation into every damn god I could find. Shucks, I even followed a car with a bumper sticker that said "Jesus never fails" until I ran out of petrol. Nothing ever gave me reason to think that there was more than vanity at the heart of things.

Now, three years later, I have a new kidney, god doesn't exist, and the dice fell right for the disadvantaged in my country.

It didn't take me becoming extraordinarily clever to figure things out. It was all just growing up.