I attended the lecture by Prof Daniel Dennett entitled Taking the Place of Religion last week at the D4 Berkeley, Dublin. I felt completely at home. I am no longer a believer. I spent the last seven months of 2010 writing a semi-autobiographical novel based on my nine years in a seminary. The transition from believer to non-believer, in my experience, does not happen overnight. It is more a gradual thing. I do not see myself as having ‘lapsed’. I see myself as having outgrown religious faith, just as an adult no longer believes in witches, Leprechauns or the tooth fairy.