I've watched several Alex O'Connor debates on YouTube and yes,I'm impressed by his respectful attitude and his ability to ask questions that could be rude and clumsy but he has the fluency and skill with words to avoid that pitfall. But I feel (emotive not cerebral) that he and his like (mostly he's cos girls just wanna have fun),are increasingly isolated on islands of yesterday. What I mean is I notice and I feel (as I say it's not cerebral) that the type of young men who even five years ago would have been ATHEISTS in capital letters,like vegans and gays they had to TELL YOU - often and at length,are now drawn to and going into the Eastern Orthodox Church. That particular branch of Christianity is swelling and growing hugely in the West and I get ie comprehend the draw. I feel it too. There is a Russian Orthodox church in the city I live in. It's out of my area but I go there now and again. It's so immersive yet unlike our forms of church you don't have to do anything. No responses,no hymn singing,no listening to a garbage sermon by the visiting preacher on give all your money to Jesus for the poor people and his Mercedes is parked outside. No,he's not a charlatan but ....I don't know,why does GOD bestow "stuff" on some people and "pain and alienation" on others. If I'd been Judas I'd have told God where to go - hanging round the park at midnight like some stupid kiddie on a bike - that would have fucked God's Plan good and proper. Jesus was resourceful,he'd have thought of something. I get how immersive and absorbing the worship at an Orthodox church is. The Liturgy is a set form and it's been said and enacted the same for hundreds of years and you dont have to know it or comprehend it and it's beautiful.

When even Richard Dawkins takes care to have it known he is a 'cultural Christian' (an affirmation a day keeps the Muslims away) since he annoyed them about Nobel Prizes,lack of,but then that Obama bloke got one for doing nothing at all,so they're not worth much., and Aayan can explain how to put your rational brain on hold at church and just go with it emotionally that's when you know being an ATHEIST is no longer the cool option. Faith is a strong Fortress. In not even specifying one particular faith. The problem with the "is that all there is" of materialist atheism is that whoever decides they control the material considers they control you. And a lot of people are seeing or sensing Danger ahead,even here now. To confound such self believed Masters of the Universe you need to be able to claim a Higher Allegiance than their Secular Control. Of course they will kill you for that,as all through history shows,but somehow it's important not to submit to them and people are sensing this without even analysing it often.