Smash hit

In the past, faith has usually been satirised through its churches and churchmen, from The Canterbury Tales to Father Ted. It's only recently that the idea of faith itself has been so comprehensively challenged by stand-ups, almost certainly because faith has filled the vacuum left by ideology at the end of the 20th century.

Ince believes his event isn’t so much about comedians hating religion as their being excited by the alternatives. “While everyone on the bill is an atheist, thereare plenty of religious comics,” he argues. “Some of us are just intrigued by the ideas of science. We come from the Bertrand Russell point of view: okay then, who made God? We’re certainly not picking on Christianity. For one thing, to say that Christian Voice, which campaigned so aggressively against the Jerry Springer opera, represents Christianity is like saying The Black and White Minstrel Show represents multiculturalism. In a way, it’s unfortunate we picked Christmas first. We definitely need to do a rational Ramadan.”

Ince intends to carry on his work with a monthly club called The School for Gifted Children, as well as a secular Sunday show with Goldacre. And he may not be alone. In September, Bloomsbury, in central London, saw the opening of The School of Life, an avowedly secular institution for “everyone seeking intellectual and personal adventure”. The school offers courses, workshops and lectures — with a particular series of secular Sunday sermons — from, among others, Alain de Botton, Geoff Dyer, Susan Elderkin, Tom Hodgkinson, Brett Kahr, Robert Macfarlane and Martin Parr.

Even the Natural History Museum is getting in on the act, celebrating the 200th year of Charles Darwin’s birth with exhibitions and lectures explaining how evolution works for schools, families and the casual museum-goer. The lectures on the political impact of the theory will probably prove more exciting than ones on Darwin’s transatlantic lice conundrum.

All of this could lead to idle speculation on behalf of our beleaguered humanist that the tide is turning against mumbo jumbo. As he reaches for a copy of Francis Wheen’s book How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, the excited nonbeliever hopes against hope to see in this new dawn of reason a comedically led enlightenment — surely the soundest of all republics, in that its very foundation is mockery and satire? Yet, of course, it hardly matters what the poor soul thinks. He’s definitely going to hell.

Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People is at the Bloomsbury Theatre, WC1, December 18 and 19, and the Hammersmith Apollo, W6, December 21

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