I do not believe that atheism is a substitute or can fulfill the same function as a religion, any more than I believe that violence can become a substitute for authority. But if we follow the exhortations of the Conservatives, who at the moment have a fairly good chance of being heard, I am quite convinced that we will have no difficulty in producing such substitutes, that we will use violence and claim to have restored authority or that our rediscovery of the functional usefulness of religion will produce an ersatz religion — as if our civilization wasn't cluttered enough with all sorts of pseudo stuff and nonsense stuff.