Colman is spot on about Angela Merkel’s suggestion that God should have a place in any new EU constitution. Merkel contests that

“[the constitution] should be connected to Christianity and God, as Christianity has forged Europe in a decisive way”

As Colman points out, this means

“we should include references to absolute monarchy, discrimination against women and anti-semitism, all of which have also forged Europe in decisive ways.”

Why must we always have such second-rate minds in charge of working out where to go with the EU project?

God can only be a unifier when everyone’s worshipping the same one. So let’s ignore the Reformation and the countless variations of Christianity that arose following Luther’s piece of petty vandalism (sparking a good few centuries of violence, bloodshed and persecution). Ignore the lack of doctrinal agreement even within the Roman Catholic Church, let alone the Church of England and all the various Protestant offshoots.

What’s more, by codifying a Christian god into an EU-wide constitution, how exactly are community relations with non-Christian groups going to be helped at this time of ever-growing religiously-inspired division, mistrust and violence?

The EU is – in its idealised form – supposed to STRENGTHEN the ties that bind us, to emphasise and build upon the areas of similarity amongst a culturally-diverse continent which has seen more than its fair share of mistrust, division and war over the centuries.

All religion has ever done – and in Europe’s history more than that of pretty much anywhere else in the world – is enhanced the “us versus them” idea, heightening perception of differences, and created hostility through the insurmountable believers versus non-believers dichotomy.

We already have enough alienated and annoyed non-believers in the EU – they’re called Eurosceptics – let’s not add to their number, eh?