SG: With secular culture so prevalent, why is the school nativity play still so embedded in our culture?

MF: There's a reason why it's called the greatest story ever told. It's a really genuinely good story. Whether you believe in the ramifications of it or not I think it's a beautiful story with a really beautiful start - the idea that the most humble is the most exalted. That's not a bad idea for me.

SG: Is organised religion the bad end of that original story?

MF: You know, sometimes I think when people have a go at organised religion that's not necessarily people who have been reading Chomsky and come to this great idea by a lot of research. I've been looking into this and I think a lot of it is laziness. I think organised religion, organised anything, requires commitment and requires an engagement with something and a lot of time we don't want to commit.

Of course, if you talk about the Spanish Inquisition, that's probably the bad end of organised religion. But organised means there's more than 10 people involved, you know what I mean? There were more than 10 people involved because it was an idea people liked. I don't see how you get round it. Do you want disorganised religion?

I think everything's got to be personal, anyway. Everything has to be your own personal relationship with something.