At first glance, it looks as though the Sea of Faith has well and truly evaporated. At the start of Lent this year, the BBC expressed puzzlement when Glasgow MP Carol Monaghan turned up to a parliamentary meeting wearing ash on her forehead, and asked whether this was “appropriate”. As the general election was called, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron came under fire because of his Evangelical Christianity, a belief system historically central to liberalism but now incompatible with secular (but seemingly no less sacred) ideas about sexuality. The message: that religion is not just outdated but also absurd.