Thought for the Day: update

Well, it seems like “Thought for the Day” is taking over my every waking hour now – like a living nightmare – but all in a good cause . I want to sincerely thank all the people who have cc’d me their e-mails of complaint (and who do so in the future). They present various different arguments against the slot – all valid and often very well articulated. It’s good for the BBC to get a mix like this. Keep them coming to me, though I may not have a chance to acknowledge all of them.

Responses

I love the PM programme at 5pm – largely due to presenter Eddie Mair, who I think has a great manner and sense of humour. I have heard they are on the border of mentioning the pledge, if people comment on iPM. I guess the BBC are in a tricky position on this: perhaps they don’t want to mention it because if intelligent listeners realise there is one going on, they are pretty sure to e-mail too. They’ll be “opening the floodgates” further.

Meanwhile, some people are receiving stock responses from the BBC. So far they are using the standard one which I went through in my own e-mail, and another one biding for time (understandable perhaps). They will have to make an announcement in due course however.

TFTD today

I heard TFTD today actually. It was very professionally introduced by James Naughtie but I think I could tell they’d been receiving the mails. Today it was by Sihk Indarjit Singh. A Sihk is one who believes in “One Immortal Being; ten Gurus, from Guru Nanak Sahib to Guru Gobind Singh Sahib; the Guru Granth Sahib; the utterances and teachings of the ten Gurus and the baptism bequeathed by the tenth Guru; and who does not owe allegiance to any other religion” [source]. That’s quite a mouthful isn’t it? And that’s only the start of it. Sihks have to carry various artifacts with them at all times, including specially designed underwear and a dagger. An exception is made for them under UK law to enable them to carry these small swords (no surprises there, then) but I wonder how they get on at airports. Does all this seem rational to you? I doubt it.

Anyway, the point really is that Sihks have no particular claim on morality over and above anybody else – certainly not over and above humanists. I lay there and thought about TFTD, further distilling my objection to it (because I actually do not like objecting to anything). I thought, in a nutshell, it’s like this: TFTD allows moral positions to be “hijacked” by religious people, when they are actually the source of many of the world’s most serious problems. That’s the main insult. As Pat Condell says:

“It does seem quite ironic to me that the very people who have clearly made no attempt to think for themselves are always the most vocal in demanding [in this case even worse - receiving] respect for their… ideas.”

And of course this occurs in the middle of what should be an objective news programme. Humanists are simply sidelined as if they couldn’t possibly comment on morality.

Well, TFTD finished – nothing profound was said – and it went back to the news, which of course is about the religious conflict in the Gaza Strip. This is not really about territory, by the way. Lets face it: if they were all of the same religion, they wouldn’t really mind coming together. It’s our old friend religion, again.

I also wondered, would I rather have TFTD abolished or reformed? I think it should probably be abolished, and there should be more free criticism of religion allowed on the radio as mainstream comment. But even having a few humanist voices on there would be step in the right direction.

Let’s hope the BBC hear our call for change anyway, otherwise we will, reluctantly, have to step it up.