BBC TV “Sees Religion As Tiresome Obligation”
Religious coverage is seen as a “rather tiresome obligation” by “secular and sceptical” BBC television staff, a Radio 4 broadcaster has said.
However do not see this as a sign that the BBC intend to stop religious broadcasting or seek to alter its charter obligation to provided it.
Roger Bolton, a radio 4 presenter, has actually called on the BBC to appoint a religion editor to improve the quality of religious broadcasting.
Here at Atheism we can make a suggestion to “improve” the quality of religious broadcasting; stop it.
If staff find it tiresome, the fact it relates to broadcasting information that is not true (i.e. a particular god exists), and we are sure that the majority of license payers would prefer their money being spent on something useful, ending these shows would be a good way to start (especially in the current financial climate).
The full story can be found here on the BBC News site.
Bishop Calls on God for World Cup Help
Taken from the BBC News site. Full story here.
OK the silly season starts here! The Bishop of Croydon Nick Baines, who just happens to be a football fan, has called for his imaginary friend to help those taking part in the World Cup in South Africa!
He has written three prayers, the first to “guard and protect” those who “work and play” in the cup; the second to “bless” those taking part and “smile” on the host nation; and third to give all those who are “gripped with World Cup fever” patience and understanding!
At least he didn’t entreat us all to pray for an England win, especially as every correctly conducted study into the effectiveness of prayer has come to the same conclusion. Prayer works no better than chance.
So here’s to a chance of winning the trophy!
Atheist is Prime Minister
Well, almost. The Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, has stated in the past that he does not believe in God. Now I am wondering if our system is the same as in the US, in that if the PM is assassinated (don’t get any ideas) does the deputy take over?
However, although the actual PM, David Cameron, does appear to be religious, he fortunately does not seem to be particularly devout, and has said, ‘I’ve a sort of fairly classic Church of England faith, a faith that grows hotter and colder by moments’.
Like most UK politicians he is somewhat ambiguous and evasive about his approach to religion saying, ‘I do think that organized religion can get things wrong, but the Church of England and the other churches do play a very important role in society. I think that it’s perfectly possible to live a good life without having faith, by which I mean a positive and altruistic life, but I think the teachings of Jesus, just as the teachings of other religions, are a good guide to help us through.’
It is also an improvement on the two previous PMs, especially Tony Bliar whose press secretary Alastair Campbell once said the prime minister ‘didn’t do God’. But as soon as he stood down converted to Roman Catholicism and then set up his own ‘Faith’ Foundation.
As a Liberal Democrat/anyone-as-long-as-they’re-not-tory voter the current coalition seems like a weird dream or alternate universe worthy of Star Trek, but perhaps Liberal Democrat involvement will temper the excesses of the, traditionally Christian, Conservatives. At least they’re talking to each other instead of constantly bickering and squabbling like children. Good luck to them; as long as they keep religion out of politics!
New web address
May 10, 2010 by Mark Embleton
Filed under Atheism
Atheism now has a new web address at www.atheismuk.com
We are still called Atheism, but have responded to feedback that atheismfront.com could be seen as militant or confrontational, even though it was just a web address and did not describe Atheism, the organization. The term ‘front’ was intended to mean that the web site was the public face, or front, of Atheism, but we are happy to change this to avoid any confusion.
You can still access this web site using the old web address for a while as it will automatically re-direct to the new one.
If you do have links to Atheism on your own web sites or blogs, etc, please change our web address to the new one. Thank you.
Newsletter : May 2010 : Issue 2
May 2, 2010 by Mark Embleton
Filed under Newsletter
