a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwuIos7gL84YQ74ppoQSffcummuITTCtCHiWJAvW8CWHYmOWdOWI6lqUCzg7-OVq4oy3pyexxj6IaKLvnrZB4sdNwrjZZTMkue2EJhwEpn3sO2HyKdg5LCtGIi9nhN-AUIOLpMHVFm7Wt/s1600-h/eveningsky.jpg"img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367367630015136082" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwuIos7gL84YQ74ppoQSffcummuITTCtCHiWJAvW8CWHYmOWdOWI6lqUCzg7-OVq4oy3pyexxj6IaKLvnrZB4sdNwrjZZTMkue2EJhwEpn3sO2HyKdg5LCtGIi9nhN-AUIOLpMHVFm7Wt/s400/eveningsky.jpg" //abr /divThe other day I had the distinction of being the first person to vote in a a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/new-poll-should-radio-4s-thought-for-the-day-be-opened-up-to-secularists-and-humanists-15641.html"Lib Dem Voice poll/a. It asked:/divblockquote"Do you think Radio 4’s Thought for the Day should be opened up tobr /secularists and humanists?"/blockquoteulliYes, open it up/liliNo, keep it for religion/liliJust scrap Thought for the Day/li/uldivI voted to scrap it, confident that I would be in the majority.br /br /Not a bit of it. Yesterday Liberal Democrat Voice published a href="http://www.libdemvoice.org/ldv-readers-say-open-up-bbc-radio-4s-thought-for-the-day-15850.html"the results of the poll/a. The results were:/divulliYes 384/liliNo 122/liliScrap it 134./li/uldivI have never been entirely sure what a humanist is, but for a secularists to demand to be accommodated in a religious slot is downright bizarre.br /br /My own religious position is settled. While I love Church of England architecture and music, that does not mean that its doctrine true. And to adopt an intellectualised form of Christianity so that I could enjoy them - saying that when we talk about life after death we are really saying something profound about this life - would be dishonest.br /br /Besides, though I find Evensong in a cathedral moving, on the rate occasions I have been obliged to go to other services I have found the sermon worthless and the music a dirge. And I seriously hate the Evangelical, Christian Union style of belief. I have seen it do great harm in my own family.br /br /The trouble is that organised secularists resemble no one so much as these happy-clappy Christians. They are just as tedious and in much the same way. Hence the recent a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/29/atheist-summer-camp-somerset"atheist summer camp/a for children, for example.br /br /There was a time when I was attracted to the secularist movement, but I found them closed minded. They took it for granted that if you agreed that there was no God or god then you would share a their views on a raft of subjects like abortion and euthanasia. For me, that simply didn't follow.br /br /And have these people ever heard Thought for the Day? It is dull beyond endurance. Its short length and the demand for blandness kill any interesting ideas stone dead, and I don't see that atheist would cope with it any better. The best you could hope for would be to mirror the rebarbative certainty of Anne Atkins./divbr /divI can only recall only one good Thought for the Day. I think it came from Rosemary Harthill, who was then the BBC's religious correspondent and she talked about religion at school. At secondary school you were offered a wet, New Testament sort of God and kept your eyes open during prayers to show you did not believe. At primary school, by contrast, God was a fierce, Old Testament figure. He was a God of vengeance who might conceivably take your side against the headmistress.br /br /What is most objectionable about Thought for the Day is the attempt to insinuate religion into the very worldly Today programme like an aspirin in a teaspoon of jam. It would be better by far to give Christians and other believers - and non-believers - their own programmes.br /br /I still regret that Radio 4 no longer broadcasts the service of Compline late on Sunday evenings: /divbr /blockquoteBrethren, be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, steadfast in the faith./blockquotedivThat is the stuff to give the troops. Not pap like Thought for the Day, secularist or not./divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-1650032859440918666?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div
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