Censored on iPM Blog!

The following post has just been removed from the iPM blog. The subject is the long debate on Thought for the Day. So now we atheists are suffering not only discrimination but censorship too. Shame on you BBC.

478. At 5:06pm on 18 Jan 2009, GarethTh wrote:

“I refuse to engage with you on this simply because you have an endless capacity to denigrate the work of the Church and it is getting ridiculous. I have been disappointed to see that the real thrust of the atheist input here is still primarily about attacking those who hold religious views rather than simply seeking an equal voice on TftD, which I have already said was reasonable in itself. What more do you want, sir”?

I replied:

In case you make a surprise return your defence of the denial of condoms in Africa by the catholic church and the affect that this has had on HIV/Aids is well attested to. I have yet to hear any reputable health agency say that using condoms does anything but help in its prevention. I imagine the Terrence Higgins Trust does recommend the use of condoms, so which policy demonstrates greater humanity? Denigrate the church I don’t think so, it’s actions speak louder than my words.

I attack those policies that the religious accept but are demonstrably immoral. If I were to make a list islam would be at the top of it with catholicism not far behind. The reason I attack those policies is that I am continually being told that religion has moral authority; my purpose is to show that it doesn’t and pleasant though you appear to be you have said nothing that would change the mind of a reasonable person.

All the Best

Radio 4 Thought for the Day (TftD)

We can debate the existence of god for ever and it is usually a fruitless task for the atheist as it is all but impossible to reason a person out of an opinion that they didn’t reason themselves into in the first place. Belief in god is a statement of faith not reason.

As regards Radio 4 Thought for the Day (TftD) I sense we may be on the edge of a breakthrough. If there are to be non-religious contributors I think they should come from all walks of life and have expressed their humanity either in their work or their public statements. You may be surprised that I have not included Richard Dawkins, whilst I have the highest regard for him I think this might further antagonise those that we have to convince.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Woody Allen

Martin Amis

Lord Avebury

Baroness Blackstone

Professor Colin Blakemore 

Dr Susan Blackmore

Warren Buffett

Billy Connolly

Daniel Dennett

Jonathan Edwards

Stephen Fry

Richard E. Grant

Professor A C Grayling

Susan Greenfield

Germaine Greer

Rt Hon The Lord Hattersley

Sam Harris  

Professor Steve Jones

Sir Ludovic Kennedy

Professor Sir Harold Kroto 

Brian Eno

Ian McEwan

Richard Feynman

Bob Geldof 

Ricky Gervais 

Eddie Izzard 

Neil Kinnock

John McCarthy

Sir Ian McKellen

Jonathan Meades

Sir Jonathan Miller 

Desmond Morris

Baron O'Neill of Clackmannan (Martin O'Neill, former MP)

Professor Sir Roger Penrose

Steven Pinker

Terry Pratchett 

Philip Pullman 

James Randi 

Claire Rayner 

Salman Rushdie

George Soros

Lord Dick Taverne 

Laurie Taylor

Polly Toynbee

Professor Lewis Wolpert 

The TftD brief should remain the same; to comment on current events within a moral and ethical context. And before anyone says “do you seriously expect George Soros to turn up at Broadcasting House and do a 3 minute Thought?” No I don’t but maybe the producers could pre-record an occasionally more generic Thought from those outside the UK.

At last an atheist browser

Whilst testing out a new browser recently (Google Chrome), I was surprised when it threw up the following error message. 

You attempted to reach gsearch.vatican.va, but the server presented a certificate issued by an entity that is not trusted by your computer's operating system.

I imagine that the Holy See is on to this problem and is sending a team of digital exorcists to deal with it.