Archive for BBC
A Disgrace to the BBC and the Open University!
Posted by: | Commentse-mail roysaich@humanists.freeserve.co.uk
Telephone: (international code 00 44) 01926 858450
A Disgrace to the BBC and the Open University!
Can you do a history of Britain without mentioning the history of France, Germany or the United States?
Why not, if you can do a history of Christianity without mention of such other territories as the Humanist ethical tradition?
Roy Saich of the above Humanists web site commented on the BBC series A History of Christianity:-
“The series’ presenter Diarmaid MacCulloch, is a professional Christian evangelist and Professor of the History of the Church at St Cross College, Oxford. He has been given, at the expense of tax payers and television license payers, freedom to produce a whole series of programmes lauding Christianity and its survival, with the cynical title A History of Christianity.
“The concluding 60 minute summary programme of the series, supposedly about scepticism to Christian claims, managed to totally ignore people like George Jacob Holyoake, Charles Bradlaugh, Robert Green Ingersoll, and our contemporaries like Richard Dawkins. It covered morality without mentioning David Hume, John Stuart Mill, Sir Karl Popper and Sir Isaiah Berlin and our contemporises like A.C. Grayling.
“It managed to discuss the survival of the religion without even mentioning its wealth and political influence. There was no mention that it avoids the taxes everyone else has to pay and gets huge subsidies for every one of its activities from schools to health service and prison postings.
“Where are the programmes on public television to provide balance to such dissolute material? The BBC and public watchdogs won’t tell us!”
Information about the Humanist ethical tradition is on
The BBC series information is on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00p90kk/A_History_of_Christianity_God_in_the_Dock/
Rethinking Thought for the Day
Posted by: | CommentsWith the row over Radio 4′s three-minute ‘God slot’ intensifying, secularists are warning the BBC that it may be in breach of equality law.
Read The full story here
The broadcasting equivalent of Marmite, it has been a fixture on the current affairs programme for 40 years and is one of the station’s untouchable slots.
But that could all change as the BBC Trust is due to rule on whether Thought for the Day should be broadened to include the voices of secularists. It follows a series of complaints that by not doing so the BBC is failing to fulfil the obligations in its charter.
How big can the BIG question get?
Posted by: | CommentsTaken from the NSS (National Secular Society) newsline newsletter. Go to their web-site to subscribe regularly. They are masters of informing on and to the media.
The BBC1 Sunday morning debate show The Big Questions is returning for a new series starting on December 28th 2008, describing itself as “THE place where the moral and ethical questions facing the nation are debated and explored”. It is looking for audience members as it travels around the country.
The first few shows will broadcast from the following locations on these dates:
Croydon – December 28th 2008; Oxford – January 4th 2009; Leicester – January 11th 2009; Canterbury – January 18th 2009; Edinburgh – January 25th 2009; Bristol – February 1st 2009; Southampton – February 8th 2009; Birmingham 15th February 2009.
If you live near any of these locations and you’d like to come to the show, please reserve a seat as soon as possible. There are a limited number of seats and the TV company does not wish to disappoint anyone. To secure a place, please call Ruth Mayer on 01865 811139 or send an email including a contact phone number to rmayer@mentorn.tv.
Bible stories, anniversaries and sea-side outings
Posted by: | CommentsBBC FOUR
21:00 : 3/7/08 BBC FOUR Sunday Schools: Reading Writing …
…and Redemption
This program charts the finish of the Sunday school as a national movement in Britain. Could it be the watershed for the growth of a Humanist Education movement world-wide? Not as a mirror image of this Christian activity started to control the hooligans amongst the child workers on their one and only day of freedom, but as a collective inspiration to get the freedom that everyone wants- to think through one’s own values, morals and relationships. Look for the Facebook or Yahoo ‘Humanist Education’ groups. See also the Education ‘Tactics’ page of this web-site.
Repeated Sunday 6th July 20:00
What effect did Sunday school have on you?