Brights News Feed

British Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, Professor Richard Dawkins, has had a relatively large media footprint since the release of The God Delusion, globe-trotting his way from interview to interview. But yesterday’s CNN slot with Paula Zahn deserves a special mention, because it seems to have taken place after pressure from complaints generated by RDF site members.

Last week a lengthy panel discussion was aired on the subject of atheism, in which no atheists were invited to take part. The anchor opens the new interview with Dawkins by saying “Well after we first brought this topic out in the open, most of the emails that we received were from people who thought that we should have included an atheist in our discussion.” See Richard Dawkins interview with Paula Zahn.

After decades of campaigning that BBC Radio’s infamous flaship morning god-spot, Thought For the Day, should be open to non-religious thinkers, the British Humanist Association (BHA) and the Humanist Society of Scotland (HSS) have decided to go ahead and share their own thoughts on meaning, ethics and life, regardless. The HSS says:

Ethical insights into the issues of the day are not the sole preserve of religious people but the BBC have always denied humanist and secular thinkers a slot on BBC Radio’s Thought for the Day. Now, on a new website specially created for the purpose, the Humanist Society of Scotland is pleased to bring to you a series of podcasts entitled Humanist Thought for the Day, to be launched on Darwin Day (12 February 2007).

Humanist Thought For the Day launches tomorrow at www.ThinkHumanist.org, on Darwin Day, and will feature regular downloadable podcasts. Thoughts are scheduled from various BHA supporters — Stewart Lee (“Jerry Springer the Opera”, TMWRNJ); Julian Baggini (The Philosophers’ Magazine); Nigel Warburton (”Thinking from A to Z”); A.C. Grayling (the Meaning of Things series); HSS celebrant, Gillian Stewart; and chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Kate Hudson.

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Ofcom, the UK TV watchdog, are changing their rules to allow TV evangelists to appeal for money on screen and the Revelation TV channel has already changed its financial strategies to take advantage of the new rules.

The channel had been struggling to raise £600,000 a year but is now hoping to be able to raise £5million a year, by five years time, through direct appeals to viewers.

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The Evangelical Christian pressure group, Christian Voice, whose membership sometimes seems to consist soley of its national director Stephen Green, has had an attempted private prosecution for blasphemy thrown out of court.

Green was attempting to bring the case, under rarely used criminal law targetting “blasphemy”, in response to a televised performance of comic musical Jerry Springer The Opera, first broadcast two years ago. The director-general of the BBC (Mark Thompson), and the producer of the televised show (Jon Thoday), would have faced personal criminal charges, though the writer of the book (Stewart Lee) and the composer (Richard Thomas) were not being accused.

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From the nation that brought us the Enlightenment, the French edition of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? features an astonishing display of scientific ignorance en masse. For €1,500 the question is “Qu’est-ce qui gravite autor de la Terre?” — “Which of these is in orbit around the Earth?” Is it A, the Moon; B, the Sun; C, Mars; or D, Venus?

Not only does the contestant not know the answer, he uses his “Ask the audience” lifeline… with astonishing results.

See the YouTube. (Only limited French required to follow it.) (Via Perlocutionary.)

Comedian Stewart Lee discusses the popular interpretation of comic pieces like Borat, Little Britain, and The Office, in today’s Guardian: “Guilt-free pleasures“. He argues that such output is pervasively misrepresented, citing comments such as “Borat raises an index finger to political correctness and all its exponents”. In reality, he says:

There’s a vast difference between the casual, inadvertent offence prevalent in my childhood and the choices made today by performers and writers of my generation, operating in a post-PC world, where they are aware of the power and meaning of the taboos they choose to break. […] I am a great fan of political correctness, even though, as one of the writers of Jerry Springer the Opera, I was routinely praised for apparently attacking it[…]

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In a reversal of her earlier decision, primary school teacher Khadija Ravat has pulled out of Channel 4’s controversial “Alternative Christmas Message” broadcast. (Earlier coverage here.) In a Channel 4 press release she said: “My initial thoughts about the programme were that it would be a fantastic opportunity to do something positive and to convey a warm message for everyone to share. However, after careful consideration, I have decided not to appear on the programme.”

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The UK’s Channel 4 have run a (usually light-hearted) “Alternative Christmas Message” in competition with the Queen’s televised state address since 1993. Contributions have come from the fictional “Ali G” and “Marge Simpson”, as well as real life speakers Sharon Osbourne, Quentin Crisp and Jamie Oliver. This year’s speech is to come from a woman referred to only as Khadija, a freelance teacher and lecturer in Islamic studies, who has worn a niqab for 10 years.

A Channel 4 spokesperson has said:

We felt it fitting that Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message should be given by a Muslim woman in a year when issues of religious and racial identity and freedom of expression have dominated the news. Khadija has a wide range of interesting views about life as a British Muslim woman.

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The regular London Brights Meetup group were filmed on Monday, for an upcoming Channel 4 documentary presented by Rod Liddle. Liddle has previously made a documentary about the sometimes evangelical nature of City Academy “faith schools”. Monday’s talk was “Brights in the UK” delivered by Martin Freedman, which apparently went well according to the Meetup organiser. The documentary may be shown some time this October.

From the Channel that brought you “Root of All Evil?” comes a controversial Dispatches report entitled “What Muslims Want”, based on a “representative” survey of 1000 British Muslims. The program aired at 20:00 this evening (GMT). The BNP — a fairly extreme anti-immigration party — had encouraged their members to watch the broadcast (Islampophobia Watch: “Fascists ‘recommend’ Dispatches documentary“).

The results of the survey were a mixed bag (as most clearly demonstrated in this Reuters piece: “Muslims say religion central to their lives“).

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