If you’re a Radio 4 listener, you’ll know that the debate about including atheist/humanist thoughts for the day in the Today programme has been hotting up. We’ve had an email from Naomi Phillips, Public Affairs Officer at The British Humanist Association, as follows:

We seem to be getting somewhere with our campaign to have humanist voices included on Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’. Last week both BHA member Lord Harrison of Chester and Jonathan Bartley of Ekklesia (the Christian think tank with which the BHA has worked on issues like creationism), himself a contributor to Thought for The Day, made the case on the Today programme for including humanist contributors.

John Humphries last week asked people to email in if they wanted humanist thinkers included in Thought for the Day so please take the time to contact the Today programme on today@bbc.co.uk and make the case for non-religious thinkers to be included! We know that many of you sent emails in support of Joan Bakewell when she too appeared (on Radio 4’s Feedback) to argue for the inclusion of humanists – if you didn’t then, please email now! If you did, please email again!

I’ve emailed to ask why they’re being so stubbornly resistant to the idea of having non-religious ‘thoughts’ on the programme, and pointed out that there have been humanist thoughts for the day on BBC Radio Suffolk since 1995, and the world hasn’t come to an end.

Please email Today now.

Tags: Radio, Thought+for+the+Day, BBC, Humanism