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BBC: Humanism

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, not only on provoking this extremely interesting debate but on the skill of its timing. Soon after arriving at the BBC, I shared my convictions about "Thought for the Day", with a wise old BBC stager—and there were a lot of them. I suggested to her that the programme was anomalous for two reasons. First, from a purely broadcasting perspective, it was an earnest sermonette placed bang-slap in the middle of the liveliest and most engaging political bazaar anywhere—the "Today" programme. The transition from one to the other always jarred, and still does. Secondly, the whole notion of imposing established religion in the heart of radio peak time seemed to me out of tune with the growing emergence of a predominately secular society. The wise old stager patiently admonished me. "You have many battles to fight", she said. "Fight the ones that you can win. This isn’t one of them. You will never prevail against the embedded power of the established churches". I confess that I accepted her counsel, for she was certainly right at the time. Perhaps one day she will no longer be. As others have said, of course the BBC must respect, reflect and meet the needs of people of religious conviction and belief, but organised religion does not have a monopoly of the spirit, nor of perspectives on morality and ethics. The BBC must one day soon loosen the stranglehold of the established religious organisations and more fully embrace the humanist movement. Humanism does not deliver stern principles carved in tablets of stone, nor does it create institutions whose rules must be obeyed. Rather, it is a tradition, a loose network of individuals broadly exercised by questions of the spirit, concerned to optimise the sum total of human happiness here on earth; individuals naturally respectful of others, wedded to rationalism and to scientific rigour, revering all life, unafraid to proclaim and to celebrate the joy of existence and the richness of human expression. I have no doubt that that movement, the humanist movement, is burgeoning. The BBC has a long history of path-finding—of, for the most part, being ahead of the curve in most realms of human endeavour. It is time for the BBC to sniff the air in matters spiritual and to move ahead of the curve here, too.