Sunday on Ed Miliband's atheism
Oct. 3rd, 2010 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylTucked up in bed, waiting for the rain to ease sufficiently to allow me to go for a run, I caught part of this morning's Sunday on R4. Mixed in with the usual weirdness — a bishop hocking Easter eggs, Samuel Ryder's golf competition for vicars — was a slightly odd piece on Ed Miliband's profession of atheism.
For some reason the BBC invited the Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail and Charlie Wolf, the former Communications Director of Republicans Abroad, to comment on the Labour leader's position. Letts complained that Miliband's profession of atheism sounded automatic and that he sounded as though he was slightly embarrassed by the question — although you can bet that the Mail would have been first in line to complain had Miliband come out with a piece of Dawkinsian fire and brimstone in reply to the question. Letts also complained that our traditional reluctancee to discuss religion in public was a sign of immaturity and that he thought that we were finally starting to grow beyond that.
I know that Sunday is marketed as a religious programme, but if it is going to discuss the atheism of a leading politician, then it might, in the interests of basic fairness, take the trouble to find someone who believes that a lack of belief might not be a wholy bad thing.
But perhaps I'm being unfair. Perhaps it's not a conspiracy, just a simple matter of timing. Perhaps it's just that believers tend to be up early on a Sunday morning, the better to keep the sabbath holy, whereas most atheists are otherwise engaged, either sluging-a-bed or out running in the rain or whatever, and find it impossible to get to Broadcasting House first thing on weekend morning in time to take part in a thankless debate...
For some reason the BBC invited the Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail and Charlie Wolf, the former Communications Director of Republicans Abroad, to comment on the Labour leader's position. Letts complained that Miliband's profession of atheism sounded automatic and that he sounded as though he was slightly embarrassed by the question — although you can bet that the Mail would have been first in line to complain had Miliband come out with a piece of Dawkinsian fire and brimstone in reply to the question. Letts also complained that our traditional reluctancee to discuss religion in public was a sign of immaturity and that he thought that we were finally starting to grow beyond that.
I know that Sunday is marketed as a religious programme, but if it is going to discuss the atheism of a leading politician, then it might, in the interests of basic fairness, take the trouble to find someone who believes that a lack of belief might not be a wholy bad thing.
But perhaps I'm being unfair. Perhaps it's not a conspiracy, just a simple matter of timing. Perhaps it's just that believers tend to be up early on a Sunday morning, the better to keep the sabbath holy, whereas most atheists are otherwise engaged, either sluging-a-bed or out running in the rain or whatever, and find it impossible to get to Broadcasting House first thing on weekend morning in time to take part in a thankless debate...
