Theist thoughts

Richard Lucas (Letters, 29 December) complains that the BBC shows nothing but an anti-Christian secular liberal viewpoint. This is of course nonsense.

The BBC is not a vipers’ nest of Communist fifth-columnists as Mr Lucas would have us believe. The BBC, like all the corporate media, represents the views of those in power, and dissent is limited to party politics. Thought for the Day gives special privilege to theists and maintains the fiction that only people of faith can be moral. It should be opened up to secularists and atheists.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee

Over the past few days there have been letters about BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and concerns over its lack of atheist contributors. Religious believers are licence payers too and I see no reason why their interests should not be catered for.

I have, for example, little interest in sport and yet the BBC spends a sizeable amount of my licence fee providing coverage for those who do.

The problem is that the name of the show promotes the idea so often assumed by believers that religiously led contemplation somehow speaks for all.

It may seem pedantic but changing its name to Religious Thought for the Day might 
reduce annoyance amongst non-religious people who are equally interested in thinking.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society

Saughtonhall Drive

Edinburgh