On 'Thought For The Day'
11/8/08
Those of you know me will most likely be aware that I am not exactly a religious person. By which I mean I'm a totally non-religious person who can't quite get his head around exactly what possesses people to believe that their holy book is better than other peoples' holy books. This is especially true given that most holy books seem to amount to a steaming pile of dog turd when it comes to applying them to real life given the massive contradictions not only within each text but, moreover, when seen in the harsh light of reality. Still, if you want to believe in wizards and hobgoblins and shit, I'm not going to stop you. I am going to call you a bit weird though. Get over it.
There was a time when I used to listen to BBC Radio 4 in the mornings which meant I ended up listening to Today. It's a pretty decent summary of current affairs and just before 8 o'clock they would have the feature, Thought For The Day. This generally consisted of a preacher of either Jewish or Christian denomination (though Wikipedia informs me the faith does vary) telling me something about life and then relating it to some religious horseshit that I have no intention of buying into.
I am not a producer for Today and this article, on a website that in all likelihood nobody is going to read, will make very little difference. However, I do have to right to bitch and moan about it so that's what I'm going to do.
British society, if not officially, is largely humanist i.e. you can't just rationlise things by invoking deities because people don't all believe in the same deity and many don't believe in one at all. As such random Thought For The Day person, fuck off. Being a leader of a particular group of God-botherers doesn't make you important to anybody except that particular group of God-botherers. For instance, I don't care what the Pope's view is on anything in the abstract. (I do in the sense that lots of Catholic people keep preaching abstinence-only bullshit but that's another debate for another time.) I don't care what Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop Of Canterbury has to say about anything. I don't care what [insert random religious figurehead of your choice] blah blah... you get my point.
Religion is a specific philosophy which explains everything through the existence of a supernatural being. It justifies everything through the existence of said supernatural being who I will refer to as the 'Angry-cum-Loving Transparent Magician'. Religions state that the Angry-cum-Loving Transparent Magician has decreed that humans must believe a certain set of ethics, morals and beliefs. As I said, I'm not going to stop you believing it but that's what it is as far as I can see. I might be wrong but the problem is I'm not.
Anywho, this means that Today has dedicated a specific time slot to this philosophy. Which seems a tad unfair on all the other philosophies that could be applied to whatever it is they've decided to pick on. Religious leaders are no more justified in being able to comment on something than members of the Monster-Raving Looney Party in the sense that both are specific philosophies being applied to a topical problem.
If Today were to have a specific time slot for economic libertarians and their views on a particular topic, people would be annoyed. I'd be annoyed. I'm not an economic libertarian. Fuck off and stop telling about your free-market solution to everything. Free-markets aren't going to solve the fact that I can't get laid so stop preaching to me about it you stupid venture capitalist who's going to die of stroke at 50 anyway. On any given topic, I want to hear at least two views on how to solve each problem.
I digress. Quite a lot actually. It makes no sense to me why a political news programme gives a specific time slot to the religious. Their philosophy on life is no more or less valid than anybody else's and yet they get preferential treatment. You know what, suck on my sex-before-marriage, pro-choice, contraception-wearing, blaspheming, deity-denying testicles. Thought For The Day is a bag of shit and nobody cares what you've got to say.