Radio

Sorry to have delayed posting this, but in case you missed it, last week's Saturday Play on BBC Radio 4 was Slaughterhouse 5, a dramatisation of Kurt Vonnegut's powerful anti-war novel. You have until 4.02pm this Saturday, 20th Februay, to listen on i-player.

Kurt Vonnegut was honorary president of the American Humanist Association. He thought religious doctrine was "so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash."

Vonnegut said,

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

The BBC Trust today announced its findings on a number of appeals about the broadcast of Radio 4's Thought for the Day and BBC editorial policy on non-religious content.

The Trust found that the editorial policy of only allowing religious contributors to participate on Thought for the Day does not breach either the BBC Editorial Guideline on impartiality or the BBC's duty to reflect religious and other beliefs in its programming.

The discussion about creationism in school science lessons on BBC Radio Suffolk is now online.

It's on James Hazell's programme, 26th October, about 35 minutes in. You have 7 days to listen.

I was on BBC Radio Suffolk today, talking about the MORI poll that shows 54% of Britons think creationism & ID should be taught in school science lessons.

You can listen again via the website. It's on the James Hazell programme, from about 10.10am. The other contributor was Prof. Michael Reiss, who resigned from his role as the Royal Society's director of Education over the issue.

Listen to the phone-in after the interviews.

Tonight on Radio 4, the first part of 'And Another Thing', Eoin Colfer's sequel to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Read by Stephen Mangan, with Peter Serafinowicz. If you miss it, you'll be able to listen via i-Player.

We've written about Douglas Adams elsewhere on this site. Apparently, Colfer's sequel has been approved by Adams' widow, and it sounds as though Douglas might have approved. Review tomorrow, probably.

In case you didn't hear it, I was on BBC Radio 4's 'Soul Music' yesterday, talking about a piece of music by Richard Strauss from Four Last Songs. I was introduced to it by a funeral client.

You can listen again on the BBC's i-player for the next week or so, or it's repeated on Saturday at 3.30pm. Be warned; several people have said it made them cry, so have a tissue handy.

Although the headlines majored on the BBC's fearful relationship with Islam, there was another point hidden in the BBC director general's speech to the Theos Christian thinktank this week, and it is just as disturbing.

Those of us who have wondered why there is such a ridiculous excess of religion on the BBC now have the answer. It is because Mark Thompson, an enthusiastic Catholic, wants it. Thompson is a great proselytiser for his faith in the mould of Lord Reith, who thought the BBC was "the nation's church". And, of course, the BBC gives him a very big pulpit to preach from – one that reaches into just about every home in the country, and which we all have to pay for.

Terry Sanderson: The BBC's director-general holds non-believers in contempt | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.