Sunday, April 06, 2008 | print version

The Big Questions

at BBC 1

On The Big Questions this week

On Sunday, 6 April 2008, Nicky Campbell will present the last edition of The Big Questions for this series live from the West London Academy in Northolt.

The panellists will be: writer and broadcaster, Cristina Odone; The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark; Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet from the Mill Hill Synagogue; and the winner for this year's Costa Prize for Fiction, AL Kennedy. The special guest will be the renowned atheist, scientist and writer, Professor Richard Dawkins.

The three questions for debate are: Can immigration stem Britain's moral decline? Do we have the right to offend? And, does the Devil exist?

You can send us your views on these topics by following the link to The Big Questions Messageboard: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbreligion/F2213240

For more details, go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thebigquestions/

Date: Sunday, April 06, 2008

Time: 10:00 AM

Location:
BBC 1

BBC 1 - UK, UK

Posted: Sunday, April 06, 2008 | Permalink

Quotes of Note:

"For the first half of geological time our ancestors were bacteria. Most creatures still are bacteria, and each one of our trillions of cells is a colony of bacteria."

Richard Dawkins

"During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after doing its duty in but a lazy and indolent way for 800 years, gathered up its halters, thumbscrews, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry."

Mark Twain

"It's been suggested that if the supernaturalists really had the powers they claim, they'd win the lottery every week. I prefer to point out that they could also win a Nobel Prize for discovering fundamental physical forces hitherto unknown to science."

Richard Dawkins

"Man is a Religious Animal. Man is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion -- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.... The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste."

Mark Twain

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

Richard Dawkins