Atheist gives Thought for the Day

Professor Dawkins delivered an unofficial "Thought"

A scientist has become the first atheist to deliver a Thought for the Day on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.

In his two-and-a-half minute slot, Professor Richard Dawkins from Oxford University, argued science gave a better explanation of life than religion.

Radio 4's policy of not including non-religious contributors has been heavily criticised - leading to more than 100 public figures demanding the "ban" be lifted.

However, Prof Dawkins's broadcast did not replace the regular daily slot but ran an hour afterwards as an unofficial "Thought".

Humanity can now leave the cry-baby phase and finally come of age - that is a thought for more than one day

Professor Richard Dawkins

Christine Morgan, who produces the series, said the official "Thought" would remain closed to non-religious voices.

She told the Today programme: "This short strand is unique, offering a faith perspective within a news programme.

"If we include secular voices, we undermine the slot's very distinctiveness."

In his talk, Prof Dawkins argued that science had managed to explain many of the mysteries of life and that believing that God could protect us was an "infantile regression".

'End the ban'

He said: "We have been born and we are going to die, but before we die we have time to understand why we were born.

"Humanity can now leave the cry-baby phase and finally come of age - that is a thought for more than one day."

Prof Dawkins was one of 102 people who put their name to the letter to the BBC governors, drawn up by the British Humanist Association, the National Secular Society and the Rationalist Press Association.

The letter read: "By resolutely retaining the ban, the BBC is discriminating against the non-religious, and thus giving the impression of promoting religion as the one source of ethics."