The humanist society says that it stands for democratic equality and autonomy with all citizens having equal rights. Try telling that to the nursery worker who lost her job because she was asked about her views on homosexuality and gave the wrong answer (in a private conversation) to a lesbian colleague and was then reported. In interview she was asked would she be prepared to read a pro-homosexual children’s book to the children and when she said no, she was fired. This is the Orwellian world of our new secular elites, where equality means that ‘some pigs are more equal than others’.

“You can’t say that”.

The BBC producer was adamant. “Why not?” I asked. “Because it could offend some people”. And so the irresistible force met the unmoveable object. An impasse was reached which we could not get beyond and my invitation to give a thought for the day on BBC Radio Scotland was withdrawn. What did I want to say that was so offensive that the BBC could not broadcast? In the course of a 90 second talk I had used the words “Britain’s Christian traditions”. It was enough to get me excluded by that particular member of the BBC’s thought police. One wonders if our Prime Minister, David Cameron will be allowed to say his latest remarks on the British Broadcasting Corporation.

They have certainly caused a furore which has resulted in a letter to The Telegraph signed by 55 of the great and good, who warn of dire consequences in the Prime Minister voicing the unthinkable. Saying Britain is a Christian country has “negative consequences” and encourages sectarianism.

“In his call for more evangelism, Mr Cameron is exclusively tying himself to one faith group, inevitably to the exclusion of others,” opined Elizabeth O’Casey, Policy and Research Office at the National Secular Society. She also warned us that we are moving away from the concept of all of us being “rights-bearing citizens first and foremost, with democratic autonomy and equality, regardless of which faith they happen to have, or not have”.

Britain is apparently in danger of turning from this nice, tolerant secular country into some kind of European Syria, torn apart by sectarian strife. Beware of the Christian Jihad, the Tartan Taleban and the Charismatic suicide bombers!

The signatories of this letter, including Philip Pullman, Anthony Grayling, Peter Tatchell, Steve Jones, Richard Herring, Peter Cave, Polly Toynbee and headed by Prof Al Khalili, President of the British Humanist Association, are certainly sincere in their apocalyptic warnings. But the trouble is, so are all fundamentalists. Sincerity does not guarantee truth, reality or reasonableness.

The problem is that the 55 see themselves as the moral priests and thought police of our culture. They think that their views are self-evident and they believe that they have the right to impose them on everyone else because every right-thinking person will accept them, and if you don’t, by definition, you cannot be right thinking. They cannot see that such circular reasoning is the seedbed of intolerance and hatred. It is beyond caricature and irony that they warn about a sectarian and divisive society when they head up one of the most divisive and sectarian fundamentalist movements in the world today, Secular Humanism.

Their primary mistake is they do not regard themselves as a ‘faith’ group and they helpfully lump everyone else into that category. And yet their position is full of faith. They have great faith in human goodness in general and their own in particular. They have great faith in their own abilities to figure out what is right and wrong. Their religion is themselves and their nirvana is the inevitable progress of humanity – of which they are of course at the peak. Anyone else is reactionary, regressive and right wing (even if they are left wing).

And they really are very divisive. Although they talk about freedom of religion – it is only on their terms. They don’t mind you being religious in your own private thoughts and clubs, as long as it does not impact on public life. They want the church to be the equivalent of a knitting circle, a line dancing club or a Trekkie society. It’s all right if you are into that sort of thing – just don’t do it in the public square and frighten the horses.

They are for ‘freedom of speech’ providing you don’t say the wrong thing – at least in public. Why else do you think I was banned from saying that Britain was a Christian country on thought for the day?

Read More