Most importantly, all of those 21st Century listeners who've been hollering for the last 3 years for LA to be podcast, your "prayers" are answered. Little Atoms has teamed up with the venerable magazine "The Skeptic" and shows are now available as podcasts from i-tunes. Subscribe to future podcastshere.

Secondly the Little Atoms Website has been rejuvinated, including an essay by tycho_b explaining how the series came about.

All the previous shows (bar a couple lost in the ether) from September 2005 onwards, are still available as MP3 files from the site. If I say so myself (and I am no longer a part of the production team due to family commitments) the list of previous guests is looking pretty impressive.

Little Atoms, much to the annoyance of our enemies, is not going away.

Congratulations to Neil, Padraig and Anthony, and thanks to ukskeptic for facilitating the "Skeptic" link-up...

Thanks to PooterGeek for spotting this somewhat unorthodox Dawkins fest-



Which reminds me to say how nice it was to see everyone at Skeptics in the Pub last night.

Always great to meet an lj friend in real life for the first time, especially the excellent cultureofdoubt who'd travelled up from Portsmouth to see Simon Singh's talk. Also there- jtreg, skitster, ukskeptic (naturally) and tycho_b - great to see you all!

It's difficult to work out which is weirder - the actual fact that David Icke is interviewed in the New Statesman, or the the nutty first comment after the article which tries to explain the "lizard" thing.

While over at the Spectator (not a regular haunt of mine, I should add), Martin Rowson is entertaining on the subject of God, managing to get a mention of Syd Barrett in there, as well as the marvellous line "Saying atheism is a religion is like saying that bald is a hair colour."...

Bloody minded atheism is rather unfashionable at the moment, but I still enjoy it.

spotted in the excellent Freemania

It's long been a thorn in the side of humanists and atheists that we're not allowed a slot on the Today Programme's "Thought For The Day", short pithy pieces of wisdom need to have a supernatural backing apparently. But it's pretty obvious to anybody that the BBC are never going to change their mind on this and that we're going to be stuck with the ghastly Ann Atkins, the cheery Lionel Blue and that dull bloke from the "Sikh Messenger" for ever.

The Scots however, who seem to be good at just getting on with things, have brought us an alternative with five daily "Thought For The Day" Podcasts courtesy of the Humanist Society of Scotland.

They're not bad either, mostly - I particularly recommend The AC Grayling and the Stewart Lee. Kate Hudson's did nowt for me though...

EDIT: The eagle-eyed will have noticed that these podcasts date from February last year, so apologies if you've already come across them...

In light of discussion below, these two l-o-n-g videos are very interesting.
Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris in conversation.

Hour One-


Hour Two-

I wonder if any of my fellow atheist readers (and I know there's a fair few of you) are as annoyed as I am by the introduction of an atheist character into The Archers?

Adam Rutherford in the Guardian sees it as being indicative of the debate "finally reaching middle England", and as such I suppose I should celebrate.

Except, of course, the character (Jim, Alistair's father) is a miserable curmudeonly old git, and the latest figure for listeners to hate in the programme, since the recent and welcome niceification of Kenton Archer. His atheism is not seen as being the result of some well thought out personal philosophy, but rather as another example of his bullying, unpleasant and exasperating character - his atheism is another stick with which to beat the long suffering Shula, and his argument with the vicar/superman was so weak it seemed to have been scripted by Ann Atkins for a pantomime villain.

I live in hope of the atheist plotline actually being a device to "out" one of the nicer characters as being a non-believer too. There must be plenty of contenders- the two gay characters for a start, or maybe even Alan, the vicar/superman himself as he struggles to defend the unending misfortunes which strike Ambridge every week as the work of a caring God.

He's been this year's major hate figure, from the religious right to Norman Geras, but I still think he's rather cuddly - as this article proves...

Speaking about irrational nonsense (which I was, earlier) where better to go than the Daily Mail, which has a delightful feature on my favourite Lib Dem, Evan Harris, or Doctor Death as I should now call him.

A more despicable article it would be difficult to imagine.

(thanks cultureofdoubt and New Humanist)

I'm sure this has been sent round before, but Organ Morgan has drawn my attention to the exquisitely enjoyable drawings at I Am With You Always.

"French Horn" is possibly my favourite-



Could that be the long arm of the lord snaking over the musician's shoulder to assist the fingering?

The site is a delight by any standards.

Meanwhile over at the excellent Labour Humanist blog, a reasonably pertinent cartoon by Ros Asquith is disected. None of which takes away from the fact that Ros Asquith remains the worst cartoonist ever employed by the Guardian (and that includes David "it's art actually" Shrigley) mainly for the long running and infuriatingly dire "Doris".

Finally, thanks to bad_cb for telling me about the rather moving tributes to Richard Cook published on The Wire site.

Little Atoms returns to the airwaves today. Tune in live at Resonance 104.4 fm to hear us (Neil Denny and I) chatting to Heather Couper about Space.

"Heather Couper is an international broadcaster and writer on astronomy, space and science. Although a scientist by training, she has spent the last twenty years working entirely in the media. She has hosted two major series on British television (C4), and many TV programmes and radio shows - including the long-running series Seeing Stars on BBC World Service. She has also written over 30 books, including Philip's Stargazing 2007, a regular yearbook of Astronomy co-authored with Nigel Henbest. Her latest book, Universe, was published in the United States in 2006.

On 2 June 1999 the International Astronomical Union named asteroid number 3922 "Heather" in her honour."

Please note a few changes in the programme - it's only half an hour long, but it is now weekly, it has a new time - 7pm, a new theme tune (by me) and a slightly more open agenda- ie it won't be wall-to-wall "decents" and crank-bashers...although there'll still be a fair amount of that, as long as Resonance also gives air time to David Shayler (actually, they may have stopped his show, but I can't tell as the schedule doesn't seem to work), a brand new show called "We Are Change" examining 9/11 theories (the clue to where they're coming from is in the title - a reference to "Loose Change"), and the Resonance godfather of swivel-eyed anti-reason bullsh*t, the inexplicably popular Rob Simone...

Dear listeners, you need us.

Good, battling post by AC Grayling on CiF -

"The question is not solely one of public policy, or the fact that the government's otherwise admirable desire for social cohesion is going to be negated, not enhanced, by paying to keep children apart from one another in competing ghettoes of superstition. There is the point also that if parents wish to bring up their children in their own traditional superstitions, they should do it on their own time and at their own expense. The secular majority in this country should bitterly oppose the use of their tax money for this misconceived policy. Religion, the bane of the modern world in so many respects, has got to be relegated to the private sphere and kept there. And religious worship (not of course historical and sociological comparative study of the subject) should be removed from publicly funded schooling, as being divisive there too - among many other deficits."

More excellent comment on the depressing Ed Balls statement at the Labour Humanist-

"It's not just me who thought the the joint statment to be intellectually weak so much so perhaps it deserves the modern tag of 'dodgy dossier?'"

It's a shame the AC Grayling concludes his excellent article with a rib-tickling play on Ed Balls name, the sort of thing that Tom Hamilton at "Lets Be Sensible" draws our attention to-

"In another context, the word "balls" can be quite rude. You know, one day I reckon a journalist will notice this. And then there will be such laughs!".

Maybe I'll bring it up with AC at the launch of his new book "Towards The Light" tonight. Or maybe I won't.

Keeping with all thing rationalist, the new issue of really very good magazine New Humanist flopped onto our doormat yesterday, (well two copies actually* - so I have a spare issue for anybody who's interested).

*Note to Casper - we already subscribe!

He (Blair) always said that if I was religious I would probably be an Islamic fundamentalist so it was probably for the best I don't do God.

Alastair Campbell there.

I tend to agree with him.

As the rumble continues about Rushdie, (from those who like rumbling) comes the launch of The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain.

AC Grayling reports

Today's featured article on Wikipedia is "Atheism".

By a lovely coincidence our guest on Little Atoms this afternoon is Christopher Hitchens - author of "God is not great- how religion poisons everything".

The interview was recorded by Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy in Oxford a month or so back.

4.30 - 5.30 pm on Resonance 104.4 fm, or online at the website.

The latest political moves by a representative of the Catholic Church depresses me-

"In a sermon marking 40 years since the Abortion Act, Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien will threaten to bar pro-choice politicians from taking Communion.

He will urge voters at Edinburgh's St Mary's Cathedral to reject candidates who defend what he calls a social evil....

His sermon attacks the 1967 Act, describing the roughly seven million abortions in Britain since then as an "unspeakable crime" and the "wanton killing of innocents"

and there's more of this horrific, emotive, nasty stuff. This from a church that cares so much about children that it would rather leave them in care, and close down its own adoption agencies than to let a child enter a loving family, if the parents in that family happen to be gay.

I suppose what annoys me about this - and the previous "gay adoption" row, is that it gives us atheists a free shot, by appalling all left/liberal leaning individuals with its intolerance and an embracing of hyper-simplistic issue politics. As an atheist this should be fine - except that it attempts to make all Catholics into one mass of identically-emoting robots, and this isn't the case (I know practising Catholics who would be appalled by both of these rows), anymore than all Muslims are an almost telepathically connected conglomerate of religious zealots. These are the views propogated by al-Qaeda, suggested by Melanie Philips, and seized upon by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. It wouldn't be correct though...

Time for the moderates to speak up.

But if you want to make it easier for us atheists and secularists to win arguments, then this is the way to go.

Quoted in various places, including the Labour Humanist-

"I tell you this, I'm saying this to religious people in the room, anybody who believes that there is a Day of Judgement, anybody who believes that they must face their maker one day and account for what they did and didn't do, and I am one of those believers, I say to you this....."

Actually I may as well switch off there, as he's obviously not talking to me...

The full video of this lunacy is available at the link above, listen out for the superb audible sigh of frustration from some poor audience member, a few seconds in.

Wha...!
How did I miss this? Honestly, what's the point of living in London if I end up missing Grayers, Dawko and the Hitch united in Struggle. (and against Roger bloody Scruton too). I blame myself for not buying a newspaper anymore.

There's a podcast here, and a good account by the always excellent humanist_labour here-

"You are to imagine yourself in a strange city, at night, without friends, would you feel yourself to be safer or less safe if you saw a dozen men coming towards you in the dark, if you were to know they had recently come from a prayer meeting?"

I'm back on Little Atoms tomorrow, chatting to David Aaronovitch with Neil. I confess (and this will appall daniel_davies amongst others), I'll probably not be too oppositional, as, since we last interviewed him, I think Aaro's opinions on most things political are perhaps the nearest to my own.

So that's at 4.30pm tomorrow, listen live at 104.4fm, or online at www.resonancefm.com.

For your diaries, here's a list of forthcoming

13th April - James Randi - skeptic, debunker and magician.

27th April - Jonathan Derbyshire - Philosopher and blogger

11th May - Adam LeBor - Journalist and Author

25th May - Steve Jones - Professor of Genetics, UCL

8th June - Kanan Makiya - Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

22nd June - Tom Standage - Science author and journalist

Neil and Padraig also taped an interview with Christopher Hitchens in Oxford last weekend, this will be broadcast to coincide with the publication of Hitch's new book God is not Great.

Bible proves itself to be an unreliable predictor of the future-

Here's the James Randi interview again. I'm going to have to present it as a serial.
But this time you won't be asked to join something before you can listen to it.

James Randi on Resonance FM

As I said before, this predates Little Atoms by a couple of years, I'm joined on the programme by ukskeptic....