Help turn Thought for the Day into a “philosophy slot”

The National Secular Society has backed calls for BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day slot to be converted into a "philosophy slot", open to non-believers and believers alike.

The proposal has been put forward on Open Democracy's Our Beeb website – an online platform for debating the nature and future of public service broadcasting.

As part of its "100 ideas for the BBC" series, Philosopher Nigel Warburton writes: "My idea for the BBC going forward is that it should transform the rather tired 'Thought for the Day' into a philosophy slot reflecting on wider issues raised by recent news. That would wake a lot of people up."

According to Warburton: "The BBC, and particularly BBC radio, does an excellent job presenting philosophy in interesting ways to a large audience."

However he says that it "doesn't mean it's doing everything that it could".

NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans welcomed the suggestion and strongly encouraged NSS supporters to vote for the idea, which will be submitted to the Government's consultation on the future of the BBC if it attracts enough support.

He said, "We have long called for the BBC to open up Thought for the Day to non-religious voices or to scrap the slot, this is an exciting way of refreshing it and removing the bias against the non-religious that currently exists.

"The hopelessly outdated Thought for the Day segment offers an exclusive religious perspective during primetime, which deliberately excludes non-religious voices. This is a very welcome suggestion and we hope the BBC will give it the consideration is deserves."

Vote here to turn Thought for the Day into a philosophy slot.