Unbelievably thoughtless

It is an iron rule that whenever the establishment in this country is wrong about something, it embraces its error with the bravado of a man unaware that he is about to step backwards off a cliff. Thus Barry George must stay in prison for a murder he probably did not commit, the law on recreational drugs has to remain an unworkable mess, and those of us who do not subscribe to supernatural theories about the universe are to go on being banned from contributing to Thought for the Day on Radio 4's Today programme.

As one of the signatories of the letter sent to the BBC's governors by the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association, asking for access for non-believers, I cannot pretend that I am surprised. Disappointed, yes, and the only honest course for the producers is to rename the feature in a way that more honestly reflects its content: Banal Personal Anecdote and Pious Platitude of the Day, for example. Thought for the Day is a misnomer that should attract action under the Trades Descriptions Act, for the rubbish foisted on us most mornings hardly merits such an ambitious title.

It is a fraud in another way as well, because the BBC makes sure to present us with religion in its most anodyne form. I have no doubt at all that Osama bin Laden has a considerable number of sympathisers in this country, but the corporation does not allow their tirades against modernity and secularism on to the air. Nor do we hear from the loony Christian evangelicals whose views have such a profound impact on the Bush administration; they may be in a minority here but there are 40 million of them in the US, and I am sure they would be delighted to offer us their views on gays, feminists and other spawn of the devil. Not to mention the imminent arrival of Armageddon which was, for people with that particular cast of mind, signalled by the events of 11 September last year.

Why not Hindus who advocate the barbarous custom of suttee? Or Muslims who think women should be stoned to death for adultery? If Thought for the Day is to be ring-fenced for believers, as the BBC has just confirmed, the producers should at least have the decency not to pick and choose between one belief and another. At a moment when conflicts with religious origins are causing trouble around the world, not least on the border between India and Pakistan, the corporation is doing us a major disservice by pretending that all believers are nice, tolerant people whom we'd love to invite round for tea.

I have the advantage here of being a woman and an atheist, which means I am innately suspicious of religions of the book. It is an enormous relief to me that Christianity is no longer the force it was in Britain, and that so many of its offensive ideas about sex and morality have ceased to influence public policy. The problem that still needs to be addressed, highlighted once again by the tussle over Thought for the Day, is the reluctance of our institutions to recognise that we now live in a plural, secular culture.

Most of the country's formal events, such as the State Opening of Parliament, continue to have a religious framework which demands a pretence of belief from public servants who quite reasonably do not have one. You do not have to believe in God to become an MP, any more than you need to believe in fairies, so why should this mythical being have a central place in our public ceremonies?

It remains to be said that there are two extraordinary things about the BBC's peremptory refusal of our request to open up Thought for the Day to non-believers. One is its obvious lack of interest in quality control, even though the slot might have been designed to suggest that "religious thinker" is an oxymoron on a par with "military intelligence". The other is that it proves that the corporation is not remotely interested in fairness, for all we are seeking is equal treatment for atheists and agnostics, not the privileged access to a major current-affairs programme afforded at the moment to believers. If I am willing to share Thought for the Day with Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Scientologists and Satanists, why won't the BBC open it up to people like me?