In what is being heralded as a breakthrough, an important new committee at the BBC that will consult on religious broadcasting is to include a humanist.

The Guardian has today launched an alternative to the BBC’s long running Thought for the Day slot, broadcast at 7.50am in the morning on Radio 4.

Former presenter of Thought for the Day Jonathan Bartley lifts the lid on the politics behind Radio 4's prime time slot

For the first time a Humanist has delievered a 'Thought for the Day' on BBC Radio 4. The broadcast however did not come as part of the BBC's flagship news programme, Today.

BBC chief Mark Thompson has given a robust defence of the Corporation's engagement with religion. Those who say the BBC is anti-Christian, or alternatively that it is broadcasting religious propaganda, are wrong, he says.

The Guardian newspaper has joined a growing list of people calling on the BBC to open its Radio 4 Thought for the Day slot to non-religious as well as religious voices. TFTD is broadcast on the flagship Today programme at 07.50 each day.

The BBC is launching a new major TV programme called The Big Questions this weekend. Its aim is to move the discussion of diverse beliefs and ethics out of a narrow 'religion' bracket, and to respond creatively to the debates taking place in modern Britain.