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As many of you have already worked out, there are some blog problems across the system at the moment which are affecting some comments. I've been contacted by some contributors who have been unable to post comments for some time; others have been able to post only intermittently. I can only apologise to those of you experiencing problems and assure you that my colleagues at ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Online are working to overcome these technical problems as soon as possible. In the meantime, please continue to (try to) add comments.

It seems that every theologically-inclined writer in the world is currently writing a book in response to Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion. Last week, I interviewed John Lennox on his book-length reply,

I'm currently reading John Cornwell's (and it's quite wonderful). I'll try to invite Cornwell back to Sunday Sequence in the next couple of weeks to talk about it.

Meanwhile, you may find the following interesting : the unedited footage of Richard Dawkins's interview with the theologian Alister McGrath -- which didn't make the final cut in Dawkins's television series "The Root of All Evil" -- is now available . I notice that some commentators already detect some skullduggery in the decision to exclude any of this interview from the series -- which was, after all, an exploration of the rational and moral basis of religion. I tend more to the view that the programmes were inevitably time-limited and that this material was simply less compelling, in televisual terms, than other interviews.

Fintan O'Toole has a comment on the Garda's ban on Sikh turbans in today's Irish Times, and Slugger O'Toole (no relation) to my recent interview with the Irish integration minister, Conor Lenihan (who was clearly surprised when I asked him if he supported a similar Garda ban on Christian symbols). Fintan O'Toole supports further secularisation in the agencies of the Irish state, but calls for fairness in the treatment of all faiths in the Republic. This means that it is unfair to prohibit Sikh turbans as part of the Garda uniform while . . .

. . . we refuse even to discuss a non-sectarian education system, so long as we evoke a specific religious belief system in every aspect of our system of governance, we have no right to tell anyone that they have to keep their religion separate from their public function. Unless we are to practise naked discrimination, the logic of our current system is that our police officers can wear turbans, hijabs or Jedi light sabres - anything that is required by their faith. We also have to provide a range of religious schools in every community, all paid for by the taxpayer. We have to start Dáil sessions not with one prayer, but with at least 25 - one for each of the main religious groupings in the State - and with an atheist evocation of humanist principles.

Is this the unlikely face of a criminal? human rights activist, director of Liberty and self-confessed Potter-head, believes that the boy-wizard commits a war crime in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final installment of the Harry Potter books -- and she's stll wondering why J.K. Rowling permits the character to cross the line between good and evil. Shami Chakrabarti makes the claim in today's Independent on Sunday.

It all comes down to the Crucio curse, one of three "Unforgiveable Curses" which Harry learns about at wizard school. Crucio is a curse which inflicts significant pain on another person, and, according to Shami Chakrabarti, "is proper torture and that fits with article 3 of the ECHR [European Convention on Human rights] ... It's just wrong."

In Deathly Hallows, an irrate Harry attacks Amycus, one of Voldemort's henchmen, with the Crucio curse simply because Amycus spits on Professor Minerva McGonagall, one of the hero's favourite teachers at Hogwarts.

I'm not sure if the ECHR applies in Harry's world, but Rowling usually follows the normal conventions of morality in keeping her positive characters on the right side of the ethical line. Has she gone too far on this occasion? Harry is certainly no but he has acted aggessively in this scene. By hitting out in anger with an "Unforgiveable Curse", he has committed a crime in his fictional world which, according to one of his teachers at Hogwarts, is punishable with "a life sentence in Azkaban", the wizards' prison.

I do not predict riots at bookshops, nor do I think we are likely to see lines of right-on children in protests calling for a war crimes tribunal to investigate the Amycus incident. But Shami Chakrabarti knows her law, and it looks like a fair cop. Harry Potter is a war criminal.

A collection of has been published in support of her canonisation. Nothing surprising about that. Except that these letters reveal a personal struggle with faith lasting half a century.

In a letter to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, in September 1979, she writes:

Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear -- the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak.

The letters are collected together in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday). They are compiled and edited by the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, who observes that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist."

There will be much written this week (and ) about Mother Teresa's faith (or lack thereof) as we approach the tenth anniversary of her death (September 5, 1997). Part of that discussion will inevitably involve a review of on the reputation of the person known in her lifetime as a "living saint".

Jeremy Paxman has used this year's James MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival to call for He expressed his concern that television news, in particular, was losing its way because of an obsession with ratings and "the bottom line". The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s licence fee was also in the Newsnight presenter's sights:

The idea of a tax on the ownership of a television belongs in the 1950s. Why not tax people for owning a washing machine to fund the manufacture of Persil?

Paxman's comments follow a which reveals that public trust in television has fallen.

You can read the lecture in full and you can listen to Paxman being Paxmaned by John Humphrys on the Today programme's 8.10 interview here.

Jeremy Paxman thinks that British television is not fit for moral purpose, and believes that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ needs to make more quality programmes if it is to fully justify its license fee. He wants to see a clear statement of "high moral purpose" from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Trust and other network governing bodies. Television is plainly an extremely powerful medium which has the capacity to promote "public goods" and "public evils" (though whether we can all agree on the moral difference at times is hard to say). The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ already has a fairly clear statement of what seem to me like moral values, and the organisation has a stated commitment to create public value through, for example, "sustaining citizenship and civil society".

But Paxman wants more than merely vision statements; he wants a return, in practice, to those values that shaped the first decades of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and established the corporation's reputation for independence, impartiality and "truth-telling" around the world.

One tabloid media legend in the audience at Edinburgh, interviewed after the lecture, could hardly contain his cynicism in the face of Paxman's attack on commercial values and their impact on modern television. All this talk of "high moral purpose" and "public value" may sound like state-sponsored social engineering to some -- as if the point of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is to deliver a particular kind of society. That, I think, is a mistake. The point, surely, is that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is a broadcaster in public service and the public expects the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to be different. The cultural "difference" the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ represents is the context of a now globalised and highly competitive media landscape may be difficult to specify at times (in terms of individual programmes), but if the public believes there is no difference at all, they will wonder what they are paying for. And public service broadcasting makes no sense if the public doesn't feel served.

The Young Unionist blog is the venue for an about free speech, party policy and the recent Belfast Pride parade. Some contributors are furious that a post on the site might have given the impression that Young Unionists are homophobic. A post by "Ballyalbanagh" about the Pride parade has apparently been edited following complaints. "David C" writes:

The original blog post associated the YUs as a whole ("The Young Unionists believe...") with intolerant attitudes towards the LGB community and hence the disclaimer was entirely appropriate as the UUP manifesto committed ourselves to oppose discrimination on the grounds of sexual orienation.

Other contributors are angry that revisions and editing on the site amount to censorship. Thus this appeal for free speech: "I note the clarifications in this new blog and understand the reason. But I fail to see how the origional detracted from any view held by the UYUC. It was a statement that declared no bigotry should be tolerated in society. As a blogger on this site I am unsettled by what appears to be an act of censorship - we blog to encourage debate, and debate is what was created."

The Conservatives, particularly under Cameron, have been trying to renegotiate a relationship with the gay and lesbian voting population in recent months. As the Ulster Unionist Party continues to find its place in the changing political landscape of Northern Ireland, one must presume that they will wish to reach out to previously alienated voting groups, including the gay and lesbian community.

I've just returned from the Edinburgh Festival, where our crew filmed some productions that will feature in this year's Belfast Festival. Siobhan Savage is producing these segments, which you can see in October as part of our Festival Nights coverage.

, an exploration of the South African truth and reconciliation commission, was conceived by the film and television producer/director Michael Lessac. I spent quite a bit of time with Michael; and we recorded an interview in his apartment in the city. Michael has squeezed four or five distinguished careers into a single lifetime: a Hollywood scriptwriter and film director ("House of Cards"), a network TV director (Taxi, Grace Under Fire, The Naked Truth, etc., etc.), an academic (with a PhD in developmental psychology, he has taught at Columbia University), a singer/songwriter (he toured Europe with an album of original released by Columbia Records), and a lighting and sound designer (at the Dubrovnik Theatre Festival and other venues). His latest project has been described as "12 Angry Men meets A Chorus Line": the story of South Africa's struggle to move beyond its own past is retold through the eyes (and ears) of eleven interpreters whose job at the TRC was to translate evidence into South Africa's eleven official languages. The script emerged from interweaving actual evidence from the Commission with the performers' own experiences, and is brought to life here by a haunting score by Hugh Masekela. This is serious drama: intense, compelling, and ethically charged.

is also performing at this year's Belfast Festival, after another brilliantly successful run at this year's Edinburgh Festival. I saw her show last night, and it was everything I'd been told it would be -- as one critic put it, she is "a minx with Kate Bush looks and a voice to hypnotise a viper". Performing songs by Jacques Brel, Nick Cave and Tom Waits, she romanced, cajoled, arrested and seduced a packed . Then today, we recorded an interview and she did the same thing to our film crew. I wouldn't be surprised if Camille O'Sullivan steals the entire show at this year's Belfast Festival. She'll be performing only twice (and on the same day, October 27).

Scotland's battle with sectarianism has moved onto the roads -- or, more accurately, the pavements. Apparently, the green lenses in traffic lights have become a . Since January 2004, 205 traffic signals have been attacked in the town of Larkhall, in South Lanarkshire, at a cost of £16,880, with most incidents involving green lights. The town council has now erected grilles in front of lights. Some readers in Northern Ireland may be moved by this story to tut and note that even in the worst days of the Troubles, "we" didn't attack green or amber traffic lights. That's right. We had drive-by shootings instead. And even though we now have a working Executive, Northern Ireland still tops the polls for sectarianism and .

On today's programme, criminologist Phil Scratan made a case for the abolition of prisons for all but the most dangerous criminals. This means that we would still send murderers, rapists and other violent criminals to prisons, but that those involved in most other kinds of crime (e.g., benefit fraud, shoplifting) would receive alternative punishments (e.g., community service, repayment schemes, etc.). A was developed recently by the former Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten.

Abolitionists argue that the UK's prison policy is in crisis and that we need to rethink our basic approach to judicial sentencing. We are sending too many people to prison, including women and children; and many are more likely to reoffend as a consequence of incarceration. We would reduce crime in the long run by creating drug and alcohol rehab centres, increasing education and training opportunities, giving more social support to offenders, and developing an effective mental health strategy.

That's the argument. It didn't persuade Jim Allister QC, the Independent MEP, who believes it amounts to going soft on crime and removing victims from the moral equation. We also had an interesting contribution from Jonathan Burnside, who teaches Biblical Law at Bristol University Law School. He argued that there were no prisons in ancient Israel -- even though imprisonment existed in the ancient world, because Israel had developed more relationally sensitive approaches to punishment.

You be the judge. Prisons are in the dock. What's your verdict?

I'm off to meet our regular film critic Mike Catto at the QFT for a press screening of Pascale Ferran's adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's controversial novel 's Lover. Nearly half a century after , our literary and moral landscape has changed dramatically. What was Lawrence's role in that transformation? Fionola Meredith will join Mike and myself tomorrow morning to discuss the film, the book, the controversy, and Lawrence's impact on the moral life of Britain and Ireland.

That question is one of the reasons why I have been a little quiet on the blog today. Natalie and I are still working on the script for the third programme in the Blueprint natural history series. A dayfull of meetings yesterday sent us back to the drawing board on the pre-titles sequence and we're currently (yes, I know it's late) working on a new draft for review at tomorrow's meetings. At the moment we're looking at "primitive Irish" inscriptions on 4th/5th century Ogham stones to see if this early medieval script bares a hidden Roman influence. Clearly, the Romans never invaded Ireland -- not, at least, if "invade" implies a military campaign and a period of occupation. But some historians argue that the Romans invaded "Hibernia" in more subtle ways: they left their mark linguistically and culturally. At this late hour, please feel free to list any examples of that influence in case we've missed some. You know you want to.

Richard Dawkins is back with a new TV series assaulting , the superstitions that continue to attract followers in a world tranformed by science. His first target is a belief-system (of sorts) which appeals to no less than a quarter of the UK population: Astrology.

Richard was born on March 26, which makes him an Aries. According to astologers, this means his personality tends to the following characteristics: "assertive, pioneering, enthusiastic, adventurous, humourous, fast-paced, energetic and passionate, sociable, good communicator, brave, action-oriented, individualistic, independent, impulsive, competitive, eager, straightforward, forceful, headstrong, a leader, focused on the present and freedom-loving. They can also sometimes be intemperate, violent, impatient, fiery, rash, extreme, and arrogant, impulsive, intolerant, insensitive, and bullying out of selfishness."

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throws his conderable weight behind an effort to get at the real news behind the corporate spin:

Everybody with an IQ above room temperature is on to the con act of our media. They are obeying bigger, richer interests than informing the public -- which is the last thing that corporate America has ever been interested in doing.

In this interview, he discusses the American media's unwillingness to ask the right questions, take risks, and pursue political investigations with energy. Socrates said the "unexamined life is a life not worth living", and Vidal agrees; but journalists, he says, are constrained by whichever corporate empire employing them to examine political life, and academics are too nervous about earning tenure at universities to rock the boat. The result is a depressingly unadventurous public-intellectual landscape. But can the internet offer the solution he's looking for?

Was the Bible the world's first Wikipedia entry? Shibboleth, our popular anonymous biblical critic, wades in with his answer to a question that has been dividing opinion on Will & Testament.

Let me start with an example from my own experience. I am not only a biblical critic, but I also maintain an interest in modern history. I decided to look at a certain issue on Wikipedia, pertaining to an incident that I have read about very extensively. I found that the relevant article on Wikipedia was tendentious and inaccurate. A review of the history of the page showed that it had initially been a solid and reliable article that was subsequently hijacked and extensively re-written so as only to reflect one rather bizarre POV. I carefully revised the article myself, keeping in the contentious material but re-instating much of the more balanced material. But very soon thereafter the new material had been removed and the bizarre POV once again prevailed. Now, the wikipedians will point out that there are procedures that I could / should have instigated in order to correct this sort of thing. Doubtless, but life is too short and I am too busy to be getting into disputes with lunatics on Wikipedia. But the point is this: why many people think that Wikipedia is broken beyond repair is that it contains a great deal of material that is inaccurate and muddled. Any person can edit articles and insert their two cents. Perfectly good articles can be mangled beyond recognition by people writing without any authoritative knowledge of the subject. (Yes, I know that Wikipedia articles are meant to be referenced... and they are...often to other crackpot web pages.)

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, broadcaster, political commentator, music impressario and "professional Mancunian" died today, aged 57. He had a kidney removed in January, and was diagnosed with cancer. Chemotherapy proved unsuccessful, and doctors suggested that he should take the drug Sutent, a first-line treatment for advanced kidney cancer. Sutent costs £3,500 per month and (very controversially) . Earlier this year, members of the Happy Mondays and other acts Tony Wilson supported over the years started a fund to help pay for his treatment.

In February, he talked movingly about losing a kidney and facing chemotherapy radio (the audio of this interview with ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Manchester is here). You can watch a recent news report on the Sutent controversy, below, including one of Tony Wilson's last television interviews. We can expect the debate about the cost-benefit analysis that prevents so many NHS patients receiving that treatment to gather pace in the next days and weeks.

It's said to be the most expensive Hollywood comedy ever made. Tag-lined "a comedy of biblical proportions", is the story of a modern-day Noah.

As the name suggests, it's the sequel to . Steve Carell stars as Evan Baxter, a former TV newsman recently elected to Congress whose life is upturned when he receives a visit from God (played by Morgan Freeman).

The biblical saga of sin and punishment becomes, here, a farce (allegedly with a message) addressing our contemporary ecological crisis. God tells Baxter to build an ark in advance of a scheduled flood. Presumably a fair amount of the movie's $175m budget went into building the ark (pictured); and at least some of the budget was spent on tree-planting to offset the production's carbon emissions (whether tree-planting is an effective carbon offset is another matter altogether). The director, Tom Shadyac, is still replying to that some of the 117 species of animals used in the film had previously been abused.

We've asked our film critics Mike Cato and Liz Kennedy to reflect on whether the audience is in for some cinematic abuse from Evan Almighty. You can hear their review on Sunday shortly before 10am. If you've already seen the film, feel free to write your own review here. Does Evan Almighty sink or swim?

I've spent the past two days writing the script for the third programme in the Blueprint series with the producer, Natalie Maynes. We escaped Broadcasting House, as we did yesterday, and worked at Natalie's home like two students trying to finish a joint assignment before the deadline. Every so often, the outside world would interrupt -- phone calls from broadcasting assistants asking about guests for Sunday Sequence or a producer desperately trying to book accommodation in Edinburgh during the Festival so that we can film some sequences there -- but mostly it was a writing bash.

Natalie is still at work on the script while I write this, and I'll return to it over the weekend. By Sunday, we plan to have a decent draft for Paul McGuigan, our head of factual TV, to pull to pieces. Others will also join the fun on Tuesday at a full-day script review meeting. Then we continue that process, including detailed feedback from our panel of academic advisers, until we have a finished script ready for filming at the start of September. TV is, to say the least, a collaborative business.

Today, Natalie and I were incorporating some material that may raise the odd eyebrow in the TV audience, including the consensus among scholars that the "Celts" never existed as a distinct race -- instead, the term "Celtic" connects various European (and some Asian) people groups through language and culture. Natalie can answer all the letters.

This pic is crying out for a caption competition. . What is Northern Ireland's First Minister saying between giggles? And why is the Chief Executive of Aer Lingus pulling that face?

UPDATE: Keep the suggestions coming in. Yes, freethinker, the caption I like best will earn its author a book prize.

The Reverend , founder of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, is one of the most despised public figures in the United States. His reputation for aggressive speech and abusive behaviour has grown over the past ten years after he established a web presence with .

Now, Phelps has turned his rhetorical guns on Ireland with a new website: . Both sites redefine offensiveness, so be warned: if you decide to access either, be prepared to encounter some extremely nasty and hate-filled language offered in the context of a "sermon". of the "sermon" Phelps preached in Westboro Baptist on July 29th in which he singles out Senator David Norris and former president Mary Robinson for sustained abuse. Phelps's allegedly Christian address also constitutes the most appalling example of anti-Catholic speech I have heard or read in a long time. This outpouring of viciousness seems to have been prompted by an invitation Phelps received from the Literary & Historical Society of University College Dublin to take part in a debate on gay adoption scheduled for 6 February 2008. Phelps's reply to this invitation (he declined) is

It would be a mistake to take Phelps seriously at a theological level, and his protests appear so deranged to many people that he may have assisted the causes he opposes. But it is worth reflecting on one question. Which is the greater distortion perpetuated by his rhetoric: the image he constructs of gay people or the image he constructs of God?

I was back at my desk in Broadcasting House today after a week in Rome. Some of you have written to ask if I pulled off an interview with Pope Benedict. Not likely. He is at the top of my interviewee wish-list, of course. Very wisely, popes don't do interviews -- not even with David Frost. (Though, wouldn't it be wonderful if Peter Morgan was able to produce a papal sequel to his terrific play Frost/Nixon. Can you imagine the list of questions Frost would be required not to ask?) On the other hand, popes have been known to answer the odd question from a journalist at a general audience.

There is a story, apocryphal I am sure, but often told in ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ circles, of an edition of Songs of Praise, some years back, in which the presenter was able to have a quick word (a single, short question) with Pope John Paul following a general audience. Apparently, the producer of the programme was concerned that the presenter (who shall remain nameless) might have asked the Pope the question she habitually asked of members of the public: "Does your faith help you with your work?"

In that spirit, if you could interview the Pope, what would you ask him?

If you are a ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ television addict, this is right up your street: download TV programmes from the last seven days. And it's free. Here's the blurb:

The programmes you choose to download are stored in your ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer Library on your computer for up to 30 days. You then have up to seven days to watch them. Once you download them you don't have to be on the internet to watch them when it suits you. We're still testing ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer and making improvements and for that we need your help. If you're based in the UK and aged over 16, you can apply to join the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ iPlayer Beta and be part of one of the most exciting new developments in broadcasting.

If you join, let me know know how you get on.

Sloping off work on Friday afternoon to begin the weekend early is costing UK businesses The top excuses:

1. A long (but entirely necessary) business lunch
2. A (last-minute) doctor's appointment
3. A (convenient) out-of-office meeting near to home

As we always suspected, applies to people as well as objects: An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Speaking of which ... I'm sloping off to have a look at the .

Last month, there was much debate about the effectiveness of sexual abstinence programmes in the wake of the Lydia Playfoot case. Now, new concludes that abstinence programmes "do not stop risky sexual behaviour or help in the prevention of unwanted pregnancy." This is an extremely important finding given the debate about HIV funding in the US (where a third of President Bush's HIV budget goes to sexual abstinence schemes).

It is no secret that the US president's personal religious views have influenced the direction of his administration's HIV spending. But there is now a significant body of scientific evidence challenging the effectiveness of the faith-based abstinence schemes he has championed. This is not to say that young people should be encouraged to have sex at an early age; it is merely a recognition that many of them do have sex (even when they participate in high-profile abstinence programmes) and sometimes without the information they need to reduce the risk of STI transmission or pregnancy.

I'm blogging from the Eternal City, which is probably why I'm thinking grander thoughts than usual. Take this comment by Picasso: "art is the lie that makes us realize truth". It is difficult to explain the role art plays in the journey to truth, though many have tried. But, somehow, these great buildings -- and the carefully planned space between them -- can lift a person's mind and spirit to another level of perception. The wisdom contained in Picasso's claim is that the buildings, piazzas, paintings and sculptures are not an end in themselves; they point beyond themselves to some truth about the world and ourselves that is difficult to access otherwise. And when we uncover that truth, it re-organises and re-values our sense of place in this shadowy version of reality.

That may be a little too much for one post. But this new is a fascinating attempt to link spirituality, art and politics with a new kind of respect -- all the more fascinating given that this defence of the spirituality underpining art comes from a professed atheist. argues that "a totally secularized society with contempt for religion sinks into materialism and self-absorption and gradually goes slack, without leaving an artistic legacy." Money quote:

For the fine arts to revive, they must recover their spiritual center. Profaning the iconography of other people's faiths is boring and adolescent. . . . To fully appreciate world art, one must learn how to respond to religious expression in all its forms. Art began as religion in prehistory. It does not require belief to be moved by a sacred shrine, icon, or scripture. Hence art lovers, even when as citizens they stoutly defend democratic institutions against religious intrusion, should always speak with respect of religion. Conservatives, on the other hand, need to expand their parched and narrow view of culture. Every vibrant civilization welcomes and nurtures the arts.