Program Update for May 1 “Heart & Soul”

BBC World Service will be airing an alternate episode of “Heart & Soul” on May 1. The episode “God’s Atheists” will air in place of the originally scheduled “Indonesia’s Abortion Secret.”  Details follow:

Heart & Soul: God’s Atheists

John Laurenson examines the rapidly-growing Sunday Assembly – the ‘church’ for people who don’t believe in God.

Sunday morning. 11 o’clock. The congregation is hundreds-strong. The readings are powerful and uplifting, the singing loud, the spirit of community strong. And at the end, you can sign up for volunteering work.

It looks like church, it sounds like church, it feels like church but it is not church. Welcome to the Sunday Assembly, the ‘church’ for people who don’t believe in God.

The Sunday Assembly is growing fast. There are now almost forty Sunday Assemblies worldwide. Will it tempt people away from the mosques, synagogues and churches when they realize they can get so many of the things they like about religion without having to believe in God? Or is the Sunday Assembly – which urges people to “Live better, Help Often, Wonder More” – bringing atheists closer to what believers call God?

The Sunday Assembly phenomenon has lots to say about the shortcomings of religion… but perhaps even more to say about the shortcomings of atheism.

John Laurenson talks God, no-God and the meaning of life with the two stand-up comedians who founded the Sunday Assembly and bright young thinkers on both sides of the God debate.

First aired: Friday, May 1
Broadcast times: APM | Fri 12:30 ET, with repeat 17:30 ET, 22:30 ET; and Sun 04:30 ET, 14:30 ET
Broadcast window: 1 – 7 May 2015
Number of episodes: 1
Program duration: 26 mins 30 seconds (or 30 minutes including the News Summary, billboard & promo)

Download availability on www.bbc.co.uk/partners: from Saturday 2 May 00:30 GMT for 7 days