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In the most recent edition of the Everyday Ethics podcast, we review Bill Maher's documentary . Maher is convinced that atheists, particularly American atheists, need to become more visible. He's also convinced that religious belief is both ridiculous and dangerous. Put those two commitments together and you get an at times painfully funny satire. maher's personality is all over it: he's sharp-witted, intelligent, and a natural performer. His pieces-to-camera are filmed like stand-up routines with various religious centres as backdrops. And his guests appear, for the most part, to be intellectually challenged -- with the exception of the Vatican astronomer, who comes across, uniquely in this film, as an intelligent believer. So what should we make of it? It's essentially a in cinematic form. Find a bunch of less than intelligent advocates of religion, interview them with a view to comedic effect, edit the results carefully, and you end up with a hatchet job (albeit a very funny one). We asked a priest (fr Alan McGuckian), a comedian (Nuala McKeever) and a humanist (Brian McClinton) to go see Religulous, and you can listen to their responses to the film in the podcast or on the iPlayer. Brian makes the point that this is satire in the tradition of Gulliver's Travels, where exaggeration, overstatement and full-blown hyperbole are deployed as powerful rhetorical devices. And, it is true, you couldn't put these people on the screen if they didn't exist. incidentally, 'moderate' believers don't get let off the hook here. Maher says the moderates are enablers -- like 'mafia wives', they make it possible for the extremists to function. Whatever else you can say about Religulous, it is, I think, an important film that deserves serious attention. If you see it, prepare to laugh a lot, and think a fair bit too; if you are particularly sensitive to blasphemy, the usual health warnings apply.

So ... what do you think? Let's have your feedback.

The following update was posted this weekend on : 'Derick is very grateful to have come through his second chemo course. He now enters a critical ten day period as his body reacts to the chemo given: he is under very close medical observation.'

Cardinal Sean Brady thinks Catholics should consider using the social messaging network, Twitter, to create a 'sea of prayer' which would 'strengthen our sense of solidarity'. On Sunday's programme, the media expert Paul Moore chided me for not having an AudioBoo account yet. I blog, write updates on Facebook and tweet (@williamcrawley) comments about this and that, but apparently that's not enough to be connected these days. The gauntlet thrown down, I picked it up on Sunday evening when -- courtesy of my friend Dáithí, who is always ahead of the new technology curve -- I broadcast a message on AudioBoo from a restaurant in Belfast. No, I didn't take a satellite picture of our location; and yes, inevitably, I misnamed the new technology AudioBooze. Perhaps when the cardinal discovers AudioBoo, he will recommend that believers create a worldwide choir with AudioBoo hymns.

, one of the most distinguished analytic philosophers in the world today, is an intellectual maverick, and a serious thinker. In the past few years, he has challenged the intellectual coherence of natural selection as an explanatory mechanism within evolution. To be clear: Fodor is a non-theist thinker who accepts the central tenets of evolutionary biology; but he challenges distinctively Darwinian accounts of evolution. His arguments have so infuriated some of his colleagues that, I learned today, one well-known culture-warrior has even described Fodor as a 'creationist'. That's a tough indictment to prove in the case of an atheist philosopher. In -- which appears to be a work-in-progress -- Fodor explains why he rejects natural selection.

In fact, it turns out that children in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to pray every day than other children across the UK. That's according to a new survey conducted by . The survey mostly examines in today's children as an indication of what it's like to be a child in today's Britain. I'm not aware of similar research relating to the Republic (hat-tip to anyone who can find that). Headline: 57 per cent of Northern Ireland's children say they pray daily, as opposed to the national average of 22 per cent. Perhaps our particular approach to schooling, where the churches often have a significant influence on the religion curriculum and sometimes the ethos of schools, partly explains this high figure?

It's a big claim, I know. And, to be clear, I'm not the one making it. That's how a Guardian profile describes Robert McKee: 'the most influential storytelling theorist since Aristotle'. Having just spent an extended weekend taking , I can say a few things about the experience and about McKee.

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I ask this question because I've been sent a Bertrand Russell quotation to the effect that the Bible says nothing in praise of intelligence. I've admired Russell's straight-talking style since I first read him in high school. In fact, reading Russell made me want to study philosophy at university, which I eventually did. But I've always been puzzled by that quotation. Puzzled because consulting any decent concordance would reveal dozens of verses in praise of intelligence. I can only assume that this quote is an attempt to portray the Bible as anti-intellectual. This, again, I find puzzling, because the Bible is not a person with feelings, attitudes and prejudices. For sure, it was written by people, and its pages reflect the worldview and commitments of those writers and editors. But part of that biblical tradition prizes the mind. If the bible sounds anti-intellectual in the hands of some of its devotees, this may reflect the reader's attitude rather than the text. However we agree or disagree to read this text, let's at least agree on this: Bertrand Russell needed a better concordance.

'The unexamined life is not worth living,' said Socrates. 'The unlived life is not worth examining,' says Robert McKee. McKee is the world's most famous -- and most celebrated -- analyst of story. Having spent the past two days listening to him teach Ij can see why he has attracted a following of scriptwriters, playwrights, film directors, and writers of all kinds across the world. I'm in London, taking McKee's famous three-day Story Seminar. I've been tweating my experience for those who follow my random scribblings about life. This has been one of the most intellectually stimulating courses I've ever taken. I don't think I'll read a book or watch a film in the same way again.

Would be any more of a theological challenge than finding life in a previously uncharted part of this planet? The mission to mars and the history of missions perhaps have more in common than is sometimes realised.

is probably the most influential blogger in America. He says his next task is to ".

Let's just agree, right now, on a verbal sabbatical. Could we all agree, for a four-week period, to avoid using the word 'absolutely', when me simply mean 'yes', and see if that breaks out national habit of affirmative overstatement? I've just been bemoaning the presence of the A-word in a mountain (read: 'small hill') of audio with the Book Programme producer Pauline Currie. Guest after guest after guest begins sentences with 'Absolutely'. What they mean is, 'I agree', or 'certainly', or 'quite so', or 'indeed', or ... well, sometimes even 'perhaps'. It's not their problem; it's our problem. I've been trying to force myself to avoid the offending term on various programmes, and it's as difficult a habit to break as chainsmoking. Perhaps we need a support group?

I've been thinking a lot about religion these past few weeks -- even more so than I usually do. We've begin filming on a new documentary I'm presenting which explores the place of religion, and spirituality, in Northern Ireland today. That is a vast subject, I know; but we hope to present some kind of analysis within the space of sixty minutes in a primetime slot. I'm figuring: if we can tell the story of six hundred million years of Ireland's natural history in three hours, we stand a chance.

I am currently trying to make a journey from one end of Northern Ireland's religious spectrum to the other. I've already seen, and participated in, a great deal of our country's religious life; but there's a lot I haven't seen yet that I am keen to encounter. As those will know, I spent last Sunday morning at the north coast, observing two very different kinds of worship. On Saturday evening, I joined the community at Clonard Monastery to see how they keep the Easter vigil tradition alive. This is a personal journey too: some of my story is relevant to this. And throughout, I want to find out whether religion has a future in a country often associated with religion in the minds of those who don't live here.

Alongside that, I'm also recording a new series of The Book Programme, which is one of my favourite broadcasting projects. I'll tell you more about that in due course, but look out for Peter Ackroyd talking about his new book, a retelling of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in the first programme. He's wonderful -- Ackroyd, that is.

Oh, while I'm talking about books, here's one I'm reading right now that isn't in the Book series (it was published in 2003): Susan Wise Bauer's. Bauer is a literature professor at the College of William and Mary (no relation), and her book is a celebration of ideas, books, and the love of both. It is a treat better than chocolate.

from the TV programme Britian's Got Talent has now attracted more than five million viewings. Susan Boyle is quite a discovery for the show; and if this clip doesn't put a tear in your eye, you are probably in need of a quadruple cynicism bypass. It's a classic rags to riches story -- an Easter redemption story in its own way, just like Lis Miserables, from which Susan Boyle sings:

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Junior minister Jeffrey Donaldson MP has to Presbyterian Mutual Society investors to get in touch with him if they were approached by a bank and advised to remove the money from the society. Mr Donaldson appears keen to investigate claims that interventions of this kind helped to create a run on the PMS last October. The contact details for Jeffrey Donaldson MP: e-mail jeffreydonaldsonmp@laganvalley.net, call 028 9266 8001 or write to the Old Town Hall, 29 Castle Street, Lisburn, Co Antrim, BT27 4DH.

Those , are still hopeful that the last pope may be declared a saint before the fifth anniversary of his death in 2005. The journey to canonisation involves the investigation of miracle-claims associated with the intercessory work of a saint. In this case, one stand-out miracle that has excited campaigners is the of a French nun, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre. Other miracle-claims are beginning to multiple. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's former private secretary, celebrating the case of a nine-year-old Polish boy 'crippled by a kidney tumour was able to walk again after praying at the tomb of Pope'. Cardinal Dziwisz says this 'miracle' could be sufficient to have Pope John Paul declared 'blessed', a necessary step towards sainthood.

The postulator, a church official given responsibility for presenting the cause for beatification and canonisation, is , a polish priest, seen in his office in Rome.

Many of you have written messages of support for the preacher and author Derick Bingham, who is being treated for acute myeloid leukaemia. Derick has now begun a second course of chemotherapy after a few days at home with Margaret and his family. He has posted , and those who know Derick will recognize it as 'classic Bingham'. I've posted the entire letter below the fold.

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We always knew Vincent Nichols would be the kind of church leader who rides to the sound of the guns, but few were expecting him to . Archbishop Nicols knows that 4.2 million Catholics in England and Wales constitute a serious body of public opinion. If that number of people could be mobilized into a letter-writing campaign in opposition to, for example, TV ads for abortion services, they would have to be taken very seriously. In predictably media-savvy terms, Archbishop Nicols says the public don't want abortion advertised 'alongside a packet of crisps'.

I must confess to liking the sound of Vincent Nichols. That's not to say I agree with everything he says, but who wouldn't welcome the arrival of a church leader who speaks clearly, says what he thinks, means what he says, and makes no apology for having a view with which others might disagree?

On the , the archbishop was asked about Tony Blair's recent interview with the gay magazine Attitude, in which Mr Blair argues that the Catholic Church needs to modernize it views on such issues as homosexuality. The archbishop's response? Essentially, he says, Tony Blair's a politician, but I'll take my lead on matters of faith and ethics from Pope Benedict. Some people may read that comment as equivalent to "Tony needs to remember he's not the Pope.'

He's America's most high-profile preacher. He not only prayed in the new president at the inauguration, but his church hosted the first televised unofficial debate involving both main candidates for the world's most powerful job, from the stage of his church in California. Rick Warren is also a phenomenally successful writer, whose books dominate the global religion market. When he speaks, many people pay attention to what he says. So when he entered California's controverisal Proposition 8 debate, last year, and gave his support to the legislation banning same-sex marriage in that state, one might expect that his comments carried quite a few votes.

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Harold Miller, the Church of Ireland's bishop of Down and Dromore, has been reading tomorrow's TV listings and . He says there's nothing in there to feed the soul and many broadcasters have failed to paint the story of Good Friday. Good news for Radio Ulster, though: the bishop says our output is 'almost perfection when it comes to religious broadcasting'.

' ... a request they are unable to agree to.' the invitation, from an animal rights campaign group, to change their name.

Diarmuid Martin, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, for a devastating report into clerical child abuse which is due out this summer. He says it will shock everybody.

, not mine.

Vermont today became the fourth US state . Vermont is one of the smallest states in the US, both (which is roughly one-third of the population of Northern Ireland). Flicking though the of this north-eastern state, I note that Vermont is arguably the most secular population in the US (though I accept that there is immense difficulty in fixing a definition for the term 'secular' in order to make that claim meaningful). In a 2008 study, 34 per cent of the state claimed they had 'no religion'. Vermonters are less likely to attend religious services and more likely to be agnostic or atheist when compared with national trends.

I've been reading , the Presbyterian Church's Moderator-designate (though he prefers to describe himself, here, as 'presbyterian pastor'). If he keeps it up, come June, he will be the first blogging moderator in the church's history. Donald Patton, of course, could start one up before them and steal that coveted accolade from his successor. (Relax, Stafford, Donald's much too nice a guy to do that.)

I have to say, I'm enjoying Stafford's style. He writes conversationally, thinks aloud in posts, and carefully lays out a rationale for his blogging enterprise -- a mission statement, if you will. He's also clear about what he won't be writing about: 'There are advantages to blogging which may enhance pastoral ministry, but is revealing the details of my life one of them? I don't think so. I don't think that I am all that interesting.'

I beg to differ. You'd be surprised how interesting you will become during your moderatorial year, Stafford. Nevertheless, you will find an entry discussing his attractive 19th century church manse and its grounds, where Bob, the gardener, tends the monkey puzzle trees. I was interested to read an entry about the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Stafford was preparing to give an address to the Reformed Presbyterian conference marking that anniversary, and gives some hints about what he would say. I'll be making a documentary about Calvin this year, so I was keen to read the address; but it's not attached. The address would emphasize Calvin's work as a theologian of the Spirit (or spiritual theologian). I think Stafford is right to place the emphasis there -- it's a necessary counterbalance to overly systematic readings of Calvin's theology. If you are reading this post, Stafford (as I know you sometimes do), can you post the address on your blog? For all I know, if Calvin were alive today, he might even be blogging himself. Perhaps he'd admit blogging as a new office of the church. OK, that's pushing it a bit.

In any case, a blogging church leader is an interesting development for our culture. It gives him, or her, a direct and immediate connection with various audiences, beyond the constraints of press statements and managed messages. And, in this case at least, anyone leaving a comment can expect their words to be well and truly moderated. Welcome to the blogosphere, Moderator-to-be.

Update:

Peter Jennings, press secretary to the new Archbishop of Westminster, with Jonathan Wynne-Jones of the Daily Telegraph.

So many people have contacted me online, by email, by facebook, and even by twitter, to comment on the Days Like This piece I presented this week. I chose to talk about June 26, 1979, when I travelled to the United States -- my first time on an airplane, my first trip out of Northern Ireland, and in so many ways the trip of a lifetime for a young kid from Belfast. You can listen again to my story here. My story is part of the Radio Ulster presenters week on Days Like This, and was produced by Pauline Currie. It is a very personal story and the final version owes a great deal to Pauline's skills as a producer. I'm delighted to be working with Pauline again on the current series of The Book Programme. I don't want to give away too much about what you can expect in the current series, but we're excited about some literary big-hitters who will be making an appearance. Watch this space.

It's Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, when Western Christians recall the events of the last days of Christ -- his journey to Jerusalem, his arrest, trial and execution. (Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter a week later.) But how much of the biblical account of Jesus and his final week on earth can be described as "history"? In his new book, The Longest Week, Nick Page makes a case for the historicity of the Bible's chronology of events. You can hear his analysis on today's Sunday Sequence. Is it myth, story, symbolic language, or full-bodied history?

Listen to the interview on this week's podcast .

More ad more of you are signing up for our weekly ethics podcast. It's called Everyday Ethics, and it's a chance to explore some of the major ethical debates of the week. This week, you can listen again to my interview with Dr Edward Green, the controversial HIV prevention expert who has defended Pope Benedict's claim that condoms are making the problem of African Aids even worse. Also on this week's podcast, after the publication of Northern Ireland's new abortion guidelines: are we all now any clearer about when an abortion is lawful here and when it isn't? Would condom ads during Coronation Street help to reduce the UK's teen pregnancy rate? And we talk to the General Medical Council about moral dilemmas at the end of life and why they want to change their guidelines for doctors. Everyday Ethics is a free download. Find it here. Many people have told us it's a great way to stay in touch with the moral and ethical debates of the week.

currently Archbishop of Birmingham, has been named successor of Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. This will be interesting, from a media point of view. Nichols is renowned for his skills as a communicator, and he is passionate about connecting faith with community life. We can expect a more forward-leaning approach to public policy debate, at the very least. Here's a .

The Adminstrative Director at Harvard University's AIDS Prevention Research Project, has written in response to our interview with Dr Edward Green, with more details about the circumstances in which Harvard University has ended its funding for the project headed by Dr Green. She writes:

"The research grant that Dr. Green runs through Harvard University had a 3 year term which would have ended on February 28, 2009. Harvard Unviersity and the funder agreed to an extension for an additional year. In fact the headline would be much more accurate in stating that "Harvard extended the research by an additional year." This sort of extention is typical in a university when a grant has not been fully spent by it's scheduled end date. So I can verify that in no way has Harvard University ended the project . . . While Dr. Green may have suggested a correlation between his comments and the project's end, that is not in fact an accurate representation of the situation. Dr. Green may be under public scrutiny for his response to the Pope's comments, but Harvard University does not change grant terms randomly."