no answers to 'big questions'

Sunday morning in Britain ... and for those of us who have no life (your writer included) or nothing better to do, there's TV. The BBC offers religious fare under the cloak of a program called 'the big questions'. Today they're discussing issues such as whether there still is a moral duty to provide overseas aid, whether the body is 'sacrosanct' after death and other such genuinely important and interesting topics. It's a panel type program where experts give their take on the answers and an audience that agrees or disagrees.

Here's the weird bit: their 'experts' on moral questions are not ethicists (there isn't one on the program among the featured panelists), but representatives of major religions (ie there's a woman in red dress - the Anglican priest, a guy with a round cap on his head - the Jewish rabbi, and of course your Labour MP - last week they had a rabid, slightly nuttish Catholic woman raving against IVF, making up 'facts' on the run).

The thing is, often I find myself in agreement with their answers to the questions at hand (often I do not), BUT there is no moral argument, no moral analysis, it's people in funny cloth waving the magic God wand and voila there's (NO) answer. Plain bizarre.