Ambition is all very well, but surely trying to be a better Christ than even Jesus could achieve might be considered a tad blasphemous?
Although the programme claims to treat all religious views equally, the further one strays away from bland C of E certainties, the less reverential the treatment becomes.
Druids celebrating the vernal equinox by scattering seeds onto London's concrete were observed with amused contempt, yet just because bank clerks like to dress up in white sheets on a weekend and call themselves "Pendragon," does that make their antics any more absurd than what the men in the pointy golden hats get up to in our cathedrals every day?
When it came to investigating the Sino-spiritual mysteries of the Tao Te Ching ("it makes no sense ... or does it?.."), the intellectual temperature dropped to positively hypothermic levels, with Alistair Appleton (a man who can barely cope with presenting Cash in the Attic) seeking to understand the inner wisdom of Lao Tsu by wandering around Chinatown to the theme tune from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence.
Perhaps he thinks the music was close enough, because the difference between the two peoples is that Jap eyes slant up and Chink eyes slant down, but at least this display of cultural ignorance helped me solve an ancient Zen koan. What is the sound of one hand clapping? The audience response to a broadcast by Mr Appleton. On a good day.
With an atheist head of religious programmes and a controller who values only the light and trite, no wonder the BBC1's spiritual programming has fallen into disarray.
So much so that when Chris Langham briefly appeared and spoke the only sensible words we'd heard all morning ("You can kill terrorists by bombing them, but you can't kill terrorism, because it's an ideology ... all we've done is to re-inspire an insane fundamentalism and antagonise the entire Arab and Muslim world"), the look of incomprehension on Ross Kelly's face reminded me of what Lao Tsu's karaokesinging brother Chuang penned: "When a man points at the moon, only a fool looks at the finger."
I came across that in a "personal development" book I've bought, but it took me ages to find it. Because when I asked the assistant to show me where the self-help section was, she smirked and said: "That would defeat the purpose."
