Root of All Evil?
In this two-part Channel 4 series, Professor Richard Dawkins challenges what he describes as 'a process of non-thinking called faith'. He describes his astonishment that, at the start of the 21st century, religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth. Science, based on scepticism, investigation and evidence, must continuously test its own concepts and claims. Faith, by definition, defies evidence: it is untested and unshakeable, and is therefore in direct contradiction with science. In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, in fact, says Dawkins, they bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, he argues, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress to become more enlightened and more tolerant.
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- Cast:
- Richard Dawkins , Ted Haggard
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Reviews
This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
It's about time that somebody made a documentary like this. All religions are the same - foolish superstition -. Do these people actually believe that their holy books and myths were written by divine supernatural pan-dimensional beings? There were written by Human Beings not unlike themselves. There is no longer any purpose for these superstitions. They have no redeeming qualities - unless fear, shame, lies, intolerance and hatred are your ideas of good qualities -. God is dead... it's about time. Try having faith in Humankind instead because that's the only way things get done. Vapid religions succeed in creating hate, praise Mankind instead
Religious fanatics forget one thing. To question what they believe in. While I was watching this documentary it came screaming to me that not just the religious fanatics forget to question but also Richard Dawkins seems to forget to question the "evidence".The evidence we use to explain evolution for example is based on samples that we found. We are developing a theory based on these evidences. There are several weaknesses in this sentence already. It is the same with religion. if you just believe in this theories whether it is a religious theory or a scientific theory without questioning you become blinded. I agree with Dawkins who says that religion is blindingly wrong. But if we would raise our children in all our religions to become questioning persons. We don't have to kill ourselves. People have to believe in a reason for being. I do not agree with Dawkins whose ending words in this documentary were that the only way of really enjoying our live is not to believe that after death there is heaven or hell. I don't believe in hell anyway, but the pure thought that there is no real sense in my being and that after I die I go into the big not existence makes me panic. I rather believe that I have to learn some things in this life and that there is a reason for me being here, is more calming. I believe but I thought long and hard in what I believe and what I believe the priests or reverends or pastors tell me might be true and I will never become a fanatic because if you question your believes and especially question the people who supposedly have all the answer, then you might have a chance.There is a reason why Jesus did not agree with churches!
This is a show about nothing! :) Well, about how ridiculous it is to believe in a god that simply isn't there. Dawkings is clearly an anti-theist, not simply an atheist, being rather violent in his search for the supremacy of evidence based logic over dim witted religion.That is actually the problem with the documentary. The people interviewed on the religious side are simply too far gone to sound remotely lucid. Dawkings chose the people on their religious fervour, therefore they can only look ridiculous in a film based on logic.The arguments are solid though, no matter their aggressive delivery. One of the things I liked is the ending of the first part from where I quote: "we are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in, some of us just go one god further".By omitting the few good things about religion, Dawkings appears just a extremist as the religious fanatics that preach on about holy armies and the true god. Bottom line: if you are an atheist, there is nothing new in the film that you haven't already thought of yourself; if you believe in god, you will most likely feel attacked and dislike the film.
I'm an Atheist, but I found Richard Dawkin's behavior around religious people in this series to be disrespectful. He visited an evangelical church in the US, similar to the type in my city, and he was just rude. The pastor has 3 sins against an elitist like Dawkins: 1) He has a southern accent 2) He was religious 3) He was positive and outgoing. I noticed Dawkins lip trembling through the conversation in apparent anger, and he did *not* approach the conversation coolly as he should have. It is possible to remain friendly and have a debate, something the minister realized but Dawkins seemed oblivious to.I also noticed he seemed to favor bashing Islam and Christianity, but when he visits Jerusalem he is extremely sympathetic to the Jews, even though they behave like the Third Reich when it comes to Palestinians.When he meets with a New York Jew who converted to Islam and now lives in Palestine, he seems curiously relaxed at first, then when he realizes the fundamentalist is hard core he loses his temperament again. The fundamentalist raises good issues - in our lands (the Western world) we are seeing more and more human degradation on TV, on the Internet, and in our daily lives. He argues that our women are dressing and acting like whores, and Dawkins doesn't seem to have an answer to this and doesn't seem concerned about this, saying women are deciding to do it themselves. The truth is these young girls are being fed these messages from TV and society - it isn't coming from within these young girls. The culture is becoming bankrupt, and the people foisting these values on the Western world certainly are not Islamic, and they are not devout Christian. Why isn't Dawkins concerned about what Atheists are doing? Overall, I was not impressed with his supposed free thinking. He seems very leftist establishment oriented to me.