To be broadcast on UK TV Channel 4 on Monday January 9 2006:
20:00 THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? 1/2: The God Delusion
Professor Richard Dawkins, Chair of the Public Understanding
of Science at Oxford and world-renowned evolutionary biologist,
is no stranger to controversy. His outspoken views on religion
and his championing of evolutionary theory have earned him
the nickname of "Darwin's Rottweiler", an epithet he wears
with pride. In this controversial two-part series, Dawkins
describes God as the most unpleasant fictional character of all
and launches a wholehearted attack on religion as the cause
for much of the pain and suffering in the world. In the light of
overwhelming scientific evidence that shows a supreme being
cannot exist, and in a world in which religious conflict and
bigotry are increasingly centre stage, he believes that for the
good of humanity, religion needs to be challenged and dismissed.
In this first film, Professor Dawkins confronts the march of
militant religious belief across the world. In the American
"Bible Belt", he meets Ted Haggard, the President of the
American National Association of Evangelicals, who believes
that science will one day prove the Bible's Creation story right.
In Jerusalem, where the terrible certainties of faith began and
still rage, he challenges the Grand Mufti of Palestine and
discusses with Yousef Al Khattab, a Jewish settler turned
Muslim fundamentalist, the implacable hatreds that faith
has thrown up in this blighted city. The 21st century, Dawkins
argues, should be an age of reason but we are threatened
by those who see unreason as a positive virtue. Faith is an
indulgence of irrationality that is nourishing extremism,
division and terror.
Dir: Russell Barnes; Prod: Deborah Kidd; Prod Co: IWC Media
http://www.channel4sales.com/programming-and-schedules/channel4-sched...
or
http://tinyurl.com/cb53u
To be broadcast on UK Channel 4 on Monday January 16 2006:
20:00 THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? 2/2: The Virus of Faith
...In this second film, Professor Dawkins explains how religious
faith acts like a virus which is particularly virulent to the young.
In challenging interviews with a Hasidic rabbi and the head of a
city academy, which has adopted the American 'Accelerated
Christian Education' curriculum, he tackles the rise of faith
schools in Britain and argues that religious education saddles
our children with evident falsehoods and an inflexible moral
outlook. Dawkins goes on to examine the underpinnings of
Judaeo-Christian morality, analysing the so-called 'Good Book'
and questioning how the idea of hell is used for moral policing.
He takes on an American pastor who stages 'Hell House'
morality plays and a Reverend who believes the Bible
sanctions the murder of abortion doctors. He questions
Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford on how the moderate
Anglican Church can justify being part of the same religious
fabric that derives morals from a Bronze-Age text. Dawkins
shows how the true roots of human morality lie in our
evolutionary past and not in Holy Scriptures which actually
reveal God to be a rather nasty character.
Dir: Russell Barnes; Prod: Deborah Kidd; Prod Co: IWC Media
.
|
