Dawkins goes Rooting for something he can’t quite find
I recently watched Richard Dawkins’ BBC documentary on religion, “The Root of All Evil?” (And on a completely unrelated note, there sure is a lot of copyrighted material posted on YouTube. I’m sure that site is one lawsuit away from the end of its glory days. Oh well, it’s fun while it lasts).
I’m a bit of a Dawkins fan, even though he’s a) kind of a jerk, and b) the one time I mentioned his name to an actual biologist I was rewarded with a string of profanity, but I found his documentary to be rather uninspiring. It covers a lot of the same ground he’s been over (more effectively) in his writings, and includes a lot of interviews where Dawkins scowls at various people of faith who mostly try to humour him. I was left thinking “Come on Richard, these people are just people, leave ‘em alone” (though at one point he interviewed an American preacher who defended the murder of abortion doctors, so maybe I’m just desensitized after all the time I’ve spent reading about this stuff online…). It’s difficult to get worked up over something as common-place as religious belief. You’re sort of left saying things like, “Well, of course the middle east is a mess, but that’s the way it’s always been, so what?”.
The main thrust of the documentary is that religion makes people believe irrational (and untrue) things, and this is dangerous. Maybe so, but I felt he didn’t make his case as strongly as he could have. He didn’t examine any one issue in enough depth for me. If you want to learn about mega churches, for example, you’d be better off reading the good piece Harper’s did on the very same Church visited in the documentary. If you want to learn about Dawkins views on religious schools, you can read his own words. And so on. I felt the documentary was a bit weak.
Although he addressed the “big 3″ Abrahamic religions, Dawkins focused mainly on Christianity and Judaism, with (if I recall) just one interview with a follower of Islam. I found this a bit strange. In fact, I almost wonder if he had to tread carefully in order to get his piece on the air. I’m almost sure he wouldn’t have put the question mark at the end of the title unless he had too.
Anyhow, it’s still worth a look if you get a chance to see it. Here’s the bit about mega churches.
Edit: Or, perhaps I’m wrong on this. According to wikipedia, Dawkins didn’t want to call it “The Root of All Evil?” but the BBC wanted to “create controversy”.
dawkins is an ass… i mean, opening with the nuremburg rallies? pshaw!!!
but then the kettle has reason to insult the pot, instructing dawkins not to be arrogant…
but religion (and evengelical christianity) is not hopeless. take an hour and listen to the following radio program. ira glass’s this american life did an episode on this preaher. don’t read the description, just listen. it is an hour. the show is “heretics” air date 12/16/05, and should be easy to find from http://www.thislife.org as well, here is a link to the download of the audio: http://audo.wbez.org/tal/304.m3u
listen to this. some of the best religion i have ever heard…
That broadcast is a good find, thanks Luke. I’m listening to it now. The stuff about casting out demons is kind of freaky =)
but there is funny stuff, with the guy saying about when he gets into fights with his wife, they both cast the devil out of each other, and there is good stuff, like when he goes to the gay church and there is talk of lives saved…