Richard Dawkins created, what I believe to be, a brilliant documentary about religion and it’s effect on humanity. Channel 4 (is that based in the U.K. ?) aired the documentary and has several pages on it’s web site about the two part documentary. Some of the people you hear on the documentary make you cringe. I almost withdrew with disbelief, not because I heard about religious fundamentalism for the first time, but because of one more affirmation of something that I believe is already happening in the U.S. and elsewhere. It’s truly absurd that we keep pointing at the middle-east as a prime example of religious zealotry, completely ignoring our own backyards and what’s brewing there.
Each part is about 45 minutes, suitable for airing on the one-hour time slots on American TV. Surprising thing though, is that I haven’t heard of or read about it being aired anywhere on American TV. Maybe my googling for it is not enough research.
If you want to watch it, the two video files are available as bittorrent downloads. They’re avi files encoded in divx, so you’ll need a divx capable media player.
part 1 on mininova
part 2 on mininova
If you consider yourself a rational animal and like rational pursuits, then you’ll like this documentary.
Richard Dawkins is the same person that authored The Selfish Gene.
Thanks to Lispmeister for pointing the documentary out.
What I would like to see is Richard talk with folks from the Baha’i Blog. They seem religious and rational enough to warrant a debate.
PS: If you know me personally and/or would like a copy of the video, let me know, I’ll burn you a copy. I’m probably transgressing all known legal boundaries on video distribution. But hey, it’s a worthy cause. If you know I am doing so, let me know and I’ll cease and desist.
mogambo on stuff: halftilts caveat 