The Root of All Evil?

The Root of All Evil?
File:Richard Dawkins (screenshot).jpg Writer and presenter Richard Dawkins
Written by	Richard Dawkins
Produced by	Alan Clements
Starring	Richard Dawkins, Yousef al-Khattab, Ted Haggard, Richard Harries
Distributed by	Channel 4
Release date	January 2006

The Root of All Evil? is a television documentary, written and presented by Richard Dawkins, in which he argues that the world would be better off without religion. The documentary was first broadcast in January 2006, in the form of two 45 minute episodes (excluding advertisement breaks), on Channel 4 in the UK. Dawkins has said that the title "The Root of All Evil?" was not his preferred choice, but that Channel 4 had insisted on it to create controversy. His sole concession from the producers on the title was the addition of the question mark. Dawkins has stated that the notion of anything being the root of all evil is ridiculous.

Part 1: The God Delusion

The God Delusion explores the unproven beliefs that are treated as factual by many religions and the extremes to which some followers have taken them. Dawkins opens the programme by describing the "would-be murderers . . . who want to kill you and me, and themselves, because they're motivated by what they think is the highest ideal." Dawkins argues that "the process of non-thinking called faith" is not a way of understanding the world, but instead stands in fundamental opposition to modern science and the scientific method, and is divisive and dangerous.

Lourdes

Pilgrims at Lourdes

Dawkins first visits the shrine of Lourdes in southern France, where he joins a candlelit procession of pilgrims singing, "Laudate Maria!" He is particularly struck by the sense of group solidarity, which he contrasts with the lonely delusion of believing that one is Napoleon, for example. At daybreak, Dawkins surveys the faithful queuing up for healing water, and says that they are more likely to catch something than find a cure. However, he speaks to an Irish lady who has found the experience beneficial.

Dawkins then quizzes Father Liam Griffin about the number of miraculous cures which have taken place over the years. Griffin reports 66 declared miracles and about 2,000 unexplained cures (out of approximately 80,000 sick visitors per year over more than a century) but claims that millions more have been healed spiritually. Dawkins remains sceptical, and remarks afterwards that nobody has ever reported the miraculous re-growing of a severed leg. Instead he claims that the cures invariably comprise afflictions which were likely to have improved anyway.

Faith versus science

Dawkins continues with a discussion of what he sees as a conflict between faith and science. He points out that science involves a process of constantly testing and revising theories in the light of new evidence, while faith, in his view, makes a virtue out of believing unprovable and often improbable propositions. For an example of faith, Dawkins takes the infallible doctrine of the Assumption, which Pope Pius XII declared in 1950 simply by relying upon tradition. He contrasts this with the scientific method, which he describes as a system whereby working assumptions may be falsified by recourse to reason and evidence. Dawkins provides an example from his undergraduate study, when a visiting researcher disproved a hypothesis of a professor, who accepted the outcome with "My dear fellow, I wish to thank you, I have been wrong these fifteen years."

Dawkins then considers a scientific theory of great significance to him – Charles Darwin's theory of evolution – which he discusses by reference to his Mount Improbable analogy. The notion that the full complexity of life emerged either through blind chance or by the hand of an intelligent designer, he likens to leaping up the sheer face of a mountain in one bound. By contrast, he suggests that Darwin's theory of design by natural selection provides an explanation which is akin to climbing a mountain gradually, via a gentle gradient. Dawkins also comments that the design hypothesis raises another question: who made the designer?

Colorado Springs

File:Ted Haggard (ROAE).jpg

Ted Haggard

Next, Dawkins visits Colorado Springs to discuss the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States where, according to polls, 45 percent of the population believe the universe to be less than 10,000 years old. He visits the New Life Church, an $18 million worship centre where Pastor Ted Haggard presides over a 12,000 strong congregation. Haggard is chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals and who, according to Dawkins, has a weekly conference call with George Bush. (according to Jeff Sharlet, Haggard actually talks to Bush or his advisers every Monday.)

Dawkins interviews Haggard and begins by likening the worship experience to a Nuremberg Rally of which Goebbels might have been proud. Haggard says he knows nothing of the Nuremberg Rallies and goes on to say that evangelicals think of his services as something akin to rock concerts. Haggard claims that the Bible is true and doesn't contradict itself, as science supposedly does. Dawkins, however, contends that the advantage of science is that new evidence changes ideas, allowing the advancement of human knowledge, something that religion does not allow. Steadily the exchanges become increasingly fractious.

On November 2, 2006, it was reported that Haggard had stepped down as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. In addition, The Rocky Mountain News stated that Haggard was taking leave as pastor at New Life Church while an independent board there investigated charges by Mike Jones, a male escort, who alleges that Haggard paid him for sex roughly once a month for the past three years. In a written statement, Haggard said: "I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity. I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance." Haggard has denied the allegation, and no evidence has yet been introduced proving or disproving Jones' claims, though Jones claims to have letters and recorded voice messages from Haggard.

Haggard says that American evangelicals fully embrace the scientific method, expecting it to show how God created the heavens and the earth. Dawkins asks if he accepts the scientific demonstration that the earth is 4.5 billion years old. According to Haggard, this is merely one view accepted by a portion of the scientific community. He goes on to contend that Dawkins' own grandchildren may laugh at him upon hearing this claim. An irked Dawkins responds “do you want to bet?” Haggard insists, in a condescending tone, that some "evolutionists" believe that the eye "just formed itself somehow." Dawkins replies that not a single evolutionary biologist he knows would think that, and that Haggard clearly knows nothing about the subject. In response Haggard implies that some (unnamed) "evolutionists" he’s met have said that. The meeting takes a markedly contentious turn with Haggard asserting that speaking from a position of “intellectual arrogance” is the reason why people like Dawkins, and others who dispute creationism, have a problem with people of faith. This scene ends with Haggard beseeching Dawkins to never be arrogant about what he claims to know, as there is a possibility that as he ages he will find that some of the things he now believes true may prove to be false.

As Dawkins and his film crew pack up to leave, there is a brief altercation in the car park. It is reported that Haggard ordered Dawkins' crew off his land with threats of legal action and confiscation of their recording hardware, along with the statement "you called my children animals." Dawkins retrospectively interprets this as saying that the evolutionary standpoint indeed amounts to saying that Haggard's flock were animals, which all humans are.

Dawkins then attends a meeting of freethinkers, where a biology teacher reveals that he has been labelled "Satan's incarnate" for teaching evolution, and another freethinker compares the present situation to the McCarthy era.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem – the Dome of the Rock

Finally, Dawkins visits Jerusalem, which he regards as a microcosm of everything that is wrong with religion. He is taken on a guided tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This church is considered by some Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Dawkins comments on what he calls the "edgy watchfulness" in the Old City. One area in particular lies under heavy guard: the Temple Mount, enclosing both the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The same ground is also the site of the ancient Jewish Holy Temple, which has been a source of tension between the religious communities.

Dawkins listens to people from both sides of the divide – first, Jewish representative Yisrael Medad and then, the Grand Mufti of Palestine, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri. The two sides appear irreconcilable. Hoping to meet someone who might be able to see both viewpoints, Dawkins interviews Joseph Cohen, now Yousef al-Khattab, an American-born Jew who came to Israel as a settler before converting to Islam. After offering Dawkins a cheerful welcome, al-Khattab explains his views relating to the decadence of Western values.

Al-Khattab has two major concerns. Firstly, he wants all the non-Muslims off the lands of Muhammad. Secondly, he is concerned about the manner women are dressed – or rather, how Western men allow "their women" to dress. He doesn't want to see women dressed "like whores," as he puts it, or "bouncing around on television topless." When asked for his thoughts on the September 11 attacks, he traces the blame back to the creation of the state of Israel. "Fix your society, fix your women!" is his parting advice.

Russell's teapot

Dawkins rounds off this episode with a presentation of Bertrand Russell's celestial teapot analogy. Just because science has not yet answered every conceivable question about the universe, there is no need, he argues, to turn to faith which, in his view, has never answered anything of significance.

Part 2: The Virus of Faith

In The Virus of Faith, Dawkins opines that the moral framework of religions is warped, and argues against the religious indoctrination of children. The title of this episode comes from The Selfish Gene, in which Dawkins discussed the concept of memes.

Sectarian education

Dawkins discusses what he considers as the divisive influence of sectarian education, with children segregated and labelled by their religion. He describes the Hasidic Jewish community of North London as cloistered away from external influences such as television, with children attending exclusive religious schools. He questions Rabbi Herschel Gluck to find if their culture allows children to access scientific ideas.

Gluck believes that it is important for a minority group to have a space in which to learn and express their culture and beliefs. Dawkins states that he would prefer traditions taught without imposing demonstrable falsehoods. Gluck emphasises that although they believe that God created the world in six days, the children have studied evolution, although he goes on to say that the majority of students will not believe in it when they leave the school. Gluck contrasts the tradition of Judaism with scientists who "have their tradition". Dawkins facial expression at this point seems to suggest he is taken aback at the assertion that science is based solely on “tradition”. Gluck then goes on to contend that it's called the "theory of evolution" rather than the "law of evolution". When Dawkins points out that the term is used in a technical sense and describes evolution as a fact, Gluck suggests he's a “fundamentalist believer”.

Dawkins then calls on the Phoenix Academy, one of the semi-independent City Academies introduced by Tony Blair's government, which follows the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum. Dawkins is shown around the school by head teacher Adrian Hawkes and remarks on how the teaching material appears to mention God or Jesus on almost every page; such as a reference to Noah's Ark in a science textbook. Hawkes responds by saying that the stories could have a lot to do with science if you believe in them, and that the science he was taught at school is laughable today. As an example, he mentions that he was taught that the moon came from the Earth's ocean and was “somehow flung out into space” during the early years of the Earth’s life. Dawkins says that it should have been presented as a strong current theory. Another lesson talks about AIDS as being the "wages of sin," so Dawkins inquires whether this might not be mixing health education with moralistic preaching. Hawkes responds that without a law-giver, “Why is rape wrong? Why is paedophilia wrong?” and that if people believe they can get away with committing bad deeds then they will tend to do them. Dawkins responds to this claim by asking Hawkes if the only reason he doesn't do these things is that he's frightened of God and subsequently suggests that this attitude is characteristic of the warped morality that religion tends to instill in people.

Religion as a virus

Next, Dawkins discusses specifically the idea of religion seen as a virus in the sense of a meme. He begins by explaining how he considers the mind of a child to be genetically pre-programmed to believe without questioning the word of authority figures, especially parents – the evolutionary imperative being that no child would survive by adopting a skeptical attitude towards everything their elders said. But this same imperative, he claims, leaves children open to "infection" by religion.

Dawkins meets the psychologist Jill Mytton who suffered an abusive religious upbringing – she now helps to rehabilitate similarly affected children. Mytton explains how, for a child, images of hell fire are in no sense metaphorical, but instead inspire real terror. She portrays her own childhood as one "dominated by fear." When pressed by Dawkins to describe the realities of Hell, Mytton hesitates, explaining that the images of eternal damnation which she absorbed as a child still have the power to affect her now.

Dawkins then visits Pastor Keenan Roberts, who has been running the Hell House Outreach programme for 15 years, producing theatre shows aimed at children as young as twelve. We see rehearsal scenes depicting a forced abortion by doctors, and a gay marriage ceremony presided over by Satan, with the gay couple swearing to “never believe that you are normal”. Roberts says he wants to leave an indelible impression upon the youngsters who come to see his show, and Dawkins comments that he has no doubt that he will do just that.

Biblical morality

Jesus on the cross

Many of the Christians Dawkins has met so far, have stressed the importance of scripture for providing a moral framework. So Dawkins opens the Bible and reads some passages from the Old Testament which, he suggests, any civilised person should find poisonous. In Deuteronomy 13, for instance, God instructs his followers to kill any friend or family member who favours serving other gods. Dawkins also questions the message of another story from Judges 19, in which an old man throws his daughter out to an angry mob of "wicked men" to be raped, humiliated, tortured and murdered in an attempt to save his male guest from being raped by the "wicked men".

Later, Dawkins discusses the New Testament which, at first, he describes as being a huge improvement from the moral viewpoint. But he is repelled by the idea that Jesus had to be hideously tortured and killed so that we might be redeemed – the doctrine of atonement for original sin. When Dawkins is visible again he asks “if God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them? Who is God trying to impress?" Given that, in his view, the alleged perpetrators Adam and Eve never even existed, it would also appear, he suggests, that Jesus died for a purely symbolic sin.

Dawkins then interviews Michael Bray who interprets the Bible literally – he would like to see capital punishment enforced for the sin of adultery, for instance. Bray is a friend of Paul Hill, who was executed in 2003 for murdering a doctor who performed abortion and the doctor's armed escort, James Barrett. Bray defends Hill's actions and speculates that he is now "doing well" in Heaven. Later, Dawkins converses with his friend Richard Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford and a liberal Anglican. Harries sees the scriptures as texts which should be read in the context of the time they were written, and interpreted in the light of modern insights. Dawkins asks Harries about his attitude towards miracles – does he believe in the Virgin Birth, for instance? It's not "on a par with" the resurrection, says Harries.

Secular morality

Finally, Dawkins searches for an explanation of morality based upon evolutionary biology, which he considers more hopeful than ancient texts. Together with the evolutionary psychologist Oliver Curry, he discusses the primordial morality to be found among chimpanzees. Curry explains his view that we don't need religion to explain morality and if anything it simply gets in the way. Instead, he claims, a more convincing explanation is to be found in the concepts of reciprocal altruism and kin selection.

After briefly addressing the rise of secular values, Dawkins goes on to discuss morality with the novelist Ian McEwan. McEwan takes as his starting point the mortality of human life, which he says should naturally lead to a morality based on empathy – one which he claims should confer upon us a clear sense of responsibility for our brief span on earth.

Dawkins finishes by arguing that atheism is not a recipe for despair but just the opposite; rather than viewing life a trial that must be endured before reaching a mythical hereafter, an atheist sees this life as all we have, and by disclaiming a next life can take more excitement in this one. Atheism, Dawkins concludes, is life-affirming in a way that religion can never be.

Quotations

The time has come for people of reason to say: enough is enough. Religious faith discourages independent thought, it's divisive, and it's dangerous.

For many people, part of growing up is killing off the virus of faith with a good strong dose of rational thinking. But if an individual doesn't succeed in shaking it off, his mind is stuck in a permanent state of infancy, and there is a real danger that he will infect the next generation.

The god of the Old Testament has got to be the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, racist, an ethnic-cleanser urging his people on to acts of genocide.

Fundamentalist Christianity is on the rise among the electorate of the world's only superpower, right up to and including the President. If you believe the surveys, 45 percent of Americans, that's about 135 million people, believe the universe is less than ten thousand years old.

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die, because they are never going to be born. The number of people who could be here in my place outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. If you think about all the different ways our genes could be permuted, you and I, are quite grotesquely lucky to be here... We are privileged to be alive, and we should make the most of our time on this world.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

Criticism

Writing in the New Statesman, Dawkins stated that Channel 4's correspondence in response to the documentary had been running at two to one in favour. Journalists including Howard Jacobson had accused Dawkins of giving voice to extremists, a claim Dawkins responded to by noting that the National Association of Evangelicals has some 30 million members, and also that he had invited the main UK religious leaders to participate, but they all declined.

Madeleine Bunting produced a scathing review for The Guardian, in which she described the documentary as "a piece of intellectually lazy polemic not worthy of a great scientist." In The Tablet, Keith Ward criticised Dawkins for what he considered to be an indiscriminate and simplistic approach to religion. But an appreciation came from Johann Hari for The Independent. "We have never needed Richard Dawkins more than now" he said.

See also

• Cast gallery
• Track listings
• Criticism of religion

External links

• Channel4.com – The Root of All Evil?
• Part 1 and Part 2 mp4 video downloads