The Root of All Evil?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Root of All Evil? |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Russell Barnes |
| script | Richard Dawkins |
| production | Alan Clements Deborah Kidd |
| cut | Adam de Wolff |
| occupation | |
|
Richard Dawkins | |
The Root of All Evil? , later renamed The God Delusion , is a documentary directed by Richard Dawkins in which he asks the question of whether humanitywould be in better shapewithout religion .
In January 2006, the show first aired on Channel 4. Dawkins said that the title The Root of All Evil? (The root of all evil) was not originally intended. However, Channel 4 wanted to spark some controversy.
The producers only concession was to add the question mark. Dawkins admits that the title The Root of All Evil is ridiculous. Dawkins' book The God Delusion , published September 2006, goes into detail about the issues surrounding the film. When the film was broadcast again in 2010, the title of the book was adopted.
Part 1: The delusion of God
The film examines unproven beliefs that are recognized as facts by many religions. Dawkins opens the film with the description of "would-be murderers" (...) who would kill strangers and themselves if religion required it. Dawkins argues that "the process of not thinking called believing" is not a way of understanding the world, but is in fundamental opposition to modern science and scientific method . This path is divisive and dangerous.
Lourdes
Dawkins' first visit takes him to Lourdes in the south of France, where he watches a candlelit procession of pilgrims singing “Laudate Mariam!”. He is particularly taken with the feeling of group solidarity. At dawn, Dawkins surveyed a large group of believers queuing for medicinal water and said that the water used as a medicine by thousands of people was more likely than it would be to cure oneself. He speaks to an Irish woman who is said to have been cured by Lourdes. Dawkins asks Father Liam Griffin about the complete number of miraculous healings that have taken place over the years.
Griffin reports 66 declared miracles and over 2,000 inexplicable healings (from around 80,000 visitors per year over a period of more than a century). Griffin claims that millions more have been spiritually healed. Dawkins remains skeptical and cynically notes that no one has reported that he has miraculously grown a severed leg. The “healings” would only ever include ailments that could have been healed without spiritual intervention.
Belief versus science
Dawkins goes on to discuss what he sees as a conflict between faith and science . He points out that in science there is a constant process of reviewing and revising theories in the light of new knowledge, while belief makes it a virtue to accept dogmas without evidence. As an example of faith, Dawkins cites the doctrine of papal infallibility and that of the Assumption , which Pope Pius XII. Established in 1950 by invoking tradition . He compares this to the scientific method, which he describes as a system where working hypotheses can be falsified . By resorting to reason and evidence , knowledge can be gained. Dawkins cites an example from his undergraduate study when a visiting researcher refuted the hypothesis of a professor who commented on the result with "My dear friend, I want to thank you, I was wrong for 15 years".
Dawkins then considered a scientific theory "of great importance", the theory of Charles Darwin on evolution . Dawkins summarizes this theory with a reference to his book Summit of the Improbable .
He compares the idea that the full complexity of life was created either by blind chance or by the hand of an intelligent designer to jumping up a mountain in a single sentence.
In contrast, Dawkins points out that Darwin's theory provides an explanation that compares climbing a mountain to gradually climbing a gentle incline up the mountain. Dawkins also says that the design hypothesis raises another question: who made the creator?
Colorado Springs
Next, Dawkins visits Colorado Springs to investigate the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States . He attends New Life Church , an $ 18,000,000 worship center where Pastor Ted Haggard presided over a 14,000-strong congregation for a while. Haggard was chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals at the time, and according to Dawkins, Haggard had a weekly conference call with United States President George W. Bush .
Dawkins interviews Haggard and compares the organization of the service, which is based on a mass experience, with a Nazi party rally of which Joseph Goebbels would have been proud. Haggard laughs and says he knows nothing about Nazi party rallies. He compares the service to a rock concert . Haggard says the Bible is true and does not contradict itself like science does. Dawkins claims that the advantage of science is that new evidence will change ideas. The advancement of human knowledge has been hindered by religion.
Haggard now claims that American evangelicals would fully accept the scientific methods. However, he mentions to Dawkins that evolutionists would argue that the ear or eye “came about by chance”. This rejects Dawkins, which leads to a dispute. Haggard then accuses Dawkins of "intellectual arrogance". As Dawkins and his film crew pack their things, there is a brief argument in the parking lot. It is reported that Haggard Dawkins' crew threatened legal action and accused him of referring to Haggard's children as animals. Dawkins then attends a meeting of American freethinkers who tell him that biology teachers have been labeled " Satan in human form" for teaching evolution. Another free thinker compares the current situation in the United States to the McCarthy era .
Jerusalem
Finally, Dawkins visits Jerusalem , which he regards as a microcosm of all that is wrong with religions. He takes part in a guided tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . This church is considered by some Christians to be the place of Jesus' crucifixion and burial. Dawkins hears people from both sides of the Middle East conflict , the Jewish representative Yisrael Medad and then the Grand Mufti of Palestine, Sheikh Ikrima Sa'id Sabri. The two sides seem irreconcilable. Dawkins interviews Yousef al-Khattab, formerly Joseph Cohen, an American-born Jew who came to Israel to live as a settler. He later converted to Islam . Al-Khattab explains his views on the decadence of the western world to Dawkins.
Al-Khattab has two important concerns: On the one hand, he wants to expel all non-Muslims from Islamic countries. Second, he is concerned about the way women are dressed.
Russell's teapot
Dawkins rounds off this episode with a presentation of Bertrand Russell's heavenly teapot analogy. He argues that there is no need to turn to belief just because science has not yet answered every question imaginable. Faith has never answered anything significant.
Part 2: The Virus of Faith
In the second part, entitled The Virus of Faith , Dawkins explains the opinion that the moral frameworks of religions are warped and argues against the religious indoctrination of children. The title of this episode comes from The Selfish Gene , in which Dawkins discusses the concept of memes.
Sectarian upbringing
Dawkins describes what he calls sectarian education: the separate education of children that is done by religion. He visits the Hasidic Jewish community of north London, a world closed off from outside influences such as television. He interviews the British Rabbi Herschel Gluck in London to learn how their culture enables children to access scientific ideas.
Gluck believes that it is important for a minority to learn in a closed area and thus to preserve their own culture and beliefs. Gluck points out that although the students were taught that God created the world in six literal days, the majority would not believe it. Gluck also emphasizes the difference between the tradition of Judaism and the sciences, which he calls "their (Dawkins) tradition". Gluck explains that it is called the “theory of evolution” and not “law of evolution”.
Dawkins is concerned about the increasing religious influence in British schools, with over 7,000 religious schools, and that the British government is accelerating this development. Over half of the new city academies were expected to be sponsored by religious organizations soon.
He says this development is worrying. He cites the Phoenix Academy in London as an example . Dawkins examines the teaching materials at the school, which is run by Adrian Hawkes. On each page there would be a reference to God or Jesus, as well as a reference to Noah's Ark in a scientific textbook. Another section of the teaching material speaks of AIDS as the "wages of sin". Dawkins asks if this might not be mixing health education with moral preaching. Hawkes claims that without a lawmaker saying "rape or pedophilia is wrong," morality would be relative. Should people believe that they could get away with their bad deeds, then they would be inclined to do them. Dawkins responds to this claim that if the only reason not to do these things is to fear God, then one cannot claim to be a moral person. Religion conveyed a twisted morality.
Religion as a virus
Dawkins also discusses the question of whether religion can be viewed as a virus in the sense of memes. He begins with an example in which a child is genetically programmed to believe without questioning. It has to trust the word of the authorities, especially the parents. For evolutionary reasons, there are only a few children who take a skeptical attitude towards the elderly.
Dawkins meets psychologist Jill Mytton, who received an abusive religious upbringing among the Exclusive Brethren . Today she helps rehabilitate children who are similarly affected. Mytton explains that for a child images of hellfire are by no means metaphorical, but represent real terror. She portrays her own childhood as one that was “dominated by fear”. When asked by Dawkins, Mytton admits that the images of eternal damnation she captured as a child still have the power to influence her today.
Then Dawkins visits Pastor Keenan Roberts, who has run the Hell House Outreach program for 15 years . He produces shows in the theater that make an indelible impression on children from the age of twelve. The shows show doctors forcing women to have abortions. There are also women who swear by Satan never to become "normal" but to remain lesbian. Roberts, who literally believes in the Bible, has no guilty conscience as he thinks he is doing the children a favor. When he asked Dawkins why he didn't believe, he replied "because of the evidence."
Biblical morality
Old testament
Dawkins next examines whether the Bible really provides a proper moral framework , as Christians claim. Dawkins emphasizes that the texts are of dubious origin and truthfulness. They are contradicting and carefully examined and describe a system of morality that every civilized person should find repulsive. Dawkins describes the Old Testament , which is the root of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Deuteronomy , Moses instructs believers to reject friends or family members who would worship other gods. Also, Moses is upset that defeated enemies have been left alive. He urged his subjects to murder all civilians and keep the virgins for the men. Dawkins describes this behavior as genocide. Dawkins also introduces another story from Genesis : Two angels visit Lot and are harassed by the crowd. Lot leaves his daughters to the mob for rape in order to spare the guests. This is portrayed by the Bible as laudable behavior. According to Dawkins, the God of the Old Testament is "the most unpleasant character in fantasy literature".
New Testament
Dawkins then discusses the New Testament , which at first glance appears to be a great improvement in moral standpoint. But Dawkins describes what Paul of Tarsus writes about the crucifixion as repulsive . The teaching is described by Dawkins as sadomasochistic . Jesus had to be terribly tortured and killed so that we could be redeemed. Regarding atonement and original sin , Dawkins asks, “If God wanted to forgive us our sins, why didn't He just forgive us? Who is God trying to impress? "
Dawkins interviews the American pastor Michael Bray , who interprets the Bible literally. He wants the death penalty to be enforced for the sin of adultery . Bray was a friend of Paul Jennings Hill , who was sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of a doctor who performed abortions and for the murder of the doctor's companion. Bray defends the murders, speculating that Hill is in paradise. Dawkins later converses with his friend Richard Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford and Liberal Anglican . Harries sees the scriptures as texts that should be read in the context of the time in which they were written and interpreted in the light of modern knowledge. Dawkins asks Harries about his attitudes toward miracles, and Harries admits he believed in the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus.
Non-religious morality
Finally, Dawkins, together with evolutionary psychologist Oliver Curry, is looking for an explanation for morality based on evolutionary biology , which he considers more meaningful than ancient texts.
He discusses the original morality observed among chimpanzees . Curry explains his view that we didn't need religion for morality. He sees a convincing explanation in the concept of reciprocal altruism .
Dawkins debates morality with novelist Ian McEwan . McEwan takes the mortality of human life as a starting point and says that this must naturally lead to a morality based on empathy . Our consciousness should give us a clear sense of responsibility for our short span on earth.
Dawkins ends by saying that atheism does not lead to despair, but just the opposite. Life is not a test that has to be endured before reaching a mythical afterlife, but for the atheist all we have. According to Dawkins, atheism is more life-affirming than religion could ever be.
criticism
In the New Statesman , Dawkins wrote that the show was positively received at a 2: 1 ratio. Journalists such as Howard Jacobson accused Dawkins of giving extremists a voice. Dawkins replied that the National Association of Evangelicals had 30 million members. He also invited religious leaders from the UK, but they declined the invitation. Oxford University's Alister McGrath was also interviewed for the film, but was subsequently cut out. McGrath claimed that Dawkins was uncomfortable with the interview. He accused Dawkins of journalistic dubiousness. Dawkins wanted to convey a very specific direction and therefore McGrath's lecture was cut out. The McGrath interview later appeared in full on the DVD of "The Root of All Evil?" In the bonus program.
Religious journalist Madeleine Bunting gave harsh criticism in The Guardian . She described the film as "intellectually lame and not worthy of a great scientist". In The Tablet 's film was Keith Ward criticized for that he choose a simple approach to religion.
additional
Haggard's career ended due to a sex scandal. In addition to Lourdes, Jerusalem, Colorado Springs and London, the locations were also New York City.
Individual evidence
- ^ The Jeremy Vine Show , BBC Radio Jan. 2-5, 2006.
- ^ Point of Inquiry Podcast . February 10, 2006.
- ↑ Dawkins season on More4 ( Memento from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ According to Jeff Sharlet, Jeff Sharlet: Soldiers of Christ: I. Inside America's most powerful megachurch . In: Harper's . 310, No. 1860, 2005, pp. 41-54. P. 42. November 3, 2006
- ↑ Phoenix Academy independent Christian schools: Ofsted description ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion. Transworld Publishers, 2006, 169-172. ISBN 0-593-05548-9 . Page 361
- ^ Religious "morals" the source of social ills in The Times
- ↑ Oliver Curry
- ^ A b Richard Dawkins, 2006. " Diary ". New Statesman .
- ↑ Howard Jacobson, 2006. “ Nothing like an unimaginative scientist to get non-believers running back to God ( memento of the original from November 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . " The Independent .
- ↑ MediaCulture: The Dawkins Delusion ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Alister McGrath, AlterNet , Jan 25, 2007
- ↑ Open Forum ( Memento from January 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews ( Memento from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Madeleine Bunting, 2006. “ No wonder atheists are angry: they seem ready to believe anything .” The Guardian .
- ↑ Keith Ward, 2006. “ Faith, hype and a lack of clarity ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . “ The Tablet .
