Dawkins TV Programme. "The Root of All Evil"

I would love to be able to see that show here in the US.

I'm pretty sure it will be marketed in various forms and may even reach the US if the fundamentalists don't block it !

Think of it as a visual illustration of Sam Harris's thesis....scenes of swaying masses of devotees from various religions cutting to gun carrying Israelis in Jerusalem and interviews with venomous dogmatists.....also a good interview sequence with an atheist group who had "gone to ground" in the Bible belt having received assorted threats from their "loving neighbours"!

Perhaps some organization will act to limit the excesses of religion.

The U.N.?

Is this a great country or what?

from the link


Precisely!

Hey Fresco, I saw it. Pretty good.

But with me, he was "preaching to the choir".

The American guy was pretty scary.

Is he planning a sequel showing the bloodbaths of the atheist regimes of the Soviet Union, Communist China, etc ?

real life,

Totalitarian dictatorships like communism under Stalin or Mao or fascism under Hitler are no different from religion. They all have cult figureheads whose word is "the law". The only difference perhaps is that "self sacrifice" becomes mandatory not optional. The label "atheist" is a complete misnomer in this respect since celestial gods have been replaced by earthly gods.

Some similar discussion here

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50511&start=3080

I taped it, and agree that religion does alot of harm.
In th advert for it he says that religion makes good people do evil things.

But doesnt mention that religion could make evil people do good things.

material girl,

Your inverse argument is a bit like saying warfarin (rat poison) is useful in small doses to treat heart disease.

I consider that tripe, MG . . . i don't know the provenance, but my personal experience and a wide and deep reading of history convince me of the truism: Religion never made a bad man good, and the lack of religion never made a good man bad.

For those interested in Haggard, that "scary" American evangelist, you might like this.

http://www.in-sheeps-clothing.org/pages/1/index.htm

I remember him appearing in Lord Professor Robert Winston's documentary "The Story of God", where Richard Dawkins asked Robert Winston why he believed in God and before he said that said hta the assumed Robert Winston merely believed in God out of some respect to tradition.

Then Robert Winston went to America to talk about religious fundamentalists and their rejection of science. He even went on a radio chatshow and was totally overwhelmed by both the radio host and that "Answers in Genesis" guy, both of whom were against him from the very beginning.

Throughout the programme I watched, Lord Winston was trying to make his point clear, that science and religion could be reconciled and didn't contradict each other.

Yet he came across the same type of people that Richard Dawkins came across in his documentary.

Is it!!!???If rat poison is ok to take in any dose I was unaware of this and personnaly if anyone sonsumes rat poison Id consider them suicidal.
Personnaly if something says rat poison on it it means its not for human consumption therefore I steer clear.

Im assuming religion is good and good things are supposed to come from it.Call me crazy if I got that impression.

material girl,

Warfarin is a recommended medical treatment which has been superceded somewhat by other anti-coagulents.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682277.html

Actually what am I taklking about.If rat poison in small doses is good for something bad then take it, same way religion is good, it can do good for bad people.

The only good that rat poison in small doses would do you, would be to over time give you immunity to rat poison.

I am reminded of the Chinese Emperor that was so scared of being poisoned, he took small amounts every day to make himself more immune. Then one day there was a revolt and an army came to kill him. He was so scared he tried to commit suicide, but the poison he used no longer worked thanks to his immunity so he had to fall on his own sword.

mg

But the point is what's beneficial at the micro-level can be percicious at the macro-level.

Religion as psychological package of personal insurance plus group identity becomes a monstrous social pathogen of irrationality and devisive conflict.