The Root of All Evil?

The Root of All Evil?
Written by	Richard Dawkins
Starring	Richard Dawkins, Yousef al-Khattab, Ted Haggard, Richard Harries
Production
Producer(s)	Alan Clements
Distributor	Channel 4
Release
Original release	January 2006
Chronology
Preceded by	Growing Up In The Universe
Followed by	The Enemies of Reason

The Root of All Evil?, later retitled The God Delusion, is a television documentary written and presented by Richard Dawkins in which he argues that humanity would be better off without religion or belief in God.

The documentary was first broadcast in January 2006, in the form of two 45-minute episodes (excluding advertisement breaks), on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

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. The 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. Dawkins' book The God Delusion, released in September 2006, goes on to examine the topics raised in the documentary in greater detail. The documentary was rebroadcast on the More4 channel on 25 August 2010 under the title of 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.

Dawkins first visits the shrine of Lourdes in southern France, where he joins a candlelit procession of pilgrims singing, "Laudate Mariam!" He is particularly struck by the sense of group solidarity in their perceived delusion, which he contrasts with the lonely delusion 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 a disease from the water used by thousands of people already than find a cure. He speaks to an Irish woman who has found the experience beneficial.

Dawkins then quizzes Father Liam Griffin about the complete 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, the 'cures' invariably comprise afflictions that could have improved without any spiritual intervention whatsoever.

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Wikipedia