The Enemies of Reason

Video presentation by Richard Dawkins

Part I:



Part II:



The Enemies of Reason is a two-part television documentary, written and presented by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. From the makers:

Is it rational that the dead can communicate with the living and give sound advice on how they should live their lives? What about sticking pins into your body to free the flow of Chi energy and cure your illness? Or the bending of spoons using your mind alone? Is that rational? Richard Dawkins doesn’t think so, and feels it is his duty to expose those areas of belief that exist without scientific proof, yet manage to hold the nation under their spell. He will take on the world’s leading proponents in their field of expertise, meet the victims who have used them and expose the history of the movements – from the charlatans who have milked these practices to the experiments and testing that have failed to produce conclusive results.[1]

The documentary was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, styled as a loose successor to Dawkins' documentary of the previous year, The Root of All Evil?, as seen through the incorporation of brief clips from said documentary during the introduction of the first part by Dawkins. The first part aired 13 August 2007 and the second on 20 August 2007.[2]

It includes interviews with Steve Fuller, Deepak Chopra, Satish Kumar, and Derren Brown.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dawkins is so cool! How can he keep from cracking up! But seriously I wish everyone I know could open their mind long enough to watch these videos.
Anonymous said…
I'll never understand it... After wearing contacts for fifteen years my eyes suddenly couldn't stand them anymore and I developed vascular growth in my corneas. I was told that if I continued wearing them, I'd be blind within the year. So I took out my contacts and six months later I had lens implants. I went from wearing minus eleven glasses to perfect sight. Science is a miracle. What is weird is that my standard health insurance didn't cover the fairly simple and life-enhancing lens implant. It DOES, however, cover homeopathic 'medicine' and accupuncture, should I want it.
WTF??!!!
Cousin Ricky said…
Homeopathic medicine? Maybe you can get them to pay for your Evian or Dasani as well. :-)
fjell said…
Hmmm. I wasn't too pushed about this duet of videos. While I have great admiration for Dawkins' aims, the pacing of these shows seemed slow and sprawling. Anyway, I'm looking forward to Beyond Belief 2 - begins tonight!
Cousin Ricky said…
After finally getting this thing to download, i can say no better than Valerie did:

“One of the questions I get is a wearisome post-modern ‘What is truth, anyways? What is all this whining about Christian dogmas violating truth like you have some higher standard? (Implied: As if any perspective could lay any more valid claim to truth than any other.)’

Whenever this question comes up, I have to fight the urge to say: Go put your left ankle on a train track and come ask me again after a long freighter goes by.”

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