The audience was fired up after the show; religion, as shown in the documentary, is definitely a problem in the west. I really think such a documentary shouldn't be mass aired, and if it is, it should definitely have a followup in the form of an Indian context. It seemed the sudience found Dawkins to be too agreeable. What people forget is that if Richard Dawkins were to make such a documentary in the Indian Context, he'd probably die in the process, out of an outrage induced high blood pressure.
There were some things that you just couldn't deny in the documentary but it seemed extreme. I think Richard Dawkins should relax; I'm sure his parents did not indoctrinate him about Evolution, but he seems to one it's strongest proponents. Let people believe in what they want to, that's the benefit of living in a secular democracy. If evolution is not taught at school, it wouldn't debilitate people, it'll always be free for people to read and believe in. In fact G.J. Mendel, the father of genetics was actually a monk. That didn't stop him from laying the foundations of genetics in a scientific manner. Besides, it's not like all these schools, Hospitals and Shelters built by various religions around the world are harming people, in fact they're contributing in a positive way to mankind. So religion definitely cannot be the root of all evil. Having said that it cannot be denied either that all religions of the world seem to be getting more and more orthodox, rigid and offensive. Richard Dawkin's point was an extreme too.
When the collar is high and the neck stiff, it's difficult to peep inside.
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And this is not just about Indian context. Even within the USA, there are many Christians who don't fit the caricatures that Dawkins conjures. It's not that every single American Christian is baying for the blood of the "evolutionists". Interestingly one of the most important critiques, and certainly the most readable,of Dawkins' book comes not from the Christian establishment but from a Marxist literary critic, Terry Eagleton, in the London Review of Books http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching.
Hey Jesse! What I can grasp from your writing is a wholesome perspective of the ultimate dual being fought by many generations now, to put one thing above the other? Religion, read as belief versus science read as realistic/materialistic proof. Idiot box is full of hosting such documentaries trying to authenticate or discard beliefs which we have as a part of our virtue. Lets not perceive and never shall we imbibe the notion that one of these is root of all evils. If we as a part of scientific community small as may we be, do that we might leave the morality that our respective religions preach and now imagine the science without morality. I would like to sum up with one line " Humanity will vanish if divinity absents itself". Cheers!
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