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Atheism Video Resources

This page consists of informative videos on Atheism and/or popular Atheists in the media. These resources are useful to the religious, Atheists/Agnostics, or anyone else seeking to expand their knowledge base be it already comprehensive or not. It begins with the general and ends with individuals. If you have any other video(s) not already on the list that you believe are good enough to be included, provide the link in your comment.

Note: I will try to update this page often. The Atheist Experience TV show section at least, will be updated weekly.

General

Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief

A fantastic 2005 documentary conducted by Atheist Jonathan Miller for the BBC detailing the history of Atheism. It includes from numerous academic luminaries, the likes of Arthur Miller, Richard Dawkins, Steve Weinberg, Colin McGinn, Denys Turner, Pascal Boyer and Daniel Dennet. As Jonathan Miller visits historical sites, Bernard Hill reads quotations from the works of famous atheists, agnostics, and deists that provide glimpses into the minds of skeptics and freethinkers of past ages.

There are three episodes in the series titled Shadows of Doubt, Noughts and Crosses and The Final Hour. There are also Six supplementary programs (the Atheism Tapes) with extended interview footage that did not make it into the series.

Jonathan Miller:
I think its important to make a series like this, because at a moment when intense commitments to different forms of monotheistic religion, have now acquired–or rather reacquired–such an intense political connotation, its important to indicate that the widespread suspicion of disbelief is becoming a real threat to free thought. It isn’t as if Atheism were a small religious sect. In fact, its not another form of religious belief at all, and its important to understand that disbelievers constitute a much larger percentage of the population than religious people–and especially politically motivated religious people–would like to think.

Links to watch Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief:
Part 1: Shadows of Doubt (59 minutes),
Part 2: Noughts and Crosses (1 hour)
Part 3: The Final Hour (58 minutes).

Links to watch The Atheism Tapes:
Part 1: Philosopher Colin McGinn (27 minutes)
Part 2: Nobel Prize winning Physicist Steven Weinberg (28 minutes)
Part 3: Playwright Arthur Miller (28 minutes)
Part 4: Biologist Richard Dawkins (18 minutes)
Part 5: Christian Theologian Denys Turner (29 minutes)
Part 6: Philosopher Daniel Dennett - 1 (9 minutes), 2 (9 minutes) and 3 (9 minutes)

Enjoyed The Atheism Tapes? Click here to purchase.

The Root of All Evil?

A two part documentary (2006) written and produced by prominent Atheist professor Richard Dawkins, (author of The God Delusion) in which he argues the world is better off without Religion.

He visits Lourdes in souther France, where he observes a candlelit procession of pilgrims and marvels at the sense of belonging they derive from their shared delusion. He sees believers lining up for healing water, noting that due to the sheer number of people that visit each year (80,000 sick) they are more likely to catch disease than experience miraculous recovery from their ailments. Richard Dawkins proceeds to detail the differences between Science and Faith, stating the former is under constant testing and revisioning as new evidence pours in unlike the latter that relies on and finds virtue in believing unprovable and most often improvable propositions.

He then visits Colorado Springs to see firsthand the rising influence of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States. He joins the 14,000 strong congregation of evangelical Pastor Ted Haggard at the $18 million worship center the New Life Church. The Pastor eventually orders Dawkin’s crew off his property, threatening legal action and confiscation of their recording hardware, with the words, “you called my children animals.” The professor interprets the reasons for the Pastor’s accusations, stating that as an evolutionary biologist, believing in evolution is in the Pastor’s eyes the same as calling his flock animals–which is essentially true of all humans.

Richard Dawkins’ final stop is in Jerusalem. He takes a guided tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, considered by some Christians as the site of the crucifixion and the burial place of Jesus. He observes with incredulity the heavy guard of the Temple Mount, one of the most contested religious sites in the world, enclosing the Al-Aqsa Mosque (for Muslims) and the Dome of the Rock (for Jews). He sees the site as a microcosm of much of what is wrong with religion and therefore one of the largest outdoor insane asylums, where a voice of reason is near impossible to find.

The documentary concludes with Bertrand Russel’s Celestial Teapot analogy, arguing that just because Science has not yet answered every conceivable question, is no good reason to turn to faith which fails to answer anything of actual significance.

Links to watch The Root of All Evil?: Part 1 (47 minutes) and Part 2 (48 minutes).

Enjoyed The Root of All Evil? Click here to purchase.

The Four Horsemen

A two hour discussion between Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion), Daniel Dennett (author of Breaking the Spell), Sam Harris (author of End of Faith and its successor Letter to a Christian Nation), and Christopher Hitchens (author of God is Not Great). Together they trade stories of public reactions to their works, successes, criticisms, and common misconceptions. They discuss major obstacles and dangers the world faces because of religion and consider future strategies as we move forward.

Links to watch The Four Horsemen: Hour 1 and Hour 2.

Enjoyed The Four Horsemen? Click here to purchase.

Atheist Alliance International (AAI) Convention (2007)

According to the official AAI site:
“Authoritarian religion, aided by the apathy of the voting public, threatens to envelope us in ignorance, intolerance and tyranny. Atheism, with a human centered vision and a reality-based approach to problem solving, can lead us away from this regressive trap and back toward intellectual growth, personal freedom, and social, environmental and scientific progress. But to achieve these goals, there must be unified atheist action on a national scale. Atheists have a powerful independent streak, and atheist organizations must reflect this trait through freedom to develop and experiment, unhindered by a controlling centralized ‘moral’ power structure.”

Links to watch guest speakers at the AAI 2007 convention:
Richard Dawkins’ convention speech: 57 minutes.
Sam Harris’ convention speech: 1 hour and 6 minutes.
Daniel Dennett’s convention award and speech: 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Andy Thomson’s convention speech: 1 hour and 16 minutes.
Christopher Hitchens’ convention speech: 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s convention speech: 53 minutes.
Eugenie Scott’s convention speech: 1 hour.
Matthew Chapman’s convention speech: 53 minutes.
Eddie Tabash’s convention speech: 43 minutes.

Enjoyed AAI 2007 Conference? Click here to purchase.

The God Who Wasn’t There

A 2005 documentary by Brian Flemming advocating Atheism.

According to the official site, in the film you discover:
“The early founders of Christianity seem wholly unaware of the idea of a human Jesus. The Jesus of the Gospels bears a striking resemblance to other ancient heroes and the figureheads of pagan savior cults. Contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion. Fundamentalism is as strong today as it ever has been, with an alarming 44% of Americans believing that Jesus will return to earth in their lifetimes.”

Links to watch The God Who Wasn’t There: 1 (10 minutes), 2 (9 minutes), 3 (9 minutes), 4 (9 minutes), 5, (9 minutes), 6 (5 minutes), 7 (10 minutes)

Enjoyed The God Who Wasn’t There? Click here to purchase.

The Atheist Experience TV Show

According to the official site:
“The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. Every week we field live calls from atheists and believers alike, and you never know what you’re going to get! Sometimes it can get quite feisty indeed! You don’t want to miss it.”

Links to watch episodes of The Atheist Experience:

Individuals

Richard Dawkins

Christopher Hitchens

Sam Harris

Daniel Dennett

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

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