The Root of All Evil? is a television documentary, written and presented by Richard Dawkins, in which he argues that the world would be better off without religion. The documentary was first broadcast in January 2006, in the form of two 45-minute episodes, on Channel 4 in the UK.

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's book The God Delusion, released in September 2006, goes on to examine the topics raised in the documentary in greater detail.

Next, Dawkins visits Colorado Springs to discuss the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States. He visits the New Life Church, an $18 million worship centre where Pastor Ted Haggard at the time presided over a 14,000 strong congregation. Haggard was at the time chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals and, according to Dawkins, Haggard said he had a weekly conference call with United States President George W. Bush.

Dawkins interviews Haggard and begins by likening the worship experience to a Nuremberg Rally of which Goebbels might have been proud. Haggard says he knows nothing of the Nuremberg Rallies and goes on to say that some evangelicals think of his services as something akin to rock concerts. Haggard said the Bible is true and doesn't contradict itself as science does. Dawkins contends that the advantage of science is that new evidence changes ideas, allowing the advancement of human knowledge, something religion does not allow. Steadily the exchanges become increasingly fractious.

Haggard says that American evangelicals fully embrace the scientific method, expecting it to show how God created the heavens and the earth. Dawkins asks if he accepts the scientific demonstration that the earth is 4.5 billion years old. According to Haggard, this is merely one view accepted by a portion of the scientific community. He goes on to contend that Dawkins's own grandchildren may laugh at him upon hearing this claim. Dawkins responds "do you want to bet?" Haggard insists that some evolutionists think that the ear or eye "happened by accident" and that "the eye just formed itself somehow." Dawkins replies that not a single evolutionary biologist he knows would say that, and that Haggard clearly knows nothing about the subject. In response Haggard implies that some evolutionists he's met have said that. The meeting takes a markedly contentious turn with Haggard asserting that "this issue" of "intellectual arrogance" is the reason why people like Dawkins, and others who dispute creationism, have a problem with people of faith. This scene ends with Haggard telling Dawkins that as he [Dawkins] ages he will find himself "wrong on some things, right on some other things", and so he shouldn't be arrogant.

As Dawkins and his film crew pack up to leave, there is a brief altercation in the car park. It is reported that Haggard ordered Dawkins's crew off his land with threats of legal action and confiscation of their recording hardware, along with the statement "you called my children animals." Dawkins retrospectively interprets this as saying that the evolutionary standpoint indeed amounts to saying that Haggard's flock were animals, which all humans are.

"Do you want to bet?"

Very scientific.

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.

the basis for the world being roughly 4.5 billion years old is evidence, not scripture or guessing.

Boy, Dawkins is taking on the tough targets, eh? Ted Haggard? Spoon-bending? Wow.

Organised religion in its most easily-ridiculed form?

Boy, Dawkins is taking on the tough targets, eh? Ted Haggard? Spoon-bending? Wow.

When is this re-airing?

My point was that that was a really asinine thing to say.

how so? your point, as i took it, was that it's not "very scientific" to bet on the mountains of evidence pointing to the world being somewhere around 4.5 billion years old.

i'd imagine never, but who knows. it was originally aired on channel 4 in the u.k. in january 2006.

Oh. Well you can Netflix it right?