Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life
| Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary |
| Starring |
Richard Dawkins Ricky Gervais |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | ClearStory |
| Running time | 48 minutes (including commercials) |
| Distributor | Channel 4 |
| Release | |
| Picture format | 16:9 1080i |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 15 October – 29 October 2012 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Faith School Menace |
| Followed by | The Unbelievers |
Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life is a three-part television documentary presented by Richard Dawkins which explores what reason and science might offer in major events of human lives. He argues that ideas about the soul and the afterlife, of sin and God's purpose have shaped human thinking for thousands of years. He believes science can provide answers to some of these old questions we used to entrust to religion.
Clinton Richard Dawkins was born on March 26th 1941. Richard is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford. Dawkins has written several books such as The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype, In 2006 Dawkins also founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Dawkins is an atheist and is well known for his criticism of creationism. Dawkins has been awarded many prestigious academic and writing awards and he makes regular television, radio and Internet appearances, predominantly discussing his books, his atheism, and his ideas and opinions as a public intellectual.
First, Dawkins examines issues surrounding the notion of sin. He also explores the rituals that surround mating and the science of disgust and taboo. Dawkins tries to answer the question If we don’t believe god is watching over us we abandon morality. Dawkins examines the case for religious morality by speaking with Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis helps run a school in Newham, East London which has been ravaged by gang violence and drugs. Workers like Lewis are trying a tough love approach inspired by Christianity. Dawkins disagrees with this approach and challenges Lewis by trying to use a more scientific approach. The scene ends with the two disagreeing. Dawkins then examines Sex where he goes to a class where men are learning to control their modern addictions through Christ and biblical teaching. Dawkins discovers through a conversation with Darrel Ray, author of Sex & Secularism, that pornography use is its highest among Christians and that Utah and Mississippi, which are considered religious states, have the highest level of pornography viewers. Ray explains to Dawkins that religious people lie about their sexually paroles. Dawkins further examines this by visiting plastic surgeon Dr. Marc Abecassis that repairs the hymen membrane in women’s vaginas. Dr. Abecassis says this procedure provides women to rehabilitate themselves and restore their integrity and that this is a way to give back a pureness to the person that they love. Dawkins sees this as hypocrisy and challenges it by calling it a lie. Dr. Abecassis tells Dawkins that while it may be a lie for him, it is not for others. Dawkins himself subscribes to Kathleen Taylor’s notion of “otherization” which cast other that are not your family as beast and subhuman and results in suppressed empathy. Dawkins examines how empathy is making us more moral by speaking to Steven Pinker of Harvard University who has looked at the figures in detail, including data from the British home office and U.S bureau of Justice and found that as religion declines we are becoming ever more civilized. Ultimately, Stevens says that we are not becoming more moral biologically but rather societal factors have made us more moral. The episode ends with Dawkins giving a recap of everything discussed.
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