[Music] [Applause] [Music] of all the issues human society faces <font color="#E5E5E5">today religion remains one of the most</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">divisive</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and destructive</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I hope you find</font> this film on it interesting there are <font color="#E5E5E5">lots of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people who have been brought</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> up</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in some religion or other are unhappy</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font> it<font color="#E5E5E5"> don't believe it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> or a worried about</font> the evils<font color="#CCCCCC"> that are done in its name</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">there are people who feel vague</font> yearnings to leave their parents religion and wish they could but<font color="#CCCCCC"> just</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">don't realize</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that leaving is an option</font> I've written a book<font color="#CCCCCC"> called The God</font> Delusion<font color="#CCCCCC"> aimed at those people the book</font> inspired<font color="#E5E5E5"> a short documentary series for</font> channel<font color="#E5E5E5"> 4 on the dangers of religion</font> called<font color="#E5E5E5"> root of all evil now we've made a</font> single<font color="#E5E5E5"> film called The God Delusion</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> from</font> that series<font color="#E5E5E5"> the film explores a world</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">increasingly polarized by religion with</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the atrocities</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of 9/11 and 7/7 still raw</font> memories in America's Midwest<font color="#E5E5E5"> and in</font> Israel<font color="#E5E5E5"> it became apparent how Pro</font> otherwise sane people are<font color="#E5E5E5"> to extremism</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">once they indulge in faith belief</font> without evidence<font color="#CCCCCC"> when they give up</font> reason this<font color="#E5E5E5"> film takes a hard look at</font> the very concept of faith<font color="#E5E5E5"> how it behaves</font> like a kind of brain<font color="#E5E5E5"> virus infecting</font> generations of young minds<font color="#E5E5E5"> how it</font> perpetuates<font color="#E5E5E5"> outdated and dubious moral</font> values<font color="#E5E5E5"> religion deserves to be</font> scrutinized far more critically than it normally is<font color="#CCCCCC"> I feel passionately about</font> this<font color="#E5E5E5"> if the film does just one thing</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> hope it encourages<font color="#CCCCCC"> people to start</font> questioning<font color="#E5E5E5"> why the strange distorted</font> mindset of religious faith should automatically demand and usually receive our society's respect [Music] <font color="#CCCCCC">there are would-be murderers around the</font> world who<font color="#E5E5E5"> want to kill you and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> me and</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">themselves because they're motivated by</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">what they think is the highest ideal</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font> course politics are important<font color="#CCCCCC"> Iraq</font> Palestine<font color="#E5E5E5"> even social deprivation</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font> Bradford<font color="#E5E5E5"> but as we wake up</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to this huge</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">challenge to our civilised values</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> don't</font> let's<font color="#E5E5E5"> forget the elephant in the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> room</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> an</font> elephant<font color="#E5E5E5"> called religion</font> the suicide bomber is convinced that him killing for his God he will be fast-tracked to<font color="#CCCCCC"> a special martyrs heaven</font> this isn't just a problem of Islam in this program I<font color="#E5E5E5"> want to examine that</font> dangerous<font color="#CCCCCC"> thing that's common to Judaism</font> and Christianity as<font color="#CCCCCC"> well the process of</font> non-thinking<font color="#CCCCCC"> called faith I'm a</font> scientist<font color="#E5E5E5"> and I believe there is a</font> profound contradiction between science <font color="#E5E5E5">and religious belief there is no well</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">demonstrated reason to believe in God</font> and I think<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> idea of a divine</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> creator</font> belittles<font color="#E5E5E5"> the elegant reality of the</font> universe<font color="#CCCCCC"> the 21st</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> century should be an</font> age of<font color="#CCCCCC"> reason yet irrational militant</font> faith<font color="#E5E5E5"> is back on the march religious</font> extremism<font color="#E5E5E5"> is implicated in the world's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">most bitter and unending conflicts</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we</font> want the non-muslims<font color="#CCCCCC"> off the reins</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of</font> Muhammad's we want the<font color="#CCCCCC"> qu4 out</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of it</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">America too has its own fundamentalists</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the issue for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the next generation is</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">going to be the islamification of Europe</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">and in Britain even as we live in the</font> shadow<font color="#CCCCCC"> of holy terror our government</font> wants<font color="#CCCCCC"> to restrict our freedom to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">criticize religion science</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> we</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> are told</font> should not tread on the toes of<font color="#E5E5E5"> theology</font> but why should scientists tiptoe respectfully away the time has come<font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">people of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Reason</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to say enough is enough</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">religious faith discourages independent</font> thought<font color="#CCCCCC"> its divisive and it's dangerous</font> [Music] [Music] it looks lovely<font color="#CCCCCC"> doesn't it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> inoffensive</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and gentle but isn't this</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the beginning</font> of that<font color="#E5E5E5"> slippery slope</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that leads</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font> young men with rucksack bombs on the tube [Music] if you want to experience the medieval rituals of faith the candle light incense<font color="#E5E5E5"> music important-sounding dead</font> languages nobody does it better than<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Catholics at Lourdes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in southern France</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the assault on the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> senses</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> appeals to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> us</font> not<font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> think</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> not to doubt not to probe</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and if we can retain our faith against</font> the<font color="#CCCCCC"> evidence</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in the teeth of reality the</font> more virtuous<font color="#E5E5E5"> we are pretty impressive</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">sight</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> isn't</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font> I could imagine finding<font color="#CCCCCC"> it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> very</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">seductive partly because of the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">tremendous feeling of group solidarity</font> that there must be if you have the <font color="#CCCCCC">delusion that you are Napoleon it must</font> be<font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> fairly lonely feeling because</font> nobody else agrees with you your faith that<font color="#CCCCCC"> young</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Napoleon needs a lot of</font> shoring up<font color="#E5E5E5"> but these people here</font> thousands<font color="#E5E5E5"> of people all has exactly the</font> same<font color="#CCCCCC"> delusion that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> must give wonderful</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">reinforcement to their faith</font> [Music] I used to think<font color="#E5E5E5"> reason had won the war</font> against<font color="#CCCCCC"> superstition</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but it's quite</font> shaking to witness the faithful droves trooping through Lourdes this is a benign<font color="#CCCCCC"> herd</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but it supports</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font> backward belief system that<font color="#CCCCCC"> I believe</font> reason must<font color="#E5E5E5"> challenge</font> [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">daylight reveals more of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> this</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> shrine</font> where a myth is perpetuated that<font color="#E5E5E5"> a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">virgin who gave birth Christ's mother</font> Mary appeared here once<font color="#CCCCCC"> to an</font> impressionable<font color="#CCCCCC"> and I do mean</font> impressionable young girl the faithful<font color="#CCCCCC"> make the pilgrimage here</font> because they<font color="#E5E5E5"> believe</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that terrible</font> afflictions can be cured by<font color="#E5E5E5"> dragging</font> their poor bodies<font color="#E5E5E5"> up to a pool</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of water</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">where the Virgin Mary made her</font> miraculous appearance in reality<font color="#E5E5E5"> they're</font> probably<font color="#CCCCCC"> more likely</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to catch something</font> from<font color="#CCCCCC"> the thousands</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of other pilgrims</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">who've wallowed in the same water</font> [Music] is it something that<font color="#E5E5E5"> Catholics feel they</font> ought<font color="#CCCCCC"> to do in their life rather like</font> Muslims<font color="#E5E5E5"> going on the Hajj to Mecca yes</font> and and what what are<font color="#E5E5E5"> you hoping</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> get</font> out<font color="#CCCCCC"> of it well I have I've got a lot out</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it I got faith I've got trust yes and</font> a belief<font color="#E5E5E5"> that there is a person up there</font> stronger<font color="#CCCCCC"> than any medical person right</font> what<font color="#E5E5E5"> about a cure</font> it may<font color="#CCCCCC"> seem tough to question</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> these poor</font> desperate people's faith but<font color="#E5E5E5"> isn't</font> bracing truth better than false<font color="#CCCCCC"> hope</font> [Music] what is the<font color="#E5E5E5"> evidence for any miracles</font> there are actually<font color="#E5E5E5"> 66 declared miracles</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">there are about 2,000 unexplained cures</font> here but then we<font color="#CCCCCC"> will</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> say there are</font> millions of people<font color="#CCCCCC"> who have</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> been healed</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">in</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> different ways healed in some sort of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">medicine healing spiritual spiritual way</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">are people who have come to terms</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with</font> their own<font color="#CCCCCC"> particular situation people</font> who have rediscovered God in their lives <font color="#E5E5E5">again people</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> who have</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> received a new</font> grace here<font color="#E5E5E5"> endured so you tend to get</font> about 80,000 per year<font color="#E5E5E5"> about 80,000 sick</font> pilgrims who<font color="#E5E5E5"> come</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> every year</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that's been</font> going on<font color="#CCCCCC"> for more than a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> century now</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font> century and<font color="#E5E5E5"> a half yes so 80,000 per</font> year and of<font color="#E5E5E5"> those 66 have been</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> cured I'm</font> just you see what the way<font color="#CCCCCC"> I'm thinking</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">so the hard fact is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> over the years</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">with their millions of pilgrims</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> there</font> have<font color="#E5E5E5"> been 66 supposed miracles</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">statistically it adds up to no evidence</font> at all I can't help remarking<font color="#CCCCCC"> that nobody has</font> ever had a miraculous regrowing of a severed leg<font color="#E5E5E5"> the cures are always things</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> might have got better anyway</font> people<font color="#E5E5E5"> lean on their faith as a crutch</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but I fear the comfort it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> provides is a</font> shallow<font color="#E5E5E5"> pretence and I want to look at</font> how the<font color="#E5E5E5"> suspension of disbelief inherent</font> in faith can lead to far<font color="#CCCCCC"> more dangerous</font> ideas beyond [Music] [Music] people like to say that<font color="#CCCCCC"> faith and</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">science can live together side by side</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I don't</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> think they can they're</font> deeply opposed science is a discipline of<font color="#E5E5E5"> investigation and constructive doubt</font> questing with logic evidence and reason to draw conclusions<font color="#E5E5E5"> faith by stark</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">contrast demands a positive suspension</font> of critical faculties science<font color="#CCCCCC"> proceeds</font> by setting up hypotheses<font color="#E5E5E5"> ideas or models</font> and then attempt<font color="#CCCCCC"> to disprove them so a</font> scientist<font color="#E5E5E5"> is constantly asking questions</font> being<font color="#E5E5E5"> skeptical religion is about</font> turning untested belief into unshakable truth<font color="#CCCCCC"> through the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> power</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of institutions</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> passage of time</font> [Music] let me give<font color="#E5E5E5"> you an example of this with</font> the story<font color="#E5E5E5"> of the Assumption of Mary</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Catholics believed that Jesus's mother</font> Mary was so important she didn't physically<font color="#E5E5E5"> die instead her body shot off</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">into heaven</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> when her life</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> came to a</font> natural end of course there's no evidence for<font color="#CCCCCC"> this</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> even the Bible says</font> nothing<font color="#E5E5E5"> about how Mary died the belief</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> her body was lifted into heaven</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">emerged about six centuries after</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Jesus's time made up like any tale and</font> spread by word of mouth<font color="#CCCCCC"> but it became</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">established tradition</font> it was handed<font color="#CCCCCC"> down</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> over</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> centuries</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> the odd thing<font color="#CCCCCC"> about tradition is that</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the longer it's been</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> going the more</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">people seem to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> take it seriously it's as</font> though<font color="#CCCCCC"> sheer passage of time makes</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">something that was to begin</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> just</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">made-up</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> turns it into what</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people</font> believe as a fact by 1950 the tradition<font color="#E5E5E5"> was so strongly</font> established<font color="#E5E5E5"> that it became official</font> truth it became<font color="#CCCCCC"> Authority the Vatican decreed</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> Roman Catholics must now believe in</font> the doctrine<font color="#CCCCCC"> of the Assumption</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">virgin</font> now if you had asked Pope Pius the 12th <font color="#E5E5E5">how he knew it was truth</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> he would have</font> said you had to take his word<font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it had been revealed to him</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> by</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">God he shut</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> himself away and thought</font> about<font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> he just</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> thought private</font> thoughts<font color="#E5E5E5"> inside his own head and</font> convinced himself<font color="#E5E5E5"> no</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> doubt on tortuous</font> theological grounds<font color="#E5E5E5"> that it just had to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">be so</font> [Music] none of<font color="#CCCCCC"> this is particularly harmful</font> when it is limited<font color="#E5E5E5"> to the Virgin Mary</font> going<font color="#E5E5E5"> to heaven but what about the</font> Pope's<font color="#CCCCCC"> personal convictions when it</font> comes to say discouraging the use of condoms in aids ridden Africa<font color="#E5E5E5"> then the</font> power of<font color="#CCCCCC"> the church through tradition</font> Authority<font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> revelation comes with an</font> appalling human<font color="#E5E5E5"> cost</font> [Music] it would be unfair<font color="#E5E5E5"> to pick on the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Catholics</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> all religion</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they're up to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> same tricks it could be muslim imams<font color="#E5E5E5"> issuing fatwas</font> it's the same principle<font color="#E5E5E5"> it's issued by</font> the authority and then passes down through<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> ranks to parents to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> children</font> and all<font color="#CCCCCC"> without a shred</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of evidence</font> [Music] unlike science which sees it as a challenge religion thrives on<font color="#E5E5E5"> unsolved mystery for</font> early humanity what was mysterious<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> unexplained was so vast<font color="#E5E5E5"> that only an</font> equally vast higher being<font color="#E5E5E5"> an alpha male</font> in the sky could fill that<font color="#E5E5E5"> gap how</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> would</font> our<font color="#E5E5E5"> ancestors have responded to the</font> sunrise<font color="#CCCCCC"> there must</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> be a fiery charioteer</font> a Sun God to<font color="#E5E5E5"> accept our sacrifices</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font> Supreme Being<font color="#CCCCCC"> who on the first</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> day of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">creation announced let there be light</font> but scientific investigation has rolled back that mystery today we know the Sun<font color="#E5E5E5"> is a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> giant nuclear</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">reactor one of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> billions of stars pumping</font> out electromagnetic radiation heat and light [Music] how do<font color="#E5E5E5"> scientists</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> know the things that</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">they know about</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the world</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">universe how do we know for</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> instance</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">that the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> earth is four-and-a-half</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">million years old and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> orbits the</font> Sun that nourishes it how do<font color="#E5E5E5"> we know</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> these</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> dinosaurs are hundreds of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">millions</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> years old</font> the answer is evidence<font color="#E5E5E5"> tons and tons of</font> mutually supporting evidence<font color="#E5E5E5"> science is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">about testing comparing and</font> corroborating this mass of<font color="#E5E5E5"> evidence and</font> using it to<font color="#CCCCCC"> update old theories of how</font> things work<font color="#CCCCCC"> I do</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> remember one formative</font> influence<font color="#E5E5E5"> in my undergraduate life there</font> was an<font color="#E5E5E5"> elderly</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> professor in my</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">department</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> who</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> had been passionately</font> keen on a particular theory<font color="#E5E5E5"> for a number</font> of years and one<font color="#CCCCCC"> day</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> an American</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">visiting researcher came and he</font> completely<font color="#E5E5E5"> and utterly disproved</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> our old</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">man's hypothesis the old man strode to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the front</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> shook his hand and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> said my</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">dear fellow</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I wish</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> thank you I have</font> been wrong these 15<font color="#CCCCCC"> years and we all</font> clapped our hands raw<font color="#E5E5E5"> that was the</font> scientific ideal of somebody who had a <font color="#E5E5E5">lot invested a lifetime almost invested</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in the theory and he was rejoicing</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">he had been shown wrong</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">scientific truth had been advanced so</font> what does the overwhelming evidence of all these fossils tell skeptical science how did we and every creature<font color="#CCCCCC"> get here</font> in all our improbable diversity in past<font color="#CCCCCC"> centuries humanity had no choice</font> but to resort<font color="#E5E5E5"> to a supernatural</font> hypothesis among the many creation<font color="#CCCCCC"> myths around</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> world the book of Genesis imagined a designer God who fashioned<font color="#E5E5E5"> the world and life in</font> just six days [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">finally</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in the 19th century</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> science</font> piece together what had really happened Charles Darwin hit upon a truly brilliant idea<font color="#CCCCCC"> that elegantly explains</font> all of<font color="#CCCCCC"> life on</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Earth without any need to</font> invoke<font color="#CCCCCC"> the supernatural</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> or the divine</font> [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">here's a helpful way to look at the</font> problem<font color="#E5E5E5"> Darwin faced climbing a mountain</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">let's call it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Mount improbable let's say</font> at the<font color="#CCCCCC"> bottom</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> we</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> have the simple</font> bacterial beginnings of<font color="#E5E5E5"> life on Earth at</font> the<font color="#CCCCCC"> top man</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> today or any complicated</font> piece of<font color="#CCCCCC"> biology so how</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> did we get to</font> the top<font color="#E5E5E5"> if it had</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> happened by blind</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">chance or by design it would be</font> equivalent to leaping up a sheer cliff <font color="#CCCCCC">in a single bound</font> utterly out of<font color="#CCCCCC"> the question if we come</font> round the other<font color="#CCCCCC"> side of Mount improbable</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">we find</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> something very different</font> here there's no sudden precipitous cliff here there's a gentle<font color="#E5E5E5"> slope a gradient</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">of evolution all we have to do is put</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">one foot in front of the other and we'll</font> get to the top Darwin's great insight was<font color="#CCCCCC"> that life evolved steadily and</font> slowly inching its way<font color="#E5E5E5"> gradually over</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">four billion years</font> natural selection<font color="#CCCCCC"> not a divine designer</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">was the sculptor</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of life</font> [Music] so evolution<font color="#E5E5E5"> driven by Darwin's motor of</font> natural selection<font color="#CCCCCC"> gets</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> us to the top</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font> Mount improbable<font color="#E5E5E5"> from primeval</font> simplicity to<font color="#E5E5E5"> ultimate complexity the</font> design hypothesis<font color="#E5E5E5"> couldn't even begin</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> do that because<font color="#CCCCCC"> it raises an even bigger</font> problem<font color="#CCCCCC"> than it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> solves</font> who made the designer the abundance and <font color="#E5E5E5">variety of life</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> on Earth may seem</font> improbable<font color="#E5E5E5"> but it's self-evidently</font> futile to invent an improbable<font color="#CCCCCC"> God to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">explain that very improbability</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> thought that in my<font color="#CCCCCC"> lifetime evolution</font> would be accepted<font color="#CCCCCC"> and taught around</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> world as a scientific<font color="#E5E5E5"> fact supported by</font> overwhelming<font color="#E5E5E5"> evidence but unfortunately</font> the<font color="#CCCCCC"> whole point about faith</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> even</font> massive<font color="#E5E5E5"> and constantly accumulating</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">physical evidence cuts no ice evolution</font> today<font color="#CCCCCC"> is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> under threat</font> in the Bible Belt of Middle America <font color="#E5E5E5">evangelical Christians are fighting back</font> against science in the new world religion<font color="#E5E5E5"> is free-enterprise</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> rival groups</font> set<font color="#E5E5E5"> up shop on</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> every street corner</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">competing to save people's souls</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> collect their money fundamentalist <font color="#E5E5E5">Christianity is on</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the rise</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> among the</font> electorate<font color="#E5E5E5"> of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the world's only</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">superpower right up to and including</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> president if you believe<font color="#E5E5E5"> the surveys</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 45%</font> of<font color="#E5E5E5"> Americans</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that's about</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a hundred and</font> thirty<font color="#E5E5E5"> five million people</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> believe the</font> universe is less<font color="#CCCCCC"> than 10,000 years</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> old</font> [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">whenever this is the New Life Church in</font> Colorado Springs<font color="#CCCCCC"> where conservative</font> Christians have built an 18 million dollar<font color="#E5E5E5"> Worship Center</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> as their New</font> Jerusalem<font color="#E5E5E5"> in the foothills of the Rocky</font> Mountains<font color="#E5E5E5"> evangelical churches like this</font> have become<font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> powerful lobby exerting</font> enormous influence on<font color="#E5E5E5"> everything in</font> America from<font color="#E5E5E5"> the teaching of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> science in schools</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to foreign policy</font> this place<font color="#E5E5E5"> strains belief it isn't</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> just</font> a<font color="#CCCCCC"> church but a ready-made social network</font> the 12,000 strong congregation can also attend<font color="#E5E5E5"> 1,300 organized programs where</font> they can lead to exchange Christian<font color="#E5E5E5"> tips</font> on everything from marriage<font color="#E5E5E5"> to dog</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">walking</font> [Music] it's all<font color="#E5E5E5"> terribly exuberant and intense</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">much less tradition here than in</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Lourdes</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">but plenty</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of swaggering Authority</font> [Music] the<font color="#E5E5E5"> pasta is Ted Haggard</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a powerful</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> man</font> chairman of<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> National Association of</font> Evangelicals<font color="#CCCCCC"> and the new life is Ted's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">evangelical Vatican</font> [Applause] even to<font color="#E5E5E5"> your right to your left</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">that are visiting here with us today if</font> you're here for<font color="#CCCCCC"> the very</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> first time we</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">have a packet of information that we</font> want<font color="#CCCCCC"> to give to you sadly the warmth of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the Welcome would prove short-lived</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> when</font> I started talking<font color="#E5E5E5"> to Pastor Haggard</font> about the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Bible and scientific fact</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">you'll find</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> yourself wrong on some</font> things right on<font color="#CCCCCC"> some other things but</font> please in the<font color="#CCCCCC"> process of it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> don't</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> be</font> arrogant <font color="#E5E5E5">all right let's all pray together father</font> in the mighty<font color="#E5E5E5"> name</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of the Lord</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Jesus we</font> love<font color="#E5E5E5"> you and we</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> praise you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> we exalt you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">here this</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> morning Lord God everything</font> that's<font color="#CCCCCC"> within us wants</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to give you</font> praise and<font color="#CCCCCC"> glory and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> honor because we</font> are so grateful for<font color="#E5E5E5"> what the New Life</font> Church<font color="#CCCCCC"> in Colorado Springs who is a</font> bastion<font color="#E5E5E5"> of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> American religious</font> conservatism I've come to try<font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font> understand why what I see as irrational <font color="#E5E5E5">faith is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> thriving</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and why it's attacking</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> science posture Ted Haggard has a</font> hotline<font color="#E5E5E5"> to God</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and to George Bush</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a</font> staunch Republican he claims he<font color="#CCCCCC"> has a</font> weekly conference call with<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">president and has also rubbed shoulders</font> with Tony<font color="#E5E5E5"> Blair and Ariel Sharon well</font> that was really<font color="#E5E5E5"> quite a show you gave us</font> today<font color="#CCCCCC"> a fair bit of money seems to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> have</font> been spent<font color="#CCCCCC"> yes yes</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I wanted people to be</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">able to worship</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and enjoy it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and in be</font> in a<font color="#E5E5E5"> setting</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> where the speaker is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> close</font> to them that's<font color="#E5E5E5"> why it's in the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> round</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">so they can be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> up close to me</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and so I</font> can<font color="#E5E5E5"> look at them</font> well it's certainly<font color="#E5E5E5"> very effective what</font> you do I mean<font color="#CCCCCC"> it seemed to me to have</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">all the the arts of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I mean I was almost</font> reminded<font color="#E5E5E5"> if you'll</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> forgive me force of</font> Nuremberg<font color="#E5E5E5"> rally</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I mean</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> such incredibly</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">dr.</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Goebbels would have been proud I</font> don't know anything<font color="#E5E5E5"> about the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> nΓΌrnberg</font> rallies but I know lots of Americans <font color="#E5E5E5">think of it as a rock concert</font> [Music] [Music] your way when I prepare<font color="#E5E5E5"> a presentation</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> don't</font> prepare it to get a<font color="#E5E5E5"> group of lunatics to</font> come in and<font color="#E5E5E5"> just say oh yes pastor Ted</font> you're just so wonderful<font color="#CCCCCC"> I believe</font> everything you<font color="#CCCCCC"> say</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> would be opposed to that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> here the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Bible</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> says who have been chosen</font> according to the foreknowledge of God the<font color="#CCCCCC"> Father</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> this is talking about us</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">we've been chosen for every person</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> needs</font> at the<font color="#CCCCCC"> center some sense of meaning</font> about existence<font color="#E5E5E5"> it is life and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> death to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">us it makes us who we are yet most</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of us</font> as we<font color="#CCCCCC"> grow up</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and become responsible</font> adults<font color="#E5E5E5"> accept that life is complex that</font> we live in<font color="#E5E5E5"> a world of subtle shades not</font> sharp<font color="#E5E5E5"> black and white</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I worry that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> these</font> born-agains<font color="#E5E5E5"> are being persuaded to</font> return to Childish certainties<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> only</font> truth<font color="#CCCCCC"> they need is God God has</font> interpreted<font color="#E5E5E5"> for them by their pastor</font> everybody knows that we believe the <font color="#E5E5E5">Bible is the Word of God and today I</font> talked about love your neighbor as <font color="#CCCCCC">yourself</font> now I didn't<font color="#CCCCCC"> have to produce evidence</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">sociological evidence</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> or psychological</font> evidence<font color="#CCCCCC"> the book is from can you say</font> that<font color="#CCCCCC"> ask</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to think for</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> themselves</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> they<font color="#E5E5E5"> told everything in this book is</font> true<font color="#E5E5E5"> because they don't have to believe</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">that the evidence I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> presented you can go</font> and read<font color="#E5E5E5"> this book it says one thing</font> that book says<font color="#E5E5E5"> another that book says</font> another that book well the evidence<font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> can present as we've got a book written over<font color="#E5E5E5"> 1,500 years by 40</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> different authors</font> on one subject<font color="#E5E5E5"> and it doesn't contradict</font> itself<font color="#CCCCCC"> where you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> can't you can't give</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> me</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> two experts in certain areas that are</font> in the same generation<font color="#CCCCCC"> in the same area</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">of study</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that don't contradict</font> themselves the beauty of<font color="#CCCCCC"> science we have</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">we have lots of evidence than the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">evidence</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is all the time coming in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">constantly changing our</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> minds</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> spray and</font> whereas<font color="#CCCCCC"> you have one book</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> which</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> you say</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">doesn't change exactly not even to think</font> for themselves [Music] [Applause] but my biggest concern<font color="#CCCCCC"> is that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">evangelicals</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> like Haggard are foisting</font> evident falsehoods<font color="#E5E5E5"> on their flock the</font> evangelicals<font color="#E5E5E5"> are denying</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> scientific</font> evidence just to<font color="#E5E5E5"> support</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Bronze Age</font> myths and then of<font color="#CCCCCC"> course we need the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">power of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the Holy Spirit</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we fully</font> embrace<font color="#CCCCCC"> the scientific method as</font> American evangelicals<font color="#CCCCCC"> and we think as</font> time goes along as we discover<font color="#E5E5E5"> more and</font> more facts that we'll learn<font color="#E5E5E5"> more and</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">more</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> about how God</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> created the heavens</font> in<font color="#CCCCCC"> the scientific method clearly</font> demonstrates that the world is four<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">a half billion years</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> old</font> we do accept<font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> yeah you know what</font> you're doing is you are<font color="#E5E5E5"> you are</font> accepting some of the views that<font color="#CCCCCC"> are</font> accepted in some<font color="#E5E5E5"> portions of the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">scientific community as fact</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> where in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">where in fact your grandchildren might</font> listen<font color="#E5E5E5"> to the tape of you saying that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and laugh at you you want</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> bet</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">sometimes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it's hard for a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> human being to</font> study the ear or study the<font color="#CCCCCC"> eye and think</font> that happened by accident<font color="#CCCCCC"> I beg your</font> pardon did you say by accident<font color="#CCCCCC"> yeah what</font> do you<font color="#E5E5E5"> mean by accident</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that the eye</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">just formed itself so who says it did</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">well some evolutionists</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> say not a single</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">one that I've ever met</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> really</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> really</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> oh</font> you obviously know nothing<font color="#E5E5E5"> about the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">subject of your maybe you haven't</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> met</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the people I have but you see you do</font> understand<font color="#E5E5E5"> you do understand that this</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">issue right here</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of intellectual</font> arrogance<font color="#E5E5E5"> is the reason why people like</font> you have<font color="#CCCCCC"> a difficult problem with</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> people</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">of faith</font> I don't communicate<font color="#E5E5E5"> an</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> air</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of</font> superiority<font color="#CCCCCC"> over the people because I</font> know so much<font color="#E5E5E5"> more</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and if</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you only read</font> the<font color="#E5E5E5"> books I know and if you only knew</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the scientists I knew then</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you would be</font> great like<font color="#CCCCCC"> me well sir there could be</font> many<font color="#CCCCCC"> things</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> know well there are</font> other<font color="#E5E5E5"> things that you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> don't know well as</font> you age<font color="#E5E5E5"> you'll find yourself wrong on</font> some things right<font color="#E5E5E5"> on some other things</font> but please in the process<font color="#CCCCCC"> of it don't</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> be</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">arrogant</font> [Music] we just had a rather disconcerting <font color="#E5E5E5">experience</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we were just packing</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> up our</font> stuff<font color="#CCCCCC"> ready to go and he suddenly drove</font> up in his pickup<font color="#E5E5E5"> truck and said get</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> off</font> my land immediately<font color="#CCCCCC"> I'll have you thrown</font> in<font color="#CCCCCC"> jail now--how seized your film</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and he</font> then is a very curious<font color="#E5E5E5"> thing he said you</font> called<font color="#E5E5E5"> my children animals afterwards we</font> worked out<font color="#E5E5E5"> that what he must have meant</font> was that<font color="#CCCCCC"> I talked about evolution</font> he thought I<font color="#E5E5E5"> was saying that his flock</font> were animals which of course<font color="#E5E5E5"> and since I</font> was because all humans are animals [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">Haggard's approach is to say let's teach</font> evolution<font color="#E5E5E5"> as just</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> another</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> theory</font> alongside the Bible's<font color="#E5E5E5"> creation story</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">also called intelligent design which</font> claims God helped evolution along it sounds so reasonable doesn't<font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font> [Music] [Applause] but of<font color="#CCCCCC"> course it's nothing of the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> sort</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">these</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> are not equal theories evolution</font> by natural selection<font color="#CCCCCC"> is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> supported by</font> mountains of evidence<font color="#E5E5E5"> while creation</font> contradicts the<font color="#CCCCCC"> evidence and is only</font> backed by some<font color="#E5E5E5"> ancient scribblings with</font> Haggard<font color="#E5E5E5"> and his followers on their</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">doorstep the rational atheist minority</font> here<font color="#CCCCCC"> feels so browbeaten that they've</font> organized themselves<font color="#E5E5E5"> into</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> what they call</font> a free thinkers group which meets furtively perhaps to fantasize about moving to Canada how nice<font color="#CCCCCC"> to meet you do free thinkers in</font> America feel pretty beleaguered at the moment I've had<font color="#E5E5E5"> my fair share of</font> vitriolic<font color="#CCCCCC"> letters</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and messages</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> from</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">parents saying</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that I'm Satan's</font> incarnate<font color="#E5E5E5"> for teaching evolution and</font> there are ministries here<font color="#E5E5E5"> in Colorado</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Springs that indoctrinate students in</font> summer<font color="#CCCCCC"> programs to challenge biologists</font> biology teachers in<font color="#E5E5E5"> the in the classroom</font> and<font color="#CCCCCC"> with</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> an organized campaign</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to go</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">there</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> organized campaigns absolutely I</font> do not tolerate<font color="#E5E5E5"> it because if a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> person</font> comes out<font color="#E5E5E5"> in this country as an angel</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">they're</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> likely</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to suffer career damage</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">they might lose a job they might not get</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">a job</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they might lose an opportunity</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font> an apartment Americans do<font color="#E5E5E5"> very late on</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">this coming to a realization as we did</font> during<font color="#CCCCCC"> the McCarthy era and even</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> during</font> we do begin<font color="#E5E5E5"> now to see the dangers of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">this extremism Christian</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> fascism</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">whatever</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">manful do</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you want to give it which I</font> have<font color="#E5E5E5"> heard lately is domination theology</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">double</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Union</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">who's never become a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Christian has gone</font> to the<font color="#E5E5E5"> same thing you know was that God</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">forgive</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> them and love them</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in a</font> Christian heart fundamentalist American<font color="#E5E5E5"> Christianity</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">attacking science but what is it</font> offering instead<font color="#CCCCCC"> a mirror image of</font> Islamic extremism<font color="#E5E5E5"> an American Taliban we</font> live in a time of lethal polarization when the great religions<font color="#E5E5E5"> are pushing</font> their conflict to a point where it is difficult<font color="#CCCCCC"> to see</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> how they can ever be</font> reconciled<font color="#CCCCCC"> in New</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> York Madrid and London</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">we've witnessed the religious insanities</font> of the Middle East<font color="#E5E5E5"> penetrate the heart</font> of the secular West to understand the likes<font color="#E5E5E5"> of Osama</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> bin</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Laden you have to</font> realize that<font color="#E5E5E5"> the religious terrorism</font> they inspire is the logical outcome of deeply-held faith even<font color="#CCCCCC"> so-called</font> moderate believers<font color="#CCCCCC"> are part of the same</font> religious fabric they encourage unreason as a<font color="#E5E5E5"> positive virtue what's really scary</font> is that<font color="#E5E5E5"> religious warriors think of what</font> they<font color="#CCCCCC"> are</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> doing as the ultimate</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> good</font> those of us brought up in Christianity can soon get<font color="#CCCCCC"> the message</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> onward</font> Christian soldiers<font color="#CCCCCC"> fight the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> good fight</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">stand up stand up for Jesus he soldiers</font> of the cross<font color="#E5E5E5"> but as far</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> as I'm concerned</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the war between good and evil is really</font> just the war between two<font color="#E5E5E5"> evils</font> this is the<font color="#CCCCCC"> holy land where the terrible</font> certainties of<font color="#E5E5E5"> faith began and still</font> rage<font color="#E5E5E5"> I've come here because it's a</font> microcosm of the religious conflicts which threaten rational values and civilization the<font color="#E5E5E5"> dreadful combination of</font> politics and extreme faith has caused the death of<font color="#CCCCCC"> almost 4,000 people</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> here in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">shooting suicide bombings and reprisals</font> in the last<font color="#CCCCCC"> five years</font> [Music] despite the troubles<font color="#CCCCCC"> tourists still</font> flock to Jerusalem<font color="#E5E5E5"> to places</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> their</font> particular brand<font color="#CCCCCC"> of religion taught them</font> to<font color="#E5E5E5"> revere as a child the Via Dolorosa</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">where Jesus</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> was</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> allegedly whipped and</font> beaten<font color="#CCCCCC"> during the last hours of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> his life</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">or the Muslim Dome of the rock or the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Western Wall Judaism's</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and the world's</font> most<font color="#CCCCCC"> holy ruined</font> [Music] very<font color="#E5E5E5"> special church because the church</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">on the surface it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> looks like a place of</font> harmless myth<font color="#E5E5E5"> here what we</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> are facing to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the strong</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> anointment where the body</font> abuse was taken down from<font color="#CCCCCC"> the cross so</font> this is the slab where Christ's body was anointed with<font color="#E5E5E5"> oil</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> how do we know that is</font> there any evidence that<font color="#E5E5E5"> it was here you</font> see this<font color="#E5E5E5"> is by telling from person to</font> person is tradition tradition from generation to<font color="#CCCCCC"> the mix yes we can see the</font> hole<font color="#CCCCCC"> where the course was stood</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> well</font> they're<font color="#CCCCCC"> putting the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> cross inside</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> hole<font color="#E5E5E5"> and this is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the place where the</font> place of the crucifixion<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> where Jews</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">died</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> on the cross you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> don't really</font> believe that do you this is the<font color="#E5E5E5"> cause as explained to you</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">that they believe this is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> place</font> where the crucifixion took place and<font color="#E5E5E5"> we</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">can cause our</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> two</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> year to my side</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> please</font> thank you at all of the tomb is a Greek priest<font color="#E5E5E5"> the phone regarding</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the truth of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Jesus this</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is left from the big part of</font> the stone which<font color="#E5E5E5"> closed the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> tomb what we</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">call it the rolling of angels watch your</font> head please thank you very much this is Lois Lane<font color="#E5E5E5"> and rose from</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> death</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> we</font> call it's a picker<font color="#E5E5E5"> means empty</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> - god</font> bless you <font color="#CCCCCC">come touching the two can make your</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">prayer this holy city has to be one of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the least enlightened places in the</font> world and it is<font color="#E5E5E5"> also a place</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of barely</font> suppressed<font color="#CCCCCC"> religious hatreds</font> [Music] one of the first<font color="#E5E5E5"> things you notice is</font> the edgy<font color="#E5E5E5"> watchfulness</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the different</font> ethnic<font color="#E5E5E5"> and religious</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> communities live</font> cheek-by-jowl but there are security <font color="#E5E5E5">checkpoints throughout the old city</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> one section<font color="#E5E5E5"> above all is under heavy</font> guard for the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Muslims the compound</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">enclosing the Dome of the rock</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> L AXA</font> mosque is after Mecca and<font color="#E5E5E5"> Medina the</font> third holiest site<font color="#CCCCCC"> in Islam</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it was from</font> here they<font color="#E5E5E5"> believe that the Prophet</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Mohammed</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> flew up to heaven as bad</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> luck</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">would</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> have it the jews believe the same</font> place<font color="#E5E5E5"> is the site of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the long destroyed</font> first and second temples<font color="#E5E5E5"> the holiest</font> shrine in judaism [Music] [Music] Jews are<font color="#CCCCCC"> not</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> allowed</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to worship</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> inside</font> the compound<font color="#E5E5E5"> their prayers are</font> restricted<font color="#E5E5E5"> to the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> ruined Western or</font> Wailing Wall<font color="#CCCCCC"> when</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Jesus came here to</font> overturn the tables there was no mosque in view<font color="#E5E5E5"> when the Arabs conquered this</font> part of the world<font color="#E5E5E5"> they established the</font> al-aqsa mosque<font color="#CCCCCC"> and then they put over</font> where we<font color="#CCCCCC"> think is the main temple</font> compound<font color="#E5E5E5"> where the altar</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> was</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> where the</font> Holy of Holies was they put another building called the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Dome of the rock</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it</font> was not properly a mosque<font color="#E5E5E5"> and we at the</font> present<font color="#CCCCCC"> moment</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> are simply not allowed in</font> there inside<font color="#E5E5E5"> the compound identifiably</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">as Jews the Muslims reject these Jewish</font> claims<font color="#E5E5E5"> and when Ariel Sharon entered the</font> Temple Mount<font color="#E5E5E5"> area</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in the year 2000</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I</font> came here with<font color="#CCCCCC"> the message of peace</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> his</font> visit sparked the second or al-aqsa <font color="#E5E5E5">Intifada</font> a Palestinian uprising<font color="#E5E5E5"> that has cost</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">4,000 lives so</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> far</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">whatever another alia hood</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> as-salaam MA</font> a lot of<font color="#CCCCCC"> wool muslimeen were falestine</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">fell yep tied to an illness to the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Luxor</font> Mubarak<font color="#E5E5E5"> and if the Jews sincerely want</font> peace with the Arabs and<font color="#E5E5E5"> the Muslims</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">then they should stand away keep away</font> from the al-aqsa mosque<font color="#E5E5E5"> in the Muslim</font> religion<font color="#CCCCCC"> there is no possibility any way</font> of sharing of the territory<font color="#E5E5E5"> if I come in</font> there<font color="#CCCCCC"> in some far corner far away from a</font> mosque in an open area<font color="#E5E5E5"> under a tree</font> somewhere<font color="#E5E5E5"> if a Muslim will catch me</font> murmuring Psalms or some other prayer he will<font color="#E5E5E5"> call the police to have me egressed</font> shall<font color="#E5E5E5"> I say as far as the al-aqsa mosque</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">is considered there are no negotiations</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">absolutely no negotiation about it now</font> who'll I am Leah had mineral<font color="#CCCCCC"> Muslim in</font> falernum<font color="#CCCCCC"> and yet</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a foul word Allah Gaza</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">because no Muslim has</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the right</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">worldwide to negotiate over the al-aqsa</font> mosque [Music] again and again<font color="#CCCCCC"> my conversation has come</font> back<font color="#E5E5E5"> to the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> solid</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> walls that religion</font> puts up back to implacable faiths<font color="#E5E5E5"> my</font> holy book<font color="#CCCCCC"> is true</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I am right he is wrong</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">so I went to meet someone who in my</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">naivety I thought might be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> able to see</font> both sides<font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the story Yusuf al-khattab</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">used to be called</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Joseph Cohen born and</font> brought up as a secular<font color="#E5E5E5"> Jew in New York</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in 1998 he moved to Gaza as a Jewish</font> settler but there he discovered a different<font color="#CCCCCC"> God what I noticed coming to</font> this<font color="#E5E5E5"> center of world religions</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> was a lot</font> of<font color="#E5E5E5"> hatred religion</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> fosters</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I mean I'm an</font> atheist and<font color="#E5E5E5"> I like</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> them</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> rather gentle I</font> don't I<font color="#E5E5E5"> don't hate</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people but it seems</font> to<font color="#E5E5E5"> me that I'm hearing hate on all sides</font> and<font color="#E5E5E5"> it seems</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to me all</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to do with</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">religion</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I hate atheists because</font> atheists don't care if somebody fornicates in the middle of the street <font color="#CCCCCC">they don't care if</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> their</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> women grow</font> bouncing around on TV topless that makes no<font color="#E5E5E5"> difference</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> they don't believe<font color="#CCCCCC"> anything</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> because you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">don't believe in a set rule and you</font> believe that<font color="#CCCCCC"> a constitution can change</font> and you<font color="#CCCCCC"> can amend the rules as they go</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">along and you don't believe in God's</font> rule then what law do you have you just <font color="#CCCCCC">have</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> man-made laws</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I realized I was in</font> the<font color="#CCCCCC"> company of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> someone who has willingly</font> bought into<font color="#E5E5E5"> a fundamentalist</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> dogma</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> what</font> do you think<font color="#CCCCCC"> about the September the</font> 11th attacks on New York and<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> um July<font color="#CCCCCC"> the same time</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but sometimes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> okay</font> since you like<font color="#E5E5E5"> to speak about evolution</font> I like<font color="#E5E5E5"> the start before what do you</font> think about the Jews that have destroyed <font color="#E5E5E5">over 417</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Arab villages including all</font> mosques<font color="#E5E5E5"> and Majid's which wouldn't</font> affect you<font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> was you're an atheist so</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">what are you saying</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that we should sit</font> back and say oh you know what<font color="#E5E5E5"> let us</font> progress<font color="#E5E5E5"> and let us sit down and drink</font> tea and<font color="#E5E5E5"> talk about what to do</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> think</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">that's the most ridiculous thing all I</font> could say is if there was no quote/unquote State of Israel<font color="#CCCCCC"> there</font> would<font color="#E5E5E5"> have been no September 11 but if</font> we've all got to<font color="#E5E5E5"> live together it's not</font> going to be helped<font color="#E5E5E5"> if there are people</font> of very very strong faith<font color="#E5E5E5"> who simply</font> know<font color="#CCCCCC"> they're right</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and are not amenable</font> to argument because but there's somebody <font color="#E5E5E5">out</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> there who's just as faithful</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> as you</font> and has his faith<font color="#E5E5E5"> just as strong as</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">yours which</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is opposite</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to yours</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> they</font> see the problem is Richard I think<font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font> you have fear<font color="#E5E5E5"> you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> know that this party</font> of occupying Muslim lands and polluting <font color="#CCCCCC">society with these</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> evil ideas that are</font> around<font color="#E5E5E5"> it's not gonna last forever</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> there</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">will always</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> be the soldiers of Allah</font> there to give the<font color="#CCCCCC"> response</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to this so we</font> also want the<font color="#E5E5E5"> same thing</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> all we want is</font> that<font color="#CCCCCC"> we want</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the non-muslims</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> at this</font> point<font color="#E5E5E5"> off the lands of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> mohammad</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">salallahu alaihe said him</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> all the lands</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">of Mohammad</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we want the cool fall out of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it do you want</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Islam to take over</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> rest of the world<font color="#E5E5E5"> of course I wanted to</font> and it<font color="#CCCCCC"> will so my advice is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to clean up</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">your show at home take your forces off</font> our lands correct yourselves<font color="#CCCCCC"> fix your</font> society<font color="#E5E5E5"> all right fix your women fix</font> your women<font color="#E5E5E5"> that's not my business that's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">my</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> women's</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> no no it is your</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> business</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font> is your<font color="#CCCCCC"> business when you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> take the women</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and dress them like whores on the street</font> dress<font color="#E5E5E5"> women they dress themselves</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> just</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">now but you allow it as a norm to let</font> the women go on<font color="#CCCCCC"> the street</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> dress like</font> this what's going<font color="#CCCCCC"> on with your society</font> that<font color="#CCCCCC"> I'm</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> interested in religion and</font> people's minds<font color="#CCCCCC"> Marie demand we're very</font> worried about<font color="#E5E5E5"> you what's going on</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> with</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> ceiling clearly historic</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> injustice</font> towards<font color="#CCCCCC"> the Palestinians breeds hatred</font> and anger but we must face<font color="#CCCCCC"> up to the</font> fact that in<font color="#E5E5E5"> creating the death cults of</font> suicide bombers its unshakable <font color="#E5E5E5">unreasonable conviction in your own</font> righteous faith that is the key if preachers then tell the faithful<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font> paradise after martyrdom<font color="#E5E5E5"> is better than</font> existence here in the real<font color="#E5E5E5"> world it's</font> hardly surprising<font color="#CCCCCC"> that some crazed</font> followers will actually swallow it leading<font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> terrible cycle of vendetta</font> war and suffering [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">I'm here on the Mount of Olives</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> looking</font> out<font color="#E5E5E5"> over this beautiful</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> old city</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> we've</font> heard some pretty extreme statements and hatred some bigotry<font color="#E5E5E5"> such as I haven't</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">really heard</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> before</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I don't see what</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">future the world has as long as people</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">think</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> like that and people</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> are going to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">go on thinking</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> like that as long as</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">they're brought</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> up from childhood from</font> the cradle<font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> think</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that there's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">something good about faith</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to think that</font> there's something<font color="#E5E5E5"> good about believing</font> because<font color="#E5E5E5"> you've been told to believe</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">rather than believing because you've</font> looked at the evidence [Applause] [Music] I want to say that killing<font color="#E5E5E5"> for God is</font> not<font color="#CCCCCC"> only hideous</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> murder</font> it is also<font color="#E5E5E5"> utterly ridiculous unlike</font> religion<font color="#E5E5E5"> science doesn't pretend to know</font> everything<font color="#E5E5E5"> there</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> are still deep</font> questions<font color="#E5E5E5"> about the origins of the</font> universe<font color="#E5E5E5"> that have yet to be explained</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but just because science</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> can't answer</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">them right now doesn't mean faith</font> tradition revelation<font color="#E5E5E5"> or an ancient holy</font> text<font color="#CCCCCC"> can science can't disprove the</font> existence of God<font color="#CCCCCC"> but that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> does</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> not mean</font> that God<font color="#E5E5E5"> exists</font> there are a million things<font color="#E5E5E5"> we can't</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">disprove</font> the philosopher Bertrand Russell had an analogy imagine<font color="#CCCCCC"> there's a China</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> teapot</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in orbit around the Sun</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> you cannot</font> disprove the existence of the teapot <font color="#E5E5E5">because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it's too</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> small to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> be spotted by</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">our telescopes nobody</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but a lunatic</font> would say well I'm prepared<font color="#E5E5E5"> to believe</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in the teapot because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I can't disprove</font> it<font color="#E5E5E5"> maybe we have to be technically and</font> strictly agnostic<font color="#CCCCCC"> but</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in practice we are</font> all tea pot atheists but<font color="#E5E5E5"> now</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> suppose</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> everybody in the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> society the</font> teachers<font color="#E5E5E5"> the tribal elders all had faith</font> in the<font color="#CCCCCC"> tea pot stories of the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> teapot</font> have been handed down<font color="#E5E5E5"> for generations</font> it's part of the tradition<font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">society there are holy books about the</font> teapot<font color="#E5E5E5"> then somebody who said they did</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">not</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> believe in the teapot might be</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">regarded as</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> eccentric or even mad</font> there's an infinite number<font color="#CCCCCC"> of things</font> like celestial teapots that<font color="#E5E5E5"> we can't</font> disprove<font color="#E5E5E5"> there are fairies there are</font> unicorns hobgoblins<font color="#CCCCCC"> we can't disprove</font> any of those but<font color="#E5E5E5"> we don't believe in</font> them<font color="#CCCCCC"> any more</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> than nowadays</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we believe</font> in Thor<font color="#CCCCCC"> and Monroe</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> or Aphrodite</font> we are all<font color="#E5E5E5"> atheists about most of the</font> gods<font color="#E5E5E5"> that societies have ever believed</font> in some of<font color="#E5E5E5"> us just go one God</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> further</font> [Music] I'm increasingly worried about<font color="#E5E5E5"> how faith</font> is<font color="#E5E5E5"> undermining science it's something we</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">must resist because irrational faith is</font> feeding murderous intolerance throughout the world [Music] there is something exceedingly<font color="#CCCCCC"> odd</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> about</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the idea of sectarian religious schools</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">if we haven't</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> got</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> used</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to it over the</font> centuries we'd find it downright bizarre [Music] sectarian<font color="#CCCCCC"> education has proved to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> be</font> deeply damaging<font color="#E5E5E5"> it has left a terrible</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">legacy</font> when you think<font color="#CCCCCC"> about it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> isn't it weird</font> the way we automatically label a tiny child<font color="#E5E5E5"> with its parents religion</font> [Music] these are Jewish<font color="#E5E5E5"> children</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in another</font> part of Jerusalem<font color="#CCCCCC"> we've seen Muslim</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">children in Northern</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Ireland we have</font> Catholic children Protestant children <font color="#CCCCCC">all going to separate schools but what's</font> so special about religion<font color="#CCCCCC"> that it is</font> allowed<font color="#CCCCCC"> to label</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> small children Catholic</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">or Protestant Jewish or Muslim</font> nobody would categorize children by the political<font color="#E5E5E5"> party their parents support</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">call them Tory or labour children we</font> agree they're too<font color="#CCCCCC"> young to know</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> where</font> they<font color="#CCCCCC"> stand on questions of politics so</font> why is it<font color="#CCCCCC"> not the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> same for where they</font> stand on the cosmos<font color="#CCCCCC"> and humanity's place</font> in<font color="#E5E5E5"> it in genetic evolution</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a species</font> divides into two initially geographically<font color="#E5E5E5"> the some initial</font> separation<font color="#E5E5E5"> between the two subspecies</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and they divide away from each other</font> genetically there's no longer gene flow between<font color="#E5E5E5"> them and so they can</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> become</font> separate species<font color="#E5E5E5"> it's a divisive force</font> the sectarian education<font color="#CCCCCC"> acts in a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">similar way children are initially</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">isolated</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> from</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> each</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> other because of</font> their parents faith then their differences are constantly<font color="#E5E5E5"> drilled into</font> them and they embark on opposing<font color="#E5E5E5"> life</font> trajectories such divisions are encouraged<font color="#E5E5E5"> not just</font> in<font color="#E5E5E5"> faraway Israel but right on</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> our</font> doorstep<font color="#CCCCCC"> in Northern Ireland for</font> instance or in London<font color="#E5E5E5"> in North London</font> the Hasidic Jewish community is the largest after Israel and New<font color="#E5E5E5"> York here</font> religious division is taken to its <font color="#E5E5E5">extreme these ultra-orthodox Jews only</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">marry within their sect television is</font> frowned upon and of course children attend exclusive<font color="#E5E5E5"> religious schools</font> cloistered away from external<font color="#E5E5E5"> influences</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">which just might persuade them to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> look</font> outside<font color="#E5E5E5"> their</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> community I want to find</font> out why these children<font color="#E5E5E5"> are being</font> segregated<font color="#E5E5E5"> and whether their culture</font> allows them to open<font color="#CCCCCC"> their minds to</font> reality how do you do thank you<font color="#CCCCCC"> very</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">much</font> rabbi Gluck is London born and bred<font color="#E5E5E5"> but</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">you wouldn't necessarily know it his</font> accent is a testament<font color="#E5E5E5"> to the isolation</font> of this religious sect<font color="#E5E5E5"> why should</font> children be victims of the<font color="#E5E5E5"> particular</font> tradition<font color="#CCCCCC"> in which</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> happen to have</font> been born<font color="#E5E5E5"> rather than choosing for</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">themselves by</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> being shown all the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">evidence that's available</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we are all to</font> a certain<font color="#E5E5E5"> extent affected by our</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">surroundings there's no such thing as</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">person</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> living in a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> vacuum</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">we're all affected by</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> our parents by</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">family yes but at the same time we have</font> a choice to stay<font color="#E5E5E5"> or otherwise I think</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">it's important for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a minority to be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> able</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to have a space where</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it can</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> express</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">itself but can learn</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> about itself</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> well</font> couldn't you preserve the<font color="#E5E5E5"> customs the</font> tradition as the<font color="#E5E5E5"> history without somehow</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">imposing upon the children views about</font> the universe which modern science would <font color="#E5E5E5">say are simply false</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I would say impose</font> upon<font color="#E5E5E5"> the Jew anything I would</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> say that's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">something which is impossible</font> I think<font color="#E5E5E5"> scientifically impossible</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we</font> believe<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> God</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> trade to the world</font> in six<font color="#E5E5E5"> days</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we know about evolution</font> every single Jewish kid knows about evolution<font color="#E5E5E5"> and has</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> thought about</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it that</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">I studied it and as looked at it and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> has</font> thought what's<font color="#E5E5E5"> going on here</font> how many of the<font color="#CCCCCC"> children</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> who come up</font> through your<font color="#E5E5E5"> system your school system</font> end up believing<font color="#E5E5E5"> in evolution I'd I</font> think<font color="#CCCCCC"> that the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> majority</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> don't believe in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">evolution they but but at the same time</font> it isn't<font color="#E5E5E5"> they don't believe because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> they</font> don't know about<font color="#CCCCCC"> it you realize that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">being taught that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the entire world</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> began</font> after<font color="#E5E5E5"> what archeologists would recognize</font> as the Agricultural<font color="#CCCCCC"> Revolution I mean</font> these children are<font color="#E5E5E5"> being brought up in a</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">very distorted world indeed</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and I worry</font> about<font color="#CCCCCC"> children being victims</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of this</font> kind<font color="#E5E5E5"> of what I can only describe as</font> mis-education<font color="#CCCCCC"> I find the terms distorted</font> and mis-education rather disturbing <font color="#E5E5E5">Judaism has its tradition I think there</font> are<font color="#E5E5E5"> various scientists who have their</font> tradition it's<font color="#CCCCCC"> to cool</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the theory of</font> even<font color="#CCCCCC"> because</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it was so but still but</font> still it's called that and it's not called the<font color="#E5E5E5"> law of evolution I will call</font> it the<font color="#E5E5E5"> fact of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> evolution and we</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> know</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">your your fundamentalist believer not a</font> fundamental<font color="#CCCCCC"> eva the age of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the earth</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">5000 years</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I mean that is I'm sorry</font> rabbi<font color="#CCCCCC"> that is ridiculous</font> of course rabbi Gluck is right<font color="#E5E5E5"> that it's</font> important<font color="#CCCCCC"> for us</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> learn about</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> our</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> own</font> background<font color="#E5E5E5"> but what upsets me</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is that in</font> pursuit of<font color="#CCCCCC"> that these innocent children</font> are being<font color="#E5E5E5"> saddled with demonstrable</font> falsehoods [Music] and this is not<font color="#E5E5E5"> just a problem of the</font> Jewish minority<font color="#E5E5E5"> there's pressure from an</font> increasing number<font color="#CCCCCC"> of faith</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> schools of</font> other religions to put scientific fact on a par with primitive creation myths in science classes why can't they simply <font color="#CCCCCC">teach</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> science usually</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> this</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is truth</font> because it's based on evidence<font color="#E5E5E5"> they say</font> that you say we're<font color="#CCCCCC"> struggling towards</font> the truth and as new evidence<font color="#E5E5E5"> comes in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">we refine it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in the middle of that Jesus</font> says I am truth [Music] we live in the<font color="#CCCCCC"> shadow of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a religiously</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">inspired terror in an era when science</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">has plainly</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> shown religious</font> superstitions<font color="#CCCCCC"> to be false</font> and yet it's a strange anomaly<font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font> faith schools are increasing number and influence in<font color="#E5E5E5"> our education system with</font> active<font color="#E5E5E5"> encouragement</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> from Tony Blair's</font> government<font color="#E5E5E5"> there are already</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 7,000 faith</font> schools in<font color="#CCCCCC"> Britain</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but the government's</font> trust reforms are encouraging many more over half the new<font color="#E5E5E5"> city academies are</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">expected to be sponsored</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> by religious</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">organisations the most worrying</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">development is a new wave of private</font> evangelical schools that have<font color="#CCCCCC"> adopted</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the American</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Baptist AC e curriculum</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">accelerated Christian education</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">accelerated Christian education slips</font> religious superstitions back into science<font color="#E5E5E5"> if you want to be rude you would</font> say<font color="#CCCCCC"> it's program</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> learning if you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> want to</font> be polite<font color="#CCCCCC"> it's individualized</font> instruction<font color="#CCCCCC"> so really each one is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">teaching themselves</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> certain extent</font> of course that has to<font color="#CCCCCC"> be modified</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with</font> adult<font color="#E5E5E5"> supervision and so on</font> next<font color="#CCCCCC"> when you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> find me</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> outside Atlanta -</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">I had a look at the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> curriculum books it</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">that you use for science and it was very</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">noticeable that God or Jesus did</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> come on</font> just about every page yes yeah we don't <font color="#E5E5E5">have anything like religious instruction</font> in the school<font color="#E5E5E5"> because it is parked as he</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">read it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the in one section in the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">sounds thing I</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> suddenly I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> was sort of</font> taken<font color="#CCCCCC"> aback because</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I suddenly started</font> reading<font color="#CCCCCC"> about Noah's Ark</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and what's that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">got to do with a science lesson</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> suppose that depends<font color="#E5E5E5"> on your opinion</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it</font> could have a lot if you<font color="#CCCCCC"> believe in the</font> story but I mean the stuff<font color="#CCCCCC"> that I was</font> taught when I was a kid at school<font color="#E5E5E5"> in</font> science<font color="#CCCCCC"> now you would</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> laugh</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hat and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> say</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it was a myth but that's what I was</font> taught<font color="#CCCCCC"> what's</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> right you took what we're</font> talking<font color="#E5E5E5"> but when I was tortoise one of</font> the things that they taught me<font color="#E5E5E5"> at</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> school</font> I've always<font color="#E5E5E5"> remembered was that the moon</font> came from the ocean<font color="#CCCCCC"> here</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> on earth</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and is</font> flowing into space and<font color="#E5E5E5"> that's where it</font> came from<font color="#E5E5E5"> what you should</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> have</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> been</font> taught I suppose is that<font color="#E5E5E5"> there is a</font> strong<font color="#CCCCCC"> current theory that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that's what</font> happened<font color="#CCCCCC"> so so what you're really</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> trying</font> to<font color="#E5E5E5"> ask me is do you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> think the Genesis</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">story was true</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and the God created the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">world in seven days</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that's what you</font> would really like to<font color="#E5E5E5"> ask</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> me</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> right</font> my<font color="#E5E5E5"> answer that is I don't know having</font> said that do I think<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> if God wanted</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> do it in seven days he could yeah I</font> think you could you do<font color="#CCCCCC"> anything</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> so so</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it's a sort of an academic question</font> which<font color="#E5E5E5"> actually I don't care about the</font> arts very much really<font color="#CCCCCC"> does</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that make</font> sense<font color="#CCCCCC"> kind</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of yes it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> doesn't</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> make</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> sense</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it doesn't make sense to me because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I do</font> care about<font color="#E5E5E5"> the answer why because I care</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">about what's true</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and and I I care about</font> what's<font color="#CCCCCC"> true yes</font> well III find Christianity encompasses everything<font color="#E5E5E5"> about life Christianity is</font> life so it's it's<font color="#E5E5E5"> about everything it</font> touches education politics<font color="#E5E5E5"> care social</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">services everything seeds let me ask</font> about<font color="#E5E5E5"> another thing in the booklet which</font> was about AIDS and HIV I think some where it talks about<font color="#CCCCCC"> aids being wages of</font> sin<font color="#E5E5E5"> is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that mixing health education with</font> moralistic preaching<font color="#CCCCCC"> I suppose the flip</font> side<font color="#CCCCCC"> of that is that if there is no God</font> and<font color="#CCCCCC"> there is no lawgiver</font> why does<font color="#E5E5E5"> it matter</font> what I do<font color="#E5E5E5"> why-why-why is right wrong</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Weis pedophilia wrong why are any of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">these</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> things wrong if there is no</font> lawgiver<font color="#CCCCCC"> you've just had a very</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">revealing thing but if</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> those</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> are you</font> telling me<font color="#CCCCCC"> that the only reason why you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">don't steal</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and rape</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> them and murder is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">that you're frightened of God I think</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">that all people if they think they can</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">get away with something can it is there</font> is no consequences<font color="#E5E5E5"> we</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> actually tend to</font> do that<font color="#E5E5E5"> I think that is the reality</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> look</font> at the world in<font color="#E5E5E5"> which we live</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that is</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the reality okay</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> well I think we better</font> leave it at that Adrienne Hawkes I'm sure is a well-meaning man but why should<font color="#CCCCCC"> he</font> impose his personal version<font color="#E5E5E5"> of reality</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">on children not</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> only are they encouraged</font> to consider the weird claims of the <font color="#CCCCCC">Bible alongside scientific fact</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they're</font> also<font color="#E5E5E5"> being indoctrinated into what an</font> objective<font color="#CCCCCC"> observer might see as a warped</font> morality [Music] let me explain<font color="#E5E5E5"> why when it comes to</font> children<font color="#E5E5E5"> I think</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of religion</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> as a</font> dangerous<font color="#E5E5E5"> virus it's a virus which is</font> transmitted<font color="#CCCCCC"> Part D few teachers and</font> clergy<font color="#E5E5E5"> but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> also down the generations</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">from parent to child to grandchild</font> [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">children are especially vulnerable to</font> infection<font color="#E5E5E5"> by the virus of religion</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font> child is genetically<font color="#E5E5E5"> pre-programmed to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">accumulate knowledge from figures of</font> authority the child brain for very good Darwinian reasons<font color="#E5E5E5"> has to be set</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> up</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">such a way that it believes what it's</font> told by its elders<font color="#E5E5E5"> because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> there just</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">isn't time</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> for the child to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> experiment</font> with warnings<font color="#CCCCCC"> like don't go too near the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">cliff edge or don't swim in the river</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">there</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> are</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> crocodiles</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">any child who applied a scientific</font> sceptical questioning attitude to that would<font color="#E5E5E5"> be dead</font> no wonder the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Jesuit said give me the</font> child for his first seven<font color="#CCCCCC"> years</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and I'll</font> give you the man the<font color="#CCCCCC"> child brain will</font> automatically believe what it's told <font color="#E5E5E5">even if what it's told is nonsense</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">then when the child</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> grows up it will</font> tend to<font color="#E5E5E5"> pass on that same nonsense</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> its children<font color="#E5E5E5"> deception and so religion</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">goes on from generation</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to generation</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">are you gonna be nervous when you die</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">setup Oh winner</font> come on<font color="#CCCCCC"> shit oh so</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> be winners</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I'm not</font> sorry seventh for many people<font color="#CCCCCC"> part of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> growing up is</font> killing<font color="#E5E5E5"> off the virus of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> faith</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with a</font> good strong<font color="#CCCCCC"> dose of rational</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> thinking</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but if an individual doesn't succeed in</font> shaking it off<font color="#E5E5E5"> his mind is stuck</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in a</font> permanent<font color="#CCCCCC"> state of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> infancy</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and there is</font> a real danger<font color="#CCCCCC"> that he will infect the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">next generation</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">I'm going to meet someone</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> who has</font> experienced religion<font color="#E5E5E5"> as child</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> abuse</font> firsthand Jill Mytton was brought up in <font color="#E5E5E5">a strict Christian sect today she's a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">psychologist who rehabilitates young</font> adults similarly scarred by their narrow religious upbringing<font color="#CCCCCC"> they need to be</font> allowed to hear<font color="#E5E5E5"> different perspectives</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">on things they need to be allowed to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">investigate they need to be allowed</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">develop their critical faculties so that</font> they can take<font color="#E5E5E5"> a number</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> different</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">viewpoints</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and weigh them up and decide</font> which one<font color="#CCCCCC"> is for them they need to find</font> their own<font color="#CCCCCC"> pathways not</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> not to be forced</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">into a particular molds of child if I</font> think<font color="#CCCCCC"> back to my childhood it's one</font> that's<font color="#E5E5E5"> kind of dominated by fear</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and it</font> was a fear<font color="#CCCCCC"> of disapproval</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> while in the</font> present but<font color="#E5E5E5"> also of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> eternal damnation do</font> they get taught about<font color="#CCCCCC"> Hellfire</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> things like<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font> solutely<font color="#CCCCCC"> and to a child images of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">hellfire and gnashing of teeth</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> are</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">actually very real they're</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> not</font> metaphorical at all<font color="#E5E5E5"> of course not no if</font> you bring a<font color="#CCCCCC"> child up</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and discourage it</font> from thinking<font color="#CCCCCC"> freely and making</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> choices</font> freely then that's that's that's still to me that is it that<font color="#E5E5E5"> is a form of</font> mental<font color="#E5E5E5"> abuse or psychological abuse</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> or</font> if you tell a<font color="#CCCCCC"> child that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> when it dies is</font> going to roast forever in hell that<font color="#CCCCCC"> is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">abusive yes what do they tell you about</font> it<font color="#CCCCCC"> I mean</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> what what what happens in hell</font> it's strange isn't<font color="#E5E5E5"> it after</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> all this</font> time it still<font color="#E5E5E5"> has the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> power to affect</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> me</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">when when you when you</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> asked me that</font> question<font color="#CCCCCC"> hell is a fearful place it's</font> complete rejection by<font color="#E5E5E5"> gods it's complete</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">judgment there is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> real fire</font> there is real torment real torture<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> it goes on forever<font color="#E5E5E5"> so there is no</font> respite<font color="#E5E5E5"> from it</font> [Music] it's deeply<font color="#CCCCCC"> disturbing to think</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">there are believers</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> out there who</font> actively use the idea of<font color="#CCCCCC"> Hell</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> for moral</font> policing in the<font color="#E5E5E5"> United States</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> christian</font> obsession with sin has spawned a national craze for<font color="#CCCCCC"> hell houses morality</font> plays come Halloween freak shows in <font color="#E5E5E5">which the evangelical hobbyhorses</font> of abortion<font color="#E5E5E5"> and homosexuality are</font> literally demonized pastor Keenan <font color="#E5E5E5">Roberts is rehearsing a new</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> production</font> of<font color="#E5E5E5"> his colorado-based hell-house which</font> he's written and staged for almost<font color="#E5E5E5"> 15</font> years<font color="#E5E5E5"> he fervently believes that you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">have to scare people into being good the</font> call upon my life as a pastor<font color="#E5E5E5"> as a</font> minister is to<font color="#E5E5E5"> tell</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people what the book</font> says and<font color="#E5E5E5"> what I and we in our church and</font> hundreds<font color="#E5E5E5"> of churches across this country</font> and around the<font color="#CCCCCC"> world are doing</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is we</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">have found a very creative effective</font> tool that<font color="#CCCCCC"> is getting people's attention</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">he said</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of the message I believe it</font> [Music] we want to leave an indelible impression upon<font color="#E5E5E5"> their life that sin destroys every</font> scene preaches the truth<font color="#E5E5E5"> that either</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> sin</font> destroys or Jesus<font color="#CCCCCC"> Saves</font> if this is a rehearsal<font color="#CCCCCC"> think how</font> horrific the full<font color="#E5E5E5"> production must be I</font> presume you have a cut-off age<font color="#E5E5E5"> for the</font> for the tour I mean no children below an age of so what what<font color="#E5E5E5"> is your cutoff age</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">well over the years of having audiences</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people go through this we have come</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> decision that the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> best age for</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">young people is really at 12</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> worried you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">if a child of 12 coming to see your</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">performance</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> had nightmares afterwards or</font> do<font color="#E5E5E5"> you would you like</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that I would like</font> them<font color="#E5E5E5"> I would like</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> their life to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> be</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">changed</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> no matter</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> what I would rather</font> for<font color="#E5E5E5"> them to understand that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hell is a</font> place that<font color="#E5E5E5"> they</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> absolutely do not want</font> to go<font color="#E5E5E5"> I would rather reach them with</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> message</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> at</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> 12 than to not reach</font> them<font color="#E5E5E5"> with that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> message</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and have them</font> live a life<font color="#E5E5E5"> of sin</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to never find the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Lord Jesus Christ in the case of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">homosexual marriage</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> what harm does that</font> do<font color="#CCCCCC"> why would you be so passionately</font> against that<font color="#CCCCCC"> they're</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> living in sin</font> that's your opinion<font color="#E5E5E5"> but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it's</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> nothing to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">do</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> with you is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it it's a decision</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it's</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">not my opinion I'm telling you what the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Bible says it's the Bible's opinion but</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">these are two</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people who want to live</font> together<font color="#CCCCCC"> isn't</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it their own business</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">well what right have you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to interfere</font> this wood burning in a repulsive lust for one another <font color="#CCCCCC">deceived by all of them that they've</font> been gone<font color="#E5E5E5"> gay or joining</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> they're deeply</font> confused<font color="#CCCCCC"> lives in this nauseating</font> matrimony <font color="#CCCCCC">1st Corinthians 6</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> God says</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I want them</font> to<font color="#E5E5E5"> know homosexuality</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is sin</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but you</font> believe it<font color="#CCCCCC"> people be on</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the basis of</font> scriptural<font color="#CCCCCC"> authority absolutely yeah</font> unapologetic yes unapologetically but why are you so sure that's<font color="#E5E5E5"> right</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I mean</font> if you<font color="#E5E5E5"> think</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> about where the Scriptures</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">come from</font> I mean<font color="#E5E5E5"> who wrote them and when and what</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">makes you so confident they're right</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it's what I believe</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> my</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> name is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> giel</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">of why it is a faith issue with me why</font> do you<font color="#E5E5E5"> not believe it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> because of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">evidence Hell House is the brash end of</font> a much bigger problem with the way religious belief works<font color="#E5E5E5"> taken to its</font> extremes as by American evangelists the <font color="#CCCCCC">Bible is scanned for passages to justify</font> right-wing views on abortion and<font color="#CCCCCC"> Family</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Values</font> I'm about to meet a believer<font color="#E5E5E5"> who muses</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the word of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> God</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to fight against</font> centuries of human<font color="#CCCCCC"> progress</font> I think execution for<font color="#E5E5E5"> adultery is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> not</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">rejected not rejected by whom by you</font> know by<font color="#E5E5E5"> the New Testament right not you</font> do you favor<font color="#E5E5E5"> execution of adultery</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> think that's fair<font color="#CCCCCC"> to say that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">still a proper punishment that the state</font> ought to prosecute [Music] it's not so bad<font color="#E5E5E5"> surely to believe in</font> moral<font color="#E5E5E5"> codes handed down to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> us from</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Good Book</font> doesn't the Bible<font color="#CCCCCC"> give us a moral</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">framework in which to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> live well</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> no the</font> holy texts are of<font color="#CCCCCC"> dubious origin and</font> veracity<font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they're internally</font> contradictory<font color="#E5E5E5"> and when we look closely</font> we<font color="#CCCCCC"> find a system of morals which any</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">civilized person today should</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> surely</font> find poisonous the Old<font color="#CCCCCC"> Testament is in</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> every</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> church and</font> synagogue throughout the world and<font color="#E5E5E5"> is</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the root</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of Judaism Christianity and</font> Islam if your brother<font color="#E5E5E5"> the son of your father</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">or</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of your mother</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">or your son or daughter or the spouse</font> whom you embrace<font color="#E5E5E5"> tries to secretly</font> seduce you saying<font color="#E5E5E5"> let us</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> go</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and serve</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">other gods</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> this is God's advice</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> on what</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">to do to a friend</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> or</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> family member who</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">suggests you believe in another deity</font> you must kill<font color="#CCCCCC"> me</font> your<font color="#CCCCCC"> hand must strike the first blow in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">putting him to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> death</font> you must stone him to death<font color="#CCCCCC"> since</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> he has</font> tried to divert<font color="#E5E5E5"> you from Yahweh your God</font> the<font color="#E5E5E5"> God of the Old Testament</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> has got to</font> be the most unpleasant<font color="#CCCCCC"> character in all</font> fiction<font color="#E5E5E5"> jealous and proud of it</font> petty vindictive<font color="#E5E5E5"> unjust unforgiving</font> racist<font color="#CCCCCC"> an ethnic cleanser urging his</font> people on<font color="#CCCCCC"> two acts of genocide if God</font> doesn't<font color="#E5E5E5"> set a good moral example who</font> does Abraham the founding father of<font color="#CCCCCC"> all</font> three great monotheistic religions<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> man who would willingly make a burnt offering of his son Isaac<font color="#E5E5E5"> maybe not</font> how about Moses he of<font color="#CCCCCC"> the tablets which</font> said thou shalt not kill<font color="#CCCCCC"> will the same</font> man it says<font color="#E5E5E5"> in the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Book of Numbers was</font> incensed by the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Israelites merciful</font> restraint towards the conquered midianite people he gave<font color="#E5E5E5"> orders to kill</font> all male prisoners<font color="#E5E5E5"> and older women but</font> all the women<font color="#CCCCCC"> children that have not</font> known a man by<font color="#CCCCCC"> lying with</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> him keep alive</font> for yourselves<font color="#E5E5E5"> how is this story of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Moses morally distinguishable from</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Hitler's rape of Poland or Saddam</font> Hussein's massacre<font color="#E5E5E5"> of the Kurds and the</font> Marsh<font color="#E5E5E5"> Arabs</font> so let's leave Moses out of it but there are lesser characters<font color="#E5E5E5"> facing somewhat</font> more everyday moral dilemmas maybe they provide a better role model in the book of Judges<font color="#E5E5E5"> a priest was traveling with</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">his</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> wife in Gibeah they spent the night</font> in<font color="#E5E5E5"> the house of an old man</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> but</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> during</font> supper<font color="#CCCCCC"> a mob came to demand of the host</font> hand over his male<font color="#CCCCCC"> guests</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> so that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we may</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">know</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> him yes</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in the biblical</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> sense</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> well</font> the old man<font color="#CCCCCC"> replied</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> nay my brethren nay</font> I pray<font color="#CCCCCC"> you do not so wickedly</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> behold</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">here is my daughter a maiden and his</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">concubine</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> then</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I will bring out now</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> humbly them<font color="#E5E5E5"> and do with them what</font> seemeth good unto you<font color="#E5E5E5"> but unto this man</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">do not so why are they so enjoy</font> yourselves by raping<font color="#E5E5E5"> and humiliating my</font> daughter<font color="#CCCCCC"> but show a proper</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> respect for</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">my guest who</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is after</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> all male whatever</font> else this strange<font color="#CCCCCC"> story might mean it</font> surely tells us something<font color="#E5E5E5"> about the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">status of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> women</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in this religious</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Society now of course nice Christians</font> will<font color="#CCCCCC"> be protesting everyone knows the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Old Testament is deeply unpleasant the</font> New Testament of<font color="#E5E5E5"> Jesus they claim undoes</font> the damage<font color="#E5E5E5"> and makes it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> alright</font> yes there's no doubt<font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> from a moral</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">point of view</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Jesus is a huge</font> improvement<font color="#E5E5E5"> because Jesus or whoever</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">wrote his lines</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> was not content to</font> derive his ethics<font color="#E5E5E5"> from the scriptures</font> with which he'd been<font color="#E5E5E5"> brought up but then</font> it<font color="#CCCCCC"> all goes wrong</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the heart of New</font> Testament<font color="#CCCCCC"> theology</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> invented after</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Jesus's death isn't Paul's nasty</font> sadomasochistic doctrine of atonement for original sin [Music] the idea is<font color="#CCCCCC"> that God had himself</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">incarnated as a man Jesus in order</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font> he should<font color="#E5E5E5"> be hideously tortured and</font> executed<font color="#CCCCCC"> to redeem all our sins</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> not just</font> the original<font color="#E5E5E5"> sin of Adam and Eve</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> future</font> sins as well whether<font color="#E5E5E5"> we decide to commit</font> them or not [Music] if God wanted<font color="#E5E5E5"> to forgive our</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> sins why</font> not just forgive them<font color="#E5E5E5"> who is God trying</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">to impress presumably himself since</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> he</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">is judge and jury as</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> well as execution</font> victim to cap it all according<font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> scientific views of prehistory<font color="#E5E5E5"> Adam the</font> supposed perpetrator<font color="#E5E5E5"> of the original sin</font> never existed in<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> first place an</font> awkward fact which undermines the premise of Paul's whole tortuously nasty theory<font color="#CCCCCC"> oh but of course</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the story of</font> Adam<font color="#CCCCCC"> and Eve was only ever</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> symbolic</font> wasn't it<font color="#E5E5E5"> symbolic so Jesus had himself</font> tortured and executed for<font color="#CCCCCC"> a symbolic sin</font> by a non-existent individual nobody not brought up in the faith<font color="#E5E5E5"> could reach any</font> verdict other than barking mad the strange theology<font color="#CCCCCC"> and questionable texts</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">wouldn't matter but for the unfortunate</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">fact that there are people out</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> there</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> who</font> really<font color="#E5E5E5"> believe this</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> stuff is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the word of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">God and act on it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> challenging</font> progressive<font color="#CCCCCC"> values and the rule of law</font> if you take the good<font color="#E5E5E5"> book</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to its</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> literal</font> extreme<font color="#E5E5E5"> and some people do you can</font> justify<font color="#CCCCCC"> murder</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in 1994 the Reverend Paul</font> Hill<font color="#E5E5E5"> shot and killed dr. John Britton</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">outside his abortion clinic in Florida</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in 2003 Hill was</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> executed for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> murder but</font> he<font color="#E5E5E5"> went to his death claiming</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> his</font> actions were backed<font color="#E5E5E5"> by Holy Scripture</font> [Music] I'm going to meet Paul<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hills friend and</font> defender<font color="#CCCCCC"> the Reverend Michael</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Bray mr.</font> Bray<font color="#CCCCCC"> yes sir hello hello</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> I'm Richard</font> Oakley<font color="#E5E5E5"> to meet you sir Michael Bray on</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">what moral basis</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> can he as a Christian</font> defend a self-professed cold-blooded killer<font color="#E5E5E5"> your friend Paul</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hills was</font> convicted of murdering a doctor he took <font color="#E5E5E5">the law into his own hands didn t know</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Paul Hill by his own testimony acted</font> defensively<font color="#E5E5E5"> not in retribution</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that's</font> the job of<font color="#E5E5E5"> the law the job is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> job of</font> the law is to<font color="#CCCCCC"> is to punish the job of</font> citizens is to<font color="#E5E5E5"> is indeed out of love to</font> protect one another<font color="#E5E5E5"> does it ever occur</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to you that that doctor had a wife to</font> grieve<font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> him and Paul Hill killed him</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">now the embryos that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Paul Hill was</font> defending they were tiny little things without<font color="#E5E5E5"> any knowledge without any</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> memory</font> without<font color="#E5E5E5"> any fears without all the things</font> that<font color="#CCCCCC"> a full-grown</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> adult</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> doctor</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> hand</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">doesn't</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that give</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> your conscience a</font> little bit of it<font color="#E5E5E5"> too much</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I don't think</font> we<font color="#CCCCCC"> measured</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that the value of someone by</font> their their their cognizance of their surroundings or<font color="#E5E5E5"> their even their</font> relationships<font color="#CCCCCC"> the value</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that we give</font> human beings historically and thankfully from<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Scriptures is that they are</font> created in God's image<font color="#E5E5E5"> and they are they</font> have<font color="#CCCCCC"> a certain sanctity</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> because of that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">so whether they be imbeciles</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to most</font> sensible people Bray's fellow<font color="#CCCCCC"> clergyman</font> Paul Hill looks like a<font color="#CCCCCC"> dangerous</font> psychopath<font color="#CCCCCC"> writing what he</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> perceived as</font> wrong<font color="#CCCCCC"> by committing another more</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">terrible wrong yet people</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> like Hill and</font> Bray don't see the world that<font color="#CCCCCC"> way they</font> declare<font color="#CCCCCC"> that their justification is in</font> the Bible<font color="#E5E5E5"> and by read</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> eclair in the</font> Bible as<font color="#CCCCCC"> the absolute Word of God they</font> give their actions validity many<font color="#E5E5E5"> of us</font> who don't subscribe<font color="#CCCCCC"> to any particular</font> holy book<font color="#CCCCCC"> worry</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> about suffering we</font> actually worry about whether the victim <font color="#CCCCCC">of a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> murder</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> whether</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it's a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> murderer of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">our</font> and<font color="#E5E5E5"> you're in your terms event of an</font> embryo or of an adult doctor<font color="#CCCCCC"> I mean can</font> you<font color="#E5E5E5"> not see that there's a big imbalance</font> there between<font color="#E5E5E5"> between those two those</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">two deaths</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> well I couldn't take into</font> account because<font color="#CCCCCC"> I'm</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> not omniscient</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> know<font color="#E5E5E5"> all the sufferings</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that various</font> people<font color="#E5E5E5"> suffer when do you think he is</font> but<font color="#E5E5E5"> oh I have high hopes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that he's doing</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">well you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> think he's in heaven</font> yes<font color="#CCCCCC"> you think</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Jesus approves of</font> murdering doctors I think<font color="#CCCCCC"> that he said</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> he said</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> that we're to love</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> children<font color="#E5E5E5"> just as we love others suffer</font> the<font color="#E5E5E5"> little children to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> come to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> me</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> reckon I have a fairly<font color="#E5E5E5"> strong moral</font> conviction as well but I'm<font color="#CCCCCC"> not that</font> confident I wouldn't like<font color="#E5E5E5"> to go and kill</font> somebody<font color="#CCCCCC"> for the sake of my</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> morality how</font> can you be<font color="#E5E5E5"> that confident</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I think my own</font> confidence<font color="#CCCCCC"> I guess has come with with</font> time the<font color="#E5E5E5"> more I I think the Scriptures</font> the more I live the the<font color="#CCCCCC"> more satisfied I</font> am intellectually<font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they interpret</font> reality for me it was curious<font color="#E5E5E5"> I'd quite</font> liked him I thought<font color="#E5E5E5"> he was sincere</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> thought he wasn't really an<font color="#CCCCCC"> evil person</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">and I was</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> reminded of</font> a quotation<font color="#E5E5E5"> by the famous American</font> physicist<font color="#CCCCCC"> Stephen Weinberg Nobel</font> prize-winning theoretical physicist Weinberg said religion is an insult to <font color="#E5E5E5">human dignity without it you'd</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> have good</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">people doing</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> good things</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and evil</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> people</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">doing evil</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> things but for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> good people</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">do evil things</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it takes religion people</font> like Michael Bray are a big problem<font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Christian morality not all</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Christians</font> are as rooted in the<font color="#E5E5E5"> soil of Scripture</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but they do all take inspiration from</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> same holy texts but who is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> right the</font> established Church of England is being <font color="#E5E5E5">painfully torn apart by</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> these</font> differences<font color="#E5E5E5"> of opinion over the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">scriptures the battleground is not so</font> much<font color="#E5E5E5"> abortion but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> homosexuality</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and gay</font> clergy on one side are vociferous scriptural purists<font color="#E5E5E5"> on the other more</font> moderate<font color="#CCCCCC"> believers who interpret the</font> Bible selectively <font color="#E5E5E5">you're only liberal</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> wing of the Anglican</font> Church<font color="#CCCCCC"> maybe the other side are</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the ones</font> who<font color="#E5E5E5"> are being true</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to their</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> scriptures</font> in a way that you're not<font color="#CCCCCC"> I mean</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you who</font> are liberal and much closer to what I would would think are the one who's departing<font color="#E5E5E5"> from the certainly from</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> scriptural<font color="#CCCCCC"> and perhaps</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> from</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> fundamentals<font color="#CCCCCC"> well if you take</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the issue</font> of homosexuality there's no doubt about <font color="#CCCCCC">it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> there</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> are a number of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> texts not as</font> many<font color="#CCCCCC"> as people</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> think but a few</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> texts</font> which clearly regard homosexuality as wrong<font color="#CCCCCC"> both in the Old Testament very</font> strongly but<font color="#E5E5E5"> there also there in the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> New</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Testament</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but of course it's a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> question</font> of how<font color="#CCCCCC"> you</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> interpret the Bible whether</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it's really right to just simply with</font> extract a few<font color="#CCCCCC"> isolated texts</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> rather than</font> seeing the whole message of<font color="#CCCCCC"> the Bible</font> the whole<font color="#CCCCCC"> message of Jesus</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but I think</font> there's another<font color="#CCCCCC"> perhaps</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> even</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> more</font> fundamental<font color="#E5E5E5"> one which links in to your</font> fundamental<font color="#E5E5E5"> interest in evolution our</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">understanding of what it is to be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a gay</font> or lesbian now it's very very<font color="#CCCCCC"> different</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">from what it was let us say in the Roman</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">world when the New Testaments written</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">this was purely a matter of choice we</font> now actually know<font color="#E5E5E5"> that a significant</font> percentage<font color="#CCCCCC"> of people are predominantly</font> attracted to members<font color="#CCCCCC"> of their own</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> sex</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> so</font> it's a<font color="#CCCCCC"> question of the changing facts as</font> well as a changing understanding of how the<font color="#CCCCCC"> Bible should be interpreted this of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">course is all music to my ears but I I'm</font> kind of left wondering why you stick with Christianity at all therefore <font color="#E5E5E5">therefore</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> then maybe some of the</font> fundamentalist<font color="#E5E5E5"> mites might say just that</font> to you<font color="#CCCCCC"> I think that moderates need to be</font> passionate<font color="#E5E5E5"> both about their religious</font> beliefs<font color="#E5E5E5"> and about rationality and it's</font> possible<font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> be a passionate</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a moderate</font> it's much more some say that while religious fundamentalists betray reason <font color="#CCCCCC">some moderate believers betray reason</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">and faith equally the moderates position</font> seems<font color="#E5E5E5"> to me to be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> fence sitting they</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">half believe in the Bible but how do</font> they decide which parts to believe literally<font color="#E5E5E5"> and which parts are just</font> allegorical<font color="#CCCCCC"> I take it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that as an</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">anglican bishop</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> you you wouldn't deny</font> miracles and<font color="#E5E5E5"> i think you ought to to be</font> consistent with with what you've just <font color="#E5E5E5">been saying</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> think if God was doing</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">miracles the whole</font> time then we would live in<font color="#E5E5E5"> an Alice in</font> Wonderland<font color="#E5E5E5"> tiny world it would be</font> unpredictable<font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you and I wouldn't be</font> able<font color="#E5E5E5"> to have a rational</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> conversation</font> it's almost<font color="#E5E5E5"> they think there's a kind</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">ration of miracles</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> which mustn't be</font> exceeded but<font color="#CCCCCC"> or we get</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> into</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> well we</font> can't we can't say what<font color="#E5E5E5"> that ration is</font> if miracles<font color="#E5E5E5"> were happening all the time</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">whenever whenever we wanted them to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">happen then human life as we know it</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">couldn't exist in what about sort of</font> really<font color="#E5E5E5"> big miracles like the virgin</font> birth what do you think about<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">don't think that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it's on a par with the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">resurrection for example I mean</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I'd</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">actually do believe that the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">resurrection of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Jesus from the dead is</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">absolutely</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> fundamental to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Christianity</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">in a way that I don't believe the virgin</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">birth</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is it seems</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to me an odd</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">proposition that we should adhere to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">some parts of the Bible story but not to</font> others<font color="#E5E5E5"> after all when it comes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> important<font color="#E5E5E5"> moral questions by what</font> standards do we cherry<font color="#E5E5E5"> pick the Bible</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">why bother with the Bible at all</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> if we</font> have the<font color="#E5E5E5"> ability to pick and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> choose from</font> it what is<font color="#CCCCCC"> right and what is wrong</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> for</font> today's society I suspect that religion<font color="#E5E5E5"> is simply a</font> parasite on<font color="#CCCCCC"> a much older</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> moral sense</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> want to<font color="#E5E5E5"> examine how</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> science reveals the</font> true roots of human morality morality stems not from some fictional deity and his<font color="#E5E5E5"> texts but from altruistic genes that</font> have been naturally<font color="#CCCCCC"> selected in our</font> evolutionary past<font color="#E5E5E5"> humans have much more</font> sophisticated<font color="#E5E5E5"> versions of the kinds of</font> social<font color="#E5E5E5"> instincts you see in chimps and</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">other creatures</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> really</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> there's no great</font> leap is just you can<font color="#E5E5E5"> think of chimps as</font> ms-dos<font color="#E5E5E5"> and humans as Windows 2000</font> [Music] [Music] religious believers like to claim that their<font color="#CCCCCC"> God</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and ancient texts provide them</font> with an inside track<font color="#E5E5E5"> to defining</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> what is</font> good and what is<font color="#CCCCCC"> bad but</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is surely</font> far more moral to do good things for their<font color="#E5E5E5"> own sake rather than as a way of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">sucking up to God</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> our true sense of</font> right<font color="#CCCCCC"> and wrong</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> has nothing to do with</font> religion<font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> believe there is kindness</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">charity and generosity in human nature</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">and I</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> think there</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> is a Darwinian</font> explanation for this through much<font color="#CCCCCC"> of our</font> prehistory humans lived under conditions <font color="#E5E5E5">that favoured altruistic genes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> gene</font> survival depended on nurturing<font color="#CCCCCC"> our</font> family and on doing deals with our<font color="#E5E5E5"> peers</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the I'll scratch your back</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> if you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">scratch mine</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> principal I don't think we</font> need religion to explain<font color="#CCCCCC"> morality</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and if</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">anything it just gets in</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the way</font> morality is a lot older<font color="#CCCCCC"> than religion</font> humans have an innate<font color="#E5E5E5"> moral sense or a</font> range of<font color="#CCCCCC"> moral senses but you can think</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">of as sophisticated versions of the kind</font> of social<font color="#E5E5E5"> instincts you see in chimps</font> and<font color="#E5E5E5"> other social species</font> what sort of morality will proto morality would<font color="#E5E5E5"> you expect to find</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in a</font> chimpanzee<font color="#CCCCCC"> troop we find that they</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they</font> live in<font color="#E5E5E5"> family groups</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> they're</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">mothers look after their their</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> kids they</font> work in they work in<font color="#E5E5E5"> teams and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> also</font> chimps<font color="#E5E5E5"> are particularly good at</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">competing for</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> status through</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> what's been</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">called public service so they compete</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">with status not just through brute force</font> but<font color="#CCCCCC"> by being good leaders</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> by intervening</font> to settle disputes<font color="#E5E5E5"> what are the main</font> evolutionary reasons for cooperating<font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> being altruistic<font color="#E5E5E5"> working together often</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">produces mutual benefits of them for</font> those that are involved<font color="#E5E5E5"> so</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> you can often</font> just<font color="#E5E5E5"> do better by working in a team than</font> you<font color="#E5E5E5"> can by working</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> by yourself</font> perhaps it is<font color="#CCCCCC"> our genetic</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> inheritance</font> that explains why those of<font color="#CCCCCC"> us with no</font> allegiance to a holy book or a pope or <font color="#E5E5E5">an Ayatollah to tell us what is good</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">still managed</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to ground ourselves in a</font> moral consensus which is surprisingly widely agreed as social<font color="#E5E5E5"> animals we've</font> worked out that we wouldn't want to live <font color="#E5E5E5">in a society where it was acceptable to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">rape murder</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> or steal we have a moral</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">conscience and a mutual empathy</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and it</font> is constantly evolving religious or not we have changed in unison<font color="#E5E5E5"> and continue to change in our</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">attitude to what is right and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> what is</font> wrong <font color="#CCCCCC">50 years</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> ago just about everybody in</font> Britain was somewhat racist<font color="#CCCCCC"> now</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> only a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">few people are</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> fifty years ago it was</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">impossible for gay people</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to walk along</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the street hand in hand now it's easy</font> some of us lag behind the<font color="#E5E5E5"> advancing wave</font> of moral<font color="#E5E5E5"> standards and some of us are</font> ahead<font color="#E5E5E5"> but all of us in the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 21st century</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">are ahead</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of our counterparts from the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">time of Abraham</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Muhammad</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Orson Paul</font> [Music] the progressive shift<font color="#E5E5E5"> often emerges in</font> opposition<font color="#E5E5E5"> to religion it's driven by</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">improved education and then expressed by</font> newspaper editorials television soap operas<font color="#E5E5E5"> parliamentary speeches judicial</font> rulings and novels I guess my starting point<font color="#E5E5E5"> would be the</font> brain is<font color="#E5E5E5"> responsible for consciousness</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">and we could be reasonably sure that</font> when that<font color="#CCCCCC"> brain</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> ceases to be when it</font> falls apart decomposes that'll be<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">end of us from</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that quite a lot of</font> things follow<font color="#E5E5E5"> I think especially morally</font> we are the very privileged owners of a brief spark of consciousness<font color="#CCCCCC"> and we</font> therefore<font color="#E5E5E5"> have to take</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> responsibility</font> for it<font color="#E5E5E5"> you cannot rely as Christians or</font> Muslims do on a world elsewhere<font color="#E5E5E5"> a</font> paradise<font color="#CCCCCC"> to which</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> one</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> can</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> work towards</font> and maybe make sacrifices<font color="#CCCCCC"> and crucially</font> make sacrifices<font color="#E5E5E5"> of other people we have</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">a marvelous</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> gift and you see it</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">developing children this ability</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">become aware that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> other people have</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Minds just</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> like your own and feelings</font> that<font color="#CCCCCC"> are just as important as your own</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and this gift of empathy</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> seems to me to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">be the building block</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of our</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> moral</font> system<font color="#CCCCCC"> i profoundly</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> agree with you and</font> I've<font color="#CCCCCC"> always felt that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> one of the things</font> that's<font color="#E5E5E5"> wrong with</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> religion is that it</font> teaches us<font color="#CCCCCC"> to be satisfied</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with answers</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">which</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> are not really</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> answers at all and</font> if you have a<font color="#CCCCCC"> sacred text that tells</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you</font> how the world<font color="#CCCCCC"> began or</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> what the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">relationship is between this sky</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> God and</font> you<font color="#E5E5E5"> it does curtail</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> your curiosity it</font> cuts off a source of<font color="#CCCCCC"> wonder the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">loveliness</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> world in its</font> wondrousness<font color="#E5E5E5"> is not apparent to me in</font> Islam or Christianity and all the other major<font color="#E5E5E5"> religions</font> [Music] to an<font color="#E5E5E5"> atheist like Ian McEwan there is</font> no all-seeing all-loving God who keeps <font color="#E5E5E5">us free from harm but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> atheism is not a</font> recipe<font color="#E5E5E5"> for despair I think the opposite</font> by disclaiming the idea of a<font color="#E5E5E5"> next life</font> we can take more<font color="#CCCCCC"> excitement</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in this one</font> the here<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> now</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is not something to be</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">endured before eternal bliss or</font> damnation<font color="#CCCCCC"> the here and now</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> is all</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we</font> have an inspiration<font color="#CCCCCC"> to make the most of</font> it so atheism is life-affirming<font color="#CCCCCC"> in a way</font> religion<font color="#E5E5E5"> can never be look around you</font> nature demands<font color="#E5E5E5"> our attention begs us to</font> explore<font color="#E5E5E5"> to question religion can provide</font> only facile<font color="#E5E5E5"> ultimately unsatisfying</font> answers science<font color="#CCCCCC"> in constantly</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> seeking</font> real explanations<font color="#E5E5E5"> reveals the true</font> majesty of<font color="#E5E5E5"> our world in all</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> its</font> complexity people sometimes<font color="#CCCCCC"> say</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> there must be more</font> than<font color="#CCCCCC"> just this world than just</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> this life</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but how much more do you want we are</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">going to die and that makes us the lucky</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">ones most people are never</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> going to die</font> because<font color="#CCCCCC"> they're never going to be</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> born</font> the number of<font color="#E5E5E5"> people who could be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> here</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">in my place</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> outnumber the sand grains of</font> Sahara<font color="#E5E5E5"> if you think about all the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">different ways in which our genes could</font> be permuted<font color="#E5E5E5"> you and I are quite</font> grotesquely lucky to be<font color="#CCCCCC"> here the number</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">of events that had to happen in order</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">for you to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> exist in order for me to</font> exist<font color="#CCCCCC"> we</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> are privileged to be alive</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> we should make<font color="#E5E5E5"> the most of our time on</font> this world more from<font color="#E5E5E5"> our age of reason season next</font> Wednesday at<font color="#CCCCCC"> 9:00 from tarot cards to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">new-age reasoning Richard</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Dawkins takes</font> on superstitious thinking<font color="#E5E5E5"> he's also back</font> this Saturday<font color="#CCCCCC"> at 10:00 on more4</font> along with other scientists<font color="#E5E5E5"> championing</font> the genius of<font color="#E5E5E5"> Britain that's at</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 10:00</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">next though drama</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> an extra helps</font> required when an old case is reopened<font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font> the closer
Totally going to be nothing but measured discourse in this thread.
If heβs so smart then how did he not know that Mr. Garrison was a guy?
Funniest part of this to me is that many people watching it wonβt know the pastor of that megachurch later lost his job for having meth fueled gay sex with prostitutes. I canβt remember if they were underage prostitutes or not Iβd have to google that detail.
The biggest takeaway should be how amazingly hypocritical evangelicals are, not what you think of Dawkins.
Let's be honest, humans are terrible and stupid. We don't need religion to be ignorant.
It's strange that the comments are largely about how Richard Dawkins is an arrogant prick, and not so much about the subject matter. Is it that people don't like his ideas and so they attack him, or more agree but are embarrassed by his persona?
If your beliefs in deity or participation in a particular religion lead you to be a better human here and now, Iβm okay with that.
Nietzsche would like a word with you.
Also an award winning book. I think it's a interesting read, he presents his arguments logically and with plenty of explanation. Also, his prose is surprisingly nice.
There is no god and I am his prophet!