| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (46 min. 38 sec.) ; 282191080 bytes |
| Summary |
After his controversial 2007 documentary series Root of All Evil, evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins presents a new television onslaught where he pits hard science against astrology, tarot, psychics and alternative medicines.Professor Dawkins states that there are two ways of looking at the world - through faith and superstition or through the rigours of logic, observation and evidence - in other words, through reason. He believes that reason and respect for evidence are precious commodities, the source of human progress and our safeguard against fundamentalists and those who profit from obscuring the truth. Yet, today, society appears to be retreating from reason. Apparently harmless but utterly irrational belief systems from astrology to New Age mysticism, clairvoyance to alternative health remedies are booming. In this two-part series, Richard Dawkins confronts what he sees as an epidemic of irrational, superstitious thinking...In this second and final episode, Professor Richard Dawkins looks at how health has become a battleground between reason and superstition. A third of the people in the UK now spend a total of over #1.6 billion a year on 'superstitious' alternative remedies, but 80% of those remedies have never been subjected to properly conducted trials. Dawkins criticises the growing field of alternative medicine which does not pass the same objective and statistical rigour as scientifically derived treatments using controlled double-blind studies.Today science is treated with suspicion, perhaps born of fear. Even medical advance is challenged by the march of irrational belief. While we indulge unproven healing 'magic', tried and tested scientific medicine is under attack. Media 'causes celebres' - from side effects to superbugs - have bred widespread cynicism about medical progress. The danger of devaluing evidence has never been more apparent than when one survey of twelve children wrongly linked MMR vaccine with autism and yet prompted hundreds of thousands of parents to opt their children out of entirely sensible inoculations to ward off dangerous diseases. Where once there was reason, now there is confusion...PRODUCTION DETAILS:Compass Executive Producer: Rose Hesp |
| Event |
Broadcast 2010-02-08 at 23:35:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: G |
| Subject |
Alternative medicine -- Evaluation.
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Brain -- Wounds and injuries.
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Healing -- Psychological aspects.
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Health -- Psychological aspects.
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Measles -- Vaccination.
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Medical misconceptions.
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Superstition -- Religious aspects.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Dawkins, Richard, contributor
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Fitzpatrick, Michael, contributor
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Livingstone, Elisin, contributor
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