The Atheism Tapes

The Atheism Tapes is a 2005 BBC TV documentary series by Jonathan Miller. The material that makes up the series was originally filmed for another, more general series, Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, but was too in-depth for inclusion. Instead, the BBC agreed to create The Atheism Tapes as a supplementary series of six programs, each consisting of an extended interview with one contributor.

The programmes

All 6 programmes were conducted in the form of interview; the synopses below are a summary of the interviewee's responses to Jonathan Miller's questions.

English philosopher, Colin McGinn

McGinn speaks about the various reasons for not believing in God, and some of the reasons for. He gives a thorough treatment to the ontological argument. In addition, McGinn draws an important distinction between atheism (lack of belief in a deity) and antitheism (active oppotision to theism); he identifies as both. Finally, he speculates about a post-theistic society.

American philosopher, Daniel Dennett

Dennett explains why he called one of his books, "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" - and especially why many of Darwin's contemporaries, in particular, considered Darwin's theory of evolution to be dangerous.

Dennett goes on to deal with the question of consciousness (i.e. is the consciousness/soul separate from the body), talking about Darwin's rejection of the soul and the possible origins and psychological purposes for a belief in an immaterial soul.

External links

• The Atheism Tapes The official BBC page for the series
• Transcripts of the programs