A HISTORY OF DISBELIEF

In this excellent  three part documentary series, Jonathan Miller surveys the history of disbelief.

In Part 1, 'Shadows of Doubt', he  visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first 'unbelievers' in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic.

In Part 2, 'Noughts and Crosses', he examines  how disbelief began to re-emerge in the 15th and 16th centuries.  He visits Paris, the home of the 18th century atheist, Baron D’Holbach, and shows how politically dangerous it was to undermine the religious faith of the masses.

The history of disbelief continues in the 'The Final Hour' with the ideas of self-taught philosopher Thomas Paine, the revolutionary studies of geology and the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin. And Jonathan Miller   looks at the Freudian view that religion is a thought disorder. He also examines his motivation behind making the series touching on the issues of death and the religious fanaticism of the 21st century.

One reviewer said of this documentary series: 'So few representatives of atheism provide a compelling and earnest account for unbelief, let alone with the lucidity and intellectual vigor of Jonathan Miller.'