Channel 4 – Sex Death and the Meaning of Life (2012)

Ideas about the soul and the afterlife, of sin and God’s purpose have shaped human thinking for thousands of years. Religious rituals remain embedded in the major events of our lives. In this thought-provoking series, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins asks what happens if we leave religion behind. He explores what reason and science might offer to inspire and guide our lives in religion’s place. Can science bring understanding in the face of death, help us tell right from wrong, or reveal the meaning of life?

Part 1: Sin
In a journey that takes him through visually stunning locations across the world, Richard Dawkins builds a powerful argument for facing up to the scientific truth about life and death – however hard that might be.

Part 2: Life after Death
Richard Dawkins tackles death. He investigates what, in place of religion, science can tell us about death.

Part 3: The Meaning of Life
Why does an atheist bother to get up in the morning? That’s the question Richard Dawkins seeks to answer as he continues his exploration of the big questions of life in a world shaking off religious faith. In a journey that takes him from the casinos of Las Vegas to Buddhist monasteries in the foothills of the Himalayas, Dawkins examines how both religious and non-religious people struggle to find meaning in their lives. He looks at how our existence is ruled by chance, meeting people whose fate was to be born into extreme poverty in India’s slums and the survivors of a natural disaster in Joplin, Missouri, which was ripped apart in 2011 by a tornado on a random course.