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God delusion is a documentary recently presented by “Clinton Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) who is a British Ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author1. Dawkins has given up Religion and belief in supernatural creator in his early childhood. At the same time he is so influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection that he has dedicated his life to convert all human beings to atheism. Because he thinks “Evolution is a fact”2 and in order spread this fact he has written many books and this documentary is also based on his book entitled “the God delusion”.
This documentary depicts Dawkins’ everlasting hatred about religion. Dawkins’ hatred is strange because most of the scientists are agnostic i.e. who are skeptic about god, considering the limitations of science but Dawkins goes one step further and denies  the existence of God and tries his best to make use of logos. In his opinion science and religion are completely different schools of thought and most probably opposite of each other. According to him science is a well established knowledge and follows some logical physical laws that human mind can accept without arguing while religion is a mixture of unverified myths of Bronze Age which is strengthened by the sheer course of time.
Let’s not forget the topic in the hand and begin with the analysis of his work. This documentary mainly focuses two different people. Those who are atheist but their fear of being different from the rest of the world keep them silent and those who are religious but still are skeptical. And here Dawkins comes in. He tries to remove fear out of the hearts of atheists and make religious people skeptical.  He does so by communicating with the believers, and asking them questions.. He makes them assure of a friendly environment by his intelligent art of speech during the course of dialogue. And he then goes on swiftly from gentle skepticism to harsh punch line of criticism.
Analyzing his documentary right from the start gives a feeling of a typical Hollywood movie. And the background music is highly symphonious. “In documentaries, music often plays a very important role on the emotional side of the discourse”3 and its absence tends to create boredom in viewers. This documentary has very melodious background music which resonates with the oral representation quite harmoniously. Especially right in the start of the documentary the sound of flute and drums create a good combination to attract serious attention. And the music doesn’t stop till the end though it changes many dimensions from soft classical instruments to guitar and piano. Good combination of music in this documentary represents a brilliant professional excellence in creating dynamical sound effects. Its coherence with scenes gives an impressionable affect and drives mind to concentrate on the issues that Dawkins discusses in his course of speaking.
            Together with the music Dawkins’ beautiful verbal discussion also adds to the beauty of the documentary. Most of the “scientists are generally poor speakers that we like to reassure one another”4 but Dawkins seems to be very professional speaker and debater. He speaks with highly poetic and metaphorical manner which is hardly expected from a science author. He starts with a pathos and calls religion the biggest threat for our society but so eloquently that no viewer seems hearted by his frankness. It really seems hard to argue religion in such a divisive behavior at least in the current point of time when there is hatred everywhere and religious speakers are burning the masses with their spiritual speeches. But Dawkins seems not afraid of being against the religion and traditional doctrines. He stays very straight forward throughout his presentation and he faces many powerful arguments when he talks with the people who believe in the creator “the God”.
            Talking with the believers and arguing with them needs a lot of courage and some important facts and statistics which Dawkins seems to be fully aware of. He doesn’t remain confined to science laboratories rather he gears up and travels around the world asking people about their intense belief in god, which he calls a failed system of faith. He goes to central France, America, and Jerusalem where the world three biggest religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) have groomed and still are flowing out all over the world. He argues with the preachers and puts forward the Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to be the rational and factual system of human understanding which they don’t like at all. On the other hand Dawkins is not convinced by any of their altercations because Dawkins believes in Darwinism from the core of his heart and no powerful blow of thought leaves a single scratch on his faith of having no faith in God.
            The other beauty of Dawkins’ influential words is his use of practical examples.
He gives relevant yet simple examples to make his points clear. He makes practical gestures by visiting different places. He goes to some hilly area to give the example of Darwin’s theory of natural selection and gradual modification in the phenotype of living organisms where he stands up in front of a huge cliff and says that human kind may seem very different from one perspective like the difference in the height level of the cliff and the ground but this difference is not abrupt. It took a long time for the gradual modification of animals especially human beings to attain their current phenotype. To show this gradual change he moves to the back of the cliff where a gentle slope leads up to the top. And after climbing to the top he says that human kind may seem different from microscopic organisms but there is only one force that caused this complexity and that is the force of natural selection which took millions of years.
            Prolific Examples, verbal eloquence, superb background music and simple logical evidences made Dawkins’ documentary very effective and heart touching, from the start till the end. And in the end Dawkins use pathos with skepticism. He hopes that the world may change in the future. The ending words reveal the theme of the documentary when he continues, “we are all atheists about most of the gods that society ever believed in but some of us go one step further”5.

By: Shah Fahad

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