Sex, death and the meaning of life. Part 3.

This three-part documentary looks at the meaning of life in the modern world. Throughout the series, presenter Richard Dawkins attempts to uncover reasons why an atheist, such as himself, should get out of bed in the morning. In order to answer this question, Dawkins asks whether science has the capacity to take the place of religion; to inspire as well as to guide our lives and whether or not science can bring understanding to death without belief in an afterlife. In the third program of this three-part series, Dawkins again asks what the meaning of life is in a Godless society. For several famous individuals who have questioned the existence of God such as Leo Tolstoy and Graham Greene, Dawkins found that there was no meaning to life without religion, that there was no existence outside of the existence created by God. Dawkins disagrees and believes life to be nothing more than a game of chance. This view however is not shared; Father Justin Monaghan, a survivor of a tornado which destroyed the town of Joplin, in the US, feels that everything is a part of God’s plan, that the trials and tribulations faced by man are committed by God to accomplish something. Dawkins then travels to visit Geshe Lhakdor, the Dali Llama’s translator and head of archives, who believes the western world is dominated by materialism. For buddhists, happiness is the meaning of life and it cannot be gained through external forces, rather it can only be achieved through self-contemplation. Dawkins disagrees, believing his own happiness can be achieved through music and science not through meditation. To assess the idea of chance Dawkins heads to Las Vegas to visit Leonard Mlodinow a member of the California Institute of Technology who is fascinated by human beings’ inability to accept chance. He argues that the brain is constantly attempting to find order which is why religion has remained popular for so long; it helps to find meaning in the chaos of life. Dawkins argues that if life is merely a game of chance, then life is what you make it, the meaning of life therefore becomes subjective. Finally Dawkins interviews the comedian Ricky Gervais who has been a self-proclaimed atheist since the age of eight. When asked what gets him up in the morning Gervais responds that his own self-worth, the loving relationships he has with family and friends as well as doing something creative which gives meaning to his life. On listening to Gervais’ response, Dawkins adds one criterion; that of understanding. For Dawkins his main reason to get out of bed in the morning is the awe and wonder of scientific enquiry, he concludes the series by stating that we are privileged to be living in the modern world and that although the truth is not always comforting in the face of suffering, it has a majesty of its own.