Product Details

• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Athena
• DVD Release Date: November 3, 2009
• Run Time: 139 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001VB8U90
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,817 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"Dynamic look at the life, work, and legacy of Charles Darwin" --The Sunday Times (U.K.)

Published 150 years ago, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species changed everything--science, religion, and even humanity’s image of itself. Join Professor Richard Dawkins as he explains exactly how Darwin developed his revolutionary theory of evolution and why it’s still relevant today.

How do species evolve? What does "natural selection" mean in biology, politics, sociology, and philosophy? With passionate certainty, Dawkins provides answers, positing evolution as a matter of fact, not faith. In addition to interviewing scientific experts such as geneticist Craig Venter and paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, Dawkins speaks with Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, and other religious leaders about the existence of a Creator. Provocative, informative, and irresistibly watchable, this award-winning documentary offers lively new insights on an idea that still meets stubborn resistance.

Evolutionary biologist and fellow of the Royal Society, Richard Dawkins has served as professor of public understanding of science at Oxford University. He has written dozens of scholarly and popular works, including the controversial best seller The God Delusion.

Winner, Best Documentary Series (British Broadcast Awards, 2009)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't know about Athena/Acorn's version......, October 30, 2009

By 

jrc "jrcasey" (Jonesboro, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Genius of Charles Darwin (DVD)

I purchased this title from Richard Dawkins' website some time ago and have enjoyed watching it many times. The Athena programs are great educational experiences, and some are dated. This particular series aired in 2008, and is an excellent addition to the Athena catalogue. The extensive supplements may not quite equal those seen on RDF's separately available unedited interviews 3-disc set, but I am sure will feature the best material.

Here's hoping that Athena will pick up other Dawkins series, such as "The Root Of All Evil," and "The Enemies Of Reason," although I suspect that they'd be considered too controversial. Still, they are widely available elsewhere.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dawkins Makes His Case, November 12, 2009

By 

Zarathustra (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Genius of Charles Darwin (DVD)

This is an excellent BBC documentary by one of our best scholars on evolution. Richard Dawkins gives an excellent defense of Darwin and evolution. His interview with Wendy Wright shows the shallowness of the Intelligent Design proponents, who want to throw the best supported theory in science into the trash can because it conflicts with the views of ignorant prophets who wandered around in the desert thousands of years ago.
Dawkins is an atheist, which I believe is the correct position, but an atheist is in a difficult situation. It is often argued that atheists believe in nothing. I believe a good balance to this position is to argue with Joseph Campbell the value of religion as myth, not as revealed truth as the Intelligent Design people do. This is an improper use of religion. A study of comparative religions shows that they all have similar myths which give spiritual support to their believers. I don't feel this sense of awe in church, but I do feel it when I'm hiking in the mountains.
I'm sending a copy of Campbell's Mythos I DVD to my grandchildren along with this one. It shouldn't be Science Vs. Spirituality. We need both.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Naturally selected, July 7, 2010

By 

T. Kepler (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Genius of Charles Darwin (DVD)

It's quite unfortunate that RD gave little or no reference to two other greats in this arena: Alfred Russel Wallace and, no less than the father of genetics, Gregor Mendel. It could be because the former was a co-competitor to Darwin while the latter just happened to be an Augustinian monk. Not that this lends credence to a "divine" creation, a very murky concept. It's seems a wonder of sorts that this "grand view" of life sprouted from a mind nurtured in a Judeo-Christian culture; didn't happen in an Islam, atheist, Hindu, or any other social setting. Darwin, Wallace and Mendel are the progenitors of this young discipline of evolution and genetics. One only needs to walk inside some of the hallways of leading biotech companies, or maybe academia, to see that labs and conference rooms are named after these giants.
The interviews in Part II were exasperating: Prof. Dennett merely waxed poetic about Darwin with nary a doubt from RD; whereas the two doubters Wright and Mackay were from another time zone altogether; however, the interview with the physician, R. Neese, was enjoyable and informative.