If you haven't seen it, here's a really good one - Penn Jillette interviewing Richard Dawkins on his radio show. They bring up a lot of things that would be well worth a discussion!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=5ePLlzbd5ng It's in 6 parts: Follow the threads once you've seen the first one.
- Is there something disingenuous about doing "good acts" because you think "Big Brother" in the sky is watching you, and will reward you for it, or does it really just take a good person to perform a "good act"?
- Where does "morality" come from? Do you have to be religious/Christian to have morals? Or, is the Bible/Torah/Koran one of the best examples out there of showing immoral acts as moral?
- "Wall of Respect" or "Wall of Faith" that religion or religious people put around their beliefs?
- Talks about natural selection, evolution, eugenics, and population genetics - talks about it going out of fashion due to "argementum ad hitlerium". Dawkins calls Hitler "screwy" about his eugenics.
But they talk about real problems with the notion of human breeding programs.
- The use/misuse of quantum mechanical terms or other scientific jargon to "prove" religion in new-age contexts, and why Richard Dawkins is alarmed by the whole New Age and pseudo-scientific claptrap with real scientific background being used to "prove" God. Richard Dawkins points out that sometimes when religion goes, it gets replaced by something even worse - like a sort of "empty-headed belief in anything - and that's what a lot of this New Age clap-trap - I'm sorry to say, is."
- Channel 4 did/was doing "The Rational Enquirer" - Astrology, divination, etc. He talks about the people he (Dawkins) has interviewed, who lift phrases and concepts from modern science. They don't have the foggiest notion of what quantum theory is all about, but it sort of sounds good effectively making a sort of modern "Quasi-scientific religion". Dawkins thinks this would be even worse than the historical religions. That might be worth a discussion!
- Religion in much of the world is fading away, and it even appeared to be fading away in the 1970s-1980s, only to make a huge comeback. It still could very well happen. There seems to be a lot of people, especially religious people, who are convinced that the period after we lose religion will be "terrible", because these religious people are convinced that they will start raping, stealing, and killing if they didn't have religion to stop them. Hmmmm. Sad state of being!
- Another interesting notion that supposedly came out of Israel, "None of us believe in any of this, but the smart people have to push religion so they aren't destroyed by the stupid people.", and a discussion about whether the Pope really is religious or whether it's just a put-on to keep the masses of uneducated people in line. Penn and Dawkins agreed that they're not that cynical, and Dawkins hopes the cynics aren't right.
- Dawkins has observed that when he appears in the "Bible Belt" of the US, that he gets a lot of cheers. and upwelling from the audience when he dispells religious questions that are carefully orchestrated - like from Liberty University. He thinks that's an EXCELLENT sign for people who have been so suppressed all their lives.
