Doubt, Deception, and Dogma: Science and Religion in Film

Even if you haven't been paying very close attention lately, the chances are that you could not help but notice the increasing degree to which the relationship between religion and science is being featured in recent popular films. As a scholar in the field of theology and science I wish I could say that these were all positive developments, but the unfortunate reality is that the highest profile of these productions are nothing short of a repristination of the Draper-White thesis that Science and Religion have been engaged in a bitter conflict from the beginning and that the Christian Church in particular is and always has been the enemy of scientific reason.1 At its best—so the story goes—religion gets in the way of scientific discovery, innovation, and human progress. At its worst, religious belief may ultimately lead to the cataclysmic and violent destruction of all life on planet earth. Over the past few weeks, three such films proclaiming precisely this message have caught my attention: Richard Dawkins' sobering documentary The Root of All Evil?, Bill Maher's searching documentary with a comic twist, Religulous, and the feature-film mystery thriller based on Dan Brown's bestseller, Angels and Demons. ...
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