The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross - History Channel (2005)

The Christian invaders were regarded as infidels. The Arabs were scorned as lawless pagans. The Westerners saw their quest as literally a sanctified crusade, while the Muslims launched their own holy war, called a jihad, in retaliation. Sound familiar? It should, because although the events depicted in the History Channel's The Crusades - Crescent & The Cross took place nearly a thousand years ago, they are but a distant mirror to what's going on in the Middle East right now. This two-part, three-hour program, released here on two discs (the second includes over an hour of bonus material), impressively details all three Crusades, starting in the late 11th Century, when Pope Urban II dispatched a huge force to reclaim Jerusalem, which had been under Muslim control for some 400 years. For the knights and others who made the journey, it was a noble spiritual quest, not to mention an escape from Europe's petty wars and famines; in the end, the fact that many of them were greedy butchers who murdered Muslims, Jews, and even other Christians indiscriminately (sometimes even eating the flesh of the vanquished) detracted not at all from their conviction that they were acting in the name of God. Of course, so were the Muslims, who, after the bloody first crusade succeeded in seizing the holy city, mounted a massive counterattack under leaders like Nur al-din and his son Saladin, who managed to take back Jerusalem (from whence Mohammed was said to have ascended to heaven) and hold on to it through the failed second and third crusades, the latter led by England's Richard the Lionheart.

Two (2) Part Series

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UFOs in the Bible - History Channel (2002)

The History Channel premiered "UFOs in the Bible," a program featuring several ufologists, authors and ministers. All apparently argued that most of the supernatural occurrences in the Bible represent the activity of alien spacecraft, citing Ezekiel’s wheel, Elijah’s ascension and Moses’ "fire by night" as primary examples. The program’s opening dialog even suggests that God himself is merely an advanced extra-terrestrial being, rather than supernatural deity. However, at least two of those appearing on the program have come forth to state publicly that the program deliberately misrepresented their views. Rather than airing their actual responses to the proposed ideas, both feel that they were wrongfully depicted as affirming these theories.

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Atheism: Jonathan Miller - A Rough History of Disbelief - BBC (2005)

In this first ever television history of disbelief, Jonathan Miller goes on a journey exploring the origins of his own lack of belief and uncovering the hidden story of atheism.

Shadows of Doubt

Jonathan Miller visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first 'unbelievers' in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic.

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Noughts and Crosses

With the domination of Christianity from 500 AD, Jonathan Miller wonders how disbelief began to re-emerge in the 15th and 16th centuries. He discovers that division within the Church played a more powerful role than the scientific discoveries of the period. He also visits Paris, the home of the 18th century atheist, Baron D'Holbach, and shows how politically dangerous it was to undermine the religious faith of the masses.

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The Final Hour

The history of disbelief continues with the ideas of self-taught philosopher Thomas Paine, the revolutionary studies of geology and the evolutionary theories of Darwin. Jonathan Miller looks at the Freudian view that religion is a 'thought disorder'. He also examines his motivation behind making the series touching on the issues of death and the religious fanaticism of the 21st century.

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The Boy With Divine Powers - Discovery Channel (2007)

Ram Bahadur Bomjon "Buddha Boy" is a 15-year old Nepalese boy who was hailed by many to be Buddha incarnate - 11 months without any food, without any drop of water - just silently meditating in a tree-hole (like the Gautama Buddha). Mysteriously he vanished one day - as of March 2007 he is known, however, to be safely meditating in a pit in Ratanpuri village.
Discovery Channel last year had a feature on him in their show "The Boy With Divine Powers". Conclusion? It might not really be such a great hoax as everyone might have thought. Some time ago, the Discovery crew had arrived at the village of "Buddha Boy" (BB) - and they had found it to be now a huge secondary industry area as devotees arrive and buy and sell merchandise related to BB. Just a year ago, this had been but a simple farming village with little contact to the outside world. "Buddha Boy"-commercialized so it seems - and immediately the narrator indirectly seems to suggest a hoax in the making as hundreds of jobs are created and giant profits reaped.

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A War On Science - BBC (2006)

An interesting documentary charting the war between religions creationist (Intelligent Design) theologies versus modern science's theories. When Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution nearly 150 years ago, he shattered the dominant belief of his day – that humans were the product of divine creation. Through his observations of nature, Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. This caused uproar. After all, if the story of creation could be doubted, so too could the existence of the creator. Ever since its proposal, this cornerstone of biology has sustained wave after wave of attack from Creationist who believe that every life is created by God.

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Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial - Nova (2008)

Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial captures the turmoil that tore apart the community of Dover, Pennsylvania in a landmark battle over the teaching of evolution in public schools. In 2004, the Dover school board ordered science teachers to read a statement to high school biology students about an alternative to Darwin s theory of evolution called intelligent design the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally and so must have been designed by an intelligent agent. The teachers refused to comply, and both parents and teachers filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state.
Now, NOVA explores the arguments by lawyers and expert witnesses in riveting detail and provides an eye-opening crash course on questions such as What is evolution? and Is intelligent design a scientifically valid alternative? Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants and expert scientists, this gripping program presents the celebrated case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District.

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Battle For Baghdad - CBC (2007)

Four years after the invasion of Iraq, American troops battle it out with insurgents on Haifa Street in downtown Baghdad … paying the price for four years of military and political miscalculations.
In a last desperate gamble to save what many see as a losing war, a ‘surge' of over 25,000 extra troops are being rushed to Baghdad … Lose the Battle for Baghdad, and you lose Iraq.
This is the story of what went wrong … how America got trapped on these streets…as told by some of the top commanders in the war and the New York Times correspondents who are covering it.

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Al Qaeda: Turning The Terrorist - BBC (2006)

The second investigation, Turning The Terrorists, looks at how South East Asia - long al-Qaeda's recruiting, training and planning base - has been successful in fighting the international terrorist threat. The region became al-Qaeda's new Afghanistan, attracting jihadis from all over the world, including the UK. The strategy is to hit the terrorists hard but also to persuade them to change sides and help the authorities defeat their former comrades. The result has been the rolling up of hundreds of members of Jemaah Islamiya (JI), the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organisation responsible for the Bali bombings.

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Al Qaeda 2.0 - Discovery Channel (2003)

Since Afghanistan, al Qaeda has reinvented itself as a high-tech, highly mobile, decentralized terror network call it "al Qaeda version 2.0." Covering the period from 9/11 to the start of Gulf War II, this program tracks al Qaeda and its allies from London, where their Internet traffic is monitored, to recent operational areas, including Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Footage of jihadist training, U.S. search-and-destroy missions, terror attacks, and the capture of Islamist militants puts viewers on the scene while key specialists such as the DoDs Chuck Spinney and Zachary Abuza, author of Militant Islam in Southeast Asia, share intelligence. Where will al Qaeda strike next?

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The Story of God: The God of the Gaps - Part 3 (2005)

This film examines how belief in God had been challenging the modern world by secular ideas, in particular science – how people of all religious beliefs have over the centuries accommodated their faith with the pursuit of knowledge. It explores how advances in astronomy, physics and biology challenged religious beliefs,particularly in the Christian West, and the historic and current debates over Darwin’s theory of evolution. Finally, the documentary looks at those scientific disciplines where a convergence between faith and science seems possible.

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The Story of God: No God, But God - Part 2 (2005)

This programme looks at religions in the Abrahamic tradition. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are examined in order to understand the ideas about God they share and the issues that divide them. The documentary focuses on the relations between men and God and the numerous issues that arise from these considerations. These may include: how does God want us to live? Does God have a plan for the world and humanity? What about free will? If God created humanity why does God allow humanity to suffer?

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The Story of God: Life, the Universe, and Everything - Part 1 (2005)

Life, the Universe and Everything. Professor Robert Winston examines the roots of religious beliefs in prehistoric societies and how humanity’s sense of the divine developed in different ways in different societies. This BBC documentary will describe particularly the divergence between religions that appear to tolerate a range of deities and those that present strict monotheism. In this light the film looks at the emergence ofthe Hindu concept of Brahman as the supreme being with the many different forms that this can take, and also the ideas of karma and reincarnation central to both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The docu further explores Zoroastrianism, perhaps the first explicitlymonotheistic religion.

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A History of God (2001)

Based on Karen Armstrong’s acclaimed book, this feature-length film guides viewers along one of humanity’s most elusive quests.
For over 4,000 years, adherents of the world’s monotheistic faiths have wrestled with the question of God. This extraordinary, feature-length film, based on Karen Armstrong’s acclaimed book of the same name, traces that elusive and fascinating quest.
A History of God examines the familiar images of deity as presented in the Bible and Koran and traces the evolution and interrelation of the various Christian, Jewish, and Islamic interpretations of the divine figure. Through balanced analysis of historic and holy texts and extensive use of ancient art and artifacts, we’ll follow the long road to today’s understanding of God and what the journey–and the destination–have to tell us about humanity and its never-ending search for meaning and comfort. From the time of Abraham to the present, this is a thought-provoking look at the God at the heart of the world’s three great monotheistic religions.

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The Hidden Story Of Jesus (2007)

Theologian Dr Robert Beckford investigates amazing parallels to the Christ story in other faiths, some of them predating Christianity by thousands of years. The Hindu god, Krishna, was conceived by a virgin and his birth was attended by angels, wise men and shepherds. Buddha was also the result of a miraculous birth and visited by wise men bearing gifts. Beckford attempts to unravel the mystery of why there are so many versions of the Christ story across the world and asks which is the real one.
Was the Christ Story stolen from other, older religions? Theologian Dr Robert Beckford investigates remarkable parallels between the stories of Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mithra, and other major religious entities, and examines how these similarities impact Christianity and its message.

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The Lost Gospel of Judas (2007)

The National Geographic Society has been part of an international effort, in collaboration with the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art and the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery, to authenticate, conserve, and translate a 66-page codex, which contains a text called James (also known as First Apocalypse of James), the Letter of Peter to Philip, a fragment of a text that scholars are provisionally calling Book of Allogenes, and the only known surviving copy of the Gospel of Judas.
The Gospel of Judas gives a different view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, offering new insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Unlike the accounts in the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in which Judas is portrayed as a reviled traitor, this newly discovered Gospel portrays Judas as acting at Jesus' request when he hands Jesus over to the authorities.
The discovery of ancient texts such as the Gospel of Judas has sparked renewed interest in many ideas rejected by the early church. This documentary uncovers the truth behind the supposed “secrets” of Gnosticism. Featuring interviews with leading historians and scholars, it examines Gnosticism’s origins, its early influence – and what’s fueling its resurgence today.
What if an ancient gospel was rediscovered that offered a radically different perspective on a man that history has painted as the ultimate villain? What if this account turned Jesus’ betrayal on its head, and in it the villain became a hero?
This documentary provides exclusive access to the documents and evidence that traces the incredible story of what has happened to the Gospel of Judas since it was found. Combining dramatic recreations and insightful analysis by the world’s foremost experts, they ask and answer the question: Is the Gospel of Judas real?

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Atheism and Religion: Have Your Say - Richard Dawkins (2007)

Richard Dawkins, a guest in a tv-show 'Have Your Say' by BBC, on a topic about Atheism and Religion. Dawkins arguing about God being non-existent in which he published a book 'The God Delusion'.

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Mysteries of the Garden of Eden (2007)

Metaphor, myth, or reality? Traditions of a 'paradise lost' are surprisingly common and consistent across many cultures. Explore the legend and learn if this marvelous place can be pinpointed. "The truth" is, many cultures share an Eden-like tradition and even agree on the details. Illuminating scholarship traces the origins of this lasting legend. Ancient texts and cutting-edge satellite imagery point the way to "the truth". Paradise on Earth: did it exist? Can it be found today? The History Channel devotes its authoritative resources to exploring these compelling questions. The Bible says Eden was located east of Israel where four rivers meet: the Tigris and Euphrates and the Pison and Gihon. The latter two have long been considered mythical; however, recent satellite photography suggests these rivers existed in Iraq. Another theory places Eden's location beneath the Black Sea. Do texts other than the Bible reinforce the idea of Eden? Both the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh and Ancient Greek texts speak of a 'paradise lost.' Sift through the evidence to decode an age-old mystery about how paradise was lost, and where it might be found. Whether it was an actual place, or simply a compelling metaphor, the Garden of Eden remains a touchstone element of Western culture, and this in-depth exploration of its mysteries provides a marvelous, informative viewing experience.

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Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

Moving from one parish to another in Northern California during the 1970s, Father Oliver O'Grady quickly won each congregation's trust and respect. Unbeknownst to them, O'Grady was a dangerously active pedophile that Church hierarchy, aware of his predilection, had harbored for over 30 years, allowing him to abuse countless children. Juxtaposing an extended, deeply unsettling interview with O'Grady himself with the tragic stories of his victims, filmmaker Amy Berg bravely exposes the deep corruption of the Catholic Church and the troubled mind of the man they sheltered.

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