Appraisal: While this documentary has its value, it is marred by the usual flaws that productions of its kind present. First of all, the title is very ambitious and obviously absurd. The Terror in France, right after the French Revolution, was a time of insane, cruel, and murderous violence, and it did not have a religious inspiration. Stalin murdered more people than any other individual tyrant in all history, yet his ideology was explicitly contrary to religion. Mao was not far behind and, again, was not religiously inspired. Hitler, although not explicitly anti-religion, was primarily motivated by racial ideas, which did not have very much to do with religion. I think these examples suffice to show that, while Religion is possibly the root of some evil, it surely is not the root of all evil.
The host of the program makes at least one spectacular aggression to logic and reason. While in Lourdes, he is presented with the number of official miracles, which is, I think, 66. He states that 66 occurrences among millions of visitors is not statistically significant to be considered as valid evidence. Well, he is confusing the concepts here. Statistics has nothing whatsoever to do with the matter at hand. A single occurrence would be enough to threaten the pillars of science and the rational way of viewing the world. He knows that too, because he goes on to point out that the events are never of an undeniably miraculous nature, like "growing a leg"; instead they are always things that may have natural causes. As you see, he is attacking on all fronts, and if it sticks, it sticks.
As for the richness of information, and depth of analysis, I am sorry to say, but this film did not impress me. The old routine of interviewing religious fanatics is getting a little boring. The most interesting part was perhaps the one about the schools, which was kind of new to me, and is a really preoccupying phenomenon.
The final speech, about how atheism, rather than making life sad, gives it a new meaning is, as I see it, merely playing with words. Anyway, he shouldn't be telling people how to be happy; I thought the spirit of the program was that people should be free.
To conclude, it would be a good thing to remember that religion is not the protagonist of the world drama, but merely one of several tools used by struggling parties in order to obtain more power. The main character is thus Power, economical and political Power. It has always been and it will always be.
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