Disbelief Documentary Debuts in U.S.

The Institute for Humanist Studies provided major funding for the American premier of A Brief History of Disbelief on public television stations in the United States.

The documentary film, which explores the origins and hidden story of atheism, originally aired on the BBC in the United Kingdom as the first-ever historical look at the history of freethinking. It started airing in the U.S. on May 4, 2007 in three one-hour installments.

The documentary was written and narrated by Jonathan Miller, acclaimed British neurologist, author, and television producer/director/host and atheist.

A Brief History of Disbelief is not being aired exclusively by PBS, and it is not being carried on a national feed. It is being marketed directly to local public television stations across the United States. Local stations in nearly every state in the U.S. have agreed to broadcast the program sometime after May 4. To find out when the show is airing in your area, please consult this broadcast calendar (PDF) and check back frequently as most of the stations that have agreed to broadcast the program have not yet confirmed the date.

DVDs of the program are not available.

"In making this series I have inevitably discovered that the history of faith and doubt is a great deal more complicated than it might seem," Miller stated in a press release (PDF).

Funding for the U.S. broadcast of A Brief History of Disbelief is provided by the Institute for Humanist Studies, the Center for Inquiry, the American Ethical Union, the American Humanist Association, and the HKH Foundation.

An interview with Jonathan Miller about the program aired on PBS's Bill Moyers Journal on Friday on May 4 at 9 p.m.

For information about this program, visit: http://www.abriefhistoryofdisbelief.org.