|
Movie Review - Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008)
|
|
|
|
|
(What this rating means)
|
|
| |
|
| Director: |
Nathan Frankowski |
| Starring: |
Ben Stein |
| Rated: |
PG (for thematic material, some disturbing images and brief smoking) |
| Length: |
90 minutes |
| Genre: |
Documentary |
| Tagline: |
Big science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom...What they forgot is that every generation has its Rebel! |
| Studio: |
Rocky Mountain Pictures |
| Website: |
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed |
| Release: |
April 18, 2008 |
|
PLOT
|
There is a nation today in which scientists are being silenced and ousted, in which teachers and professors teach a theory as indisputable fact. No, this isn't a Third
World dictatorship, it's America, as recorded in Ben Stein's controversial, satirical and entertaining documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
Stein, the well-known television personality, actor and former White House presidential speechwriter, takes a journey across America and to Europe to explore the debate
between proponents of intelligent design and Darwinian evolution. What he discovers is an elitist scientific establishment that has traded in its skepticism for dogma.
Even worse, Stein uncovers a long line of scientists and philosophers who have had their reputations destroyed and their careers ruined by a scientific establishment
that allows absolutely no dissent from Charles Darwin's theory of random mutation and natural selection. What freedom-loving American wouldn't be outraged? A look at
the erosion of academic freedom ensues.
|
|
JOHNNY'S TAKE
|
"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not
know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the books, but doesn't know
what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God."
Who said the above? Must have been a famous religious philosopher, right? A Bible-thumpin', evangelizin' creationist? Nope. It was the father of modern Physics - Albert
Einstein. You might have heard of him. He's only one of the most brilliant and influential scientists of our time. Did you know that his Theory of Relativity, a
theory that shapes the school system's entire field of theoretical physics, is based on his own concept of Intelligent Design?
That should cause an interesting dilemma, shouldn't it? The "scientific establishment" doesn't want Intelligent Design to be viewed as an alternate theory to explain
the universe's origin. But if Einstein's Theory of Relativity is based on the concept of ID then do we eliminate that from the classroom as well? Science. It's an
institution that once claimed we should investigate every line of inquiry. Ask any and all questions. No more.
"Big Science in this area has lost its way," says Stein. "Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications
are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-science, it's anti-American."
America didn't become the great nation that it is by suppressing ideas. It allows freedom of speech and the freedom of inquiry that I just mentioned. Intelligent Design
isn't just a "Christian" concept. Touting it as a religious belief is a red herring that the close-minded scientific establishment uses to mask their fear of opposing
ideas.
Scientists, nuclear physicists, molecular biologists, etc. of various flavors - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostics - view ID as an alternative theory that should be
studied and taught alongside Darwinism. Einstein was not a religious man, but he did believe in ID and used it to shape his studies.
Despite what the scientific establishment wants you to believe, evolution is not a fact. It's a theory. For every evidence-based argument for Darwin's evolution,
there's an evidence-based counter-argument. Doesn't it make sense to look at both? What happened to academic freedom?
It's sad - the so-called "intelligentsia" wants to open up our schools to all sorts of social experimentation. They force their own social religion on everybody else.
But we can't debate the origin of the universe and its species?
The Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves right now.
Chinese paleontologist J.Y. Chen made the interesting observation, "In China we can criticize Darwin but not the government. In America you can criticize the government
but not Darwin."
What does that say? This isn't a documentary about Darwinism vs. ID. If you're a proponent of Creationism or Intelligent Design, and you're looking for some material
to help bolster your debating tactics then you'll need to look elsewhere. This is a documentary about freedom. Nothing could be more American than allowing ID to be
discussed in the classroom. Sadly, highly-credentialed teachers and scientists are losing their jobs for daring to speak up on their findings. How can you
not be outraged? It's unconstitutional.
But don't tell the scientific establishment that. They've made up their collective mind, and they don't want to risk it unraveling. Their arrogant, hateful, intolerant
mindset is staggering, and it should alarm the most conservative and liberal of Americans ... unless you're just as hateful and close-minded.
Another thing the scientific establishment doesn't want you to know about is the direct correspondence between Darwinism and Nazi-ism. Many high-ranking Nazis
were Darwinists, and Hitler actually thought he was doing good. He was one of the most evil men to ever walk the planet, but he truly felt science backed up his
reasoning. If we can be taught how religion can lead to evil then why not teach the implications of how science can do the same? Read up on eugenics. And Ernst
Haeckel. While you're at it you may want to check out The Scientific Origins of National Socialism by Dr. Daniel Gasman of John Jay College. Reading is a
powerful thing, my friends.
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the
entire world."
Einstein was a fairly smart guy, wouldn't you say? But it's a sad commentary to realize that he wouldn't be accepted by today's scientific establishment.
It doesn't matter whether you're an evolutionist or a Creationist. Freedom is under attack, and people's jobs and reputations are in jeopardy for daring to follow
where the evidence leads them. If we don't stand up for what this country was founded on then who will? There's always a price for doing what's right. Who's strong
enough to be willing to pay it?
|
|
ODDS & ENDS
|
- What is intelligent design? It is a theory that attempts to empirically detect if the apparent design in nature acknowledged by virtually all biologists is genuine design
or the product of an intelligent cause. Darwinists, on the other hand, believe that all the myriad forms of life are the product of an undirected process: natural selection
of the fittest acting on random mutations within organisms.
- Is Intelligent Design science? Yes. All scientific reasoning is based on uniform and repeated experience, and everything we know from that experience tells us that
information always comes from an intelligent source. So when we find information in the cell in the form of the digital code in DNA, the most probable scientific explanation
is that DNA also had an intelligent source.
- Is Intelligent Design the Same as Creationism? No. Creationism typically relies on a religious text or religious faith as its basis, and attempts to reconcile science
with it. The theory of intelligent design (ID) relies on scientific data to show that design in nature is the product of an intelligent cause or designer.
- One of the persecuted scientists was Richard Sternberg, a double Ph.D. biologist who allowed a peer-reviewed research paper describing the evidence for intelligence in
the universe to be published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
Not long after publication, officials from the Smithsonian Institution, where Sternberg was a research fellow, and the National Center for Science Education began a coordinated
smear and intimidation campaign to get the promising young scientist expelled from his position.
- Astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez was denied tenure at Iowa State University in spite of his extraordinary record of achievement. Gonzalez made the mistake of documenting
the design he had observed in the universe.
- Caroline Crocker, a brilliant biology teacher at George Mason University, was forced out of the university for briefly discussing problems with Darwinian theory and for
telling the students that some scientists believe there is evidence of design in the universe.
- Unlike some other documentary films (COUGH-anything-touched-by-michael-moore-HACK), Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed doesn't just talk to people representing one
side of the story. The film interviews scientists such as Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion; P.Z. Myers, influential biologist and atheist blogger; and
Eugenie Scott, head of the National Center for Science Education. Others interviewed include Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons
Everything, who says the only thing intelligent in intelligent design is its name, and Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, who is, not surprisingly, skeptical
that scientists are in fact being persecuted for not strictly hewing to the Darwinian line.
- Having determined to make the documentary, the producers went looking for someone to carry the film as its host and guide, "someone who was smart and funny with high
credibility and who was willing to go on a journey," producer Logan Craft said. They arranged a meeting with Ben Stein and "within the first few minutes of meeting Ben, he
said, 'Sign me up, where do we go?'"
- Stein proved to be incisive, humorous and as demanding an interviewer of intelligent design proponents as he was of evolutionists. "He wasn't going to take the
intelligent design side just because this is what the movie is about," director Frankowski said. "Even when he interviewed ID guys he was kind of hostile to them. He
wanted to put the heat on them and see if they could come out of the fire."
- When Frankowski came aboard the production, he admitted that he was a little worried at first. "I didn't know what kind of movie they wanted me to make. I told John
(Sullivan) that I didn't want to make a right-wing propaganda piece or an agenda piece. I wanted to honestly explore the issue and be open to whatever we found, and he
assured me that he was open to that.
"Ultimately this film is about freedom. I don't want it to be about one side or the other. It's not about right or wrong, but it's about the freedom to pursue a line of
thought."
- Ben Stein was in The Mask with Jim Carrey who was in Batman Forever with Tommy Lee Jones who was in In the Valley of Elah with Josh Brolin who
was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
|
|
MAMA'S APPROVAL
|
Mama wants to see this, and I had no problem recommending it to her. It's safe for the whole family.
|
|
TRAILER COMPARISON
|
No big surprises here.
|
|
THE GIST
|
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed isn't a documentary touting why one should believe in ID over evolution; it's an eye-opening documentary about the persecution
scientists face if they dare suggest both should be discussed. Its goal is not to win an argument but rather to sound the alarm that freedom is under attack.
|
|
