Folks, I saw Ben Stein's "Expelled" movie for the first time tonight so I thought I would give my review on it while it was fresh in my mind. But before I give mine, I thought I would give our web site's view on it first.
"Several visitors have asked about Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. This is a review of the movie by Bob Stuart, a friend of the ministry. It is apparent from the review that the movie is entertaining and informative. However, it has some elements that we find troublesome and inaccurate, so that we cannot enthusiastically support it." -Rich Deem
More about it here... http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/expelled.html
My first impression of it is quite good.... Ben starts off how there seems to be a certain amount of bias among scientists when it comes to Intelligent Design (ID) equating it to the holocaust in many respects (if you support it). He then has an interview with scientist, Stephen C. Meyer who wrote a pro-ID paper, which eventually gets him black-listed among many scientific orgs. There are also a number of other scientists that get black-listed as well, some for even simply mentioning ID in their classrooms. What Stein does that makes it pretty effective is when he interviews these scientists he runs these old movie clips (metaphors) of kids getting beat up by bullies or Nazi's interrogating prisoners. It punctuates his point pretty well I thought...
For me I would have to say the most effective part of the movie was when Stein interviews various Darwinian scientists on how life originated. For the most part, many of them struggled or were spooked in this area. One scientist (I forget his name) stated that life started on the backs of crystals or crystalline structures (that got a laugh). Others said it was "Panspermia" or "seeding," anything other than design, but probably the funniest was Richard Dawkins answer. At first he states, "it was probably a very slow process at first, then mutations occurred.." At this point Stein presses on, "But how did life get started?" Richards reply? "No one really knows how life got started."
Other strong points he makes is that when it comes to scientific claims, many scientists believe that their views comes first and then the world's views come next. You can't or are not allowed to question the paradigm. It was already settled in court and to do so is "unlawful." It is science first and then (perhaps) religion... Almost like a dogmatic approach to everything and how dare you question our authority (or the "law" for that matter)... He made some very effective key points there.
Perhaps the only problem I have with the movie is when Stein stated that Darwinism as a science could "potentially" rationalize itself with the use of Eugenics (concerned with the elimination of hereditary diseases) and how the Nazi's (who's rise came from evolutionary thinking) used this philosophy to exterminate the Jews. My heredity is actually part Jewish too, but I don't think Stein had to go there to exaggerate that point. It was almost being too thorough in my view...
Technically the movie is really NOT about the scientific claims of ID, it is more about the controversies surrounding it and the doubts on Darwinism.. He does get into a little about DNA and the chances (impossibilities) of it forming on it's own (via slot machines), but he pretty much leaves it at that. Also he alludes to the YEC 7 day creation approach, but pretty much leaves it alone as well. I really didn't think it promoted YEC views much at all or OEC for that matter...
Interesting enough, this film got an applause from my very liberal California college town. I would recommend that you see the film for yourself to get better feel for it. Out of 10 possible stars, I would probably give it an 8....
