Posted on 04/01/2008 12:21:24 PM PDT by Zender500
"The shot heard round the world" that started the American Revolution came on April 19, 1775. On April 18 this year, a seriously funny documentary is scheduled to hit 1,000 theaters across America and fire a shot that will go unheard if debate-phobic Darwinists get their way.
The 100-minute documentary, Expelled, is perfect for adults and children of middle-school age or above: It should be rated R not for sex or violence but for being reasonable, radical, risible, and right. (It is rated PG for thematic material, some disturbing images, and brief smoking.) The expelling of Intelligent Design (ID) proponents from universities is not a laughing matter, but star Ben Stein is amusing as he walks, in dark suit and bright running shoes, from interview to interview with scientists and philosophers on both sides of the evolution debate.
Expelled rightly equates Darwinian stifling of free speech with the Communist attempt to enslave millions behind the Berlin Wall. One Expelled scene shows Stein, mathematician David Berlinski (a sophisticated Paris resident), and nuclear physicist Gerald Schroeder (wearing a yarmulke), all now ID advocates, discussing the importance of freedom as they visit a remnant of the Wall. All three are Jewish, and they don't look or talk like the hicks portrayed in Inherit the Wind.
Stein, giving the Darwinists he interviews plenty of time to make their case, is particularly effective in his conversation with Richard Dawkins, atheistic author of the best-selling The God Delusion. Dawkins astoundingly admits that life on earth could be the result of ID, as long as the designer was a being from outer space who was himself the product of atheistic evolution. No God allowed!
Expelled's showing of the connection between evolutionary doctrine and Nazi eugenics has already infuriated some in academia and the media: University of Minnesota professor P.Z. Myers blasted Expelled as "ludicrous in its dishonesty," and Orlando Sentinel reviewer Roger Moore raged about "loaded images, loaded rhetoric." But since a movie is not a dissertation, films show linkages by juxtaposing clips rather than pages of footnoted type. The real question is: Did Darwinism bulwark Hitlerian hatred by providing a scientific rationale for killing those considered less fit in the struggle for survival?
The answer to that question is an unambiguous yes. When I stalked the stacks of the Library of Congress in the early 1990s, I saw and scanned shelf upon shelf of racist and anti-Semitic journals from the first several decades of the last century, with articles frequently citing and applying Darwin. If you read an anti-Expelled review that dodges the issue of substance by concentrating merely on style, you'll be seeing another sign of closed minds.
April 18 will bring an interesting test of whether Expelled, or any other documentary so conceived and so dedicated, can endure in movie theaters past the first weekend. Michael Moore's fatuous documentaries have done good box office with the help of sympathetic reviewers and network news producers. Ben Stein's excellent one might rely on evangelicals and others who are tired of being ridiculed by the closed minds of the Evolution Establishment.
That's like saying Michael Moore takes on the reclusive heath care industry in "Sicko".
“Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? Bueller? Bueller? Burller?”
“Anyone seen the movie?”
I’ll wait for the DVD.
That's too funny.
I actually may make the effort to go see this movie. What a RARE treat!!!
To take the documentary format and hoist these folks on their own petard with their favorite propaganda format!! With their own words, no less!
Ben Stein bump!
Exactly
Who really is?
Bump to remind myself to go see it! Thanks for the heads up!
I’d take Ben Stein more seriously if he would send a contribution to Norm Coleman for US Senate - Minnesota. Instead he donated to Al Franken, just because Al is a show business friend.
Al Franken is the last person we Minnesotans want or need foisted upon us as our US Senator.
And yet Roger Moore, at least, is a big fan of Michael Moore.... Go figure.
Am I "qualified" to debate global warming?
Didn't you hear Al Gore, "the debate is over."
No-one. There is no debate.
Most science theories are subject to falsification, and have scientists using experiments designed to disprove them.
But not "special" science theories. These darlings are really just philosophical views that envy the credibility of science theories, and are thus willingly confused with the later.
Neither ID nor Darwin's theory of Common Origin are falsifiable by us mortals. Neither are scientific theories. Neither should be promoted as such.
Evidence should be examined, reason should be applied, and the subject should be debated objectively, with neither getting the magical lab coat of "science". If sufficient logic and evidence supports Darwin's position, then Darwin's position should not need to have the exalted "science" label in order to prevail.
Finally I make a preemptive plea not to repeat the tired old fallacy of siting what "THE" evidence "SAYS". There is no "THE" evidence. And if there was a "THE" evidence, it is not something that talks. Where some allowance for inexact speech is reasonable in such discussions. This kind of statement is unforgivably sloppy, and I can't imagine any thinking person justifying this kind of statement as part of critical analysis.
bttt
The answer to that question is an unambiguous yes.
Or was it Hitler's Christianity?
It would start with an understanding of the definition of evolution.
It does not refer to the origin of life.
I am offended when someone asserts that those uses are in any way relevant to the question of whether or not natural selection is a scientifically valid theory.
Evolution is way more than an academic theory. It is a huge money-maker. Evolutionists have a huge enconomic stake in their theory, and will do just about anything to protect that money flow.
Evolution-related research rakes in billions of dollars every year from government and private sources. Those sources WANT evolution to be proven for a variety of personal desires... not reasons... just desires, some of those also being money-motivated.
If Intelligent Design was accepted by the academic world, all that money would stop flowing. All that research would be replaced with a simple statement: “Superior intelligence created it.”
As long as money rules this world, people are going to believe what makes money, period, end of story. Effort’s like Ben Stien’s “Expelled” will have no measurable impact.
The quoted statement above reveals another motivation behind evolution. Academia cannot bear the thought that they might not be the most superior intelligence around.
Academia is all about arrogance. Admitting there might be an intelligence superior to theirs is unthinkable. Admitting they might be wrong is unthinkable. Admitting they have been wrong for 150+ years is unthinkable.
Truth has no place in academia. Academia doesn’t care about truth, facts, and demonstrable reproducible science.
It’s all about arrogance with them. Their theories are right simply because THEY say those theories are right. They don’t need demonstrable reproducible scientific proof. Their collective belief in those theories should be enough for anyone, since they are the highest intelligence... in their minds.
“How DARE you question what WE say?!?!?!” is the only argument they can bring to the table.
That is why they won’t come to the table.
Pretty much sums up the entirety of intelligent design.
"Excuse me Dr. Smith, but this bacterial infection seems oddly resistant to previously effective drugs, have you noticed?"
"Must be a new bacterial strain."
"Where do you suppose it came from?"
"A superior intelligence created it."
"Oh. Ok. Wanna' play some golf?"
Since you've seen the movie, maybe you can answer the $64 dollar question -- who was "Expelled"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.