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Permalink Reply by Kitty on June 2, 2009 at 11:33am

Here is a link to watch the movie online Expelled, no intelligence allowed.

I just finished watching the movie. It begins alright, but unfortunately goes on to link "darwinism" to Hitler's holocaust, and as the catalyst for euthanasia and abortion, which go along with, in the movie's opinion, "devaluing of human life" and "deprivileging of humans".

This movie likens the refusal of academia to debate and entertain the idea of intelligent design to the Berlin wall. Yes, the Berlin Wall! It's a recurring theme, and finishes with Regan telling Gorvechev to "tear down this wall" and urging others to get involved to tear down the wall of academic resistance to freedom!

Yes, folks, it's about the freedom of people to use religious ideas in the scientific realm.

Ben Stein interviews several academic/scientific professors and scholars who have lost their jobs in their view due to their mention of ID in papers they have written.
He takes these cases and runs with them.

Where does Stein end up?
Nazi Germany in the extermination institutions, Hitler and the Nazis, Arlington Cemetery
and yes, the Berlin Wall.

He says, and I quote, "I know Darwinism does not automatically equate to Nazism, but if Darwinism inspired and justified such horrific events in the past, could it be used to rationalize similar initiatives today?"
Then he goes on to interview guests who decry euthanasia and abortion as the devaluing and deprivileging of human life.

He tells of men and women who have died to keep the freedoms our country enjoys, that it was founded on such freedoms, (makes a to do about Jefferson's penning these rights endowed by our "creator") and we must fight for academic freedom. He definitely continues to equate the scientific establishment as East Berlin and the wall, in as much as the Scientific Elite refuse to let anything in that would be what they consider distasteful and subversive.

Oh gimme a break!

Permalink Reply by Tedwood Richard Strong II on June 2, 2009 at 4:51pm

The conclusion of correlation between Nazism and Darwinism (there isn't any) really struck a chord with me, and I'm convinced that this film is misinforming propaganda. Needless to say, I'm really disturbed about it. Those of us who will watch the film and then try to supplement the information or dispel it on our own are not the majority. I noticed that there wasn't a single segment shedding light on the "evidence" that lead to the suggestion of intelligent design. It's because it isn't convincing evidence, and the film exploits the ignorance of the lay public by not including it. Expelled is a hoax-motivated piece of political propaganda masquerading as an objective documentary.

What did you think about the interview(s) with Richard Dawkins?

Permalink Reply by Youness Elkhalidy on June 3, 2009 at 11:48am

Yes well I have to agree with Kitty. This movie is nothing more than a giant straw man argument that relies on appeals to emotions and is aimed at rallying the usual self-righteous believers. The fact of the matter is creationism has been expelled for dam good reasons; the same reasons why scientists don’t explore the idea of a flat earth. If Stein thinks that Hitler has anything to do with anything in science and that the holocausts is somehow justification for teaching creation than I doubt he would ever has been able to participate in scientific inquiry.

Permalink Reply by Youness Elkhalidy on June 3, 2009 at 11:51am

And the Dawkin’s interview was clearly an attempt to paint Dawkin’s and all of science for that matter in a bad light. Ofcourse, I doubt the typical believer who has been though not to think for their selves but rather rely on faith would see through Steins misleading presentation.

Permalink Reply by Tedwood Richard Strong II on June 3, 2009 at 3:15pm

Agreed! It started off showing Dawkins having make-up applied, when you know that many of the other interviewees (and probably Stein himself) HAD to have been buffed up off camera. The lighting and music was obviously intended to set the scene as confrontational rather than inquiring.
Richard has his low points as well, but none as low as the methods in this film.

Permalink Reply by George Ricker on June 3, 2009 at 2:38pm

Not only was Ben Stein spinning a straw-man argument, but the assertions made in the movie are dubious at best and, at least, some of the interviews were obtained fraudulently by misrepresenting the nature of the film being prepared to the interviewees. In fact, Richard Dawkins was one of those.

For more about the film's shortcomings have a look at Expelled Exposed.

Permalink Reply by Tedwood Richard Strong II on June 3, 2009 at 3:18pm

Expelled Exposed is an excellent website. I'm almost hoping that there will be a movie made, but just Expelled attracted a mostly sycophantic, religious-right audience, a movie exposing the fallacious claims made in Expelled will almost certainly repel them. Isn't culture war tedious?