I saw Expelled this afternoon and it was great. A breath of fresh air. An interesting use of both music and images helped drive home the most salient points of Intelligent Design. I had no idea there were so many hurtful yet intelligent people. I also hadn’t recognized the similarities of Darwinism and Nazism. At one point in the movie a professor was interviewed (with Dachau as the setting) as saying that Hitler most likely thought he was doing humanity a favor by advancing darwinistic evolution and culling the week.
Anyway, only a few images to worry about for the kids and they are historic pictures of man’s inhumanity to man. I recommend to all. I will most certainly add it to my library. I look forward to reviewing the source information to better view the big picture. One thing that did stand out was that for the first 20 minutes waiting for the movie to start I was inundated with “Go Green” infomercials produced by the Alliance for Climate Protection. I can’t help wondering if weird Al and his eco-guilt-pimps put the full court press on just this movie or if everyone gets to sit through ecological self-examination before their movie. Oh well, GO GREEN! 😉
Something you might want to note is that one of the producers (Mathis) of the show was asked why they did not include Ken Miller, a devout Catholic professor of Biology at Brown University. They admitted that he would have “confused the film unnecessarily.” The producer then had the gall to say that Ken was not a true Catholic because of his beliefs.
Ken Miller fully rejects Intelligent Design (he’s a believer of Theistic Evolution). He was at the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial 3 years ago speaking out against Intelligent Design. The same trial BTW, where Michael Behe (an ID proponent) admitted that if the definition of science was made broad enough to include ID, then even astrology could be called a science.
BTW, there’s a wonderful lecture by Ken Miller on Youtube on the Collapse of Intelligent Design (just search for his name, it’ll be the top result). It’s two hours long, but the 2nd half is just Q&A. I definitely recommend watching that as a juxtaposition to Expelled.
You might want to read Jonah Goldberg’s new book Liberal Fascism for a deeper insight into the origin of fascism and Fascism on the left.
It will help you to understand the totalitarian nature of the green movement.
Forgot to ask: Did you find the movie distinguishes between theology and science? I’m hearing criticism that it conflates the two. That is one of the criticism of Evolution theory that people turn science into a kind of religion (Scientism).
Do you think the border between the physics and metaphysics is clear?
And one more question – I thought Hitler was purifying the race in his eugenic movement. There is a distinction between the various adherents to Darwin theories of evolution. His goals were different than those looking for the next leap in evolution. He and his were already the “superman”.
As genocide goes the end result is still the same, but in wanting to oppose these trends it’s important to understand what drives the movement.
What do you think?
I did not get the impression the movie was trying to blur distinctions between disciplines. As a matter of fact, Ben Stein takes great pains in trying to understand why some scientists, like Richard Dawkins, seem to be closing their minds to the idea of ID. Toward the end of the movie, Dawkins consents to the idea of Intelligent Design as long as it does not involve God, any god.
One may find that a person’s worldview may indeed cloud the senses and handicap judgment. There were many brilliant scientists introduced in this movie who fall into the “evolutionary” camp as it were. All but one, from my observation a professor from Tufts University, were quite lacking in philosophical discipline. Many of these fine men and women seemed to be blending disciplines and dabbling in areas where they are poorly trained and educated.
To your question on Eugenics, watch the movie, they treat the matter fairly and with insight I do not have at my disposal.
Personally, I think the Eugenics movement was an extremist view held by a few socialist activists and today’s evolutionary scientists are not really subscribing to it.
Thanks, I majored in Physics in college so I know the mindset very well. And physicists could be among the worst making the most sweaping statements about philosophy as if they understood it. The hubris was that if I can understand something as difficult as rocket science – philosophy is a cakewalk.
And I’ve read enough of Prof. Dawkins to know something about his thinking. Fortunately, my husband is a biologist so I can ask him about some of the problems there. Prof. Dawkins is what they call a “structualist”, I think, and that branch of biology is in conflict with other branches especially in the evolutionary field of study.
I think that it’s his perspective that God is a projection of our imagination. That’s why he says it would have to aliens – something completely material that is behind any intelligence in the universe.
As to the eugenics thing – there’s an interesting discussion going on this evening over at National Review Online this evening. This is a hot topic right now – on lots of blogs.
It may be a while before I get to see Exposed – small town you know. I’ll rent the DVD or get a copy when it comes out.
Thanks again.