Expelled

Mainstream reviews of Ben Stein’s EXPELLED are going apoplectic over the movie’s connection between Darwin and Hitler. Take, for instance, the review in the Village Voice: it describes the connection between Darwinism and Naziism as “bizarre and hysterical.” Yet this weekend saw the opening not only of EXPELLED but also of CONSTANTINE’S SWORD. Here’s what the Village Voice has to say about that film: X marks the spot, literally, where Christianity and the Catholic Church fostered the centuries of religious hatred and anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust…. But if his film is more provocative personal inquiry than reportorial knockout punch, it still pokes needed holes in the concept of papal infallibility and provides historical context for the dangers of Read More ›

This just in from those ever so clever Internet Infidels: “So I went and saw it [EXPELLED] today. No, I didn’t give Ben Stein any of my money — I bought a ticket to a different movie starting at the same time.” It makes one wonder how much larger EXPELLED’s take would be if Darwinists pulling this trick were factored in.

“One of the reasons research is being stifled in the U.S. is the pressure from the left for conformity to their agenda. How many scientists have been threatened with the loss of their grants because their work questioned the left’s Global Warming mantra? The decline in science is directly related to its politicalization.” –James Barends

[Note: This article is an excerpt of what was originally published on Evolution News and Views as a 3-part series, linked as follows: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.  For the full article, see http://www.discovery.org/a/4689.] Scientific American has a long history of opposing intelligent design (ID), so it comes as no surprise that they have tasked their columnist Michael Shermer with the job of attacking Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Michael Shermer is the founder of Skeptic Magazine, who loves to boast about how evolution liberated him from belief in God. In fact, he does just that in his article attacking Expelled, opening it by saying: “In 1974 I matriculated at Pepperdine University as a born-again Christian who rejected Darwinism and Read More ›

With the Expelled movie set to open across the United States in less than 24 hours, the latest uproar is a claim?/revelation? that the film used John Lennon’s Imagine without permission. Also, some stuff from The Killers.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal (but you must pay for most of it). Update: Here it is on Richard Dawkins’s site in full. Hat tip to Ethan below.

Huff Post columnist James Boyce holds forth here. And here’s a wealth of what may be information. (“Have some potato chips with your salt, for goodness sakes …”)

Tomorrow I will be in a blogger’s teleconference with Ben Stein and have written to ask that he address the accusation and the producers’ response that they only used a little bit of the music.

[(2008 04 18 1:43 EST) Update from the “Oh for Pete’s sake” department: The press conference has been cancelled.  I phoned the agency, where the person at the desk knows nothing, except that she hasn’t heard that the film won’t open tonight. So for now I suppose it will.  Legal action  from the Yoko Own-o empire later, perhaps.  

Quite honestly, at this point, I think the only important question re Expelled is whether the people it is intended to reach will go see it.  That’s all any documentary can ever do.  Later, I will write about the curious reviews appearing in legacy media, designed to reassure the materialist faithful that it is lies, all lies.  Also, scattered handsful of people will apparently turn out to protest. 

If I get time, I would like to write a cultural document about the sort of person who rousts himself out on a Friday night, wearing a tee shirt that demands, “On what day did God make the fossils?” (The day before yesterday,  Pootsie, and if you are not buying a ticket, could we stand a  little ways away from the booth? ) ]

For now I am wondering whether it was a publicity stunt to force the left blogosphere to write about the film.

You know, the old ad gimmick that if you hear something mentioned often enough, you end up buying it ….

Update April 18, 2008: I just received an e-mail from a correspondent, advising 

I saw you discussing this on the article about “Expelled”, so here is what the head administrator over at the official Killers forum has just posted:

“I just spoke to the band’s manager, and adding to the confusion was the fact that they did authorize a project months ago with this request:
Quote:

“The film is a satirical documentary with an estimated running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, exploring academic freedom in public schools and government institutions with actor, comedian, economist, Ben Stein as the spokesperson.”

What they authorized was a documentary about “academic freedom in schools”, not the film that the producers produced.

They contacted the producers of the film to ask that the song be removed but it is too late. Unfortunately it was misrepresented to them when the request came through to use it. Add this band to a long line of people who were misled by the producers of this film.“

 Absolutely fascinating!  It sounds as though our correspondent does not think that academic freedom applies to those who disagree with her about the evidence from nature  for the design of life. Thus the film really “isn’t” about academic freedom in the schools, you see.  Academic freedom is freedom to spout the party line at all times and in all places. Remember that, folks.

In any event, if the Expelled team got permission, they got permission, so they are legally in the clear.  (Note: Budget line item under expenses: Nuisance lawsuits – $???????)

Also, just up at Access Research Network: A look at Jewish physicist Gerald Schroeder’s The Science of God

For the most part Schroeder would get along quite well with the design theorists (and he is in the Expelled film): Here’s why: Read More ›

Richard Weikart summarizes his devastating research into the Darwinian foundations of Nazis – and the continuation of those themes by modern evolutionists.
———————————————
Darwin and the Nazis
By Richard Weikart Published 4/16/2008 12:07:03 AM American Spectator

Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, and some other Darwinists are horrified that the forthcoming documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, will promote Intelligent Design to a large audience when it opens at over a thousand theaters nationwide on April 18. Ironically, their campaign to discredit Ben Stein and the film confirms its main point, which is to expose the persecution meted out by Darwinists to those daring to criticize Darwinian theory.

One aspect of Expelled that troubles Dawkins and some of his colleagues is its treatment of the ethical implications of Darwinism, especially its discussion of the historical connections between Darwinism and Nazism. Isn’t this a bit over-the-top, suggesting that Darwinism has something to do with Nazism? After all, Darwinists today are not Nazis, and Darwinism has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. Read More ›

I met John Rennie, the chief editor at Scientific American, back in 2002 at the American Museum of Natural History when Mike Behe and I debated Ken Miller and Rob Pennock. Following that debate, Rennie turned SCIAM increasingly against ID. With no more than a bachelor’s degree, Rennie expatiates on the nature of science and why ID doesn’t fit the bill. Here’s a clip from his recent review of Ben Stein’s EXPELLED (note that this passage is taken from the Google cache — he apparently has since modified the review at SCIAM): It speaks to their anti-intellectualism and fundamental misunderstanding of science that for the makers of Expelled (and ID advocates more generally) the answer “we don’t know yet” is Read More ›

Here’s an excerpt from a news story about EXPELLED. The excerpt describes one of a multitude of cases that didn’t make it into the movie. It will be interesting to see what happens when more and more people like this come forward: . . . These incidents do not count the number of other scientists and professors who feel the need to hide their convictions in order to survive in the academy. For example, David Klinghoffer, writing for Townhall Magazine on February 26, 2008, reveals the following true story: A biologist I know recently bleached his hair and changed his appearance in other ways so as to be almost unrecognizable. I’m being deliberately vague about his looks and identity because Read More ›

I received this press release moments ago: The skinny: 1. The Expelled producers have filed suit in the Northern District of Texas seeking declaratory judgment that there is no copyright or other infringement. Premise Media also seeks its attorneys’ fees in responding to the XVIVO claims. 2. They also suspect that some will try to influence Internet search ranks for Expelled, to direct persons seeking information to attack sites instead. (To solve this problem, just go to Expelled directly.) For the fire and brimstone press release, go here.

The following statement is from the Executive Producers of EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. Since we began working on this very interesting project, the producers have been the subject of any number of groundless accusations, most of which we found amusing. The vast majority of these accusations we chose to ignore given that agitation is typical with any provocative documentary. We also recognized that as the film took form, it would specifically disturb a vocal minority of academic elites, and tread on what some people involved with science and academia consider sacred ground. We therefore expected a high level of criticism against the film from this particular group, who view themselves as self appointed gatekeepers. We accepted in good humor many Read More ›

As reviews of Expelled pile up, ranging from the “Dishonest!” (as if) through “missed the exit lane two hours ago*” through facile, and on to thoughtful, ending with the rousingly positive, one thing has become quite obvious: There really is a culture war, and whether you love or hate this film will largely depend on which side you are on.

If you are a materialist, you will think that any level of harassment, persecution, or unjust dealings against non-materialists or Darwin doubters is justified. Or else you will simply refuse to see it when it is before your face. After all, you know that Darwin was right, there is no free will and no hereafter, and all that matters is winning now.

If you are a non-materialist, you think that the line between good and evil passes through the human heart and that there really is free will and truth, and you keep hoping that evidence will one day finally matter.

This struggle for the soul of science will  be played out  in public from now on, which is probably a good thing. But expect to groan through many TV-driven fatuities  (Big Science, meet Big Hair; New Science, meet Christian pundettes).

Prediction: The ability to communicate skillfully with the public – over against legacy media story distorters – will be critical.

*This critic apparently believes that Expelled will wreck Ben Stein’s career. Yeah really.

Just up at the Overwhelming Evidence blog

From Mutation Works: Evolve your own musical cave man. (And if he turns out to be a great, yawping troll, please reclassify him as an anthropoid ape and send no photos). Read More ›

He’s the guy in the blue shirt, talking about the National Academy of Science.

Jeff Schwartz is best known as the lead author of The Mind and the Brain, which addressed key findings on how the mind controls and shapes the brain. (Move over, Steve Pinker, you’re hogging the bench again.)

Incidentally, Bill was commenting on Time science writer Jeffrey Kluger’s Cordon Bleu theory of the origin of life (stir and slow cook). I have never read a serious OOL researcher who talked in such a blithely optimistic way.

This highlights a key feature of current materialism: Read More ›

Jeffrey Kluger’s review of EXPELLED in TIME Magazine is on balance negative. Interestingly, though, he makes clear something of what is motivating EXPELLED: In fairness to Stein, his opponents have hardly covered themselves in glory. Evolutionary biologists and social commentators have lately taken to answering the claims of intelligent-design boosters not with clear-eyed scientific empiricism but with sneering, finger-in-the-eye atheism. Biologist P.Z. Myers, for example, tells Stein that religion ought to be seen as little more than a soothing pastime, a bit like knitting. Books such as Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great and Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion often read like pure taunting, as when Hitchens pettily and pointedly types God as lowercase god. Tautology as typography is not Read More ›

What is the cultural significance of the sheer dullness of National Center for Science Education’s Expelled attack site? Is this their idea of an attack site? Rows and rows of links to the usual suspects who have every reason not to like the film’s message, offering the usual denials and denunciations. Maybe an Expelled philanthropist should give them a grant to spice it up. After all, their site will be no use for Expelled publicity unless they come up with something better. But wait … maybe they can’t come up with something better. Does that mean they are losing the culture war? Also: Will Expelled succeed at the box office? Expelled: Intellectual property vs. intellectual territorialism Wanted: Social scientist to Read More ›