Expellled, has Ben Stein lost it?

[FUNdamental]

During one of the Republican debates, a person asked John McCain if he believed in Evolution. Senator McCain said "yes." The moderator then asked who on the stage didn't believe in Evolution and three hands went up-Tancrado, Huckabee, and Brownback.

Now, Ben Stein is about to release a movie that touts "Intelligent Design" as an alternative explanation to Darwinism. Though ID is never clearly defined, and no scientific evidence presented for ID is given, Darwin scientists are skewered and Darwinism is linked to Hitler's gas chambers, abortion, and atheism (the fact that Pope John Paul II stated that "evolution was more than just a hypothesis' and that evolution is compatible with Christian faith" apparently is not mentioned).

Junk science in this film is at best "junk." Intelligent Design and there is no climate change problem, are just two of the nonsense debate points many in the Republican party are presenting to the American people. On the issue of "Intelligent Design," the producers of this movie want to brainwash the American people into thinking scientific community demands "Darwinism" is the only way to go, and you will be persecuted if you deviate from that point. The truth of the matter is quite different from the movie's flawed premise. Darwinist don't mind Darwinism being questioned or put through scientific scrutiny. It is all part of the process. However, Darwinist do not take kindly to those that question their scientific studies by presenting a "one off, once in a billion, and cannot be repeated " explanation for the world; this debate premise is not part of the scientific process, and it never should be.

After all, if God's design and will was to kill off many Black people with sickle cell anemia, then their is no reason for us to look for a cure. Ben Stein has gone too far here, and history will look at him in this stage of his life not as a comedian but as a 21st century kook. That is evolution for you.

[FUNdamental]

Hey Republicans, keep it up. Your next "documentary" should be on how a whale really did swallow Jonah!


The reviews are in; they are pretty bad.

According to "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," the source of all evil in the modern world is Darwinism, a philosophy that, the film posits, is responsible for everything from atheism to abortion, euthanasia to the Holocaust.

A hard-core, fundamentalist bit of right-wing propaganda, "Expelled" slyly appropriates its style from liberal and left-wing sources, sending Ben Stein out to do deadpan interviews of a grab-bag of experts and wack jobs, while intercutting old movies, new animation and newsreel footage.

Typical of all propaganda, it also distorts language. The narration talks of "Darwinism" -- not evolution -- to make it sound like a dangerously secular cult; creationism is replaced by the more scientific-sounding "intelligent design." After an hour and a half, my faith in Darwin was shaken because, judging by what was on screen, we haven't evolved one blessed bit.

STEPHEN WHITTY,

NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

[FUNdamental]

My favorite review

Baltimore Sun
Someday perhaps it will be possible to look back on Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed as a relic and reminder of the rhetorical logic employed during the era of George W. Bush. Until then, it should be seen simply as a tiresome ideological bludgeon, an attempt to deceive audiences into believing it is one thing when it is, in fact, quite another.

Perhaps some Republican can post articles from National Review and WorldNetdaily that praise this movie. We all know how on target NR and WMD were with all those Osama-Saddam connections, Iraq's WMD proof, and Iraq's 15 minute strike capability. We know they wrote such nonsense because several on this board kept posting the cr@p and bashing anyone that disagreed with them.

Now, all we hear was "the intelligence was wrong," and "they were given faulty information." Yes, that is true, and as we all know, most of the faulty information came from Douglas Feith, an administration official.