Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a pretty good description on this film. There is hardly a scrap of intelligence to be found here. Whether Stein is (badly) feigning shock, enlightenment, or sincerity, one thing is for sure, this movie is headed to the bargain bin. The film begins with a series of interviews explaining why certain individuals were "expelled" from their positions as teachers, scientists, etc. Nevermind the facts, it doesn't matter if the woman's contract was up, they must have fired her because she referenced I.D. in a paper. Yes, I know what you're thinking, intelligent design has an acronym now?
Ben Stein goes through great lengths to convince us that this has nothing at all to do with religion. Maybe he should've watched his own movie. After informing us that this is about science, we hear tale after tale of scary godless atheists who were converted to this horrifying Darwinian thought. In case the audience wasn't bright enough to get the point, droning ominous music plays throughout the entire film, that is until Ben Stein's rousing and liberating speech at the end. I think we may just have another Martin Luther King, Jr. on our hands.
Now onto what the movie has to say. Basically, it's a grand conspiracy theory that attempts to show the way in which mounds and mounds of evidence regarding intelligent design (better termed "Creationism") is discarded and hidden from the public in an effort to turn the world into Nazis. You may think I'm kidding, but I'm actually half-serious. Stein actually does draw the comparison of scientists to Nazis on multiple occasions. But back to the topic at hand. Stein ignores one extremely tremendous issue: creationism/intelligent design isn't science! At best it could be described as philosophy but in reality only the conservative and fundamentalist religious branches tend to have any interest in the subject at all.
The fundamentalists are right when they quickly point out that evolution cannot explain the origin of life, but this is a limit of all science, not the theory of biological evolution. Science is a study of the observable, and there is nothing observable about life origin as it only occurred once. Unless a way is discovered to repeat it, this is simply outside the realm of science and evolution. Yes, religion may give an answer, but it is hardly evidenced or provable, meaning that it has no place in a science classroom.
To compound the film's already illogical base, individuals were actually conned into making this film. Famed author of The God Delusion Richard Dawkins stated that he was lied to regarding the film's title and focus. He states that when making quipping remarks regarding intelligent design, the interviewer laughed right along with him. He also describes the way in which he attempted to discredit intelligent design, but was edited into the film as seemingly supporting it. For anyone even slightly familiar with Richard Dawkins, they would know this to be untrue.
Another such example of dishonesty is that which was shown toward the gentleman who discussed the "crystal theory," and was edited to appear as if he believed this theory. He in fact does not at all, but was simply attempting to dignify Stein's question regarding currently existent theories of origin within the scientific community.
Constantly repeated throughout this boring and artless film is the notion that the scientific community is unwilling to discuss intelligent design, which is beyond untrue. I have sitting beside me a book entitled Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism. This is a detailed and complex work thoroughly addressing the arguments levied against biological evolution. I would find it difficult to believe that anyone would find the book evasive. I also am holding a book titled Evolution and Religious Creation Myths by none other than Oxford University Press. For those unfamiliar with Oxford University Press, they are also responsible for the printing of America's most comprehensive Bible. So to say that academics or science doesn't take the arguments for intelligent design seriously is a bit ridiculous.
Lastly is this ridiculous notion of evolution leading to Holocaust-like violence. For those unfamiliar with Hitler, he was not an atheist, rather a Catholic. His hatred for Jews was rooted in probably large part to his Catholic heritage. To quote Dr. Dawkins, "Martin Luther himself wrote a book called On the Jews and their Lies from which Hitler quoted. And Luther publicly said that ‘All Jews should be driven from Germany.'" Bill Maher is quoted in the film as saying that we should "regulate religion" rather than guns or drugs. I see more of a tie from religion to horrendous acts than from the theory of evolution to horrendous acts when discussing Hitler. To insinuate that modern scientists are stupid enough to commit acts of genocide in the name of science is insulting to the entire hard-working scientific community.
Any biological scientist dealing with evolution will explain that this theory exists to describe natural behavior, not to encourage human interaction based on such behavior. One can actually see the opposite in fields such as psychology and sociology, which work to help people overcome oftentimes animalistic instincts by use of evolutionary theory.
So in the end, this film only serves to throw fire on the already sensationalized conspiracy theory regarding scientists and evolution. There are many explanations for why this debate rages on, but I have a theory. It seems to me that humankind wants to feel as if they are above all other forms of life, sort of an innate self-superiority. When admitting that all life relies on, and comes from, other life, a piece of that superiority is lost. They often mask this by saying that without this innate superiority, without being "in the image of God" as Creationists put it, we are unimportant.
However, this argument falls flat when one realizes one can approach this from an opposing perspective. When we become a part of all earthly life, and all earthly life becomes a part of us, one could argue that it raises the value of all life. The interdependency allows us to appreciate the beauty and complexity of life, something that people like Stein may never be able to experience.
