I went to see this movie last Sunday with my wife. After the first three minutes, my wife turned to me and asked in an exasperated voice, "Will the whole movie be like this?" But by the end, she was enthralled as was the rest of the crowd with the way Ben Stein presented his evidence and showed the world what a truly responsible investigative journalist would produce.
Brent Bozell had the following to say:
| It is a reality of PC liberalism: There is only one credible side to an issue, and any dissent is not only rejected, it is scorned. Global warming. Gay "rights." Abortion "rights." On these and so many other issues there is enlightenment, and then there is the Idiotic Other Side. PC liberalism's power centers are the news media, the entertainment industry and academia, and all are in the clutches of an unmistakable hypocrisy: Theirs is an ideology that preaches the freedom of thought and expression at every opportunity, yet practices absolute intolerance toward dissension. |
And the issue Ben Stein chose to illustrate this: Intelligent Design.
| Ben Stein's extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection. Stein asks a simple question: What if the universe began with an intelligent designer, a designer named God? He assembles a stable of academics -- experts all -- who dared to question Darwinist assumptions and found themselves "expelled" from intellectual discourse as a result. They include evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg (sandbagged at the Smithsonian), biology professor Caroline Crocker (drummed out of George Mason University), and astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez (blackballed at Iowa State University). That's disturbing enough, but what Stein does next is truly shocking. He allows the principal advocates of Darwinism to speak their minds. These are experts with national reputations, regular welcomed guests on network television and the like. But the public knows them only by their careful seven-second soundbites. Stein engages them in conversation. They speak their minds. They become sputtering ranters, openly championing their sheer hatred of religion. |
And this was probably the most moving part of the film:
| The most controversial part of the film follows Stein to the Dachau concentration camp, underlining how Darwin's theories of natural selection led to the eugenics movement, embraced by Adolf Hitler. If there is no God, but only a planetary lab waiting for scientists to perfect the human race, where can Darwinism lead? Stein insists that he isn't accusing today's Darwinists of Nazism. He points out, however, that Hitler's mad science was inspired by Darwinism. |
And here is what Nina May has to say:
| There is a wonderful new documentary out, called Expelled, produced by Ben Stein, that looks not only at the conflict between the two views of whether or not God created all we behold, or if it just happened by accident. It looks at the move by the unbelievers to keep the concept and even discussion of a “God possibility” out of the marketplace. The film successfully tracks the history of “godless” nations, their inhumanity to man, and the ultimate failure of their systems while tracing the move to eradicate God from the educational system in the U.S., intimidating professors and scientists who even suggest that creative design is not only possible, but a reality. As interesting as it is to track the desperation of god-denying apologists, it is more interesting to read their rantings in response to the very simple supposition in the film that creationism should at least be allowed to be discussed as a viable alternative to . . . well . . . to what? It reminds me of the joke where man claims he is God and can do anything God can do and better, so God says, cool, make a man like I did, out of dust. ... The great thing about this discussion, is the blatant hypocrisy when you consider the fact that this film is being vilified by the very open-minded left, who will argue to the death that alternative lifestyles should be celebrated, embraced and encouraged. Yet the alternative lifestyle of believing in a creator, who made each of us in His own image, is not only reviled and marginalized, but those who express this belief are condemned as not being smart enough to even engage in the discussion. |
You can access the complete columns on-line here:
Ben Stein Versus The Sputtering Atheists
Brent Bozell III
TownHall.com
April 18, 2008
Response to Movie "Expelled" Proves Its Point: Man Has Not Evolved
Nina May
TownHall.com
April 22, 2008
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