Sunday, April 20, 2008
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Expelled!
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
7:26 PM
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It was a rainy afternoon in DC, so I took this opportunity to see Ben Stein's new movie, Expelled. The TV ads for the movie make it appear to be a comedy. In fact, it is a well-produced documentary on the topic of Intelligent Design.
Because Stein is a pop-culture icon, a rebel, and an intellectual, he is perhaps the perfect candidate to challenge the surprisingly closed-minded nature of many in the scientific community. This film does just that.
In the documentary, Stein interviews many highly-qualified and intelligent proponents -- and opponents -- of Intelligent Design. Ultimately, it becomes apparent that many of the opponents of Intelligent Design are really opponents of religion.
For example, one "expert" actually admits to Stein that it is possible that we were created by Intelligent Design -- so long as the advanced designers were themselves created by the big bang theory (In other words, so long as God wasn't involved, it is possible that there was a creator).
Stein, on several occasions, asks these highly-qualified and respected scientists to explain precisely how life began. Each of them struggles tremendously with this challenge, and none of them is able to offer a coherent explanation of how something came from nothing. After watching this movie, the line that it takes more faith to believe in Darwinism than in Creationism rings true.
The film also succeeds in demonstrating that "ideas have consequences, " and that the ideology of Darwinism is a slippery-slope that ultimately undermines the value societies place on life. I'm reading Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascists" right now, and a major premise (in fact, a chapter is devoted to it) is that Darwinism's world view ultimately led to eugenics (which, at the time, was also championed by the "scientific community"). This movie makes the same point. My hope is that, because of Stein's mainstream appeal, this very important point will gain an even wider audience.
In short, this is a thought-provoking movie that is sure to arouse anger from the Left.
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