Ben Stein: Expelled or Flunked?
You may remember as the economics teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Stein has returned to the classroom in his new film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which is released in the US on Friday. The film is billed as a documentary exploring the world of "Big Science" and the intolerance of the academic world to those who believe in intelligent design theory. Its critics, including the US National Center for Science Education, claim the film is anything but a balanced documentary. The NCSE have even launched their own website, , which challenges the film's claims and accuses Stein of misrepresentation and presenting creationist propaganda in the guise of a documentary.
Stein is a former lawyer whose career since has taken in comedy writing and acting, political speechwriting (for Gerald Ford) and presenting TV game shows. He is also a staunchly conservative voice on abortion and other culture-war issues in American political life. He co-wrote Expelled and stars in the film, which presents advocates of intelligent design theory as victims of discrimination and links the science of evolution to the ideologies that inspired the Holocaust.
I suspect the film will fill movie theatres across America simply because the creation-evolution debate is so divisive in the United States. Ken Ham, who leads the Creationist organisation Answers in Genesis , has given the film a ringing endorsement and is encouraging supporters to take their families to see it. The Discovery Institute, an American ID think tank, has joined forces with the filmmakers to launch an academic freedom petition.
The Scientific American magazine
responding to the film's claims, which feature some of the scientists featured in Expelled (who claim the film is dishonest, disingenuous and plain shameful). That Scientific American article also includes audio of a meeting between the magazine's staff and Mark Mathis, one of the film's producers.
We'll talk more about the film when it is released in the UK. In the meantime, here's part of a conversation between Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers, a biology professor, who were both interviewed in the film. On 20 March, Myers and Dawkins tried to attend a screening of the film in Minnesota. Bizarrely, Mark Mathis ordered that Professor Myers be banned from the screening. After the screening, Dawkins used the public Q&A session to ask why Myers, who appears in the film, was expelled from the theatre. Mathis accused him of being a gatecrasher, even though Myers had booked the tickets online using his own name.
Comments
Stein is an actor and should stay out of Politics and religion.
From goo to you by the way of the zoo. It just did not happen. For God created man.
The irony and blundering of PZ Myers being expelled from seeing Expelled was delightful to observe. They kicked him out while he appears in the movie, but they didn't notice Dawkins walking into the theatre next to him. Oh dear.
Having a serious debate with these nutters is about as hopeless as with some of the YECs on this very blog. Instead, Myers has written a nice sarcastic retort about the claims of intellectual intolerance and evolution leading to the holocaust etc: Why we need academic freedom…to question Newtonism
I quote from the piece:
'Try polling university physics departments sometime: you won't find the faculty questioning Newton at all. Gravity is over and done with those people, with nothing left to learn, and they won't tolerate even the slightest deviation from Newtonist dogma. An open-minded physicist who suggests even the tiniest revision to the "theory" — for instance, suggesting that maybe Newton got the exponent a little bit wrong, and gravity varies with the cube of the distance, and they laugh at you and refuse to give you tenure. Shouldn't these questions be discussed? Are they so intolerant that they will allow no dissent at all?'
And for another laugh there is the endorsement by Ken Ham. Does he know that Discovery Institute people like Michael Behe have no trouble with an old earth view that contradicts the core of what AiG stands for?
Creationists of different flavours are good for a chuckle. Mix different flavours together and you get a roaring laughter. Lisburn city council, eat your heart out.
Peter
Post 2.
Billy, so would you say you had an open or closed mind on this issue?
I'd say you had a closed mind.
I'd say you have swallowed a story you want to beleive, and now you have your fingers in your ears and are saying "ner ner ner ner ner, I can't hear you". You'll never evolve from goo with that attitude.
Whereas, if you could prduce evidence that refuted evolution, well, I'd pay attention. But you can't can you?
Libertarian publication Reason magazine has a great article on this story .