Expelled is a new documentary(?) that is supposedly examining the theory of evolution. I have yet to see the film, but I saw two long chunks during an interview with Ben Stein on some channel with poor production values. I have also found ExpelledExposed.com and learned more about this production.

In one of the portions of the film I saw, Expelled emotionally charges the audience by telling the story of some scientists & professors who were shunned, fired, etc. because they didn’t agree with Darwinism. Certainly that does not prove Darwinism is wrong and Creationism is right. I am quite sure if these folks were fired it was within reason. After all, if a vegetarian got hired at McDonald’s and refused to cook the burgers, I would guess that they would get fired for not doing their job. College departments have complimentary syllabuses within the department and changes to one class affects quite a few others. Of course, they are not going to let you teach something other than Darwinism.

Hey, what if I decide to go into the ministry? How about I go to school to become a preacher and the first day, when I get my church, I decide to give a sermon on Zeus? I think that the agreed material for a church is a Bible, so I might be shunned, or worse, fired.

The other clip I saw featured some atheist being interviewed, but they were very short clips, so I couldn’t help feeling that they were heavily edited. Now, this is how the world works, we’ve unfortunately seen our share of reality TV and know that they edit the shows to create the drama. Michael Moore has taken all sorts of flack because people think he has done creative editing and only presented his side of the argument. Some other dirty tactics noted by ExpelledExposed.com seem very typical too. The website has some interesting information about how these popular atheists were approached. They were told the interviews were for a movie called Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion.

Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion
It has been the central question of humanity through the ages: How in the world did we get here? In 1859 Charles Darwin provided the answer in his landmark book, “The Origin of Species.” In the century and a half since, geologists, biologists, physicists, astronomers, and philosophers have contributed a vast amount of research and data in support of Darwin’s idea. And yet, millions of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and other people of faith believe in a literal interpretation that humans were crafted by the hand of God. The conflict between science and religion has unleashed passions in school board meetings, courtrooms, and town halls across America and beyond.

Again, although it is an unsavory tactic, I am sure it is a popular one. Overall, I am happy that ExpelledExposed.com is there, exposing things like planted reviews, the exclusion of the atheist interviewees from any special screenings and of course the way the filmmakers represented a fictional film. However, I have seen documentaries that do many of the same things and an intelligent, non-bias audience member can spot a slanted viewpoint pretty quick. Actually, a couple of weeks ago I saw The God Who Wasn’t There, and though I had high hopes for it, the movie was hopelessly biased. Being an atheist, I should have blindly loved the film, right? The film was all flashy images, music and no meat or central issue; basically the filmmaker didn’t like attending his religious school and tried to discredit them.

I don’t want to attack Stein because I have enjoyed his work in the past. Plus, it is nice to see a celebrity to take a stand for something they believe instead of playing it safe for PR reasons. However, it is interesting to note that he seems to be thought of as above average intelligence in the acting world. Why is that? He had his own general knowledge quiz show and wrote speeches for Nixon, but those aren’t reasons to think he’s any smarter than Anthony Hopkins or Courtney Cox. Strangely enough, one of his most recent jobs was discussing finances in a New York Times column. In the column, “Stein made the foolish argument that because sub-prime was so tiny relative to the US Economy, it was meaningless.” Oops. So in college he studied economics, I took Political Science in college, but The New York Times is after me to write a column on the race.

Enough with my rant, I just want to add a few notes on this particular blog.

• As I read stuff about Creationism, it is strange how it was first re-labeled “Intelligent Design” and now it is called “ID.” Something to think about.
• When I searched ‘pearly gates’ on Google the first image, which is a cropped version of the second image, is a still from SouthPark. I don’t know, I thought that was funny and unexpected.

For some more serious stuff, check the videos below. Of course, check out the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and come to your own conclusions. Funny, ‘no intelligence allowed,’ exactly like I said above, an intelligent non-biased person can spot a unfair slant in a documentary, maybe we are not invited.

Comedic, sarcastic video, RT-?:??(longish)–

More serious, more facts, presented by a Roman Catholic who believes evolution is compatible with a belief in God, RT-1:17.