Ben Stein’s documentary - Expelled
24 April 2008 in Blog | Comments enabled

On Sunday of this week, I went to see the Ben Stein documentary, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.”

According to Entertainment weekly, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a controversial 2008 film which claims that American educators and scientists are being persecuted for their belief that there might be evidence of intelligent design in nature. Hosted by Ben Stein, the film claims that what it calls “Big Science” suppresses dissent from the scientific theory of evolution, and portrays the theory as having contributed to the rise of the Nazi Holocaust, communism, atheism and Planned Parenthood. The film was released on April 18, 2008.”

I was curious about the film for two reasons. 1) I was wondering if the Republicans now had their own Michael Moore. 2) I believe in Intelligent Design and wanted to see what arguments the film made.

I can say that Ben Stein is not Michael Moore. I disagree politically with Michael Moore BUT I have to say, he makes really good documentaries. I enjoy them for their entertainment value. To be honest, Expelled was very slow. And hearing the “Bueller” voice for an hour and a half could really put you to sleep. (Though to be fair, Ben Stein did not direct the film, only co-wrote it and starred in it.)

The Discovery Institute defines intelligent design as the assertion that “certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection”.

The film revealed some extremely shocking facts about scientists and their regard for the Intelligent Design theory. Mr. Stein interviewed several scientists and professors who were fired or reprimanded for merely mentioning the Intelligent Design theory in classes or papers. The first scientist interviewed was at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. He was fired from the Smithsonian for simply printing a paper written by an Intelligent Design theorist.

Whatever your views on the issue, I think everyone can agree that there should be freedom to discuss theories without interference from “Big Science.” The documentary makes some interesting comparisons to Germany during the Nazi regime and the Cold War. Pretty scary stuff.

I could say more on this subject but this is a filmmaking blog. I urge you all to take a look at this documentary. I feel like it gives a pretty fair look at the issue. It does take a side but has a good and generally well thought out argument. Check it out when it comes out on DVD.

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