(The movie’s subtitle irony is not intended, I’m sure.)
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is trying to do to evolution what Michael Moore did to guns in Bowling for Columbine, except with plenty more invocations of Godwin’s Law (even visible in the trailer - note the live-from-Dachau setting about halfway through). It is slated to be released on April 18th in theatres everywhere. Overview of the movie from their site:
WHO: Ben Stein, in the new film EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed
WHAT: His heroic and, at times, shocking journey confronting the world’s top scientists, educators and philosophers, regarding the persecution of the many by an elite few.
WHEN: Coming to a theater near you on April 18, 2008
WHERE: Ben travels the world on his quest, and learns an awe-inspiring truth…that bewilders him, then angers him…and then spurs him to action!
WHY: Ben realizes that he has been “Expelled,” and that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired – for the “crime” of merely believing that there might be evidence of “design” in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance.
To which Ben Says: “Enough!” And then gets busy. NOBODY messes with Ben.
Besides the thought of Ben Stein getting busy, there’s plenty to be disgusted at with this movie. The essential thesis is that reasonable scientists who support creationism/intelligent design are being blacklisted because they have the audacity to question “big science,” which is composed of an elite cabal of “Darwinists” who refuse to let anyone question their authority. They’re being denied their freedom of speech! Could it get any more un-American than this? This is, of course, completely false. The IDers have been allowed to speak, write, pontificate, and whine all they want, but the reason they are getting blacklisted is not because they dare to question science but because of their complete ignorance of science, inability to base their hypotheses in any sort of natural evidence, and inability to provide any sort of falsifiable proof during their research. It is all the more ridiculous when realizing that questioning science is fundamental to its core - the reason Einstein won the Nobel Prize is because he questioned Newton’s laws, but the key is that he also used falsifiable evidence to prove himself.
Here’s a good summary of the movie, its saga, and its controversy from Dr. Steven Novella via NeurologicaBlog / Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe:
But the core of Expelled, and the claim from which it derives its title, is that Darwinists are ideologues who are oppressing anyone who holds a contrary view and are systematically repressing academic freedom, free speech, and any fair discussion of legitimate scientific skepticism of Darwin’s ideas. This is, in fact, the latest propaganda tactic of the ID crowd. It is also utter hogwash.
Creationists have long gone out of their way to misinterpret any statement by a scientist as to the high degree of confidence we have in the theory of evolution as dogma. Now this strategy has been expanded to argue that if an academic is criticized for making ignorant statements about evolution, then their free speech is being oppressed. If an academic displays scientific incompetence by making blatantly pseudoscientific statements or publishing abject nonsense, and their career fairly reflects this incompetence, then the ID crowd cries for “academic freedom.”
It’s all a deceitful dodge. The truth is the creationists/ID proponents do not like evolutionary theory because it conflicts with their ideological beliefs. They therefore are doing everything they can to make evolution controversial and keep it out of the schools, while inserting their religious views as science. Failing that they want their distortions and lies about evolution to be treated as if it were legitimate scientific discourse. ID is no more science than astrology, geocentrism, the expanding earth theory, or homeopathy. None of it has any place in the world of science, except as object lessons in pseudoscience.
For most of us familiar with Creationism v. Real Science, this is all the same kind of things we’ve seen plenty of times before. It’s just another sham to try to create a spectre of controversy around the whole thing where none exists just so kids don’t come into contact with anything that might cause them to question the theology dogmas their parents can’t answer back at home.
But then the fun part begins… there are plenty of Real Scientists and evolution stalwarts in the movie, including Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, Eugenie Scott, etc., who were tricked in order to get them to appear with their guard down. The company said the movie was called “Crossroads”, was being produced by Rampant Films, and was about the controversy between evolution and ID. The film and the company were made up, as the domain for Expelled was already registered months before any interviews took place. This “Rampant Films” had a fake site put up with fake movies that they had done to appear legitimate.
Even more fun is when PZ Myers legitimately signed up to attend a preview screening of the movie at the Mall of America in Minnesota. These previews had typically been shown mostly to believers in order to raise a grassroots excitement about the film. PZ signed up legitimately through the site, received his pass (along with a number of guests), provided identification upon arrival… and was promptly pulled out of line and expelled from Expelled. But upon evicting PZ Myers, they apparently neglected to check his other guests’ identities, or they would have also caught… Richard Dawkins himself, who managed to get in and watch the entire thing, as well as ask a question! Again from Neurologica:
At the end of the movie, during a Q&A, Dawkins got up to ask why Myers was expelled from the movie.
…
In response to Dawkins’ question, Mathis said that Myers was thrown out because the screening was by invitation only and he was not invited. This is not true - it was not by invitation and Myers did sign up online just like everyone else, using his real name. Then Mathis implied that PZ was being unruly (not true), and that he let Dawkins in because he was “honorable.” Now he is saying that “I banned pz because I want him to pay to see it. Nothing more.”
Dawkins also posted a predictably scathing review and description of the event on his website, which is well worth a read for paragraphs like these:
The whole tone of the film is whiny, paranoid — pathetic really. The narrator is somebody called Ben Stein. I had not heard of him, but apparently he is well known to Americans, for it is hard to see why else he would have been chosen to front the film. He certainly can’t have been chosen for his knowledge of science, nor his powers of logical reasoning, nor his box office appeal (heavens, no), and his speaking voice is an irritating, nasal drawl, innocent of charm and of consonants. I suppose that makes it a good voice for conveying the whingeing paranoia that I referred to, so maybe that was qualification enough.
Also be sure to enjoy the review from the Orlando Sentinel, written not by a scientist but by a film critic.
All in all, it’s a sign that Kitzmiller v. Dover didn’t put a nail in the coffin of intelligent design like most of us had hoped. It’s amazing and shameful to see the lengths the IDers continue to go to in order to manufacture this controversy to stop real science from being taught.
