Expelled – the Movie<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Kerby <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Anderson
April 18, 2008
 
 
            Today the movie "Expelled" hits the theaters. If you are not familiar with it, it a documentary detailing how many professors have been expelled from the academy for believing in intelligent design." The 100-minute documentary follows Ben Stein through various locations and interviews and makes the case for academic freedom especially as it relates to the consideration of an alternate view of origins.
 
            During the film we hear the story of Dr. Richard Sternberg at the Smithsonian Institute who came under fire for publishing a refereed article supporting intelligent design in their journal. He meet Dr. Carolyn Crocker, a former biology professor at George Mason University who was fired for believing in intelligent design. And we hear about Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, an astronomy professor at Iowa State University who was denied tenure because he co-authored The Privileged Planet that documents the fact that the universe is fine-tuned for life and scientific observation.
 
            We also hear from fellows from the Discovery Institute such as Dr. Stephen Meyer, Dr. Jonathan Wells, and Dr. William Dembski. Ben Stein also talks to others scientists like mathematician David Berlinksi and nuclear physicist Gerald Schroeder, both who have become advocates of intelligent design.
 
            Ben Stein also gives the Darwinists a chance to express their confidence in evolutionary theory and their distain for the arguments for intelligent design. We hear, for example, from Dr. William Provine, evolutionary biologist at Cornell University. Perhaps the most enlightening interview is with Dr. Richard Dawkins, atheist author of the book The God Delusion.
 
            One of the controversial elements of the film is the connection it makes between Darwinism and the Holocaust. Ben Stein feels there is a clear connection between the idea of the survival of the fittest and Hitler's scientific rationale for the extermination of the Jews.
 
            Whatever you think of the film, I think it provides a helpful vehicle for talking about not only intelligent design, but introducing people to the Designer. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.