Expelled

Every so often I’ll see this advertisement floating around on conservative news sites, showing a picture of Ben Stein and a movie called “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed“. I stopped to read a little about it once, and the prospect of a movie about the intelligent design vs. Darwinism debate seemed very interesting to me. I saw the movie a few nights ago at Blockbuster and decided to rent it.

This one goes right to my list of recommended movies.  Ben Stein (he’s the teacher on Ferris Beuler’s Day Off who calls Beuler over and over in his monotone voice) narrates this movie about how intelligent design has come under attack in the academic community.  He interviews a few academics who were either denied tenure or forced out of their schools for daring to even mention ID in their scholarly work.  He also interviews some atheists and proponents of Darwinism, asking questions about their beliefs.  Ben Steins question is why, if the theories of Darwinism are pushed so much in universities, can’t ID receive the same chance to be analyzed in the classroom.  A legitimate question, I believe, since a university education should be about discussion, debate, and critical thinking.

The problem that exists now is that we are only allowed to think critically about Darwinism when inside the classroom.  The “well educated” apparently fear that the mentioning of the words intelligent design to a student would be the same as imposing a religious ideology on him or her.  Students are not given the credit that they can think for themselves and decide which theory makes the most sense.  Instead anything that even remotely insinuates God is kept as far from campus as legally possible.

What it comes down to for me is this: there are two sides to every argument.  In this case, the Darwinists may be right, or the proponents of ID might be right.  The important thing is that each side be given a voice, especially at a university.  Darwinists will say that there is no evidence of ID therefore they cannot teach it.  That’s nice until you ask any Darwinist to prove that ID didn’t happen.  They cannot do it.  That alone means that there is a base for discussion.

I am a religious person so I believe in God as the Creator.  No matter what I say to a Darwinist, they will not take scripture as proof.  That is fine with me.  But on the other hand, not one of them can show me that God did not create the heavens and the earth.  They must live with that.  Whether you believe God was the intelligent designer, or you don’t know who or what designed all things, the fact remains that it cannot be discounted and should not be excluded from scholarly discussion.

The prominent atheist in the movie said it best when he first suggested that life began on the backs of crystals but then conceded it was possible that somebody could have created those piggy-backing organisms.  Even this big bad atheist couldn’t look Ben Stein in the eye and tell him how life started.  Why?  Because he doesn’t know.

When you don’t know, you can’t attempt to silence the other side for proposing their ideas.

Tags: Ben Stein Expelled, Creationism, Darwinism, Expelled Movie, Intelligent Design