Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
| Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Nathan Frankowski |
| Written by | Kevin Miller, Walt Ruloff |
| Produced by | Walt Ruloff |
| Starring | Ben Stein |
| Distributed by | Premise Media |
Release date | February 2008 |
Running time | 90 min |
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a controversial documentary film about intelligent design. Starring Ben Stein, it is due to be released in February 2008. The film claims that intelligent design proponents are discriminated against by the scientific community, repeats the creationist claim that evolution is a belief-system rooted in dogma, and resurrects the Sternberg peer review controversy.[1]
Although not yet released, the film is being touted by Christian, pro-creationism movie sites,[2] and by organizations affiliated with the Discovery Institute, the leading promoter of the intelligent design campaign.[3][4] The DI website, Intelligent Design the Future, makes the claim that Expelled "reveals the stark truth: Darwinists have been conspiring to keep design out of classrooms, out of journals, and out of public discourse."[4]
Claims of deception by interviewees
The movie has been criticized by several of the interviewees, including biologists PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins and anthropologist Eugenie Scott, who were asked to be interviewed for a film named "Crossroads" on the "intersection of science and religion", with a blurb[5] which described the strong support that had been accumulated for evolution, and contrasted this with the religious who rejected it, and the controversy this caused.[6][7]
On learning of the pro-intelligent design stance of the real film, Myers said "not telling one of the sides in a debate about what the subject might be and then leading him around randomly to various topics, with the intent of later editing it down to the parts that just make the points you want, is the video version of quote-mining and is fundamentally dishonest."[6] Richard Dawkins said "At no time was I given the slightest clue that these people were a creationist front"; and Eugenie Scott, of the National Center for Science Education, said "I just expect people to be honest with me, and they weren’t."[8]
Defending the movie, the producer, Walt Ruloff, said that scientists like prominent geneticist Francis Collins keep their religion and science separate only because they are "toeing the party line". Collins, who was not asked to be interviewed for the film in any of its incarnations, said that Ruloff's claims were "ludicrous".[8]
Website
There is a substantial and growing website associated with this upcoming movie. This website contains trailers, additional material, press articles about the movie, and a blog.
The blog's first entry was an open letter from Ben Stein which explains his personal premise for the movie. The letter makes several claims. First, it associates the advances in modern technology with "freedom of inquiry":
Freedom of inquiry is basic to human advancement. There would be no modern medicine, no antibiotics, no brain surgery, no Internet, no air conditioning, no modern travel, no highways, no knowledge of the human body without freedom of inquiry.[9]
Then, Stein's letter claims that the potential existence of a deity has always been basic to scientific inquiry:
This includes the ability to inquire whether a higher power, a being greater than man, is involved with how the universe operates. This has always been basic to science. ALWAYS.[9]
Stein suggests that some of the most famous scientists did work associated with intelligent design, or drawing on a form of creationism:
Some of the greatest scientists of all time, including Galileo, Newton, Einstein, operated under the hypothesis that their work was to understand the principles and phenomena as designed by a creator.[9]
Stein also makes the assertion that teleology, of which intelligent design is but one example, is responsible for a wide range of scientific advances, even in economic science:
Operating under that hypothesis, they discovered the most important laws of motion, gravity, thermodynamics, relativity, and even economics.[9]
The basic theme of the movie, at least drawing on the promotional materials, is that this long-standing association of teleology with science is now being threatened, and that the work of Newton, Einstein and Galileo would be currently impossible because of science's abandonment of creationist and intelligent design approaches:
Now, I am sorry to say, freedom of inquiry in science is being suppressed...
In today’s world, at least in America, an Einstein or a Newton or a Galileo would probably not be allowed to receive grants to study or to publish his research.[9]
References
- ^ Lesley Burbridge-Bates (2007-08-22). "Expelled Press Release" (PDF). Premise Media. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed". ChristianCinema.com. 2007-09-23. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "In the News - Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed". ARN. 2007-09-24. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed the new film on the ID controversy". ID the future. 2007-09-22. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Misleading blurb, under "Properties" > "Crossroads"". Retrieved 2007-09-28.
- ^ a b PZ Myers (2007-08-22). "I'm gonna be a ☆ MOVIE STAR ☆". Pharyngula. Scienceblogs. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ PZ Myers (2007-08-28). "Expelled producer seems to be embarrassed about his sneaky tactics". Pharyngula. Scienceblogs. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Cornelia Dean (2007-09-27). "Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life's Origin". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d e Ben Stein's Introductory Blog, Ben Stein, August 21, 2007.