Expelled
Review: The Dissent of Men
and the
Rise of Their Oppressors
By
Mark Looy
Several weeks ago, the Answers in Genesis (AiG)
staff was treated to a viewing of the director’s cut of the already-controversial
film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
(1.) Opening in theaters nation-wide on April 18,
Expelled is a hard-hitting, yet often humorous, documentary that chronicles
how Darwin-dissenters have been ruthlessly expelled, or 
otherwise
persecuted, in their professions. It is hosted by the very entertaining civil
rights activist/economist/presidential speechwriter/cultural icon (actor and
quiz-show host), Ben Stein, whom filmmakers follow as he goes on a personal
quest to examine the origins question.
Expelled:
No Intelligence Allowed has become controversial not only because it
exposes those academicians who persecute people who have a belief in the
appearance of ‘design’ in nature, but
also because the film is already generating a negative reaction (including from
some of the film’s subjects who come off in a highly unflattering way,
including famed atheist-scientist Richard Dawkins).
As a demonstration of how the evolution
police can mete out injustice, the film’s first “persecutee” is an evolutionist
himself: Richard Sternberg. He does not doubt evolution, yet Sternberg’s very
act of allowing a peer-reviewed research paper that presented evidence for
intelligent design to be published in a science journal (Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington) led to his
forced resignation and a career ‘ruined.’ Sternberg, with two PhDs, was the target of
the anti-creationist groups The National Center for Science Education and the
Smithsonian Institution (where Sternberg was a researcher), as these groups
orchestrated an effort to have him expelled from his position.
In another segment, Michael Shermer, head of
the Skeptics Society, described Intelligent Design (ID) as mostly nonsense and
would not come to the defense of fellow-evolutionist Sternberg. Shermer
bizarrely contends that Sternberg must have done something wrong to have been
forced out (even though Shermer admits on camera that he did not know what that
might have been).
An hour and thirty minutes later, we watch
atheist Dawkins sniff that evolution is a “fact” and “securely” so, and thus
dissenters are either not sane or are stupid—or (somewhat more charitably)
ignorant. In keeping with the film’s ongoing Cold War metaphors of freedom
under attack, Dawkins, earlier in the film, describes the origins debate as a “skirmish”
and a “war.”
The arch anti-creationist William Provine is
seen as incorrectly stating that it was illegal to teach evolution in Tennessee’s
schools during the time of the 1925 Scopes Trial. Actually, the state allowed
an instructor to teach evolution, unless an instructor said that humans evolved
from an ape-like creature. Then there is the stubborn and impatient Michael
Ruse, who insists on presenting a non-answer to the question of how the first
living cell could have originated; he repeatedly states that it occurred on the
“backs of crystals.”
At film’s end, Dawkins makes a remarkable
concession—probably jaw-dropping for those who have read his books or watched
his media interviews. When pressed by Stein, Dawkins allows for the possibility
that life’s apparent design could have been produced by intelligent beings
elsewhere in the universe—who themselves had evolved and then brought life
here!
Between Sternberg and Dawkins, the film is
punctuated by examples of shameful mistreatment (e.g., the highly qualified
Guillermo Gonzalez, denied tenure at Iowa State University), expulsion (e.g.,
Caroline Crocker from George Mason University), and silliness (e.g., protestors
outside AiG’s Creation Museum on opening day last May).
Other ID-sympathetic academics give accounts
of their persecution in silhouette to maintain their anonymity; these segments
bring back memories of the dissenting authors of Soviet Russia who wrote under
pen names to avoid being expelled (usually to a frozen Siberia).
In the second half of the film, Expelled settles into a very serious tone,
especially in those scenes when Stein visits World War II death camps and
explores the connection between 
the
Nazi worldview and Darwinian thinking. Stein is brilliant in these scenes
as he goes with the flow of the story as it unfolds in front of him and as
he carefully listens to the answers he receives—and then follows up with penetrating
questions. He is obviously not working from a tight script.
Yet, there are some bright lights and
moments of sanity in this penetrating documentary. John Lennox of Oxford
correctly points out that all scientists have biases and worldviews that they
bring to their research—and then to the conclusions they draw from evidence.
Also, David Berlinski, a mathematician and philosopher, sits down with Stein
and eloquently brings up the problems with evolution (comparing it to a “room
full of smoke”).
Expelled,
despite its subtitle, is not an intelligent design movement promo, per se. (2.) Also, some IDers, such as Bruce Chapman of the
Discovery Institute, admit on film that ID is not a Christian movement and that
people of various faiths are involved. Another IDer, Paul Nelson, though a
friend of biblical, young-earth creationists, regrettably offers a wrong
definition of creationism. He declares that it is a movement of taking the Bible and fitting it into science. To
the contrary, creationists do not “fit” the Scriptures into science. If they
did, creationists would be engaged in taking man’s fallible interpretations of
science and somehow trying to conform them to the Bible. God’s Word is a
book of real history. Using this as our starting point, we can build a correct
way of thinking and truly understand the universe. The Bible explains all that is in the universe.
(3.)
Although not an ID film, Expelled does present a scientific
defense of the idea of intelligent design (one that AiG would largely accept).
The incredible complexity seen in a molecule like DNA is shown on the screen
(though viewers uninterested in science may have their eyes glaze over during
this animated section). Expelled asks
the question often posed by creation scientists: “Where does the new genetic
information come from as a mechanism to drive molecules-to-man evolution?” Natural selection cannot explain the rise of new
genetic information.
Ken Ham, president of AiG and the Creation
Museum, had the following things to say about the Expelled documentary:
“I urge everyone not to miss Expelled. I found it riveting, eye-opening,
even astonishing. Ben Stein does a masterful job of exposing the ruthlessness
of evolutionists who will go after 
anyone
who challenges or merely questions Darwinian orthodoxy. I was on the edge
of my seat—entertained yet instructed.”
“Challenge school board members in your community
to watch this well-produced documentary. Even pay for their tickets, but get
them there!”
Overall, the film is more about exposing the
fear of evolutionists in allowing free speech in scientific inquiry (and their
accompanying tyrannical behavior) than it is an anti-evolution piece. Stein
discovers an elitist scientific establishment that has exchanged science’s
supposed quest for open-minded inquiry for harsh dogmatism. Freedom, “the
essence of America” says Stein (a former civil rights lawyer), is easily taken
away at universities, with qualified scientists expelled for not embracing
evolution.
In one of the many ironic and hypocritical
moments seen in the film, a Baptist University, Baylor University in Texas, is
documented as persecuting one of its professors because he questioned
evolution. The façade of a Baylor building then comes on the screen, and we see
an inscription of a verse from Colossians
1. It declares that “in God, all things were created by Him.”
So, how will hard-core evolutionists attack
this documentary? It is likely they will attack it on at least two major fronts
by: (4.) 1. Objecting
to how the film equates the behavior of the totalitarian regimes of Nazi
Germany and Communist Russia to the actions of Darwin-defenders who squash
freedom, 2. Attacking the film’s claim
that there is a link between evolution and racism.
Regarding the latter, we wish to point out
that from his own words, Charles Darwin can be shown to be a racist (even
though he advocated abolition). On the last page of his The Descent of Man, Darwin said he would rather be descended from a
monkey than from a “savage.”
Furthermore, he called those with dark skin “savage,”
“low,” and “degraded.” Also, the subtitle of Darwin’s main work On the Origin of the Species happens to
be: “The
Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” [emphasis
added]. This is not at all surprising, for, as AiG president Ken Ham points out
in the new book Darwin’s Plantation,
Darwinian evolution claims that humans descended from ape-like ancestors, and
this logically implies that certain “races” are closer to the apes than others. (5.)
Conclusion
In summarizing Expelled’s ultimate goal, Stein declares that he wants to see a
world where “scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence
wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry
has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it’s
anti-science. It’s anti-the whole concept of learning.”
(6.)
AiG has not been sanguine about elements of
the intelligent design movement and some of its well-intentioned activists. But
having watched the movie twice now, we note that the film is not about trying
to push ID on society, much less argue that ID should be mandated in schools
(which AiG would not support). (7.) Also, the film makes it clear that the ID
movement is not a Christian one (although many evangelicals are part of it).
More than anything, the documentary seeks to expose the ruthlessness of radical
atheists and evolutionists and their attempt to erode freedom in order to
protect their own worldview. In its goal, Expelled
has marvelously succeeded.
Footnotes
(1.) This article originally appeared
earlier this month on our Answers magazine website.
(2.)
The distinction between the two terms? Most ID advocates are not biblical
creationists, for they believe in a billions-of-years-old universe and a big
bang, reject a global Flood, etc. And some, like Michael Behe, accept
molecules-to-man evolution (though they would say that some intelligence must
be behind the process). IDers generally chafe at being labeled creationists.
Many evolutionists make the mistake of stating that both camps are essentially
interchangeable, and dismiss both as creationism. A part of this is due to the
fact that biblical creationists, of course, do believe with the IDers that the
universe is intelligently designed.
(3.)
See a related article at
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2/4277news4-14-2000.asp.
(4.)
Another complaint already lodged by evolutionist critics of the movie is that
the interviewees did not know that the movie was going to be pro-ID. Stein
counters by stating that no evolutionist he talked to even asked him what the
film would be about; and one of the producers, Walt Ruloff, according to Tom
Bethell (Spectator, February 19,
2008) said that interviewees were paid and even told ahead of time what the
questions posed to them would be.
(5.)
In a bizarre contention, the Associated
Press quoted a Louisiana professor as stating that Ken Ham’s argument about
the racism-Darwin link is “a ploy to get evolution out of the curriculum”
(http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080209/NEWS0103/802090335).
The professor is apparently unaware that AiG has never been involved in efforts
to force evolution out of public schools or introduce creation or intelligent
design into them (see footnote 7 for more on this view).
(6.)
http://www.premisemedia.com/EXPELLED-PressRelease_08-22-07.pdf.
(7.)
AiG has consistently stated that it would be counterproductive for public
schools to force science instructors to teach creation or ID. Since most science
teachers are evolutionists, they would teach creation or ID poorly—and the
effort to introduce counters to evolution would generally backfire.
Mark Looy is the Chief Communications Officer
and co-founder of Answers in Genesis (AiG) - an apologetics organization dedicated
to educating the layperson about matters related to the truth of the Bible
from the very first verse. In addition to AiG publicity, Looy’s duties branch
into marketing. He actively pursues
key churches and ministry organizations to host AiG’s Bible-upholding conferences. He also
interfaces with local and national media booking speaking engagements for
AiG president Ken Ham. Furthermore, Looy co-hosts and co-produces “Answers…with
Ken Ham,” a daily radio feature heard on over 860 U.S. stations. He also writes and edits AiG’s monthly newsletter.
Born in Australia, Looy has lived in four countries. He earned bachelors and masters degrees in history
from San Diego State University and did postgraduate work in Scotland under
a full Rotary Scholarship (1983-1984). He also completed several doctorate-level
courses in education at Alliant University near San Diego.
