I finally got around to viewing Expelled. I refused to pay good money to see it, but since you can watch it free on Netflix now I figured it was a good time to check it out. I think many of the posters above have made good points about the film. I thought I would just add a few comments.
First I was surprised at the genuine dishonesty of Ben Stein in the film. Throughout the movie he proclaims himself an unbiased investigator when it is clear from the outset and tone of the movie that he has an agenda. I guess this plays well when you’re preaching to the choir.
He makes a number of arguments that seem quite hypocritical. On the one hand he is arguing for equal time and a fair debate, but he reuses to do this himself. He presents a handful of ID supporters who seem quite intelligent and level headed, but whenever he interviews “experts” with an opposing point of view he makes every effort to make them seem paranoid and irrational ( i.e. the guy talking about proteins riding on the backs of crystals. With all the accomplished evolutionary biologists in the world, was this the best person he could interview??). And what’s with all the emphasis on panspermia. Obviously Stein focuses on this to make it look like ID theories are no crazier than traditional evolutionary biologists, but panspermia is not the consensus oppinion of most biologists. Panspermia only puts off the question about the origin of life to another time and place. Even if itwere found to be true, panspermia doesn’t answer the question of how life began on the planet that seeded earth with life. It seems like Stein either took comments out of context or intentionally selected scientists who would not represent evolution well.
He also presents individuals in a complimentary light when they claim that there is no battle between science and religion in an effort to make ID seem more palatable from a scientific point of view, but a short time later with foreboding music in the background he tries to make the point that “Darwinism” is the reason many people in the film became atheists. Which is it?
I love the comment by Mr. Berlinski (?spelling -the guy in the reclining chair that he interviewed in Paris, France who’s obviously quite taken with himself) who makes the comment that “Darwinism is not a sufficient condition for a phenomenon like Nazism, but I think it’s certainly a necessary one”. Is he kidding? I could add that being human is not a sufficient condition for Nazism but is most definitely a necessary one. So is the presence of a brain, and quite possibly thought. If he’s trying to imply that Darwinism is somehow to blame for the Nazi’s I would say that being a thinking human is much more to blame. Darwinism wasn’t the cause of Nazism, it was simply a tool they twisted and perverted to use for their own needs like the airplane, the rocket, the radio, and many other things.
Sorry this is too long already. This film is so full of faulty logic and intentional misrepresentation you just want to pull your hair out watching it.
