Stein and friends use animation (shades of "Bowling for Columbine"), amusing chunks of B-movies and even "The Wizard of Oz" and classic propaganda techniques to undercut 150 years of peer-tested research. Their goal? Create just a sliver of doubt about evolution. It's a classic Big Tobacco/"Inconvenient Truth" denial tactic.
Shockingly, the "experts" Stein hurls up against evolution are disgruntled, under-credentialed academics dismissed from lesser colleges, they say, because they wanted to teach creation rather than science. Other "experts" in the film come from anti-evolution "think tank" cranks and a Pole who invites nothing so much as a really good Polish joke.
ROTFL, indeed, ID is somewhat 'light on the data' and "Expelled" is even 'lighter' with the facts.When he blurts out in one "interview"--apparently he didn't actually sit and confront some of these people himself, the film is just edited that way--"Where's the data?" you can almost hear him choke on the irony. Where's your data, Ben? Got any? Any at all? Anyone else? Anyone? Anyone?
Amen brother..."Expelled" relies on the viewer's inability or unwillingness to wrestle with a complex corner of science, double-talking its way toward a "must be a miracle" solution to anything that science may not claim to have an answer for. Dismiss that for having no basis in fact, and you're infringing on "academic freedom." That's not it at all, Ben. And really, when academia, the courts, the opinions of the educated have all weighed in on this subject on that "other side," who's the real monkey in this "debate"?
5 Comments
Christopher Heard · 18 April 2008
Just one slight tweak: the Tribune review appears to be a reprint from the Orlando Sentinel (note the copyright attribution). Yes—it's that Roger Moore. An entertaining piece, but I found the one by Johanson at the Colorado Springs Independent to be better written (personal aesthetic opinion, nothing more).
Nigel D · 18 April 2008
D P Robin · 18 April 2008
I love the "cast information:
Featuring: Ben Stein, Richard Dawkins, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler.
8^)
dpr
dmso · 18 April 2008
Where ARE the data, Ben; "datum" is the singular and "data" is plural. -5 points.
Science Nut · 18 April 2008
Dang it "D P Robin", you beat me to the punch!
When I read that "Featuring: Ben Stein, Richard Dawkins, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler", I spewed my whole new keyboard with coffee.
Sorry if my "gloating" is showing, but its going to be a very nice "Freedom Friday", indeed!