Ben Stein Takes on Charles Darwin
A Review of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"
In a blistering documentary, Ben Stein attacks some of the leading proponents of Darwinian evolution as enemies of freedom. Ben Stein's movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed charges the scientific establishment (with accomplices in the media, courts, and even in the religious community) with suppressing free speech and squelching academic inquiry.
Ben Stein Outrages the Evolution Establishment
You know a documentary or propaganda film is effective if it generates outrage on the other side. (An ineffective production elicits little response. It is simply ignored). Well, Expelled is generating a great deal of outrage!
In a review for The New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis savaged Expelled as "one of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time" and "an unprincipled propaganda piece." Entertainment Weekly declares: "Expelled's heavy-handed bias...is exasperating." Evolutionists, not surprisingly, have also weighed in, calling Stein everything from "mendacious" to "dishonorable" to (well) other unprintable descriptions.
Particularly offensive to Darwinian evolutionists, Ben Stein draws a straight line between evolution and amoral atheism. Expelled essentially argues that suppressing Intelligent Design or any other alternative to evolution will lead to atheism today, eugenics tomorrow, and Nazi death chambers the day after. The movie features black-and-white clips of Nazi concentration camps and a tour of a Nazi-era mental health hospital (which butchered hundreds of patients deemed unsuitable to live) in order to make its point.
Is Expelled a Good Documentary?
One of the fairest and most accurate reviews of Ben Stein's Expelled comes from Variety. In its review, Justin Chang explains that Expelled actually misses an opportunity to make an "intelligent case" for Intelligent Design. Chung writes: "While roving interviewer Ben Stein extracts some choice soundbites from scientists on both sides of the creation-vs.-evolution debate, the film's flippant approach undermines the seriousness of its discourse, trading less in facts than in emotional appeals."
Christianity Today partly agrees. In its review, Mark Moring explains that "the film succeeds in making the point that Intelligent Design should at least be on the table for discussion. But if you're looking for ammunition to argue your Darwinist friends under the table, you may want to look elsewhere."
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed succeeds in showing that there is a decided bias against the theory of Intelligent Design in mainstream academia. While some of the examples of people being censored, persecuted, or "expelled" may be disputable, Stein makes the point that there is at least some censorship taking place. And censorship has never been conducive to scientific inquiry and academic freedom.
While the linkage to Nazi concentration camps will be seen as over-the-top for some, it is a matter of historical fact that Adolf Hitler's racial obsessions were inspired by the eugenics movement, which in turn was fueled by Darwin's theory of evolution. Does this mean that all atheists and evolutionists are proponents of eugenics or Nazism? Of course not, and Stein makes this point. But it's a point lost in some of the imagery.
For those willing to set aside their emotions and preconceived notions, Expelled is a thought-provoking film. And it brings to the table an important issue for our consideration. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it's becoming ever more difficult for people to set aside emotion -- and Expelled doesn't exactly encourage the setting aside of passion in favor of purely objective analysis.
As a result, Expelled will probably do little more than rally its supporters and alienate those who disagree with its claims.
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