Ben Stein's controversial documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, is coming to theaters Spring 2008. Will it be a hit? Does it speak the truth?
Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed hits theaters Spring 2008. The movie claims that that a conspiracy against new ideas and academic freedom has established Darwinian evolution as the "King of the Hill" -- expelling all dissenters.
I haven't yet seen the film, and therefore can't endorse all its claims up-front. Nevertheless, I am very much looking forward to this movie. The central premise of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is certainly true. Science has codified two basic presuppositions (naturalism and uniformitarianism), which have effectively shut down any discussion or examination that might open the door to supernatural or non-uniformatarian possibilities.
This decision - to base all of mainstream science on naturalism and uniformitarianism - is a philosophical one. It is not science. Moreover, the decision to shut down discussion of Intelligent Design, Creationism, or other alternatives to evolution is not a scientific one, but a political one.
How should the academic scientific community deal with those skeptical of Darwinian evolution? Phillip E. Johnson, author of Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, answers:
One way would be to treat the doubts of the people with respect, to bring them out in the open and to deal with them rationally. The opposite way is to tell the people that all doubts about naturalistic evolution are inherently absurd, that they should believe in the orthodox theory because experts agree that it is correct, and that their silly misgivings will be allowed no hearing in public education. American educators have chosen the second path.
Sounds like this country definitely needs to see Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
