Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Expelled Exposed

Have you been following the story of the forthcoming movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed?

Here's the short version: It's a documentary, hosted by Ben Stein, that has two major themes: (i) that "Darwinists" persecute and discriminate against anybody that questions Darwinian orthodoxy (i.e. espouses Intelligent Design), and (ii) that Darwin is basically responsible for the atrocities of Stalin, Hitler, and eugenics [1]. Last year a number of prominent science and evolution defenders were asked for interviews for the film under false pretenses, and now the film is being shown in a number of private screenings around the country. At one recent screening, biologist-professor-atheist-blogger PZ Myers (who is interviewed and thanked in the film) was denied admittance to a screening for which he had legitimately signed up. However, the rest of his party was allowed in, including Richard Dawkins, who apparently was not recognized. The filmmakers have tried to spin this ridiculous and rather ironic episode, but it remains ridiculous.

Anyway, the NCSE has set up a website, Expelled Exposed, that will be their official response page. For now, it is a collection of links to news stories and film reviews. I'll keep the link on the sidebar for a little while for easy reference.


1. Mormons were not immune to eugenic ideas. In fact, George Q. Cannon espoused such ideas before Charles Darwin or Francis Galton published their major works, and eugenics served as an apologetic argument for polygamy. See Eugenics at By Common Consent.



1 comments:

Anonymous,  4/02/2008 04:36:00 PM  

Childishness is not just on the part of the ID folks. These Michael Mooreish documentaries where the joke is effectively on the side being crtiqued has happened in the Evolution community as well.

Personally, while I understand the whole thing is big business in the US and elsewhere I find this Academic arrogance, on all side, as beyond the pale.

My initial reading of the Eugenics defense of polygamy it seemed like church thought they could "out produce" other ethnicities thus making immigrants less necessary in the USA.

Personally, it was the 19th century, all kinds of people thought that White bread, coke and pepsi were medicinal. So they are not exactly to be trusted.

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