Difference between revisions of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

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== Negative Reception==
 
  
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Before the film opened, pro-[[evolution]] opponents of the film were heavily critical of its premise.
 
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The pro-[[evolution]] magazine ''[[Scientific American]]'' criticized the film, calling it "intellectually dishonest," and detailed their hatred of the film and intelligent design in a series of inflammatory articles.<ref>http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sciam-reviews-expelled</ref>
 
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[[NCSE]] used the film's release to launch a fresh attack on ID, repeatedly calling it "creationism" as part of their strategy to demonize scientific critiques of evolution. The gist of their defense of Caroline Crocker's dismissal was (1) she wasn't "fired" (because that means only immediate termination in their book) but merely let go at the end of the semester as is common practice when a teacher is no longer needed on the faculty; and (2) each mention of intelligent design in class was an unauthorized addition to the curriculum. Apparently, only pro-evolution information is allowed in evolution class, and its weaknesses are not to be revealed if you want to get [[tenure]]. <ref>http://www.expelledexposed.com/index.php/the-truth/crocker</ref>
 
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John Derbyshire, a columnist at the [[conservative]] [[National Review|National Review Online]], wrote a surprisingly critical review, ''despite not having seen the film'', and confused [[intelligent design]] with [[creationism]].  He said that "[[creationists]]" have been "morally corrupted" and engage in "willful act[s] of deception." He concludes that attacking "science" (i.e. [[evolution]]) is equivalent to attacking [[Western Civilization]].<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGYwMzdjOWRmNGRhOWQ4MTQyZDMxNjNhYTU1YTE5Njk=</ref>
 
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As expected for a movie that is not '[[politically correct]]', critics paid to rate movies have been harsh with only 3 positive reviews out of 33 on the website Rotten Tomatoes, and a 20 out of 100 rating on the website Metacritic. These reviews reflect the [[liberal]] bias dominant in the liberal media.
 
  
 
== Issues surrounding the film ==   
 
== Issues surrounding the film ==   

Revision as of 14:06, January 24, 2010

Expelled.jpg

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a documentary film charging Darwinists with suppressing and persecuting scholars who disagree with them in order to avoid discussing the scientific challenges which intelligent design presents to the Origins of Species aspects of the theory of evolution.[1] . The film's premise, which it goes on to prove with unassailable logic, is that scientists have been met with harsh opposition and/or received punishments from schools, universities and the scientific community merely for daring to ask inconvenient questions.[2] The documentary is co-written and hosted by Ben Stein and was released in America on Friday, April 18, 2008.

  • This movie follows Ben Stein as he seeks to prove that far from being a pseudo-science trying to undermine evolutionary biology, Intelligent Design is in fact a legitimate science being suppressed by a scientific establishment that is hostile to any deviation from the status quo. [3]

In the film's trailer, Stein states that there are "people out there who want to keep science in a little box where it can’t possibly touch God" and that "freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions."[4] This also refers to privately funded science institutions as well.

Perhaps most infuriatingly true and telling for design opponents is the way the film links Darwin's ideas to Social Darwinism and destructive, immoral, atheistic ideologies such as Hitler's National Socialism and Marxist socialism.[5]

The film clearly shows that scientists and educators who promote intelligent design are persecuted by the scientific establishment.[6] Examples given by the film include Richard Sternberg, a biologist, journal editor, and research associate at the National Museum of Natural History, and Guillermo Gonzalez, a pro-intelligent design astrophysicist denied tenure at Iowa State University in 2007.[4]

  • The film opens with documentary footage of the Berlin Wall going up and closes with it coming down. The day Darwinism and intelligent design can be fairly discussed without fear of reprisal represents the removal of a barrier even greater than the Berlin Wall.[7]











Issues surrounding the film

Allegations have been made that the producers of the film used copyrighted material without permission at multiple points in the film. Yoko Ono, owner of the rights to John Lennon's songs including the one sampled in the film, "Imagine", has sued Premise Media for copyright violation. The Executive Producer and Chairman of Premise Media Logan Craft replied, "The fair use doctrine is a well established principle that gives the public the right to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for the purposes of commentary and criticism. While some may not like what we have to say or how we say it, we have the free speech right to do so - just as other political and social commentators have been doing for years."

The film's star Ben Stein was perhaps a bit more caustic in his response, "So Yoko Ono is suing over the brief Constitutionally protected use of a song that wants us to 'Imagine no possessions'? Maybe instead of wasting everyone's time trying to silence a documentary she should give the song to the world for free? After all, ' imagine all the people sharing all the world...You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the World can live as one.' " [8] On June 2, 2008, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein (no relation to Ben Stein) ruled in favor of the filmmakers under the "fair use" provision.[9]

Atheist professor PZ Myers attempted to attend a pre-release screening of the film, but was prevented from entering by security officials. However, Richard Dawkins, who had accompanied Myers, was able to get in by using his rarely used real first name, "Clinton."[10]

Evolutionist Richard Dawkins claimed he was tricked into appearing, indicating that he had been told it would be a movie named Crossroads that would be focused on "exploring the controversy." (Two others who similarly claimed to have been deceived said they would have appeared anyway.) In response, Ben Stein said that no one he interviewed asked what the film would be about, and the co-producer Walt Ruloff said at the preview that interviewees were paid and were even told ahead of time what the questions would be.[11]

  • Regarding claims by Dawkins and Myers that filmmakers were tricked into being interviewed for the film, Ruloff has denied any wrongdoing. "There is some serious mistreatment and downright reprehensible behavior going on here," said Ruloff, "but I can assure you it's not coming from us. We're just the ones exposing it." [1]

Film Clips

WingClips provides several free glimpses into "Expelled".

See also

External links

  1. ↑ Stein told O'Reilly, "This whole problem is about violation of the First Amendment. There are many scientists - many - who have been expelled from their jobs, who have had their web sites shut down, who have been denied grants [or] tenure because they wanted to question the limits and boundaries of Darwinism ... that's not how society has progressed."
  2. ↑ Expelled the movie website
  3. ↑ http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16857&category_id=778
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/science/27expelled.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "nyt" defined multiple times with different content
  5. ↑ Expelled - Implications of Neo-Darwinism (4:15) - Doctors and Scientists explore how the belief in Neo-Darwinism affects our society.
  6. ↑ Lesley Burbridge-Bates (2007-08-22). Expelled Press Release. Premise Media. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  7. ↑ [2]
  8. ↑ [3] Premise Media Press Release
  9. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0231537020080602
  10. ↑ Dean, Cornelia, No Admission for Evolutionary Biologist at Creationist (sic) Film, The New York Times, 21st March, 2008
  11. ↑ Bethell, Tom, No Intelligence Allowed The American Spectator, 19th February, 2008.
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