I realize that is has been blogged about before, by bloggers much more capable than myself, but it has been a while since I visited the website for the upcoming movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and I see that there is now a good deal more information available on it. It's coming out in February 2008, and stars everyone's favorite Nixon speech writer and former second-banana to Jimmy Kimmel, Ben Stein. Tongue firmly in cheek, Stein stars as a "rebel" student at "Big Science Academy" who, from what information I can gather, claims that "Big Science" is keeping "smart ideas" out of the classroom. Translation: scientists won't allow intelligent design to be taught in classrooms because they say it's not science, and that's just mean!

As PZ Myers of Pharyngula recently noted, it does look like there's some fairly serious money behind this movie - which isn't too terribly surprising to me. What is surprising to me, is how blatant this movie is in attacking the theory of evolution (or not the theory itself, per se, but rather teaching it in the classroom). In the trailer that I watched, you've got some fairly classic moves being made. The clip shows sound-bytes from people who simultaneously play the persecution card by claiming that they have been ridiculed and shunned for advocating teaching ID in the classroom as well as mischaracterize the theory of evolution as Darwinism (a classic smear, as it makes the theory of evolution sound less like science and more like the ideas of just one man - as if there is no evidence to support it). Stein then goes onto a stage in front of an audience (I can only imagine that they would willingly see Stein speak if they were drugged or tricked, or both) and proclaims that scientists can not even think that ID is a sound theory. Of course, that's utter nonsense. Scientists can think whatever the hell they damn well please, they just can't postulate or teach whatever the hell they damn well please.

The rest of the site is a gem, as well. They're clearly framing the evolution/ID non-issue in terms of academic freedom, asserting that students should be as well informed as possible to make the best decision. I find that to be pretty ironic, as teaching ID inside a science classroom doesn't qualify as "informing the students" in my book. It's as if they think that science should operate along democratic principles, with the ideas and theories that the majority votes in being counted as "reality" and the minority view being tossed out. Given that we're second only to Turkey in disbelief in evolution, you can see how that would probably play out in their favor. Of course, that's not really how science works. Whether or not an idea sounds pretty or makes us happy has little to do with whether or not it is supported by observable evidence - which are the ideas that should be taught inside of a science classroom. At the end of the day, ID is still an (not-so-subtle) attempt to sneak theology into the public school system. It's even more disgusting that the individuals behind this sort of effort as so disingenuous as to rally around the banner of academic freedom when they really don't give two shits about academic freedom; they really just want to be able to proselytize at taxpayer expense.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| | | | | | | | | |

varkam's blog | printer friendly version