Ben Stein's Expelled: No Integrity Displayed

From the article:
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In the new science-bashing movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,
Ben Stein and the rest of the filmmakers sincerely and seriously argue
that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution paved the way for the
Holocaust. By "seriously," I mean that Ben Stein acts grief-stricken
and the director juxtaposes quotes from evolutionary biologists with
archival newsreel clips from Hitler's Reich. Prepare for an
intellectual night at the cinema.

No one could have been more surprised than I when the producers
called, unbidden, offering Scientific American's editors a private
screening. Given that our magazine's positions on evolution and
intelligent design (ID) creationism reflect those of the scientific
mainstream (that is, evolution: good science; ID: not science), you
have to wonder why they would bother. It's not as though anything in
Expelled would have been likely to change our views. And they can't
have been looking for a critique of the science in the movie, because
there isn't much to speak of.

Rather, it seems a safe bet that the producers hope a whipping from us
would be useful for publicity: further proof that any mention of ID
outrages the close-minded establishment. (Picture Ben Stein as Jack
Nicholson, shouting, "You can't handle the truth!") Knowing this, we
could simply ignore the movie?which might also suit their purposes,
come to think of it.

Unfortunately, Expelled is a movie not quite harmless enough to be
ignored. Shrugging off most of the film's attacks?all recycled from
previous pro-ID works?would be easy, but its heavy-handed linkage of
modern biology to the Holocaust demands a response for the sake of
simple human decency.
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Read it at
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=ben-steins-expelled-review-john-rennie









J. Spaceman

.

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