Demosthenes
2008-04-19, 03:47 PM
Expelled was absolutely detestable. It is a perfidious movie that has been haphazardly thrown together. Not only is this movie a bore, it is the quintessence of hypocrisy. There is absolutely nothing good I can say about the movie. I would have gained more from watching shit putrefy. The olfactory stimulation from that would be far more intellectually satisfying than the incessant drawl of the senile narrator, or the constant visual bludgeoning from the cutaway shots interlaced throughout the entire movie.
I had originally planned on summarizing the movie, however after watching the movie it seems rather frivolous. The movie is so grossly littered with fabrications, exaggerations and distortions that it actually makes it seem like Richard Dawkins accepts the idea of intelligent design as somewhat valid. If I turned this post into a summary of the movie, I would have to turn this post into a massive rebuttal of the movie. There is already an excellent site (http://www.expelledexposed.com) that does that.
Essentially, Ben Stein speaks with many pro-ID charlatans and paints them as martyrs. He then talks to many venerated pro-evolution scientists and paints them as bullies. He, of course, avoids discussing the facts behind evolution and the (non-scientific) controversy this whole time. He simply singles out a few IDists, talks them up, and then claims scientists are expelling them. What he fails to point out is the reason scientists ignore IDists is because they fail to produce anything of substance.
The most egregious part of the movie, though, was the insinuation that there is an association between Darwinism and Nazism. This was a particularly specious argument, and I'm afraid that this may actually carry some weight with those uninformed about what evolution is. But all this did was really clarify that there was no objective inquiry in this movie -- simply propaganda. Save your money. Go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall instead if you want to see a movie this weekend. At least that movie has some comical value.
I had originally planned on summarizing the movie, however after watching the movie it seems rather frivolous. The movie is so grossly littered with fabrications, exaggerations and distortions that it actually makes it seem like Richard Dawkins accepts the idea of intelligent design as somewhat valid. If I turned this post into a summary of the movie, I would have to turn this post into a massive rebuttal of the movie. There is already an excellent site (http://www.expelledexposed.com) that does that.
Essentially, Ben Stein speaks with many pro-ID charlatans and paints them as martyrs. He then talks to many venerated pro-evolution scientists and paints them as bullies. He, of course, avoids discussing the facts behind evolution and the (non-scientific) controversy this whole time. He simply singles out a few IDists, talks them up, and then claims scientists are expelling them. What he fails to point out is the reason scientists ignore IDists is because they fail to produce anything of substance.
The most egregious part of the movie, though, was the insinuation that there is an association between Darwinism and Nazism. This was a particularly specious argument, and I'm afraid that this may actually carry some weight with those uninformed about what evolution is. But all this did was really clarify that there was no objective inquiry in this movie -- simply propaganda. Save your money. Go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall instead if you want to see a movie this weekend. At least that movie has some comical value.