Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

This blog is not typically a movie review blog, though in this particular case I will make an exception, because the subject of the movie to be reviewed fits along with the general philosophical and scientific interests of this blog, and so those who read my blog are likely to be at least interested in the subject material this documentary involves. In the interests of full disclosure, I am not only an avid reader of books from the Intelligent Design movement (from Dembski and Behe to Johnson and Denton, among many others), but I have also written on the subject, for a paper on "The Pseudoscience of Evolution" in a historiography class, where I examined the metaphysical commitment of evolutionists to naturalism--that is, methodolical atheism, as an unexamined and unproven aspect of the supposed "definition" of science. Therefore, I am not, nor do I claim to be, a remotely unbiased reviewer of this film, for I am not only an avid student and spectator of the Intelligent Design debate, but I am also a participant, even if an obscure one. With that said, in the interest of intellectual honesty, the review may properly commence.

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" www.expelledthemovie.com

Ben Stein is perhaps the perfect person to make a documentary about the Intelligent Design debate. He does not come into this debate with commitments to one side or another, but merely seeks, as a scientifically inclined fellow partisan of freedom, to find honest answers to honest questions. His spirit of honest inquiry leads him, in this movie, to make a trail all around the USA (and the world) in search of answers to where his inquiry leads him. He speaks with evolutionary lights like Richard Dawkins (who comes across as rather smarmy) and others, and speaks with a few of the leading Intellectual Design scientists (like Dembski and Berlinski and Meyer). He goes to Darwin's home and examines the relationship between Darwinism and Eugenics and Nazism. He compares, in a leitmotif that appears throughout the documentary, the intellectual stonewalling of Darwinim to the Berlin Wall. The movie itself is bookended with a speech where Ben Stein speaks for the freedom of honest inquiry to prevail in all areas to preserve our freedom as a nation.

Perhaps the most poigiant aspect of this appeal to freedom of inquiry involves Stein's interviews with those in the scientific and journalistic community who have been "expelled" because of their adherence to, or openness to an honest examination of, intellectual design. Allowing the theory of Intellectual Design to obtain scholarly credentialing is apparently touching the forbidden third rail of "science." Meanwhile, Dawkins, a militant atheist, manages to expose the shallow National Academy of the Scienes attempt to marry liberal Christians and scientists to leave a place for religious faith that is as consequential as knitting (!) is shown to be a trojan horse for the incubus of atheism. The stakes of this fight are great, for as Ben Stein correctly notes, the dignity of humanity and the humane treatment of those who are weak and defenseless in society (the unborn, the elderly, the handicapped) depends on a moral worldview that ultimately springs from a belief in an ethical Supreme Deity. No God, no morality.

Despite the obvious seriousness of the movie's point, and the rather sobering looks at Dachau and an "insane assylum" where Nazis starved and murdered those with mental and physical deformities (and where Stein unsuccessfully attempts to elicit outrage from the caretaker of this place, who did not think it proper to presume to tell Hitler that what he did was wicked or insane), the movie itself is leavened with a lot of biting humor. Among the funniest moments are where Stein examines some of the "scientific" theories about the beginning of life, such as the deliberate seeding of earth by aliens (who nonetheless developed by undirected evolution themselves) and the piggybacking of organic materials on crystals. Ben Stein is as incredulous as this reviewer is in examining what passes for science compared with what is barred from the gates. Ben Stein's deadpan sense of humor and straightforward search for answers shows how he moved from an ignorant observer to a partisan in this debate through an honest consideration of the facts and the implications of clashing worldviews.

The fundamental point of the movie, though, is that America was founded on the principles that we were endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights simply by virtue of being humans, and these freedoms are in danger because of a metaphysical preconception of humankind as being the result of undirected evolution without any kind of inherent moral obligations or free will. Furthermore, to question this assumption is to come under the wrath of the "science police" and be subject to great harassment, loss of professional career and research opportunities, and blacklisting from future employment. Those who refuse to knuckle down deserve our support as brave soldiers fighting against the great armies of evil who have entrenched themselves in our society with their doctrine of materialism.

Indeed, my only criticism of this movie is that, at 90 minutes, that it is rather too short. No one watching this movie with a remotely open mind, though, can fail to notice that Ben Stein has brought to public light the essence of the greatest current threat to civilization, one that nearly destroyed us in Hitler's time and with Communism. As such, he deserves our thanks and our support. Those who would silence debate about any subject, and punish those who seek the truth and seek honest inquiry, are admitting the weakness of their own position and using their power despotically to preserve their own shaky position. All such efforts threaten the very survival of our great experiment in (righteous) liberty as a nation and people.

May God bless Ben Stein in his efforts, and may those of us watching realize the importance of the fight he is now a (surprising) participant in. He certainly has my support. This movie gets five stars out of five, and is on my list of dvds to buy the minute it is released. Who knows, I may even to go the theater again to see it with some friends if possible.