I came across this trailer for a rather interesting film that is said to be coming out some time in the spring of this year. The film is called “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”, and it features Ben Stein (”Bueller….Bueller…”, yeah that guy). Judging by the trailer it basically alleges that there is tremendous bias within the scientific community against anyone who would dare question Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Allegedly professors have been denied tenure and basically had their career ruined for suggesting that perhaps there is more to the universe than evolutionary processes that gave rise to natural selection (there’s a longer trailer on the film’s website
that talks about these things).
While all I have seen is the trailer that I posted above, I did proceed to read up on this project a little bit more, and having done so I found elements of it to be both very exciting and highly disturbing. I should say at this point that I am a Christian pastor who is not a scientist. I believe God created the universe, and I also believe that the truthfulness of Darwinian evolution does not negate that. On the exciting end, I have long believed that the notion of a universe that exists, without the supernatural, having come in to being by means of violating its own rules is highly implausible. Furthermore, I’ve oft found that the flippant way in which the notion of the supernatural has been dismissed by scientists in secular settings reflects a rather ironic level of closed-mindedness. For those reasons I’m glad that this film is being made so that the prejudice against those who question a naturalistic worldview can be given some attention.
With all of that being said, I have a number of problems with this film. The first is simply the tone that the trailer, website, and subsequent media releases by the film’s producers has taken. Frankly, in defending their cause and dismissing their opponents they sound no less bigoted than people like Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris. They seem to dismiss those who would believe in Darwinian evolution as half-blind fools who refuse to accept reality, again sounding like Dawkins, Harris, and others. Such overly polemical language is simply embarrassing. I’m tired of those who are, in one way or another, defending God belittling their opponents in this sort of fashion. It would be nice to see some sort of public figure on either side of the “God debate” who can speak with at least a shred of fair-mindedness. Additionally, from reading a New York Times article about the film, it sounds like its producers weren’t entirely truthful about the film’s premise when they were seeking interviews with some noted atheist scientists. Among other things, they told them the film had a much more innocuous title (”Crossroads”), and they were told that it would be about the intersection of science and religion. Such dishonesty is deeply troubling to me. Richard Dawkins even said, “At no time was I given the slightest clue that these people were a creationist front.” Why such dishonesty is necessary is beyond me.
I’m sure if this film gains any sort of public traction it will be sure to spark quite a bit of controversy. It sounds like it’s going to raise a lot of important issues that need to be addressed. I guess I just wish the filmmakers weren’t so quick to demonize their opponents. I just don’t know that fighting fire with fire is all that effective or all that Christlike.
