Saturday, April 19, 2008

'Expelled' looks at academia's efforts to silence opposition to Darwinism


Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 4/18/2008 8:00:00 AM

A movie opening in theaters nationwide today examines how educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure, and even fired for questioning Darwinism.

The movie is called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and stars Ben Stein. Filmed in documentary style, Expelled shows the viewer how the debate about the origin of life is one-sided on college campuses and academic institutions worldwide.
Also featured in the documentary are professors on both sides of the issue -- those who have been blacklisted because they question Darwinism, and those who defend evolution and refuse to believe that the universe could have been brought about by an intelligent being.
Stein, who is a former presidential speechwriter, actor, and author, finds it amazing that many of the intellectual elite allow no dissent from Darwin's theory of random mutation and natural selection.
"The intelligentsia said at a certain point that Adolf Hitler was the wave of the future, and so the intelligentsia is often wrong and in fact I'd say they're wrong at least as often as they're right," explains Stein. "We aim to show that they're wrong again. You know what else? We're sick of being pushed around by the intelligentsia."
According to Stein, Darwinism played a role in the Holocaust as the social elite of that time used Darwinian principles to justify purging society of "inferior" races. He also warns that in today's culture, Darwinism is continuing to have a negative impact on social and moral issues.
Stein and the movie's producers are hopeful Expelled will spark more freedom when it comes to teaching about the origins of life.
In Roanoke, showing at the Valley View Grande Theaters

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