Review - Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Many people are probably already aware of the controversial documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Starring Ben Stein, this film takes a look at the theory of Intelligent Design. It actually covers a variety of topics; including discrimination of ID theorists in the scientific community, criticisms of Darwinian evolution, and the supposed link between Darwinism and Nazism/eugenics.
Sorry, have to disagree, though I do agree that Dawkins appears to be a bit of a jerk. But talk about the emperor having no clothes, the only substantive part of ID is as a negative argument that diametrically opposed to evolution, otherwise it has nothing of substance to offer science. Imagine teaching ecology in school without a fundamental understanding of Darwinism and evolution. What would ID tell these students, other than the showing and teaching these alleged students the incredible complexity of nature? What’s the explanation for these systems and their numerous interactions? God did it of course. Cool huh? Sorry, that’s not science and I challenge any ID proponent to demonstrate a single predictive model that ID can make regarding living organisms and their present day ecosystems.
There are no scientific ID models, they got nothing but faith and fussy logic like this: Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people- Quote from Ben Stein
To your point about equating the holocaust with Darwinism the Anti-Defamation League said this:
The film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed misappropriates the Holocaust and its imagery as a part of its political effort to discredit the scientific community which rejects so-called intelligent design theory. Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people and Darwin and evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler’s genocidal madness. Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivializes the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry.
The point is I have my faith too but the difference is I don’t subject you to it. Science is not faith but a way of reasoning and we need all the good scientists we can get with the way we are tanking the environment. More at www.millenniumwriting.com and the novel I wrote about about this struggle called Flores Girl the Children God Forgot.
Erik John Bertel
— Erik John Bertel May 5, 08:50 PM #
A well-reasoned and thoughtful review. I agree with most of the points you have made. In particular, I also find that the strict refusal to consider ID is neither consistent nor logical.
I appreciate that you take issue with the Nazi/Darwin connection, but understand your point about how this is the same as the strategy used by many new atheist to denounce ID or faith in a God.
I could say so much more, but you have already done an excellent job of addressing these issues.
Regarding Erik John Bertel’s comment (above), I suggest rereading this post. Again, you dismiss ID as a theory, not because it is wrong, but because “it has nothing of substance to offer science.” Not only do I find this assessment to be very subjective, it also sets a standard that I do not believe makes since for scientific study..that no theory will be considered if the theory has nothing of substance to offer science. I think this article also addresses this point quite well.
— Jim | SevenActions May 9, 07:41 PM #
Demonstrating that something is incorrect has value in and of itself. Since it inspires people to come up with a new explanation…
Also science wasn’t really presented to me in such a subjective manner. Basically if something is testable, then it’s scientific. The question itself doesn’t have to be natural, just provable(as well as being falsrfiable.)If you can demonstrate that demons fly from the earth every time you clap your hands, then you can make a scientific proposal…
That’s what I was told at least :/
— poly May 13, 04:25 AM #
It was thoughtful and well argued, I could not have been more reasonable myself.
Erik also exemplifies a common misunderstanding about the difference between evolution and natural selection.
Natural selection is merely the idea that populations of organisms can adapt to fit their environment.
Evolution is an extrapolation of natural selection to a common single ancestor.
I don’t know any proponent of either ID or Creationism who doubts the former, although they disagree vehmently with the latter.
— sconzey Jun 3, 11:21 PM #
While I am sure it has been mentioned….
“””
Evolution deals with the development of life, but it is silent on the issue of the origin of life (commonly referred to as ‘chemical evolution’).
“””
You mean “commonly referred to as ‘abiogenesis’. As you point out, a criticism of Abiogenesis does not constitute a criticism of Evolution.
Also it most definitely does posit a single creator, most commonly God. Most members of the Discovery Insitute for example have explicitly stated that in their opinion the creative intelligence is the Christian God. Most lobby efforts behind ID are focused on putting the Christian God into science and especially into the school system.
Have you read the Discovery Institute’s “WEDGE DOCUMENT”?
Also you should see some of the crap Stein was saying in interviews and press releases prior to the movie’s screening.
”... evolution explains so little! It doesn’t explain how Gravity works, how it keeps the planets in their orbits. It doesn’t explain how physics works, how thermodynamics works”...
Typical of creationists’ and ID proponents grasp of scientific principles.
— Healyhatman Jun 18, 08:03 PM #
Additionally, evolution is defined as “the process of change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next”
You seem to be trying to simply excise the parts of evolution you like and do away with the nasty stuff that goes against your God.
Final point to make here:
Erik is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. ID says at its core that life is too complex to evolve and it must have an intelligent designer behind it.
So tell me, what PREDICTIONS can you make with Intelligent Design? ANY PREDICTION WHATSOEVER. Which unfortunately for you means no prediction.
How so? Easy. If it’s all the work of a supernatural entity, we can’t always expect that a species will change and adapt gradually… because it’s all the work of magic, under ID it is entirely possible for, say, an elephant to give birth to a purple aardvark. You can’t reliably predict, taking into account the influence of this magical supernatural entity, that such a thing won’t happen.
“A theory that predicts everything is a theory that predicts nothing”.
— Healyhatman Jun 18, 08:14 PM #
Sorry, one final FINAL thing.
“Natural selection is merely the idea that populations of organisms can adapt to fit their environment.”
No.
Should read “Natural selection is the process by which favorable heritable traits become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable heritable traits become less common, due to differential reproduction of genotypes”
In other words, natural selection says that organisms with favourable traits will survive to breed/multiply, organisms with unfavourable traits will die.
The part you said about adaptation? THAT’S EVOLUTION.
Thankyou for your time. On your next visit please feel free to peruse a dictionary or even wikipedia before criticising something.
— Healyhatman Jun 18, 08:57 PM #
Ummm… healyhatman, he did say that evolution was an extrapolation of natural selection, so I don’t know why you felt the need to correct him saying “THAT’S EVOLUTION.”
He pretty much said an Accord was a model of a Honda, and you ‘corrected’ him saying, “AN ACCORD IS A HONDA,” which is really what he said. Calm down, brother, and don’t be so rude. If you disagree, then disagree. Don’t go off telling a person to read a dictionary. You seem like you’re way too eager to argue against people. You fail to get the whole idea people are trying to make, so you seriously nit-pick.
— DeAnna Jun 25, 04:08 AM #
I was actually excited to see a website where reflective Christians could debate and really dig into their beliefs… and then I read this review. This movie and the premise of the movie blew- the only way you could like is in the way that the people who watch Fox News like Fox News— you like a format that intentionally and constantly regurgitates your own beliefs in trite, unreflective bits. I think everybody likes that occasionally- but that ain’t skeptical. ID’s are discriminated against? Boo-fucking-hoo. This isn’t Russia, this isn’t Lysenkoism. ID has been aggressively pan-handled and it has a prominent spot in the marketplace of ideas- but people still aren’t buying.
Just to be fair, let’s suppose there is a top-down academic mission to discriminate unfairly against ID supporters (and there’s not). Just to be fair to evolution, why not have a few decades where believers in ID are persecuted, fired from their jobs, or perhaps violently injured, every now and then… just to make up for those years of repressive religious dogmatism that evolution had to fight through to get where it is.
— RLL Aug 30, 02:50 PM #
Atheism is a religious belief and should have no place in Science. I too had to leave my BSc course because I could not regurgitate the Atheist’s crap.
— Michael Dec 12, 08:09 PM #
Michael, atheism is not a religion despite some atheist passionate feelings towards actual religions. I agree it should have no place in science as well. As far as i know it does not. I really wonder how much Ben Stein really understood about the ID movement before makin Expelled. I had found it very telling that they did not even attempt to make a single argument in favor for ID other then it should be taught with an open mind(apparently they think there is something to teach about it.) All of the ID proponents had at one time or another made claims that ID is basically an attempt to introduce christianity and replace materialism
— Ferbilini Dec 17, 10:11 PM #
@Healyhatman:
>>On your next visit please feel free to peruse a dictionary or even wikipedia<<
Keep on trollin’!
— Volpeculus Apr 25, 05:22 PM #