Expelled - The Ben Stein Movie

I have been watching the Intelligent Design debate for a number of years. The anti-religious see ID as a stalking horse for Christianity, a ruse to fool the rubes into thinking they are scientists. Recently, a college student loudly declared that to be a fact in my class.

"Expelled" deals with the effort of modern science to stop all debate and discussion of Intelligent Design. Therefore, the movie is more about modern science than ID itself.

The Man
Ben Stein and I go back many decades. When I used to read Time magazine cover-to-cover, I often found articles about his late father, the economist for Richard Nixon, Herb Stein. (I shook Nixon's hand once, at Moline International Airport, but that is another story.) When Herb died, I sent Ben a letter of condolence via email. He wrote back. Another time I praised his review for "Borat," which gave me even more reasons to avoid the movie. Once again, Ben wrote me, even though I simply posted my comments in the letter section of a website.

I was reading Ben's stories in American Spectator in the 1980's. They are running commentaries on society, lack of thankfulness, his family, and his Hollywood career. Stein became famous for his "Buhler, Buhler, anyone?" satire of teaching in "Ferris Buhler's Day Off," a classic comedy. His TV show, "Win Ben Stein's Money," showed how the emotional side of Stein when he was losing his own money over trivia tests. He went to Columbia University and Yale Law, where he was valedictorian. Stein is rare for being a well known media talent and a genuine intellectual. Most actors have not graduated from college and only think they know everything. Stein is well trained in law, history, and economics.

The Movie
Expelled begins with titles taken from black and white films of the Berlin Wall. The credits are cleverly "painted" on the Wall. This theme becomes important, but appears rather mysterious at the beginning of the film.

Stein is the narrator, pretending to be a lot more innocent than he is about intellectual issues. This style is quite effective, because he asks important questions instead of debating with scientists. He lets them make their points and encourages them to communicate their philosophy.

The Movement
ID is not necessarily religious. Scientists have had to face the extreme shallowness of Darwin and the infinite complexity of Creation at the same time. Some say that nano-technology has made them face the design features of the living cell. Others claim that scanning electron micro-scopes have revealed an elegance to micro-structures impossible to deny.

Science is never going to prove or disprove Creation. The film is very good in avoiding that trap. We should be thankful that Stein, one of the writers, is a Jew rather than a Calvinist. The film shows how the atheistic and the ID views are two different philosophies engaging the same set of facts. At one point my favorite theme is expressed in different words - reality is a net we use to hold the facts. Primitives in Africa see a silver dart in the sky and see it as tiny, strange thing. A Westerner sees the same moving dart and says, "About 60 people are on that jet."

Darwin
"Expelled" does not try to run Darwin into the ground. People try to make Darwinism fail with personal attacks against the man. Darwin was trained in theology, but he was also highly regarded as a scientific observer. He did not invent evolution. He longed to be famous. His famous book told people just what they wanted to hear at a time when Christianity was losing its hold on Europe. The Origin of Species was a watershed in science. Instead of Creation being normative for science, evolution became normative for science and mainline religion. Darwin is carved in stone on Riverside Church in NYC, the liberal congregation funded by John D. Rockefeller.

Atheism
"Expelled" is good at portraying the atheism of leading scientists. Dawkins is the most prominent. Atheism is not indifference about religion but a genuine hatred of all religion as dangerous. The Humanist Manifesto, I and II, makes this clear. Atheists have trouble calling themselves atheists. They prefer to be called scientists and humanists.

Evolutionists see religion behind ID. Robert Jastrow (not mentioned in the film) was quoted in Yale Divinity's magazine as saying, "Evolution is like claiming a tornado went through a junkyard and produced a working model of a Boeing 747 jet." Jastrow is a famous astrophysicist and not religious.

Scientists and journalists have been expelled from their jobs for harboring kind thoughts about ID, even for mentioning ID in the classroom. The extent of this should not surprise anyone acquainted with Pope John the Malefactor, the Wisconsin Synod, or Kieschnick. Stein seemed to be genuinely astonished at the extent of the persecution.

Hitler and Sanger
Evolution, abortion, and genocide go together like Church Growth, Waldo Werning, and David Valleskey.

One of the best features of this film is the clear connection between evolution and "genetic purity." The Nazis loved evolution and used Darwinian concepts to promote their policies. Killing the infirm and feeble-minded was one of their programs, graphically shown.

Margaret Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood. She spoke to the KKK (famous photo) because they loved her teaching. PP is the biggest abortion provider in the US. ELCA pays for clergy family abortions, but that does not bother WELS, the ELS, or Missouri. Government-funded abortions have carried out Sanger's dream of eliminating as many Blacks in America as possible. Either Dear Abby or Ann Landers (sisters) advocated abortion on demand to reduce the cost of welfare.

ELCA goes to court to suppress the teaching of ID and Creation. The mainline denominations have been wonderful in supporting Darwinism. The Church of Rome accepts a blended view of Darwinism - evolution until man had a soul.

The Wall
The captivating film develops the Berlin Wall theme by showing how we must build a wall between the facts and the concept of ID, to be acceptable to modern science. Although the film moves along quickly, it also seems much longer than it is because of all the information provided.

If I get a chance I will post a few quotations on this issue from my ready-to-go database (L. Olson), Megatron.

Mrs. Ichabod and I seldom go to a movie without our grandchildren. This movie is worthwhile for everyone to see. Do not be surprised if some scientists are there in the audience. They are the ones with paper bags over their heads.