Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed/pro
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is a controversial film which presents claims of persecution to promote intelligent design. Starring Ben Stein, it is due to be released in February 2008.
The film presents allegations of persecution of educators and scientists who promote intelligent design, the idea that there is evidence of a supernatural intelligence in biological processes, and claims there is a conspiracy to keep God out of the nation’s laboratories and classrooms. The film blames the theory of evolution for a range of things, from Communism to Planned Parenthood.
Although not yet released, the film is being promoted by a Christian movie site, and by organizations affiliated with the Discovery Institute, the hub and source of the intelligent design movement. As part of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns claiming discrimination one of the institute's websites, Intelligent Design the Future, makes the claim that Expelled "reveals the stark truth: Darwinists have been conspiring to keep design out of classrooms, out of journals, and out of public discourse." The Discovery Institute has been critical of some of the statements made in promotion for the film, such as Bill O'Reilly equating Intelligent design with creationism.
Allegations and claims presented in the film
The film alleges "that freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions." It is claimed to show that educators and scientists who see evidence of a supernatural intelligence in biological processes have been unfairly ridiculed, presenting cases such as an application to be granted tenure being refused and a biology teacher having to leave the university, and describes this as due to a scientific conspiracy to keep God out of the nation’s laboratories and classrooms. The trailer shows Ben Stein stating that his intention is to unmask "people out there who want to keep science in a little box where it can’t possibly touch God."
The press release for the film alleges that Stein discovers "an elitist scientific establishment that has traded in its skepticism for dogma" and allows no dissent from what it calls "Charles Darwin’s theory of random mutation and natural selection."
The film implies that Darwin's theory of evolution was responsible for the Holocaust, a part of an ongoing Discovery Institute campaign, and a frequently-usedThis creationist claim that is part of a Discovery Institute campaign (New book by Discovery Institute Fellow shows influence of Darwinian principles on [...]'s [...] regime, Discovery Institute) and is repeated over and over in creationist literature. For example:
- Darwinism and the [...] race Holocaust, Jerry Bergman, CEN Technical Journal, 13(2):101–111, 1999.
- The Holocaust and evolution, Jonathan Sarfati, Creation 22(1):4, December 1999.
- Darwin's Deadly Legacy: The Chilling Impact of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Ministries, 2007
- From Darwin to [...]: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany, Richard Weikart, Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.
creationist charge. Stein repeatedly claims that evolution is responsible for the Holocaust in interviews promoting the film and on his blog on the film's website.
People presented in the film
The film is described by its promoters as citing several people as victims of persecution. Those named have featured in Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns.
Richard Sternberg is cited for the Sternberg peer review controversy which arose when, having served as editor of the scientific journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington and giving in his resignation in the previous year, he arranged for his last issue to include publication of a paper by leading intelligent design proponent Stephen C. Meyer. The review procedure was questioned and the journal subsequently declared that the paper "does not meet the scientific standards of the Proceedings" and would not have been published had usual editorial practices been followed.
The astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University, co-wrote the book The Privileged Planet promoting intelligent design claims. After the normal review of aspects such as his record of scientific publications which had dropped sharply after he joined the faculty, he was not granted tenure and promotion on the grounds that he "simply did not show the trajectory of excellence that we expect in a candidate seeking tenure in physics and astronomy." In the previous decade, four of the 12 candidates who came up for review in the department were not granted tenure. The Discovery Institute then launched a campaign portraying Gonzalez as a victim of discrimination.
Biologist Caroline Crocker was barred by George Mason University from teaching a Cell Biology class over her introduction of intelligent design into it, and her contract at that university was not renewed.
The film also includes interviews with scientists who advocate the teaching of evolution and are opposed to the intrusion of creationism and other religious doctrines in science classes, biologists PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins and anthropologist Eugenie Scott.
Claims of deception by interviewees
The movie has been criticized by several of the interviewees, including biologists PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins and NCSE head Eugenie Scott, who were asked to be interviewed for a film named Crossroads on the "intersection of science and religion", with a blurb which described the strong support that had been accumulated for evolution, and contrasted this with the religious who rejected it, and the controversy this caused.
On learning of the pro-intelligent design stance of the real film, Myers said "not telling one of the sides in a debate about what the subject might be and then leading him around randomly to various topics, with the intent of later editing it down to the parts that just make the points you want, is the video version of quote-mining and is fundamentally dishonest." Richard Dawkins said "At no time was I given the slightest clue that these people were a creationist front"; and Eugenie Scott, of the National Center for Science Education, said "I just expect people to be honest with me, and they weren’t."
Mark Mathis (one of the film's producers who set up the interviews for Expelled) called Myers, Dawkins and Scott a "bunch of hypocrites" and said that he "went over all of the questions with these folks before the interviews and I e-mailed the questions to many of them days in advance". The film's proponents point out that Dawkins participated in the BBC Horizon documentary "A War on Science", whose producers they allege presented themselves to the Discovery Institute as objective filmmakers and then portrayed the organization as religiously-motivated and anti-scientific.
Defending the movie, the producer, Walt Ruloff, said that scientists like prominent geneticist Francis Collins keep their religion and science separate only because they are "toeing the party line".
Promotion
The film's website includes trailers, additional material, press articles, and a blog. The blog's first entry was an open letter from Ben Stein which explains his personal premise for the movie. Stein utilizes arguments based on freedom of inquiry, teleology and the beliefs of historically prominent scientists. He also accuses the modern American scientific establishment as being "a new anti-religious dogmatism". The letter suggests that Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein based their work and discoveries on creationist assumptions, and that they would not be allowed to pursue their science in the anti-religious scientific atmosphere that exists today.
The film's long format "super trailer" implies that this film is so controversial that some people who watch it may lose their jobs, and states "if you're a scientist with any hope of a future, I suggest you leave right now." The trailer also implies that the content of this film is so dangerous that teachers, legislators and journalists should not view it either. It promotes the intelligent design explanation for the species observed on planet earth and their behavior, and implies there is no evidence for the mainstream scientifically-accepted understanding of the origins of species. The trailer states that the science is in "the era of Darwin," and that scientific publications questioning Darwinism would have been welcomed in the time of Galileo or Einstein, but no longer are possible. The trailer claims that the courts, schools and the media are also involved in attacking intelligent design proponents.
The website also asks for submissions of personal stories of discrimination against students for suggesting design or questioning Darwinian theory, with the enticement that a winning story, or stories will be featured in the film.
The press release for the movie asks, "Were we designed or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning?" It claims that several scientists who found evidence for design have been censored in various ways. The press release asserts that "Big Science" does not allow dissent from "Charles Darwin’s theory of random mutation and natural selection." It suggests that there is no evidence for evolution.
To publicise the film, Ben Stein featured on The O'Reilly Factor. Intelligent design was described by Bill O'Reilly as the idea that "a deity created life", and Stein stated that "There's no doubt about it. We have lots and lots of evidence of it in the movie. And you know Einstein worked within the framework of believing there was a God. Newton worked within the framework of believing there was a God. For gosh sakes Darwin worked within the framework of believing there was a God. And yet, somehow, today you're not allowed to believe it. Why can't we have as much freedom as Darwin had?" The Discovery Institute quickly issued a statement that when Bill O'Reilly conflated intelligent design with creationism he was mistakenly defining it as an attempt to find a divine designer, and regretting that "Ben referred to the 'gaps' in Darwin's theory, as if those are the only issues that intelligent design theory addresses." It went on to assert that "intelligent design also provides a robust positive case, and a serious scientific research approach", a claim that had been explicitly refuted at Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
Reviews
Dan Whipple of Colorado Confidential, a self-described "award-winning independently-produced political news daily featuring original and investigative reporting", saw an early screening of the film at the Archdiocese of Denver during the second week of December, 2007. Whipple was somewhat surprised that neither intelligent design nor evolution were defined in the film. According to Whipple, the film charges that intellectual freedom of intelligent design supporters is being restricted. After the first half hour, Whipple reports that the film launches into a condemnation of evolution, blaming it for "Communism, the Berlin Wall, Fascism, the Holocaust, atheism and Planned Parenthood." Whipple remarks that the film ridicules the panspermia hypothesis. He also notes that the film acknowledges that evolution does not concern itself with abiogenesis, and then attacks evolution for misrepresenting the origin of life. Scientists with hypotheses for abiogenesis are ridiculed for stating that this is still not understood.
Tom Magnuson posted a statement on the Access Research Network blog, which is associated with the Discovery Institute, after he saw a private screening of the film. Magnuson stated that, "This is definitely a film that Darwinists will not want you to see." Magnuson gave the film a rating of "Four Stars".
See also
- Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns