Expelled

I went to see Ben Stein's Expelled No Intelligence Allowed Friday night. Contrary to the Kansas City Star review (not surprisingly negative and only given one star), the movie does a great job of exposing the dividing wall between those who embrace researching the validity of Intelligent Design (ID) and those who are protecting the failed theory of evolution. There is no doubt that teachers, journalists or those in government positions will loose their jobs if they even mention the idea that ID might have some credence. If you doubt it, try it. This type of censorship attitude is reminiscent of communist East Berlin which imagery is used throughout the documentary.

Ben Stein is not a comedian here. I found him rather solemn, sarcastic of course. He uses funny cleverly placed spots from old movies or cartoons to ridicule or emphasize his numerous interviews. On the ID side: William Dembski, Guillermo Gonzales are just a few among the many scholars. There are those who got fired or shunned for daring to mention "ID" in a positive or even neutral manner. Another blogger mentions a few of those names "Cambridge physicist John Polkinghorne; Oxford mathematician and philosopher John Lennox; journalist Pamela Winnick, who has received hate mail for covering the issue; and biologist Caroline Crocker, who was fired from George Mason University for discussing intelligent design in the classroom." On the pro-Darwin side we find Richard Dawkins and the skeptic Michael Shermer among many others. Their statements are rather telling. Dawkins actually says, design couldn't be from God, but because of its obvious complexity it could be coming from an intelligence from outer space. Hello Houston, come again?!

I truly enjoyed watching the computer generated cell moving about our bodies which the attached clip shows only a small portion of. Some wonder why God hides himself. After watching the complexity of the cell, does he really hide? I always tell Camille and Gabe that God is too big to fit into something as physically small as a body like ours. However we do see God's presence when we look into the complexity of the human cell and that's only the physical. The complexity of the human soul, which I believe leads the process like an orchestra is directed by a maestro, would even be more amazing.

For more information about the movie, you can download the Leaders Guide from the Expelled website.