Tear Down This Wall: A Review of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”

This afternoon I ventured out into rarely-visited territory: the local movie theater. I have been eagerly awaiting the release of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” with Ben Stein.

Much like “The Irrational Atheist,” which I reviewed two weeks ago, “Expelled” takes the debate between Darwinism and Intelligent Design to a place that the Darwinists don't want it to go. In this case, the much ballyhooed realm of open discussion. “Expelled” places the discussion of origins into two camps: Darwinism and Intelligent Design, then it compares the separation to the two to the Berlin Wall. Free and open discussion is permitted so long as it's done on the “correct” side of that wall, and no discussion is allowed of the other side.

“Expelled” starts out describing the case of Richard Sternberg, a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and editor of the journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, who was forced out of his job after he approved the publication of a pro-ID paper by Stephen C. Meyer of the Discovery Institute. Stein Notes that he expects this incident to be unique, but decides to do some digging to find out for sure. Once he gets going, he learns that there are many people just like Sternberg who were fired, forced out, or didn't have their employment contracts reviewed after simply asking questions. Among them, people who are pro-evolution in their views of origins, but made the mistake of acknowledging questions raised by promoters of ID (Intelligent Design) that the Darwinian establishment has deemed verboten.

“Expelled” goes on to demonstrate what extreme Darwinism can bring about in society: the Holocaust and the American Eugenics program of the early 20th century. They clarify that not all Darwinists promote policies of eugenics and mass slaughter, but all eugenicists and mass murderers are Darwinists.

“Expelled” doesn't dabble much into the debate over origins itself, which I think in the end is a great strength of the film. It merely shows that those who champion the aspects of science that promote discussion, debate, and criticism shut the door to those who bring the hardest hitting challenges to the table. Where “Expelled” does dabble in the discussion, they show the leading atheists of our time to be every bit as foolish as they claim the ID folks to be. When asked how the first life form (necessary to the Darwinian process of evolution) came into being, the speculations were quite wild, ranging from “molecules riding the backs of crystals,” to “technologically highly advanced alien species” ‘seeding' the earth with primitive cells that evolved into the vast diversity of life as we know it today (That was the “brilliant” Richard Dawkins.

I never held Dawkins in high regard, but between “Expelled” and TIA, he has been made to look like an utter fool. Neither even tries hard to paint him in that light either. About the only thing this fool has going for him is the perception of sophistication that is inherent in the English accent.

When I reviewed “The Irrational Atheist,” I said:

“I foresee his book being the very beginning of a movement that will send the old arguments used by the New Atheists back into darkness until enough time has passed for another generation to drag them out again, as these have done. (It’s an old cycle that keeps coming around full circle, not a set of new arguments that will finally win a centuries-old war.)”

“Expelled” reinforces that feeling. It is a well-produced film that hits evolutionary theory very hard by addressing problems that Darwinists want relegated to the janitor's closet in the basement of the axillary wing of the least used building on the extended campus. It is quite serendipitous that “Expelled” and TIA were released so close to each other. I firmly believe we are seeing the very beginnings of a reformation within the realms of science and academia, and it's not surprising. As like any other philosophy that cannot tolerate dissent, Darwinism must (and will) implode on itself.

I not only recommend it, I'll be buying the DVD when it becomes available.