I recently became aware of a new documentary (to use the term liberally – no pun intended) starring and promoted by attorney, economist, political figure, former speech writer for presidents Nixon and Ford, actor comedian and game show host Ben Stein. It’s called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Now, admittedly I haven’t seen the film, but going on the reports and reviews I’ve read, it sounds like “no intelligence” was allowed in the making of this film — and that a few lies and deceptions were allowed.
Several of the scientists interviewed for the film are saying they were duped into the interview’s under very false pretenses given to them by the film’s producers and then, of course, their comments were used completely out of context.
From Wikipedia: The film “contends that [the theory of evolution] contributed to the Nazi Holocaust, communism, atheism and Planned Parenthood.” Say what?!?! They also seem to claim that there is basically a world-wide conspiracy of scientists out to silence people who espouse Intelligent Design. Well, I can tell you there’s not conspiracy, scientists are usually pretty frank about ripping apart a very bad theory, Intelligent Design included. This is all absolutely ridiculous, and I hope that everyone can see the absurdity of these claims. Especially in the case of the Holocaust. To say that a biological theory formed to explain mechanisms seen in the natural world somehow led to the killing of thousands of people in the Holocaust is not just untrue, its disgusting — which actually means Ben Stein has gone beyond buffoonery, because there’s nothing amusing about such claims.
So for some further reading, I’ve gathered up some good links:
- Richard Dawkins’ response to a letter sent by a recent viewer of the film
- Expelled Exposed Website
- Expelled Exposed: part 1 – including “How Ben Stein duped Michael Shermer into interviewing for the film”
- Expelled Exposed: part 2
- Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed (spoof)
Well, that should be enough to get people thinking critically about the absurdities portrayed in the film.
I’ll use this opportunity to plug a three recent books that Ben Stein and crew should read — and soon (though I’d recommend these to everyone!):
- Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking by Thomas E. Kida
- Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson
- Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters by Donald R. Prothero
UPDATE: I was just reading that Yoko Ono and sons are suing the film makers for using John Lennon’s song “Imagine” without permission. The producers are claiming “fair use” saying that the song is used for commentary or criticsm, but it doesn’t appear that they are commenting on or criticising the song directly, so I would appear that there is a case.
If that weren’t enough, the band Killers were duped into licensing their song to the film’s producers. How? The producer’s asked them if they could use a certain song in a documentary about academic freedom. Period. The producers were purposely being vague in order to fool the band and record company into giving them permission to use the song. It seems the band is not too happy about this and have posted about it on their forum.
More info on these two topics can be found on this repost of a Wall Street Journal article. Don’t miss the two updates below the article. They are the most telling…
Additionally they are being sued for directly copying a Harvard University/XVIVO produced animation “Inner Life of the Cell”. They claim they they hired an independent video artist to create their film and any similarity is due to the animations depicting the same process. However, it seems the animations not only depict the same process, but it is noted by David Bolinsky, the medical illustrator chiefly responsible for the original Harvard produced animation that, “it is astonishing that among well over a dozen functional kinesins from which an animator might choose, we both chose the same configuration of kinesin, pulling the same protein-studded vesicle, on the same microtubule” and “Can YOU believe we coincidentally picked the same camera angles and left in the same specific structures in the background, positioned with the same composition?” Not to mention the Expelled animation is accompanied by the same music. And they didn’t copy the Harvard video? Right.
The lies, deceptions and copyright infringements perpetrated by the producers of this film speaks quite clearly about their ethics and true intentions. Their tactics even make Michael Moore look like an amatuer. Even Unintelligent Design promoter William Dembsky has admitted that the film’s producers, “made sure to budget for lawsuits” and that they have retained “one of the best intellectual property attorneys in the business.” Yeah, they obviously knew what they were doing – and what they were getting themselves into. But to them, its all publicity!
