My husband and I settled down on the couch last night to watch Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed by Ben Stein. It wasn't a typical documentary. There is plenty of Ben Stein's classic dry wit to keep you chuckling while he discusses a somewhat alarming topic: the fact that the scientific community is determined to ban the theory of intelligent design. Intelligent design is not the same as creationism. Creationism leans wholly on the creation story as it is depicted in Genesis. Intelligent design is a theory that states that biology as we understand it today, with all of its complexities, seems to point to an intelligent designer. Most scientist who support the intelligent design theory do so because they believe Darwinism, the concept of macro-evolution (that all life forms evolved from a single cell organism), cannot sufficiently explain the complexities of life on earth. Further more, there is a sufficient lack of evidence for macro-evolution, which some see as cause to doubt Darwinism.
Expelled is not an attempt to prove intelligent design (ID). Instead, it attempts to present the evidence that the scientific community is blackballing any member who holds to the intelligent design theory, dismissing them as dangerous "religious nuts" and idiots, despite the fact that these scientists hold several degrees from some of the most prestigious universities in the world and were considered the top in their fields until they began to support the intelligent design theory. And Expelled, in my opinion, achieves this goal. Through interviews with individuals who have been attacked for their beliefs (including non-religious people who have reported on or supported ID), the evidence is clear that this hostility is really taking place. Mr. Stein also calls into evidence several documents from universities showing a clear bias against staff that holds to ID.
The thing that amazed me the most, as a believer, is some of the theories that Darwinists do hold to. First of all, none of the Darwinists that Mr. Stein interviewed could answer the question "how did life start?" They repeatedly answered "I don't know." However, even though they don't know how life started, how the essential building blocks of life just happened to end up on this third rock from the sun, they do seem to know how it evolved. One scientists explained it in the form of crystals. The basic building blocks of life (elements) were attached to these crystals, and as the crystals formed, it forced the elements to meld together, which eventually led to a single celled organism. Richard Dawkins, who wrote The God Delusion, stated that it could be that another civilization evolved on a distant planet, and through their scientific genius, they came and "seeded" our planet with the first single cell organism, then left to let us evolve on our merry way. The man who claims that anyone who believes in a god of any sort is delusional and of sub-average intelligence also believes we most likely resulted from an alien experiment. Right.
Overall, I enjoyed Expelled. I'm sure many atheists and Darwinists would scream that it's biased and pure idiocy. However, Mr. Stein took time to interview both sides of the argument. And while he did not attempt to completely disprove Darwinism, he did bring to light many of the problems with the theory. Ultimately, his goal was not to support either side of the argument, but to support freedom of speech. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about ID v. Darwinism from a fair perspective.
2 comments:
Expelled is not an attempt to prove intelligent design (ID). Instead, it attempts to present the evidence that the scientific community is blackballing any member who holds to the intelligent design theory, dismissing them as dangerous "religious nuts" and idiots, despite the fact that these scientists hold several degrees from some of the most prestigious universities in the world and were considered the top in their fields until they began to support the intelligent design theory.
Intelligent design is the idea that scientific problems should be solved by invoking supernatural magic. There's nothing scientific about it, and it's an excuse for lazy people to not think.
Intelligent design means "I can't solve this problem, nobody else will be able to solve this problem, no person not born yet will ever be able to solve this problem, therefore I'm going to give up searching for the solution, and I'm going to say God did it."
Any scientist who invokes intelligent design is not doing science and that's why he or she should be thrown out the window.
However, not all scientist who believe in ID are theists. Some simply think that Darwinism has too many holes to adequately explain life, and want to at least explore other ideas. But they're being barred from investigating any other explanation. Futhermore, none of the scientists they interviewed seemed too lazy to think.
Regardless, thanks for the feed back!
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