Who is planning to watch this 'documentary' on the universities elimination of profs trying to bring variety to the classroom teaching of evolution?

I like Ben Stein's sense of humor so even though I'm sure it's a load of bollocks I'll probably check out the film (and as they say it better the devil you know than the devil you don't!)

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/movies/18expe.html?ref=movies

Resentment Over Darwin Evolves Into a Documentary
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: April 18, 2008

One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.

Positing the theory of intelligent design as a valid scientific hypothesis, the film frames the refusal of “big science” to agree as nothing less than an assault on free speech. Interviewees, including the scientist Richard Sternberg, claim that questioning Darwinism led to their expulsion from the scientific fold (the film relies extensively on the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy — after this, therefore because of this), while our genial audience surrogate, the actor and multihyphenate Ben Stein, nods sympathetically. (Mr. Stein is also a freelance columnist who writes Everybody’s Business for The New York Times.)

Prominent evolutionary biologists, like the author and Oxford professor Richard Dawkins — accurately identified on screen as an “atheist” — are provided solely to construct, in cleverly edited slices, an inevitable connection between Darwinism and godlessness. Blithely ignoring the vital distinction between social and scientific Darwinism, the film links evolution theory to fascism (as well as abortion, euthanasia and eugenics), shamelessly invoking the Holocaust with black-and-white film of Nazi gas chambers and mass graves.

Every few minutes familiar — and ideologically unrelated — images interrupt the talking heads: a fist-shaking Nikita S. Khrushchev; Charlton Heston being subdued by a water hose in “Planet of the Apes.” This is not argument, it’s circus, a distraction from the film’s contempt for precision and intellectual rigor. This goes further than a willful misunderstanding of the scientific method. The film suggests, for example, that Dr. Sternberg lost his job at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History because of intellectual discrimination but neglects to inform us that he was actually not an employee but rather an unpaid research associate who had completed his three-year term.

Mixing physical apples and metaphysical oranges at every turn “Expelled” is an unprincipled propaganda piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike. In its fudging, eliding and refusal to define terms, the movie proves that the only expulsion here is of reason itself.

Isn't this the very same NY Times that praised such "documentaries" like "Sicko" and "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

It's at least obvious to me that this new movie by Ben Stein is NOT meant to be taken as a documentary but as an opinion piece presenting a specific world view just like what is often done by Michael Moore.

Religion is dying a slow death...but don't expect it to go quietly...

haha Yeah, it may be obvious to us and others that BSE (Ben Stein's Expelled, not the mad cow disease Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ...but they are probably closely related! lol) but the director, producer, and distributor of this film is billing it as a 'documentary' or 'satirical documentary.'

Wally,

Beav,

Boys!

Wow, that reviewer seem angry, bitter even. Almost like she's taking it personally.


Anyway, on a similar note, "Indoctrinate U" has had it's premier and is now on DVD:
http://indoctrinate-u.com/pages/welcome.html

I'll watch it just to be better informed. If some geneticist was fired because he disagreed with some arcane portion of evolution, that's wrong. There's still lots to learn regarding the early stages and mechanisms of evolution. Also, if some behavioral scientist is a creationist, that's fine too (since it's not expected for she or he to know about evolution). But if someone's a geneticist and they say they believe in the Creation Story, then I'd have to question where they got their degree from. Scientific understanding and a literal interpretation of the Bible are at odds.

I'm a science teacher. I plan on seeing it.

And if you doubt his premise, you should stand in my shoes.

pfunk

It takes more faith to believe we evolved from nothing than to believe we were created by something.

I came across this article at SciAm:
Six Things In Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn't Want You To Know linklinklink

1) Expelled quotes Charles Darwin selectively to connect his ideas to eugenics and the Holocaust.
2) Ben Stein's speech to a crowded auditorium in the film was a setup.
3) Scientists in the film thought they were being interviewed for a different movie.
4) The ID-sympathetic researcher whom the film paints as having lost his job at the Smithsonian Institution was never an employee there.
5) Science does not reject religious or "design-based" explanations because of dogmatic atheism.
6) Many evolutionary biologists are religious and many religious people accept evolution.