Share QED99's profile
QED99
QED99's stats
- Review count1
- Helpfulness votes7
- First reviewApril 25, 2008
- Last reviewApril 25, 2008
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating1
QED99's Reviews
Overall rating
1
/
5
Dishonesty in every frame
PostedApril 25, 2008
QED99
Expelled claims to be a documentary, but is in reality, a creationist propaganda piece. There is literally no science in this film, only crudely constructed associations of modern scientists with Hitler, using a worn and dishonest overlay of old film footage showing German stormtroopers marching in the streets while Stein laments the expulsion of a few ID scientists with an ax to grind. To say this is a dishonest film would be a gross understatement.
Ben's poster-boy for the film's central theme (that scientists are fired and careers ruined by "Big Science" because they advocate intelligent design) is Richard Sternberg. Sternberg was an unpaid Research Associate for the Smithsonian in 2004. He peer-reviewed a controversial paper on the "Cambrian Explosion" himself, without the assistance of an associate editor, bypassing the standard practice there. Sternberg had given his resignation six months before the paper was published. The paper was later found to be without merit and was retracted. Even after his duplicity, his position was extended in 2006, though Sternberg never reported to work.
The secondary theme of the film is that intelligent design should be allowed to present evidence to the scientific community. In fact, the scientific community has been asking proponents of ID for years for this very same evidence, or even a statement of intelligent design theory. Both Dembski and Behe have written a few books concerning "thought experiments" - "explanitory filters" and "irreducible complexity", meant to give evidence for ID, but no known research has been done, even with the support of the Discovery Institute, of which they are both Fellowes. The extent of ID research has been to insert religion into what are considered "gaps" in evolutionary theory, and in essence, to argue from incredulity, that if one doesn't know, or can't understand the current science, God did it.
But the most disingenuous element was to see Ben Stein, a Jew, use the Holocaust for his own ideological agenda, for a few pieces of silver. For Ben to wander the now weedy fields of Dachau, holding his face in his best attempt at despair, is disgusting at it's very core, and the ultimate insult to those who lost family during one of the most nauseating events in human history.
For all of the above, the film is an insult to those who know better, and dishonest trickery to those who don't. Except for a few Christian blogs, the reviews from all major sources have been scathing. Financially, the movie did poorly over it's initial weekend, and will no doubt enjoy a deserving, rapid, lonely demise.
Ben's poster-boy for the film's central theme (that scientists are fired and careers ruined by "Big Science" because they advocate intelligent design) is Richard Sternberg. Sternberg was an unpaid Research Associate for the Smithsonian in 2004. He peer-reviewed a controversial paper on the "Cambrian Explosion" himself, without the assistance of an associate editor, bypassing the standard practice there. Sternberg had given his resignation six months before the paper was published. The paper was later found to be without merit and was retracted. Even after his duplicity, his position was extended in 2006, though Sternberg never reported to work.
The secondary theme of the film is that intelligent design should be allowed to present evidence to the scientific community. In fact, the scientific community has been asking proponents of ID for years for this very same evidence, or even a statement of intelligent design theory. Both Dembski and Behe have written a few books concerning "thought experiments" - "explanitory filters" and "irreducible complexity", meant to give evidence for ID, but no known research has been done, even with the support of the Discovery Institute, of which they are both Fellowes. The extent of ID research has been to insert religion into what are considered "gaps" in evolutionary theory, and in essence, to argue from incredulity, that if one doesn't know, or can't understand the current science, God did it.
But the most disingenuous element was to see Ben Stein, a Jew, use the Holocaust for his own ideological agenda, for a few pieces of silver. For Ben to wander the now weedy fields of Dachau, holding his face in his best attempt at despair, is disgusting at it's very core, and the ultimate insult to those who lost family during one of the most nauseating events in human history.
For all of the above, the film is an insult to those who know better, and dishonest trickery to those who don't. Except for a few Christian blogs, the reviews from all major sources have been scathing. Financially, the movie did poorly over it's initial weekend, and will no doubt enjoy a deserving, rapid, lonely demise.
No, I do not recommend this movie.
Share:
-3points
7of 17voted this as helpful.