Review – Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed by Ben Stein

I have been wanting to see this movie for quite a while.  I wondered what kind of value it may have to teach my children the difference between creation and evolution.  My husband and I finally got the chance to sit down and watch it and I took lots of notes!

This film is so well-done, it’s hard to call it a documentary!  In my mind, “documentary” stirs up images of watching some boring guy talk very monotonously about some boring subject.  This is not your Daddy’s documentary!

Along with clips of the different interviews that were conducted throughout the film, excerpts of old black-and-white movies were inserted throughout.  The movies were, of course, very relevant to what was being discussed, but brought an element of extra interest to the movie.

Mr. Stein started off by showing a black-and-white of the wall in Germany being built and correlating that to the current condition the world of science finds itself in.  While America was built upon freedom, Mr. Stein points out that those freedoms are being taken away as the evolution crowd builds a wall around itself, trying to make its theory untouchable.

The basic point of the movie is to uncover for all the world to see, the injustices being done to those who even try to make the argument that Darwin isn’t the only way to go.  Say that in the right circles, and you’ll lose your job, be black-listed for any future jobs and be outcast by the very people you were working with.

One skeptic, the first interview we get to hear, simply does not believe that such things are really happening.  Mr. Stein goes on a quest to prove that this really is happening, and furthermore to expose it as wrong.

And, so we embark on a journey from one end of this globe to the other to get into the minds of those on both sides of the subject, to try to expose such behavior.

While many interviewees did show their faces because they were already blacklisted and had nothing to lose, very many did not show their faces for fear of what may happen to their jobs if it should be discovered they participated in this filming.  That alone should prove what is happening, but Mr. Stein digs deeper.

I was amazed at the opinions being expressed from the evolutionary supporters in regard to Intelligent Design (ID) primarily and creationism secondarily.  Here is a sample:

• “not genuine scientists”
• “stupid”
• believing ID “stunts educational and intellectual growth”
• “excuses to get God back in schools”
• “boring”
• “all varnish and no product”
• is a means to “suck in money from religious investors”

One thing I learned is that Intelligent Design does not imply any kind of religion and creationism is not the same as Intelligent Design.  What is the difference:

• Intelligent Design is just the study of patterns in nature that are best explained as a result of some kind of intelligent design which is not necessarily God.  More like intelligent causation.  As far as they are concerned, it could have been aliens that started this thing off.
• Intelligent Design supporters come from all religious backgrounds and many from non-religious backgrounds.  They just don’t believe Darwin is right all on his own.  Maybe what or who ever designed this thing implemented evolution, but there is some higher power at work.
• They don’t feel that Darwin’s theory painted a complete picture

During one part of the movie, there is an animation shown which is like watching the inner workings of a cell.  It is wonderfully amazing – that alone is worth borrowing the movie just to fast forward to that part.  Very dramatic!

• The simplest form of life needs 250 proteins to survive and they all have to be perfectly aligned.  It’s like being in a room with 250 slot machines and expecting to win on the first pull on ALL of them.  They give a visual explanation for this and it is eye-opening.
• Darwin’s scope of what the cell looked like in comparison with what we know now is a bit like comparing a Buick to a galaxy!
• There are pieces of information in a cell that just cannot be accounted for.  Where did that information come from?

One point that Mr. Stein made was that, in order for Darwin to get his ideas across, he had to challenge the status quo.  he was in a climate where he could actually do that.  He lived in a free America where new ideas were welcomed and tried and tested and challenged.  It was a climate in which we could all learn and grow.  If Darwin were alive today, he would not even be able to introduce his new idea because he would be kicked out of his field of study.

By far, the most chilling point in the whole movie was the interview done with Dr. Will Provine.  He discusses his slide from believing in God or being a theist to becoming an atheist.  He was pushed down that slippery slope by a science teacher.

Evolution means there is no free will.  (He is saying that, because we evolved, we are just a complex set of biochemicals which move and turn of their own accord.  We have no free will, we are moved by our chemical makeup, we are being acted upon by natural forces.)

Here is how his belief system was rooted out:

• Once you believe in evolution, you give up the hope of God.
• Then, you give up the hope of life after death.
• In his words, “The rest follows easily.”
• No morality.
• No free will.
• No hope whatsoever in any meaning in life.

Dr. Provine had a brain tumor but has been experiencing a long time of remission.  Provine said that if his tumor came back he would take steps to end his own life - which, of course, is a very natural step in the process that he would like life is worthless.  Mr. Stein made a verbal note during the movie as he showed Dr. Provine walking away that after the filming of this movie, Dr. Provine found out that his tumor had come back.

I took this as a huge warning as a homeschooling mother.  Dr. Provine had some serious questions and no one could or would answer them for him in a way that would satisfy his curiosity.

First, if my children have questions, I want to make sure they are comfortable coming to me about them.  Even if they question the very existence of God, I would never want them to think that I would just look down at them with a critical eye and answer, “Of COURSE God exists, now go do your work!

Second, when my children do come with hard questions, I want to be very sure that if I don’t know the answer or if the answer doesn’t quench that thirst for knowledge, that we find out all the intricate answers together.  There ARE ways  to find out – there are creation scientists who have a love and passion for this stuff.  There are movies like this one.  There are tons of resources out there.  I would be sadly remiss in my duties as a mother and an educator if I did not scale tall buildings and lofty mountains to make sure my children had all the answers they sought for.

Their very eternity depends on it!

This was a fabulous movie about a very serious topic presented in an entertaining way.  I would definitely watch this movie with older children!  My 10-year-old son was expecting a different kind of movie and was a bit “put out” when he discovered what it was.  He initially thought he didn’t want to watch it but then decided to stay and actually ended up enjoying it.

Tell me what you think about it after you see it!

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Tagged as: ben stein, expelled, movie review, no intelligence allowed