My first post, so I'll keep it short. Please read this excellent critique of 'Expelled', the movie that the ID movement proudly used to show evolutionists are evil and horrible. Roger Ebert does a fine job of beating the stuffing out of this blatant propoganda, a film our pal Ray endorsed not so long ago...Bravo Mr. Ebert.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind.html
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Ebert is not a "true" christian, he is catholic.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to beat the liars to the punch on the logical fallacy.
Of my cadre of cohorts, all of whom have seen different amounts of the movie on Netflix, I'm the only one to have watched through the wretched thing, and in the theater on opening weekend no less. I had planned initially to pass out fliers after the showing that read "Hiya! You were just lied to! Guess how!" and listed a bunch of bullet points off ExpelledExposed.com, but then I realized I'm a lazy twit so that fell through.
ReplyDeleteI'd never before and had never since screamed at a movie screen, and did not go in with the intent of doing so, but the crap Stein was shoveling was honestly just so retarded it was like reflexive. Every three minutes "No it wasn't!" "Of Course he Didn't!" "He just told you that!" etc. until around the 80% mark where the films thesis becomes, very explicitly, "Charles Darwin forced Adolf Hitler to invent Abortions, and only Ben Stein and Zombie Reagan can save us!" a c#$%-punch like that can only have earned the loudest "Oh F#$% a Bunch of YOU!" And even that wasn't embarassing.
The embarassing thing was that, when the movie ended (With Stein using Reagan-Magic to tear down the Berlin Wall so he can destroy basic biology theory) and it got a standing ovation. Not because I was humiliated, but because these idiots bought every word of this nonsense. I've never wanted to just smack a roomful of people so badly.
One of the comments to the review:
ReplyDelete"Dear Roger,
Is Man, as a race, destined to shrivel away with the passing of time, to dissipate and die out into the darkness of the space? Or worse, is it fated that our Existence should someday meet its end under the shadow of a radiant mushroom cloud? (If indeed there is such a thing as predestination.)
If not, then to what is Man heading for? Since Evolution is ever-changing, where is this all leading us? What does the Future have in store for us? If we can extrapolate the very distant past through empirical means, then can we not also envision Man’s future with the same study?
I have been cogitating through these philosophical questions for many years now, and am very certain that down into the far future, we will reach a very advanced stage in our existence where we will have created sentient Life, playing the role of Creator. When that comes to pass, how should our moral responsibilities to this New Life be played out? Do we play it out to the fullest, choking its bickering life and forcing it to accept our higher ways? Or do we set it free, stay silent and render our unseen guidance in the background?
Wouldn't it be amusing for our creations to regard us as non-existent?"
I just find that an interesting question.
It would be amusing, particularly since such life would likely be in direct contact with us physically, but would it be responsible of us to hand them flimsy proof of our existence and then leave the lab?
Also: Capitals and words like "cogitating" don't make you smart.
I read Ebert's blog, and I did thoroughly enjoy the eviceration, but Ebert's take on Stein as an originator of Expelled's concept who sought out people to produce the movie is off the mark.
ReplyDeleteAs I commented at Ebert's site,
This is from an interview with Logan Craft (executive producer of Expelled), with the Texas Southern Baptist Convention magazine-
TEXAN: How did Ben Stein come to be involved in the film?
CRAFT: Well, John(Sullivan, producer of Expelled) had a real insight, we believe, into the necessity to have a person, first of all, who wasn’t overtly Christian or overtly religious...
Ben Stein is a hack. Expelled sucked. Roger Ebert rules.
Shermer and Lukianoff did a great debate on free speech in schools. In it they argue over a variety of topics but both agree that Expelled is an absolute joke.
ReplyDelete