NCSE’s staff worked behind the scenes in the archives to find the missing links tying “intelligent design” to its creationist ancestry.
An outstanding video explaining how through hard work, the NCSE staff uncovered the missing link “cdesign proponentist” (oops they already mutated from their native form “cdesign proponentsists”).
It’s been a good week for science, and evolutionary science in particular so let me mention a few newsworthy events.
And in late breaking news:
Turkish Islamic author Oktar aka Harun Yahya given 3-year jail sentence
Oktar’s teachings echo those of Christian fundamentalists in the United States. He has publicly denounced Darwinism and Freemasonry in high-profile attacks.
Expelled Theatre count
| Week | Theatres | Change |
| May 09 | 402 | -254 |
| May 02 | 656 | -385 |
| April 25 | 1041 | -11 |
| Launch | 1052 | 0 |
While legislatures focus on antievolution bills, a new video at Expelled Exposed helps students see how evolution works.
Oakland, California, May 6, 2008 As attacks on evolution education remain in the news, with proposed antievolution legislation in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Missouri in the headlines, a new video rebutting the basic premise of intelligent design creationism is now available on www.ExpelledExposed.com.
Ben Stein lies about Sternberg and Kitzmiller Lauri Lebo reviews Expelled
PvM: My apologies to Lauri Lebo for misspelling her name as Laurie
This interview is just too good to ignore. The Real Detroit Weekly reports on the movie “Expelled”. The interview shows what had already become painfully clear to me having listened the SciAm interview: namely that Mathis is poorly informed on the issues of evolutionary theory. Whenever challenged by the SciAm editors, Mathis would first try to respond only to find himself overwhelmed by the facts and respond with “I am just an associate editor” and claim unfamiliarity with the facts. Why is it that ID works best in the shadows of ignorance?
Point in case
I confront Mathis with this point, and he counters that evolutionary theory is also untestable. This is patently untrue—to give just one example, scientists have witnessed speciation, the arisal of a new species from an old one.
When I point this out, he interrupts me immediately: “Whoa! Wait a minute! Please send me whatever material you have that demonstrates that we can observe speciation because I have not seen anything. I’ve never heard anyone even claim that!”
Is he serious? He’s just produced a film about evolution, and he’s never heard of the fact that speciation has been observed and thoroughly documented in the scientific literature? I’m stunned. I send him peer-reviewed research confirming this fact via e-mail, and he later responds, “This isn’t an important argument for me.”
The God Connection
Baylor University’s newspaper the “Lariat” reports on “Expelled”, exposing once again that Intelligent Design is a theological concept.
Robert Marks, a professor at Baylor and Intelligent Design proponent, commented
“I thought it portrayed things pretty well as they are – that science by decree of entrenched Darwinism has no room for a God hypothesis,” Marks said. “I on the other hand think that one cannot pursue truth without consideration of a creator.”
Marks said if science defines science as void of a creator, then it’s not a pursuit of truth.
Same with associate producer Mathis
“You have a science department that’s denying a god,” Mathis said
The first Box Office numbers are in. Expelled opened in 8th place with $1.2M in revenues in 1,052 theatres resulting in a $1,141 per theatre revenue. You do the math. At an average of 5 showings this makes $220 per showing or 30-40 people. Expelled ranks 4th in the list of “new releases”
While the weekend has just started the movie will have to do some hard work to match the expectations of the PR people:
“He said they would consider the opening weekend successful if the movie sold 2 million tickets (earning $12-15 million).”
[Update: Source: Brad in Stranger Fruit Comment section]
In context, Fahrenheit 9/11’s opening weekend grossed $23.9 million in 868 theatres grossing $27,558 per theatre and $8,565,000 on it’s first day
Remember that the movie is also heavily subsidized and Churches etc will receive large discounts.
From Dembski’s ‘backyard’ comes a review by the Waco Tribune of “Expelled”
Carl Hoover Wrote:Though Stein presents himself as a man of rational logic, his film’s arguments are a rhetorical mishmash of straw men, red herrings, guilt by association, quote harvesting, gotcha interviews and post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this) associations that may cause your head to pop. It’s a propaganda form highly polished by director/activist Michael Moore on the other end of the political spectrum.
Not bad for starters.
The NY Times has a hard hitting review titled “Resentment Over Darwin Evolves Into a Documentary”
JEANNETTE CATSOULIS Wrote: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.
and
JEANNETTE CATSOULIS Wrote: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.
Steve Mirsky from Scientific America reports on Never You Mine: Ben Stein’s Selective Quoting of Darwin
Steve Mirsky Wrote:One of the many egregious moments in the new Ben Stein anti-evolution film “Expelled” is the truncation of a quote from Charles Darwin so that it makes him appear to give philosophical ammunition to the Nazis. Steve Mirsky reports.
The Ayn Rand Institute has released a Press Release
“Intelligent design advocates will do anything to advance their views–except science.
“The reason for that is simple: doing science has never been their goal. Their goal is to make biblical creationism appear scientific in order to skirt the constitutional ban on religion in public schools. Contrary to the film’s claims, the real dogmatists are not the defenders of Darwin, but the religiously motivated advocates of intelligent design.”
ExpelledExposed.com has announced a contest to “Set Ben Straight
In promoting the creationist propaganda film Expelled, Ben Stein managed to stick his foot in his mouth over and over again, issuing what seemed to be a ceaseless stream of ignorant, offensive, and just plain daffy claims. Here’s your chance to set Ben straight. Send your favorite claim to [Enable javascript to see this email address.] along with a refutation. We’ll post the best for all the world to see. And five lucky entrants will receive a year’s subscription to Reports of the NCSE along with their choice of a book from NCSE’s shelf – including such useful books as Mark Isaak’s The Counter-Creationism Handbook, Eugenie C. Scott’s Evolution vs. Creationism, and the AAAS’s The Evolution Dialogues: Science, Christianity, and the Quest for Understanding. But you only have ten days, and a wealth of silliness to examine, so act now!
A series of interviews with ID true believers has him playing Michael Moore–dumb—no hard questions for the folks at the Discovery Center, whose infamous leaked 1993 “wedge memo” stated as one of its primary goals the propagation of the idea “that nature and human beings are created by God.” ID’ers protest that they’re simply interested in secular alternatives to Darwinian evolution; their scientific opponents, meanwhile, are potential Communists and Nazis. Bizarre and hysterical.
BeliefNet reviews Expelled
There may be a good argument to make on behalf of teaching Intelligent Design in science class, but this documentary from Ben Stein does not make it. The movie itself is an example of design by faith and emotion rather than intelligence, defined as rationality grounded in proof. Instead of making a straightforward case for Intelligent Design as a scientific theory, Stein employs misdirection and guilt by very tangential association to try to make his case.
TV Guide reviews Expelled
It’s hard to pinpoint the most insulting aspects of this obvious propaganda piece from Ben Stein, the eye-drops spokesman, conservative writer and pundit whom most people remember from a bit part in FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF.
In Paste Magazine we read:
The filmmakers confirmed that they did use the track without permission, but they insist that their legal counsel told them it was fair use protected under the First Amendment due to the fact that they only used 25 seconds of it.
In the Salt Lake Tribune we read about the dishonesty
Alas, the movie’s makers (Stein and co-writers Kevin Miller and Walt Ruloff, and director Nathan Frankowski) don’t debate honestly. Stein mocks university officials for not “getting off [their] script,” but says nothing about the repetitive talking points from the ID crowd. The ID folks complain that the term “evolution” is too vaguely defined, and yet never adequately define what “intelligent design” is. They swear they aren’t espousing religion, then try to discredit the leading evolutionary biologists - such as Richard Dawkins and P.Z. Myers - because they are atheists. Oddly enough, the tactics employed in “Expelled” undercut the movie’s argument, most notably in the interviews with Dawkins and Myers and in Stein’s trip to Darwin’s British home (now a museum). Either the filmmakers suckered these participants under false pretenses, or the evolutionists are more open to debate than Stein suggests. Perhaps the intelligent-design proponents know that in a truly open debate, their argument isn’t fit enough to survive.
E! Reviews gives it an “F”
Review in a Hurry: A flunkout of a documentary, this features Ben Stein—still best known for his monotone “Anyone…anyone?”—advocating creationism, er, intelligent design, in science classrooms. Stein’s credibility is blown on this poorly constructed diatribe, and you’d be smart to save your bucks.
Lies, damned lies and “intelligent design’
It’s nuttiness right from the opening moments of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Images of Nazi atrocities and the terrors of life behind the Berlin Wall are smugly deployed in an attempt to editorialize away basic scientific fact. In a saner universe, you could scoff at Stein and not give his nonsense another thought. But we don’t live in that universe. We live here, where the religious insecurity of a scientifically illiterate populace is being twisted by people who certainly know better.
The Chicago Tribune’s Roger Moore reviews “Expelled” ‘Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed’ (Ben Stein monkeys with evolution) and gives it a 1 star (poor) rating
Stein and friends use animation (shades of “Bowling for Columbine”), amusing chunks of B-movies and even “The Wizard of Oz” and classic propaganda techniques to undercut 150 years of peer-tested research. Their goal? Create just a sliver of doubt about evolution. It’s a classic Big Tobacco/”Inconvenient Truth” denial tactic.
Another ‘stellar’ review by the Star Tribune titled Movie review: Propaganda piece “Expelled” flunks
According to “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” the source of all evil in the modern world is Darwinism, a philosophy that, the film posits, is responsible for everything from atheism to abortion, euthanasia to the Holocaust.
Although “Expelled” has been receiving mostly negative reviews from the mainstream media and scientists, creationist organizations other than the Discovery Institute, AIG and ICR (both Young Earth Creationists) have remained cautiously silent. For instance, The Reasons To Believe (RTB) Scholars appeared to be suspicious about Expelled but refrained from any recommendations but now that they have seen a pre-release screening they have sent an email which can be found on the Calvin College ASA discussion list.
Dear RTB Chapter members,
With the impending release of “EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed” (April 18), the Reasons to Believe scholar team thought it best to prepare a statement of our position, a guide for answering questions from chapters, networks, and apologists. Keep in mind that the mission of RTB centers on reaching out to science-minded people with two purposes:
Casey Luskin is currently in the middle of a multi-part “rebuttal” to Michael Shermer’s review of Expelled. In the latest installment of his whine, Casey (again) brings up the case of Richard Sternberg. Sternberg, some of you might remember, orchestrated the publication of a pro-Intelligent Design paper near the end of his term as editor of Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
As punishment for this heinous crime, Sternberg suffered the indignity of not getting fired from the unpaid editorship that he had quit months before the paper actually appeared. His punishment further included the cruel and unusual steps of not dismissing him from his unpaid position as a Smithsonian Research Associate, not declining to renew the unpaid position when the term expired, and not firing him from his paid job at NIH. The draconian nature of the consequences that he ultimately suffered - some of his colleagues said bad things about him - obviously makes him the ideal example of an open-thinking scientist railroaded by the Darwinian Inquisition.
I’m not going to deal with the vast majority of Casey’s attempt to obfuscate the real events that surrounded the whole Sternberg affair. He raises absolutely no new points, and all of the points that he does raise have been rebutted before. Instead, I’m going to focus on two points in Luskin’s post where he massively misrepresents things that other people wrote.
Read more at the Questionable Authority, where comments may be left:
On AntiEvolution.org, “midwifetoad” presents us with the following Challenge, in response to Bill Dembski’s posting at UcD where he refers to a variety of websites to ‘explain’ the similarities between the XVIVO rendering of Kinesin and the one found in “Expelled”… You be the judge…
I normally do my evolutionary posts here at the Panda’s Thumb, but given the astronomical nature of this item, I’ve posted it over at Astroblog.
Kenv Miller is the screenwriter of the ID propaganda film Expelled. He’s been carrying on about how consensus in science is repression. Apart from the irony of quoting science fiction author and global warming denier Michael Crichton as an expert on the role of consensus in science, there is a complete lack of understanding of the history of science. Miller makes this jaw dropping statement.
By your logic, it was right for Galileo to be persecuted for his views, because the overwhelming majority of astronomers were certain that geocentrism was right and heliocentrism was wrong. The evidence was just so overwhelmingly obvious. The same goes for virtually any other scientist that revolutionized his discipline.
Can’t these people get their history right?
Read how ID supporters can’t even get basic science history right at Astroblog.
At Open Parachute, Ken Perrott explains to us in a posting Expelled - no integrity exhibited the level of disarray at Premise Media.
I was recently approached by Stacy Schlicht from the firm Rogers & Cowan who are the publicity agent for the film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” Stacey offered me the chance to interview one of the filmmakers Ben Stein. I accepted the offer, which quickly became a “teleconference” open only to an “exclusive” group selected on the basis of submitted questions. After dutifully submitting my 5 questions I am informed that the teleconference planned for yesterday has now been postponed until the 18th - the planned launch date for the film.
Check out the updated ExpelledExposed.com website
Also see how real scientists have been Expelled.
ExpelledExposed.com has the full text of the review by New Scientist
New Scientist reviews ‘Expelled’
This seems to be the next step in sneaking ID into schools after the Kitzmiller vs Dover case saw the compulsory teaching of ID ruled unconstitutional in 2005. Last month, a press conference held by the Discovery Institute to promote the proposed bill included a screening of Expelled.
Ultimately, the Discovery Institute’s support may be the film’s undoing. The institute has argued long and hard that ID is not about religion, yet in the film the connections are explicit. If challenged on this, the institute may have to distance itself from the film, discrediting Expelled in the process.
Time Magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger critically reviews ‘Expelled’
I love the following ‘gap’ argument rebuttal
More dishonestly, Stein employs the common dodge of enumerating all the admittedly unanswered questions in evolutionary theory and using this to refute the whole idea. But all scientific knowledge is built this way. A fishnet is made up of a lot more holes than strings, but you can’t therefore argue that the net doesn’t exist. Just ask the fish.
On Austringer, Wesley Elsberry discusses Michael Shermer’s (Scientific American) posting how during the showing at Pepperdine University, ‘extras’ were brought in as ‘students’ since the movie producers were concerned that there would otherwise not be enough attendees.
Shermer Wrote:It was with some irony for me, then, that I saw Ben Stein’s antievolution documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opens with the actor, game show host and speechwriter for Richard Nixon addressing a packed audience of adoring students at Pepperdine University, apparently falling for the same trap I did.
Actually they didn’t. The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who were these people embracing Stein’s screed against science? Extras. According to Lee Kats, associate provost for research and chair of natural science at Pepperdine, “the production company paid for the use of the facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus” but that “the company was nervous that they would not have enough people in the audience so they brought in extras. Members of the audience had to sign in and a staff member reports that no more than two to three Pepperdine students were in attendance. Mr. Stein’s lecture on that topic was not an event sponsored by the university.” And this is one of the least dishonest parts of the film.
In Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed–Scientific American’s Take, Scientific American ‘flunks’ the movie.
John Rennie, Michael Shermer and Steve Mirsky all watched Ben Stein’s new antievolution movie. Here’s what they had to say about its design flaws.
In a new documentary film, actor, game show host and financial columnist Ben Stein falls for the pseudoscience of intelligent design
In Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Integrity Displayed John Rennie reviews the movie
A shameful antievolution film tries to blame Darwin for the Holocaust
However, they provide us with an even more precious resource namely two mp3 files of a Podcast with Mark Mathis, one of the associate producers of the movie.
Why are these Podcast files so important?
Bad: The Bad Idea Blog has a variety of excellent articles on ‘Expelled the Movie’.
“Bad” is not a mystery man, nor famous enough for anyone to care about the mystery, but he doesn’t (and more importantly his employers don’t) much like being Googled in any case. You’ll just have to be content knowing that he’s a swell science geek in his 30s who has been a long-time yammerer in the science, skepticism, and unbeliever community under various silly pseudonyms.