April 18, 2008

• Huckabee endorses "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"
  

  Ben Stein's new film about the Stalinistic tactics used by the evolutionists in academia
  

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  Documentary Explores Debate Over Origins of Life

   

  The makers of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed say educators and scientists who support intelligent design are being denied tenure and even fired

   

  By Adrienne S. Gaines

   

  The debate over intelligent design will hit the big screen this month when Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed opens in theaters.

   

  Starring comedian, economist and author Ben Stein, the documentary explores what filmmakers say is discrimination within the academic community against educators and scientists who question evolutionary theories on the origins of life. The film cites several examples. In Washington, D.C., biologist Richard Sternberg was demoted at the Smithsonian Institute for allowing a peer-reviewed article describing evidence for intelligence in the universe to be published in a scientific journal.

   

  At George Mason University, biology professor Caroline Crocker said she was forced out for briefly discussing problems with Darwinian theory in her class and for telling students that some scientists believe there is evidence of intelligent design in the cosmos. Nobel Prize-winning astronomer Guillermo Gonzales was denied tenure at Iowa State University for his affiliation with the intelligent design movement.

   

  “Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are,” Stein said in a news release. “Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it’s anti-science. It’s anti-the whole concept of learning.”

   

  The documentary is the first project of Premise Media, a company founded in 2005 by businessman and Christian TV host Logan Craft and businessman Walt Ruloff to develop a film that explored the intersection of faith and science. The filmmakers spent a year and a half interviewing 150 scientists on both sides of the debate, including intelligent design supporters such as microbiologist David Berlinski and William Dembski, author of Design of Life, as well as evolution advocates such as biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, and Eugenie Scott, head of the National Center for Science Education.

   

  Although the film explores the larger debate over the origins of life, producers said the number of professors they found who had been censored for questioning evolution or believing that there was evidence of design in the universe were impossible to dismiss. Several asked that their identities be shielded in the film because they still fear repercussions from their universities.

   

  Last fall, Dawkins and other scientists interviewed for the film such as biologist PZ Myers claimed they were misled about the purpose of the documentary. The film was originally titled Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion, which interviewees were told would examine “the disconnect/controversy that exists in America between Evolution, Creationism and the Intelligent Design movement,” according to a letter Myers posted online.

   

  “At no time was I given the slightest clue that these people were a creationist front,” Dawkins told London’s The Guardian newspaper.

   

  However, Craft said his company never misrepresented its intentions. “When they heard that it wasn’t necessarily pro-Darwinian, that’s when they decided to make these attacks,” he said. “They all signed releases. They were all paid for their interviews. I think those chargers were vacuous.”

   

  More than advancing intelligent design, Ruloff said the film is intended to create room for greater dialogue about whether the universe was designed or the result of random chance. Craft noted that a worldview shaped by evolution has led to a devaluing of human life that manifests through abortion and euthanasia. The film also shows a link between Darwin’s theories and the Nazi ideologies that led to the Holocaust.

   

  Expelled has been shown to groups of Christian leaders across the country in hopes of creating a groundswell of support for the film. Churches are being encouraged to buy out local theaters when the film debuts, and to use resources posted at GetExpelled.com to further the debate about intelligent design.

   

  "Expelled exposes the misguided scientists and their foolish belief systems as their arrogant, unintelligent positions come under scrutiny,” said LIFE Today host James Robison. “Any thoughtful Christian will appreciate the questions asked by the film and find inspiration in the answers that point to the truth.”

   

  Filmmakers say they hope Expelled will help create the will to lobby for scientists’ free speech rights. In cooperation with the Discovery Institute, an intelligent design think tank, and its marketing arm, Motive Marketing, Premise Media established a Web site (academicfreedompetition.com) where people can sign a petition supporting scientists’ right to research alternative scientific theories including intelligent design.  

  “We really are not validating one particular position being intelligent design or the design hypothesis or creationism or other forms,” Ruloff said. “What we’re really asking for is freedom of speech, and allowing science and students, people in applied or theoretical research, to have the freedom to go where they need to go and ask the questions.”

  

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