Last year, Chris Comer, who had been director of the TEA for about 10 years, was fired after forwarding an email someone had sent her about a lecture being given by Barbara Forrest that was critical of teaching intelligent design.
Her lawsuit seeks a court order overturning the TEA’s neutrality policy on teaching of creationism and declaring that her dismissal was unconstitutional. The suit also seeks her reinstatement to her old job.
Maybe this is one of those cases such a neutral film like Crossroads Expelled should have included. It’s all about fairness, and teaching both sides, after all.
In a recent op-ed in The Boston Globe, Kenneth Miller shared his thoughts on “Expelled”. Kenneth Miller, you may recall, is the well-known Christian biologist who works for Brown University and author of “Finding Darwin’s God”. Miller has a new book coming out in June entitled, “Only a Theory–Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul”.
I love that Miller calls the film’s producers out on why they didn’t interview him, Francis Collins, Francisco Ayala, or any other scientists who happen to be believers. Here’s a tasty tidbit:
The movie also uses interviews with avowed atheists like Richard Dawkins, author of “The God Delusion,” to argue that scientific establishment is vehemently anti-God. Never mind that 40 percent of the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science profess belief in a personal God. Stein, avoiding these 50,000 people, tells viewers that “Darwinists” don’t allow scientists to even think of God.
Puzzled, the editors of Scientific American asked Mark Mathis, the film’s co-producer, why he and Stein didn’t interview such people, like Francis Collins (head of the Human Genome Project), Francisco Ayala, or myself. Mathis cited me by name, saying “Ken Miller would have confused the film unnecessarily.” In other words, showing a scientist who accepts both God and evolution would have confused their story line.
Refute Ben Stein’s claims he has made about evolution. Expelled Exposed is having a contest where you can email them refuting a claim Stein has made. The best one will be posted for the world to see and a few winners will be picked and receive the following: a year’s subscription to Reports of the NCSE along with their choice of a book from NCSE’s shelf. Sounds like fun to me! Go here for all the rules and to enter.
Instead of links to reviews, etc, it looks a lot more comprehensive now. There’s even a clip about Chris Comer, who many say was “expelled” from her job for supporting evolution. Interesting stuff, particularly to us Texans.
**update– Colmes even linked to this little post of mine at his blog, Liberal Land. It’s only polite to reciprocate, right? Also I just felt like tooting my own horn. :)**
Want to watch an absolutely ridiculous interview with Stein on Hannity and Colmes, full of fallacies and straw man arguments?
Then look no further and feel free to pick it apart in the comments. 🙂
A few comments of my own:
Stein states, “Darwinism gave the rationale for the Holocaust”.
Colmes (who typically gets on my nerves but kudos to him today for putting the smack-down on Stein) then makes it clear that evolutionists do not think this way and do not use evolution to justify things like the Holocaust. He calls Stein out on the movie trying to make a connection between the two.
Stein then DENIES that the film is trying to imply that “Darwinism” leads to things like the Holocaust! He accuses Colmes of coming up with that implication all on his own (to which Colmes replies, “that’s the impression I got from watching the movie”. Ha!) Colmes asks, “Then why even bring it up?”
And Stein says, “because Hitler was a lineal descendant of Darwin”.
WHAT? I don’t even know if that’s true, but even if it is…SO WHAT?
Stein says later, “There’s no evidence that Darwin had anything useful to say or even anything to say period about how life began.” That doesn’t make evolution false. He goes on to say that Darwin had nothing to say about how physics began, how gravity began, how thermodynamics began, etc. WELL OF COURSE HE DIDN’T. Why would he? Stein continues to perpetuate the false dichotomy that one must either believe in an intelligent designer (God) OR believe in evolution.
Stein says, “There’s no reason to believe there wasn’t an intelligent designer”.
There’s also no SCIENTIFIC reason to believe there was one, either.
“To be an atheist, don’t you have to believe that something comes from nothing?” asks Hannity. Again, this has nothing to do with evolutionary theory.
Stein concludes by saying, “People took our God away from us and gave us Darwinism”. No one took anything away from you. You are still, as always in America, allowed to believe in whatever you choose.
Why aren’t Christians who believe in evolution, like Kenneth Miller and Francis Collins, in the film?
It’s simple.
That would have undercut the false dichotomy the film sets up–that only two views are acceptable. One must either entertain the idea of Intelligent Design or one must be an atheist who affirms evolution.
The associate producer of “Expelled” basically even said it himself. Go read the excellent synopsis from Higgaion. Go read it! Now!
When your whole schtick is to pit religious “design proponents” open to the supernatural against atheistic, philosophically materialist “Darwinists,” all those pesky scientists who simultaneously affirm evolutionary biology and a robust Christian faith become very, very inconvenient.
According to Stranger Fruit, several people received an email saying a screening of the movie was cancelled–yet the show did go on…at an earlier time. Go to the blog to read the rest of the account.
The basic premise of the film is that “rebel” scientists who question evolutionary theory are mistreated–fired, denied tenure, shunned, laughed at, etc.
As previously noted in this blog and others, where is the mention of Christian scientists who DO support evolutionary theory, like Francis Collins and Kenneth Miller?
It seems the movie isn’t really being very even-handed at all, though this exactly what the producers say they are trying to promote–fairness.
Also, does the movie include any mention of how Christians who do not believe in evolution treat evolutionists in a like manner?
Apparently not, according to this write-up:
One case the documentary doesn’t cover is that of Richard Colling, a professor at Olivet Nazarene University whose book about reconciling belief in God and evolution led the Christian institution to bar him from teaching general biology.
Last year, Chris Comer, who had been director of the TEA for about 10 years, was fired after forwarding an email someone had sent her about a lecture being given by Barbara Forrest that was critical of teaching intelligent design.
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