Sunday, April 20, 2008

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Took a handful of youth and parents to watch "Expelled" tonight. It's a frightening, though-provoking documentary by the serious-faced Ben Stein. In it, he interviews six or eight scientists who have been "expelled" (fired from their jobs, denied tenure, or scrutinized) for suggesting that Darwin's theories have holes in them. Some of them even dared to suggest that science might support evidence for a higher being creating mankind (this theory is called Intelligent Design.)
Stein then interviews five or six of the leading people in Neo-Darwinism or evolutionary theory. All of them mock anyone who believes in a "God" and say that it's just stupid.

A few things stood out for me:

1) One proponent of evolution says that the idea of Intelligent Design or Creationism is boring. BORING?! I'm not sure which "god" this guy knows, but the One I know is definitely NOT boring! Anyone who creates mountains to be climbed, rivers to be crossed, and teenagers is definitely NOT BORING!

2) Another Evolutionist said, "My hope would be that first of all, people would start to regard religion as another weekend social activity...just another event on their calendar. Eventually, we hope religion will crumble, people will be free, and we can begin to share the enlightenment of science." Well...scary, but the first sentence is already coming true in some places.

3) All of these "scientists" say they don't know how life began! I just find it funny that they mock our faith, when they have faith, too! (Because they have no data to back up their theories!) Maybe it's time that BOTH sides 'fess up to the fact that we have NO answers!

4) Interesting theories that I had not heard: "life began on the back of crystals" and "a superior race came to earth and 'planted' human life." Ben Stein says it well, "And you think MY beliefs are weird and far-fetched?!"

5) Perhaps Stein went too far in connecting Darwin's theories with the Holocaust. In essence, he was hinting that "survival of the fittest" philosophy led to the Nazi ideal (of "superhumans") and the extermination of millions of Jews. While this seems to be true, I also realize that there have been atrocities committed in the name of Christ. This shows that any philosophy can be misrepresented by people and taken out of context. As a Christian, I would argue that just because the Crusades happened, it doesn't mean Christ's philosophy was bad. Therefore, I must extend the same reasoning to our Darwin-followers (assuming they don't approve of the murder of innocents/disabled folks.)

6) I hope Christians will watch their attitudes after this film. Somehow, I don't think Jesus would be happy if we called up all these evolutionists and said, "YOU'RE AN IDIOT, AND I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL!" No. These men are God's creation as well (even if they don't know it yet!) and God loves them just as much as everyone else. Just because they don't believe in Him doesn't mean His love goes away. Therefore, my love for them should remain also. God bless you, Richard Dawkins and colleagues. God bless you.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent post. I've been wanting to see it. I know that I get riled up after discussions with people who believe in evolution. I need to be more kind. I'm glad that we serve a God who is smart and brilliant and loving.

Karen said...

I don't know if I am going to get a chance to see this or not. I'll definitely rent it when it comes out on video. Emily and a friend are going to see it after school on Wednesday if she doesn't have play rehearsal. She gets extra credit points in several of her classes for going.

And about Iron Man... I don't know about that one. Robert Downey, Jr. can be fun to watch, but I may save my movie theater bucks for something else. :) Of course, if it comes to the theater on base, I will try to make the time; 3 blocks away and only $4 admission.

Ojalanpoika said...

Ben(jamin) Stein is under heavy artillery for 'exaggerating' or 'going easy' on the influence of evolutionism behind Nazism and Stalinism (super evolution of Lysenkoism in the Soviet Russia). But the monstrous Haeckelian type of vulgar evolutionism drove not only the 'Politics-is-applied-biology' Nazi takeover in the continental Europe, but even the nationalistic collision at the World War I. It was Charles Darwin himself, who praised and raised the monstrous German Ernst Haeckel with his still recycled embryo drawing frauds etc. in the spotlight as the greatest authority in the field of human evolution, even in the preface to his Descent of man in 1871. If Thomas Henry Huxley with his concept of 'agnostism' was Darwins bulldog in England, Haeckel was his Rotweiler in Germany. Haeckel was also the first one to propose a systematic answer to the Judenfrage: To EXPEL all the Jews from their chairs at the universities.

'Kampf' was a direct translation of 'struggle' from On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). Seinen Kampf. His application.

Catch 22: As an indication of the evolutionary 'PUS', Haeckel's 140 years old fake embryo drawings have been mindlessly recycled in most biology text books until this millennium. This despite the fact that Haeckel's crackpot raging Recapitulation/Biogenetic Law and functioning gill slits of human embryos have been at the ethical tangent race hygiene/eugenics/genocide, infanticide, and Freudian psychoanalysis (subconscious atavisms). It was the second to most cross/scientific paradigm in the 20th century. Dawkins is the Oxford professor for PUS - and should gather the courage of Stephen Jay Gould who could feel ashamed about it. Text book authors are making a mockery out of science.

Today, developmental biologists are anticipating legislation of laws that would define the do’s and dont’s. In England, they are fertilizing human embryos for research purposes and pipetting chimera embryos of humans and monkeys, 'legally'. The legislation should not distract individual researchers from their personal awareness of responsibility. A permissive law merely defines the ethical minimum. The lesson is that a law is no substitute for morals and that dissidents should not be intimidated.

More from conference posters and articles defended and published in the field of bioethics and history of biology:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Asian_Bioethics.pdf
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Haeckelianlegacy_ABC5.pdf

pauli.ojala@gmail.com
Biochemist, drop-out (Master of Sciing)
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-ID.htm

Teresa said...

I just found your post on "Expelled" and agree with you completely. The comment that that evolutionist made about church being a "social activity" that would hopefully someday be something people only do for fun on weekends was appalling to me. As was the theory that aliens planted the earth with life. That any theory will be accepted as long as it keeps any sort of higher power out of the picture is a ridiculous notion.

I also agree that Christians need to watch their attitudes. As different as our views might be, we have to remember that these people are still God's children, whether they know Him as their Father or not. Good post!

Ojalanpoika said...

I wish an analogous documentary film was made concerning the DINOGLYFS or dinolits: http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Dinoglyfs.htm
It seems that the ancient man not only saw but also documented the last megafauna (gigafauna, I should say).