I said to my wife one Thursday; “We need to go to a movie this weekend.”
“Speed Racer!” she said.
Yes, I was raised on "Speed Racer," often running home from school to catch an episode, but that wasn’t it.
“Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” a Ben Stein thriller, is the must see I was talking about. An extremely well thought out argument, in words and images, on the topic of Darwinism. From the cell and basic starting points of life he analyzes the science, clearly illustrating that the door to an intelligent cause is far from closed. Mr. Stein then takes the debate into the field of metaphysics where the majority of the battle truly rests. Where science began.
But most importantly he describes how scientific theories relate to our daily life. Beginning with how established scientist were discredit and faced discrimination for a purely scientific conclusion, that an intelligent cause is a viable theory. And continuing to Darwinist influences on movements in Europe and the United States that history has judged as evil, if not insane.
Few seem interested in commenting on the movie. A testament to the controversy surrounding the issue. Nothing from ‘Ebert and Roeper’ and the review in the Chicago Tribune credited to an Orlando newspaper. The review being more a reinforcement of the movies premises than an intelligent critique.
The dangers in how we use science parallel dangers in how we use religion. You would think that the Soviet Union, the birthplace of the communist state, would have been a big proponent of Darwinism. Not exactly. They held to the Lamarckian view of evolution. The theory that actions, responding to ones environment, stimulate change; genetic alteration. Hence justifying labor camps for anyone who didn’t fit the communist mold. This is my own observation outside of Mr. Stein’s scope, but in an age where scientific theories, such as global warming, are being used to argue for drastic changes in how we all live “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is of immense relevance.
Ben Stein asks himself what he can do in this fight for freedom. He made the movie. What can you do?
As Speed says in his new movie when asked by his father if he believed driving a car could change the world; “Maybe not, but it’s the only thing I know how to do, and I gotta do something.”
Go see the movie. It might not be around much longer.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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