I recently had time to watch Ben Stein’s documentary called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. I suppose the main point of the documentary is that Ben Stein tries to make the point that Intelligent design is not necessarily a religious view point, and should be given a place in the school curriculum alongside the teaching of evolution. His main argument is that America has always allowed freedom, and by taking away freedom of prayer, freedom of teaching different views, that it isn’t right.
I agree with that. I think Intelligent design should be taught. Of course, an educational system should not dictate which religion or cosmological viewpoint is best, but I think it should be at least mentioned. Even though intelligent design is religious in nature, the fact is almost every religion deals with the origin of life. So in a way religion is closely tied with science when it comes to “why and how” are we here, and intelligent design should be mentioned in my opinion (without religious specifics).
He has a few parts in the movie that do make evolution itself seem quite ignorant that made me personally laugh (if you have seen the movie, then I am talking about the guy saying, “life started on the backs of crystals” with that creepy smile lol. That one got a laugh out of me.
Overall, I thought it was a good (not great) documentary. It wasn’t great for either evolutionist or creationists (or intelligent design folks). He made a decent case for intelligent design being a plausable way that the world could have came into existence, and then subsequently human beings and all creatures.
Ben Stein also makes the connection of Nazi regimes using a form of controlled natural selection, which illustrated how evolution itself can be a dangerous teaching if people try to take natural selection into their own hands (like Hitler himself did). It also mentioned the practice of Eugenics here in the U.S. as well.
I wish he could have included more interesting scientific facts supporting the case for intelligent design, but he didn’t really go into that. I think that would have made the documentary much stronger if he would have given a few examples of that. I can even find great articles on the web with some interesting facts backing intelligent design, so it was a disappointment that the film didn’t exactly get me pumped up or give a good jolt to my faith. Not that I need evidence to have faith (then it really wouldn’t be faith at all would it). But I personally feel that there are substantial scientific facts that do show that it is highly likely that a God exists.
But anyways, overall I guess it was worth seeing. It could have been stronger in terms of making a more convincing case for the reasons why intelligent design is a plausable theory. But the movie itself wasn’t a total waste of time either.