In the News

Katherine Phan, of the Christian Post, reports that The Florida Senate's pre-K-through-12 education committee approved a bill Wednesday that protects teachers who include theories questioning evolution in their coverage of the much-debated topic.

Legislators voted 4-1 to advance the "Academic Freedom Act," or SB2692, which provides "public school teachers with a right to present scientific information relevant to the full range of views" on evolution.

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The controversy around Premise Media's upcoming movie Ben Stein's EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed became the hottest topic in the blogosphere. According to BlogPulse, a service of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, the issue held the number one slot throughout the day on Monday, March 24th (http://www.blogpulse.com). There were also over 800 results on Technorati (www.technorati.com).

"It is amazing to see the reaction of PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins and their cohorts when one of them is simply expelled from a movie. Yet these men applaud when professors throughout the nation are fired from their jobs and permanently excluded from their profession for mentioning Intelligent Design," said producer Mark Mathis. Mathis was at the event that has raised this controversy.

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Some are wondering why Premise did not use Myers' comment about taking out the steel toes boots and brass knuckles.

This shows Myers expicit intemperance and hostility.

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A new, provocative book, attempts to take a middle road in the origins and evolution debate.

Born in London, Shaun Johnston's father was a Church of England clergyman, He read biochemistry at London's University College, then turned to graphic design. On moving to New York City he became a medical and science writer.

He claims his upbringing makes him immune to the lure of the supernatural. He says he matured first into epiphenomalism, from that into a non-supernatural intelligent design theory. As a result he finds himself lodged halfway between the two extremes of scientific materialism and creationism.

This could be a unique niche...an atheist who believes in intelligent design. Excuse me? See for yourself.

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The Fairfax Community Church, in Fairfax, Virgina, invites all ASA members in the area to participate in their conference "Awesome Wonders: The Genome, the Oceans, and the Heavens".

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Christianity Today reports that several critics have worked their way in to some of the screenings, most notably Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinel, who recently trashed the movie in his blog.

A critic of another kind "crashed" a screening in Minnesota on Thursday night - Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and arguably the most outspoken critic of Intelligent Design and Creationism. Dawkins himself appears in the documentary - but claims he was duped into believing it was going to be an objective account of Darwinism vs. ID.

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Whatever you think of Rush Limbaugh, one thing is sure; he has influence. Seems he got a hand delivered copy of Expelled from Ben Stein. Check out his take on the upcoming documentary.

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The New World Encyclopedia has an entry for Intelligent Design available online that fairly and accurately represents ID concepts and history. It is well referenced and includes a list of books and websites that are both pro and con ID. This entry is highly recommend for any student doing a report on ID.

In Scoop Independent News, Susan Mazur reports that atheist evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins spoke to a packed auditorium at Manhattan's Ethical Culture Society recently night about his best-selling book, The God Delusion. He admitted in a Q&A that followed of being "guilty" of viewing Darwinism as a kind of religion and vowing to "reform" (no one was allowed to tape Dawkins' confession, however, with organizers of the event threatening to march offenders around the corner to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). She met up with Richard Dawkins the night before at Barnes & Noble in Tribeca where he told her in front of an audience of roughly 200 people (tape recorders were allowed) of the importance of the role of form in making a proper theory of evolution. Dawkins has long been associated with the gene-centered theory of natural selection.

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In the blogspot "Reasonable Kansans", a summary of recent posts are given.

Michael Egnor comments on why he became skeptical of Darwinism.

Also, why do Darwinists consider ID a science stopper? How does the idea of common descent advance science more than the idea of commonality among organisms due to intelligent design. Would scientific progress have slowed if someone had not advanced a materialistic view of change over time in the 19th century? I doubt it...

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Gailon Totheroh, of CBN News, reports that national attention has been drawn to the looming state battle over science and health textbooks that teach evolution. Attorney Cynthia Dunbar is serves on the Texas State Board of Education.

"What we want is for our students to be taught critical thinking skills, to be taught the scientific method," Dunbar explained to CBN News. "And what rises to the level of being deemed a theory - teach the strengths and weaknesses of any and every theory."

Amid the controversy, which evolutionists deny, the new documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" will shed light on the past and present academic struggles.

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Supporters of an "academic freedom" bill permitting students and teachers to challenge evolution teachings in Florida's new science standards brought actor-activist Ben Stein to the Capitol today for a private screening of his new film before an audience of state lawmakers.

Stein, a conservative commentator on CBS scheduled meetings with House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, and other legislators to endorse bills by Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla, and Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon.

In making a documentary titled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," Stein said he met many scientists and professors who lost laboratory projects or grants, were shunned by scientific publications or suffered other forms of reprisals for questioning evolution.

"This bill is not about teaching intelligent design," Stein said at a news conference. "It’s about freedom of speech."

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Dorian L. Jones, writing on ISN Security Watch, reports that an unlikely alliance exists between Islamists in Turkey and conservative Christians in the US.

Creationism advocates from the US traveled to Istanbul May 2007 to meet with their counterparts, seeking to galvanize their link in the fight to bring creationism to schools and universities in their respective countries. The meeting was endorsed by Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas, a member of the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

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Creationism and ID Theory are wrongly used interchangeably in this piece, though.

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In ENV, Casey Luskin report on the fireside chat at Stanford this past weekend. For the most part, they agreed with one-another on nearly everything. It's clear that they fear intelligent design. They equated intelligent design proponents with "con-men" who are "slimy," "well-funded," and promote "ignorance." (Incidentally, each of these claims is incorrect.) They also appeared to greatly fear religion, as both Dawkins and Krauss held that teaching young children about religion in Sunday School is equivalent to "child abuse."

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Christianity Today reports that Ben Stein's new documentary on Expelled is already being spun by both sides of the debate, drawing fire and praise alike from different political factions.

Jack Cashill, commenting in World Net Daily, is among the film's early supporters, calling Expelled an "often funny, always engaging frontal assault on the oppressive neo-Darwinist establishment." He goes on to laud the movie as "arguably the smartest and most sophisticated documentary ever produced on the right side of the cultural divide on any subject, ever."

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Christianity Today reports that Ben Stein's new documentary on Expelled is already being spun by both sides of the debate, drawing fire and praise alike from different political factions.

Jack Cashill, commenting in World Net Daily, is among the film's early supporters, calling Expelled an "often funny, always engaging frontal assault on the oppressive neo-Darwinist establishment." He goes on to laud the movie as "arguably the smartest and most sophisticated documentary ever produced on the right side of the cultural divide on any subject, ever."

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The Des Moines Register reports that the University of Iowa will host a public lecture on "Evolution, Intelligent Design and Faith" on March 25.

The free lecture is at 7 p.m. in Kollros Auditorium, Room 101 of the Biology Building East on the Iowa City campus.

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ENV blogs on the complaint that Darwinists have about Ben Stein's tactics on getting interviews for Expelled.

No fouls here...in fact, Stein and his group did NOTHING wrong in obtaining their interviews. Even some mainstream media sources have acknowledged that the film's producers used accepted methods of interviewing people.

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Uncommon Descent reports that the IDEA Center's new Executive Director Caroline Crocker has just launched her Web site:

IntellectualHonesty.info

Dr. Crocker will be featured prominently in the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

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Baylor's chapter of the American Scientific Affiliation holds lectures concerning religion, ethics and science.

Dr. Walter Bradley, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, discussed "Must a Christian Believe in Design?" March 4th.

Wescosville, Penn., junior Sam Chen, an officer of Baylor's American Scientific Affiliation, said the American Scientific Affiliation is a group of believers who are interested in science and are willing to encourage conversation.

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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

By Skylar Wagner
Film Major, Biola University
March 1, 2008

I had the privilege of attending an advanced screening of Ben Stein's new documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed last week which is scheduled to be released in the theaters on April 18. Expelled is an interesting and thought-provoking look into important academic freedom issues currently facing our nation. Stein travels around the country interviewing college professors, scientists, editors, and journalists who have lost their jobs or been persecuted in various ways for challenging Darwinism or showing an interest in intelligent design. We see how free inquiry of these professionals, and others like them, is being prevented at every turn by academic, scientific and media institutions that have adopted a Darwin-only worldview.

From the beginning of the movie with old black and white clips of the Berlin Wall being erected, and a rather classy rendition of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", the film concentrates on the violation of freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Stein proceeds to interview several college professors who have been fired or forced out and then blacklisted because they have mentioned intelligent design at work. Some of the cases are surprising as we learn the details about how their freedom has been violated and why they were "expelled" from their jobs. In most cases the institutions did not think that intelligent design was a valid scientific theory. Stein then interviews several Darwinists to show us that the theory of evolution does not have all the answers either. Hundreds of scientists were interview for this film and Stein travels around the country and around the world seeking to understand. There are a wide variety of interviews and the information is easy enough to follow but at points can be kind of confusing to those not familiar with the subjects. After Many interviews and stops Ben heads to England for a final showdown with lead Darwinist, Richard Dawkins.

Expelled presents a good look at specific problems with academic freedom in our country. It shows us a dark side of our country that many do not know exists. This is a documentary that delivers not only eye-opening information, but entertainment as well. There are many clips from old movies thrown in to accentuate a point that keep you smiling in your seat. The documentary does take a few cheap shots at Dawkins, as he seems to be the butt of many jokes. There is a curious excitement as we follow Ben around, and even through his monotone voice you can tell he is passionate about what he is doing.

What Expelled does best is stay away from conflict. It is not a preachy documentary trying to prove to us that intelligent design is right and evolution is wrong. The film is not one sided, and provides just as many interviews with Darwinists as it does with ID theorists. The point of the movie is to show us that freedom to challenge or examine an establishment viewpoint is being prevented. It does this very well; leaving the viewer with little argument that freedoms haven't been violated based on very specific evidence.

Although the movie is very interesting overall, it loses its excitement at points. After several interviews and opinions on similar matters, I started to lose a bit of interest. The film did not keep me enthralled the whole time as it drifted off towards the middle. But once Ben started traveling again I was immediately interested in where he was going and who he would be talking to.

Expelled is a movie anyone interested in the debate about our origins or the debate about our freedoms should see. It is also a movie for anyone who does not know much about the arguments for Darwinism or Design and would like to learn more. It presents information on both sides in an interesting and tasteful manner. At the end of the movie, I was not persuaded that ID is true and evolution is false, but I was persuaded that the freedom of many to investigate the issue has been violated, which is something as an American, I am very interested in.