http://theforcethat.blogspot.com/2008/03/scare-tactic-alert.html
Now Scientific American has gotten into the act with a series of articles on Ben Stein's documentary and the sorts of distortions Mr. Stein engages in. Check out this review from Scientific American and associated links.
Of particular interest is this first hand report by Michael Shermer on how Stein plays fast and loose in the production of his movie. According to Shermer, Stein's movie includes a scene of Pepperdine University students being addressed by Stein and presumably hungering for Stein's version of the truth. But Shermer reports:
"Actually they didn't. The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who were these people embracing Stein's screed against science? Extras. According to Lee Kats, associate provost for research and chair of natural science at Pepperdine, "the production company paid for the use of the facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus" but that "the company was nervous that they would not have enough people in the audience so they brought in extras. Members of the audience had to sign in and a staff member reports that no more than two to three Pepperdine students were in attendance. Mr. Stein's lecture on that topic was not an event sponsored by the university." And this is one of the least dishonest parts of the film."
Now to be fair, I suppose Michael Moore has used similar sorts of ummm short cuts...but since a big point of Stein's film is the dishonesty of the scientific establishment I would expect Stein to rise above slick production tricks. Instead it looks like we get more intelligent design smoke and mirrors and it sounds like the viewer is asked again to ignore the little man behind the curtain (maybe Michae Behe?), something I am sure the fundamentalist religious audience for whom this film is intelligently designed is more than willing to do.
2 comments:
Dear Paul,
Thought you might like to see this article that was posted in the
comments on my blog:
Your Friend,
Professor Howdy
*******************************
Don't Believe Everything You Hear
If you have heard of the new documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,
opening April 18, chances are you have heard all kinds of distortions and
myths about it. So let me set the record straight about some of the most
common myths.
Myth #1: Darwinists interviewed for this film were tricked into
participating.
Not so. Each scientist interviewed for Expelled, on both sides of the
evolution debate, knew who would do the interview and what it was for. Each
of them signed a release, allowing the producers to use the footage of their
interviews.
Myth #2: The film is anti-science.
Wrong again. Many distinguished scientists were interviewed for this film
and given the chance to express their views. Just like their Darwinist
counterparts, the advocates of intelligent design and their supporters who
are interviewed are there to talk about science, not to dismiss it. These
are people like Cambridge physicist John Polkinghorne; Oxford mathematician
and philosopher John Lennox; journalist Pamela Winnick, who has received
hate mail for covering the issue; and biologist Caroline Crocker, who was
fired from George Mason University for discussing intelligent design in the
classroom. Some of them are religious believers; some are not. But what they
share is a commitment to science and the unfettered pursuit of truth.
Expelled is not anti-science; it is anti-censorship.
Myth #3: Ben Stein, the actor and writer who hosts the movie, has lost his
mind.
Bringing up this very issue in a conference call, Stein quipped that he
probably has, “but it was a long time ago . . . probably sometime around
1958.” Well, I have known Stein well for years, and he is as bright as a
button and anything but out of his mind. On a serious note, Stein and his
film’s producers explained that the mud that people are flinging at him is
just one small example of what happens to people who question Darwinian
orthodoxy. The original idea for Expelled, said co-producer and software
engineer Walt Ruloff, came to him when he was working on a project with a
group of biotechnologists and learned “that there was a whole series of
questions that could not be asked.”
The prevailing ideology among many scientists—it turned out—he concluded,
was keep your mouth shut, take the research money, and publish only the data
that fits with “the party line.” The issue that concerns Ruloff and the
others behind Expelled is whether the scientific establishment in this
country is going to allow genuine “freedom of inquiry,” or simply shut
up—and slander—those who do not toe the line.
Given all this, Ben Stein states, “As long as the cause is right, I’m happy
to be in an uphill struggle.”
Myth #4: Popular author and atheist Richard Dawkins tells Ben Stein in this
film that there could have been a designer of life on earth, but it would
have had to have been “a higher intelligence” that had itself evolved “to a
very high level . . . and seeded some form of life on this planet.”
Well, actually . . . that one is not a myth. He really did say it—striking
admission, though it is.
So, I urge you to go see Expelled when it opens at a theater near you.
Believe me, in this case the truth really is stranger—and more
compelling—than any fiction the film’s detractors could possibly dream up.
Oh and by the way - It's fun
discussing evolution and creation.
As far as Stein at P.U. is concerned,
someone needs to let the students
know that the timetable for Creation and Evolution cannot be synchronized.
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