April 30, 2008
A few days ago I heard two different people with two very different ideas talking about the movie, Expelled. This is what one of our favorite sites, Planet Wisdom, had to say about it:
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Rated PG
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
Ben Stein’s documentary about the battle in the scientific community between Intelligent Design and Darwinian evolution is NOT a debate film.
Stein mostly doesn’t try to make the case for Intelligent Design (ID) or get too deeply into the science of evolution. What he wants to do is make the case that the scientific and academic establishment is freezing out legit ID scientists from participating in the conversation. And he makes that point convincingly — especially if you were pretty sure that was true to start with. (Read rest of review. . .)
Real Quote from Review: As Bible-believing Christians, we are convinced that God created all life. Here’s my bias: I’m going to believe that no matter what. Faith in God as revealed in His Word is my first commitment. Because I’m so convinced, I believe that a thorough and free study of the scientific evidence will, in fact, eventually reveal that a designer is necessary for life to exist.
Benjamin Franklin says:
The review said-
“The most compelling case is that of an editor at the Smithsonian who was forced to resign for allowing a qualified, peer-reviewed paper by Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute to appear in the pages of one of the Smithsonian’s scientific journals.”
This one statement is factually wrong about several things.
First, the person in question, Richard von Sterngerg was not an editor at the Smithsonian. He didn’t even work for the Smithsonian. FACT!
Second, the magazine that he was editor of was the “Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington”. It is not in any way a Smithsonian journal. FACT!
Third, he was never “forced to resign” as editor from PBSW. He announced that he would step down as editor when his term was up - six months before the article in question was even published. FACT!
Fourth, He did not follow accepted procedures for the peer review of the article. Articles are typicaly given to a panel of associate editors and experts for peer review. Sternberg did none of those things, he reviewed the article, which he solicited from Meyer by himself. FACT!
Fifth, the article itself was completely atypical of the work chronicled in the PBSW, which deals with systamotology and taxonomy, which is one reason why the memebers of the society called for its redaction from the journal. FACT!
Sixth - Sternberg never lost his position as an unpaid researcher at the Smithsonian, even after the magazine brouhaha, he was awarded an additional three year opportunity. FACT!
Expelled is full of untruths even beyond the misinterpretations of the reviewer. The movie merely serves to slightly widen the gap between the educated and the uneducated.
For more information, go to http://www.expelledexposed.com
Benjamin Franklin says:
typo - should be Sternberg, not Sterngerg