Expelled.

You know, just me an 'ole Ben, hanging out.

Josh and I got to see a special screening of Ben Stein's movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" back in January at a conference in Florida. It was so un-real to be able to see a rough-cut film and then be part of an question-answer session with the star as well. I just sat there, soaking it all up....imagining that I had some great awe-inspiring question to ask Ben, then he would walk over and have some in-depth conversation with me....then I was jerked back to reality when people started throwing words around like intelligent design, creationism and neo-Darwinism.

But don't worry folks, I'm here (with notes in hand) to give you the Dumb-Girl Guide to "Expelled". Here we go:

"Expelled" is Ben Stein's attempt to bring the scientific debate (or lack thereof) between evolution and intelligent design to the main stage. Basically, people who believe in Darwin's evolution theories think that we all came from a common ancestor, then we gradually mutated/changed features over time and then natural selection explains who/what's here right now. Got it? So here's the problem with Darwin's theory: Where's the common ancestor come from?

So what about intelligent design? What's that all about? The theory of intelligent design is simply an effort to empirically detect whether the “apparent design” in nature acknowledged by virtually all biologists is genuine design (the product of an intelligent cause) or is simply the product of an undirected process such as natural selection acting on random variations.* This theory doesn't say that God is the designer. This isn't a religious assumption or idea, its an actual scientific theory.

Ben Stein's "Expelled" forces the question: if both neo-Darwinian theory and Intelligent Design theory are both scientific theories......why is the debate being suppressed amongst the scientific community? Moreover, if in our publicly funded schools, universities and institutions our children continue to be taught only this: that all life on earth is the result of a purposeless, meaningless and undirected process of random mutation and natural selection…what are the consequences over time of teaching this theory as if its a fact?

How will ideas of morality change, if life is thought to be purposeless and undirected?
How will the role of Government change, if the individual is taught by The State that one is accountable only to ones self?
How will the role of “science” change, if “Big Science” alone determines our worldview?

Ok, ok, ok.....enough science already. Let's remember that this movie does star Ben Stein, that same funny guy from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So when Stein interviews such Intelligent Design critics as Richard Dawkins, its all really tongue-in-cheek and very very very funny.

Here's the official trailer:

Here's a really good interview as well:

*Taken from http://www.expelledthemovie.com/