IS intelligent design a legitimate topic for discussion on the science faculties, or merely a hidden pocket to sneak creationism into the classroom?
Ben Stein – best known as the comic actor who played Ferris Bueller’s teacher, but also a lawyer, author and economics columnist – pushes the former view in the frequently witty documentary “Expelled.” It puts a conservative twist on Michael Moore-ism, with campy stock footage, deadpan humor, mocking musical cues and less-than-ingenuous questions.
All of this sweetens a high-level debate for the general audience.
Unlike Moore, Stein doesn’t resort to (many) cheap shots. He gives the opposition – stoutly represented by “The God Delusion” author Richard Dawkins – ample opportunity to make its case. In getting Dawkins to concede that there might be some intelligent source to life, Stein scores big.
But Stein spends the first half of the movie setting himself a trap, and the second half squirming in it.
Stein visits US professors fired for mentioning the notion that the universe can’t be explained without intelligent design (not necessarily God’s) behind it all. Surely free speech is under attack.
“We are losing our freedom in one of the most important sectors of society – science,” says Stein, who says ID theorists are being separated from other scientists by an ideological Berlin Wall.
Stein has a lot of fun cross-examining Darwinians about the origins of life, finding that their theories boil down to magic “crystals” or insemination from other worlds. (Cue ’50s sci-fi footage.)
To his credit, Stein doesn’t dodge the central question, as Moore would. Though individuals can say what they want, no university is obliged to employ people with absurd views. We wouldn’t want our professors teaching that the Holocaust didn’t happen. Is ID such a fringe theory?
Stein’s interviews prove that (at least some) ID backers are indeed scientists in pursuit of truth. They ask only to be heard.
That sounds fair, until it doesn’t. After all of his efforts to unhook the ID ca-
boose from the creationism train, Stein makes it clear that his beef with Darwinism is that it weakens religion. He’s right, but his purpose is exposed: He’s trying to keep religion alive in science, where it doesn’t belong.
Religion, the combination of philosophy and myth handed down to us, is blind to science. Science ought to return the favor. In a long, greasy detour, Stein shows that the Nazis were Darwinists. So what? They also liked skiing. Having Nazi fans doesn’t make Darwin wrong.
There is no “should” in the theory of evolution. Eugenics is a philosophy, not a science, even if Darwin indulged in it. Religion is normative, all about that “should.” It does belong behind that wall, separated from the search for fact.
EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED
Sophistry 101.
Running time: 90 minutes. Rated PG (disturbing images). At the E-Walk, the 62nd and Broadway, others.