Post by Rob W. Case on Nov 10, 2008 12:00:59 GMT -6
Editor's Note: This is an article that was originally written around the time of its theatrical release. I then thought to release it around the time of it's released on DVD. Here it is; my review and analysis of the Ben Stein film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."
The film starts out with the assembling of the Historic Berlin Wall. Brick layers lay the cement, guards come pouring out, patrolling, and making sure nobody crosses that barrier. One side of the wall represents freedom. The other side represents dictatorship, control of the people entrapped within the confines of that wall, sealing off any hopes of people wanting to get to the other side. Anyone who is familiar with the Berlin Wall knows it was crafted of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and gun towers. It was monitored by armed guards to make sure nobody went from the “guarded” side to the “free” side. It was a structure that symbolized man wanting to control man, and man wanting to deport any mention of a higher power. The Berlin Wall was a result of a ruling class of atheists, who felt that they were the “fittest” that Charles Darwin talked about when he coined the phrase “survival of the fittest.”
And so, the title of the movie flashes across the screen; Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
Expelled stars Ben Stein, who is widely known as the “slow-talker” in many Hollywood movies. You may know him as Ferris Bueller’s economics teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986). He played Kevin Arnold’s Teacher Mr. Cantwell in the ABC TV series “The Wonder Years” (1989-91). He’s had hundreds of cameo appearances in films like “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (1987), as well as cameos in hit TV shows like Family Guy, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, and King of the Hill. From 1997-2002, he also hosted his own game show on Comedy Central called, “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” in which contestants would challenge his intellect and either win his paycheck to do the show, or maintain his paycheck for doing the show.
So, why this movie?
As Ben Stein explains in the film, the purpose for him doing this film was based on a series of incidents in which scientists who saw science as incompatible with Darwin’s theory, or even mentioned the thought of “intelligent design” were fired, insulted, blacklisted, and even banished from the establishment without so much as a valid explanation for why they were fired.
And so, Ben Stein, a man who probably would have been more satisfied to allow the debate between the “Creationists” and the “Darwinists” to continue to duke it out on their own takes it upon himself to search for some answers. If anyone is familiar with Ben Stein’s background, you can understand why this topic, one he probably would have cared less about, grabbed him the way it did. Ben Stein was born and raised by a prominent writer named Herbert Stein, a man who believed very strongly in limited government and opposed big government’s intervention in every matter that doesn’t need its involvement. Ben Stein followed in his father’s footsteps. Ben Stein is a Conservative Republican, as he is very vocal on matters pertaining to securing and maintaining personal freedoms.
In 2003, Stein told the Hollywood Investigator, “The Republican Party has distinguished itself by being a right-to-life party since the days of Ronald Reagan. Right-to-life is about protecting the lives of the innocent, blameless, and vulnerable. This is the bedrock of the Republican Party: respect for the individual's dignity, whether the individual is in the womb, whether he's in Eastern Europe, whether he's in China, or she's in China, whether she's in Angola. This respect for the individual. Democrats have no comparably noble principle. They're Me! Me! for taking taxpayer dollars, bribing voters, and getting re-elected. Taking more tax dollars, bribing voters, getting re-elected again. They do not have a single noble principle in the whole party.”
On November 19, 2006, Stein wrote a piece in Time Magazine to pay tribute to the late champion of the free market, Milton Friedman. He said, “…I also realized you cannot kill Friedman's exaltation of human liberty--not with a gun, not with a tank, not with terrorism--not even with heart disease. His ideas and faith in the human spirit are as implanted in civilization as those of any benevolent economist and social revolutionary…”
So, why, you may be wondering, am I telling you all this stuff? What does this have to do with the movie, you may be wondering? It has EVERYTHING to do with the movie. Knowing what I told you creates the basis for this movie. As you watch the movie you can see how the places which enforced Darwinian Theory on its people became “Ground Zeros” for the loss of personal freedoms, private properties, and human rights. Darwin’s theory was first tried out in Germany, and I believe we all know how that turned out. Now, Ben Stein sees the enforcement of Darwinism applied to in America and he is using his argument to raise awareness to the viewer that there are people in very high places, in very powerful positions Who want you to believe what they want you to believe, and that elements which run opposite to what they want you to believe (thinking “outside the box”) may get you fired, ridiculed, vilified, and discredited, even if you are a respectable and dignified scientist who may follow science, but whose scientific results may not be compatible with Darwin’s theory. The point is that the very people who are working to take away your personal freedoms are the very people working to shove Darwin down your throats and kill any mention of Creation by a higher power.
It may have taken many many years for this topic to capture Ben Stein’s interest, but it has, not just for the fact that our freedoms are at stake, but for a matter that hits at him personally, being Jewish, and knowing where Darwinism, when applied, can lead.
As he states in the movie, “Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it’s anti-science. It’s anti-the whole concept of learning.”
I personally enjoyed the film because it not only provided additional confirmation to articles I have written in the past regarding Darwin and Hitler, and rebellion against God being the “steering wheel” which drives the concept of atheism, but it added new strength to them. The most ironic thing about this movie is that Ben Stein doesn’t even have to say all this. He just points and says, “look. Do you see what I’m talking about now?” The prominent atheists within this film do a good enough job proclaiming that on their own.
The film is rated PG for thematic material, and for disturbing images (mostly footage from the holocaust), and for some brief smoking (within the footage of Edward R. Murrow).
Visit the Website, and watch the movie trailer:
www.expelledthemovie.com/
It’s a must-see. A person within the group I went with said that one of the ticket people were surprised that they even got the movie in their theater. People were calling in saying, “don’t show that movie!” Of course, anyone who says, “Don’t see that” know full well that a film where people are saying “don’t show that movie!” is a film not to miss. Don’t miss this movie. You may wonder why your personal freedoms are being taken away from you little by little. The fabric is very well explained in this movie. They are setting up a dictator-type system, and when you try to replace God with man, man without any moral direction will put their faith in man and man will play God. Of course when man plays God, there is no liberty. Man, with absolute power on his side cannot allow liberty because it might work against him. Man is a forceful being. God isn’t. Of course, it all boils down to one thing, and America has demonstrated it well in its young existence. Paul summed it up better than anyone you can imagine in his letter to the Corinthian people.
II Corinthians 3:16-17
16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Some people want to create a new “veil,” a new “wall” like the Berlin wall that is designed to punish people who disagree with what they want. Where the spirit of self-centeredness is, there is oppression. People desire to have power over people, and they will stop at nothing to expand and protect that power for themselves. They want no competition, and their hostility lies within the man who created the universe, who designed free will. One side doesn’t like that, and cheats by forcing it with all its resources to sway in the direction most favorable to it. This is the essence of pushing Darwinism in schools and the manipulation of corrupting the concept of faith, only to drive that faith in the favor of man, and not God. Interesting isn’t it? And Hell and misery on earth always follows it.
The film starts out with the assembling of the Historic Berlin Wall. Brick layers lay the cement, guards come pouring out, patrolling, and making sure nobody crosses that barrier. One side of the wall represents freedom. The other side represents dictatorship, control of the people entrapped within the confines of that wall, sealing off any hopes of people wanting to get to the other side. Anyone who is familiar with the Berlin Wall knows it was crafted of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and gun towers. It was monitored by armed guards to make sure nobody went from the “guarded” side to the “free” side. It was a structure that symbolized man wanting to control man, and man wanting to deport any mention of a higher power. The Berlin Wall was a result of a ruling class of atheists, who felt that they were the “fittest” that Charles Darwin talked about when he coined the phrase “survival of the fittest.”
And so, the title of the movie flashes across the screen; Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
Expelled stars Ben Stein, who is widely known as the “slow-talker” in many Hollywood movies. You may know him as Ferris Bueller’s economics teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986). He played Kevin Arnold’s Teacher Mr. Cantwell in the ABC TV series “The Wonder Years” (1989-91). He’s had hundreds of cameo appearances in films like “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (1987), as well as cameos in hit TV shows like Family Guy, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, and King of the Hill. From 1997-2002, he also hosted his own game show on Comedy Central called, “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” in which contestants would challenge his intellect and either win his paycheck to do the show, or maintain his paycheck for doing the show.
So, why this movie?
As Ben Stein explains in the film, the purpose for him doing this film was based on a series of incidents in which scientists who saw science as incompatible with Darwin’s theory, or even mentioned the thought of “intelligent design” were fired, insulted, blacklisted, and even banished from the establishment without so much as a valid explanation for why they were fired.
And so, Ben Stein, a man who probably would have been more satisfied to allow the debate between the “Creationists” and the “Darwinists” to continue to duke it out on their own takes it upon himself to search for some answers. If anyone is familiar with Ben Stein’s background, you can understand why this topic, one he probably would have cared less about, grabbed him the way it did. Ben Stein was born and raised by a prominent writer named Herbert Stein, a man who believed very strongly in limited government and opposed big government’s intervention in every matter that doesn’t need its involvement. Ben Stein followed in his father’s footsteps. Ben Stein is a Conservative Republican, as he is very vocal on matters pertaining to securing and maintaining personal freedoms.
In 2003, Stein told the Hollywood Investigator, “The Republican Party has distinguished itself by being a right-to-life party since the days of Ronald Reagan. Right-to-life is about protecting the lives of the innocent, blameless, and vulnerable. This is the bedrock of the Republican Party: respect for the individual's dignity, whether the individual is in the womb, whether he's in Eastern Europe, whether he's in China, or she's in China, whether she's in Angola. This respect for the individual. Democrats have no comparably noble principle. They're Me! Me! for taking taxpayer dollars, bribing voters, and getting re-elected. Taking more tax dollars, bribing voters, getting re-elected again. They do not have a single noble principle in the whole party.”
On November 19, 2006, Stein wrote a piece in Time Magazine to pay tribute to the late champion of the free market, Milton Friedman. He said, “…I also realized you cannot kill Friedman's exaltation of human liberty--not with a gun, not with a tank, not with terrorism--not even with heart disease. His ideas and faith in the human spirit are as implanted in civilization as those of any benevolent economist and social revolutionary…”
So, why, you may be wondering, am I telling you all this stuff? What does this have to do with the movie, you may be wondering? It has EVERYTHING to do with the movie. Knowing what I told you creates the basis for this movie. As you watch the movie you can see how the places which enforced Darwinian Theory on its people became “Ground Zeros” for the loss of personal freedoms, private properties, and human rights. Darwin’s theory was first tried out in Germany, and I believe we all know how that turned out. Now, Ben Stein sees the enforcement of Darwinism applied to in America and he is using his argument to raise awareness to the viewer that there are people in very high places, in very powerful positions Who want you to believe what they want you to believe, and that elements which run opposite to what they want you to believe (thinking “outside the box”) may get you fired, ridiculed, vilified, and discredited, even if you are a respectable and dignified scientist who may follow science, but whose scientific results may not be compatible with Darwin’s theory. The point is that the very people who are working to take away your personal freedoms are the very people working to shove Darwin down your throats and kill any mention of Creation by a higher power.
It may have taken many many years for this topic to capture Ben Stein’s interest, but it has, not just for the fact that our freedoms are at stake, but for a matter that hits at him personally, being Jewish, and knowing where Darwinism, when applied, can lead.
As he states in the movie, “Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it’s anti-science. It’s anti-the whole concept of learning.”
I personally enjoyed the film because it not only provided additional confirmation to articles I have written in the past regarding Darwin and Hitler, and rebellion against God being the “steering wheel” which drives the concept of atheism, but it added new strength to them. The most ironic thing about this movie is that Ben Stein doesn’t even have to say all this. He just points and says, “look. Do you see what I’m talking about now?” The prominent atheists within this film do a good enough job proclaiming that on their own.
The film is rated PG for thematic material, and for disturbing images (mostly footage from the holocaust), and for some brief smoking (within the footage of Edward R. Murrow).
Visit the Website, and watch the movie trailer:
www.expelledthemovie.com/
It’s a must-see. A person within the group I went with said that one of the ticket people were surprised that they even got the movie in their theater. People were calling in saying, “don’t show that movie!” Of course, anyone who says, “Don’t see that” know full well that a film where people are saying “don’t show that movie!” is a film not to miss. Don’t miss this movie. You may wonder why your personal freedoms are being taken away from you little by little. The fabric is very well explained in this movie. They are setting up a dictator-type system, and when you try to replace God with man, man without any moral direction will put their faith in man and man will play God. Of course when man plays God, there is no liberty. Man, with absolute power on his side cannot allow liberty because it might work against him. Man is a forceful being. God isn’t. Of course, it all boils down to one thing, and America has demonstrated it well in its young existence. Paul summed it up better than anyone you can imagine in his letter to the Corinthian people.
II Corinthians 3:16-17
16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Some people want to create a new “veil,” a new “wall” like the Berlin wall that is designed to punish people who disagree with what they want. Where the spirit of self-centeredness is, there is oppression. People desire to have power over people, and they will stop at nothing to expand and protect that power for themselves. They want no competition, and their hostility lies within the man who created the universe, who designed free will. One side doesn’t like that, and cheats by forcing it with all its resources to sway in the direction most favorable to it. This is the essence of pushing Darwinism in schools and the manipulation of corrupting the concept of faith, only to drive that faith in the favor of man, and not God. Interesting isn’t it? And Hell and misery on earth always follows it.