So you’ve been told that Darwinian evolution is the only theory you’re allowed to discuss. Any mention of Intelligent Design in creation is disallowed. In fact, if you want to talk about Intelligent Design, you might face expulsion.
Sound farfetched? It’s not, especially when it comes to the professional world of science. College professors have been denied tenure and researchers have been fired for daring to suggest that there are holes in the theory of evolution that can be explained only by an intelligent designer.
And because of that, Ben Stein is angry. You might remember Stein from his roles in The Wonder Years, Win Ben Stein’s Money or Ferris Bueller's Day Off. (Yeah, that’s his real voice.) But Stein is more than an actor or game show host; he was an honors graduate from Columbia University, was first in his class at Yale Law School and worked for two presidents. And though his delivery may be monotonous, there’s nothing bland about his passion to right a wrong that he sees happening in our culture—particularly in our schools.
He’s mad about the suppression of intellectual dissent when it comes to questioning Darwinism and the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools. “It is like a theology,” he said of Darwinism. “It’s not open to discussion. Why do we allow, even celebrate, dissent in every other area of society, but not here?”
Stein’s answer to this suffocating orthodoxy is Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a documentary examining what happens to teachers and other professionals who dare to raise questions about Darwin. Stein simply can’t understand how this is allowed to happen and why the crushing of academic dissent does not draw cries of outrage from the usual defenders of free speech.
Stein is also motivated by the destructive effects Darwinism has had on our culture.
“I was horrified on the effects of social Darwinism,” Stein said. “It teaches that superior species would do everyone a favor if they just killed off all the inferior species. I still think the most important part of the story is not that these people were kicked out of school for teaching Intelligent Design. I think the important thing is that you can draw a straight line from this grandfatherly old man [Darwin] to Hitler and the Holocaust.”
Darwinism also has implications for moral reasoning, Stein stresses. “Is all life random and are we all meaningless blobs, or is there moral meaning in the world? One of the people we interviewed postulated that there is no God. People like that idea, since if there’s no god there’s no morality. Maybe they’re scared if there’s some God, they’ll be held accountable. If there is a God, some of these guys had better watch out.”
Expelled will be released into theaters April 18. For more information, go to expelledthemovie.com.
