WOW!!! FANTASTIC!!! A major anti-evolution movie!!!
Notice the new banner on the right?
Have you ever seen any advertising banner EVER on my blog?
I have determined to keep this blog 100% non-commercial.
But… I just broke my own rule, after I learned about Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.
I was *JUST* this morning talking with my two youngest sons about this issue: How the current scientific community blackballs (though I didn’t use that term) scientists of any field who aren’t neo-Darwinists. Lo and behold, Ben heard me talking and decided to make a movie about it, and about the rebellion against the “Don’t question the authority of Darwin” stance that is happening right now (thank God) in the schools of America.
I am officially, completely excited. Exhilarated. I can’t wait for February.
PLEASE watch the “super-trailer” — it’s a good seven+ minutes, but it is SO very worthwhile.
(And if anyone wants me to help them make a banner on their WordPress blog, I’d be more than happy to. E-mail me.)
Posted on December 20, 2007, in Christianity, God/Christianity/Church, Interesting Websites, Movies, Political Thought, Science. Bookmark the permalink. 39 Comments.
Only Sometimes Clever
That rocks!!
Go gettem’ God….as the dark gets darker the light gets lighter!!
Just called my spawn out of bed to let them in on this…..just as excited as when I first heard about the Passion about 2 years out from its release!! He is not kidding. The ridicule and the unwillingness to *even* debate this with an intelligent SCIENTIST of the intelligent design persuasion points to an enemy of a creation that is God’s primary way of pointing to Himself. Bring it on says the Lord.
That’s awesome! I’m anxious to see it! The clip was great! Thanks for sharing it.
I love Ben Stein. He is a voice of reason among the unreasonable.
My only concern with the ID movement is that they stop short of identifying the ‘intelligent designer.’ For that reason, Hugh Ross and the folks at Reasons.org will not endorse the ID concept.
Steve ~ Stein, though, doesn’t stop short. He calls him “God” and also “a loving creator” or something like that. He’s pretty clear about it. Frankly, I don’t know if Stein is Jewish or a Messianic Jew/Christian, but right now, I don’t care, because the movie looks so fantastic, and definitely gives credit to God.
This is my blog of the week!
Thank you, Daja!!
Everyone ~ I just noticed that instead of saying that the movie is due out in February 2008, it’s now saying “Spring 2008.” Hm.
I can’t wait for this to come out. The more attention on the lack of academic freedom, the better.
It’s a “mockumentary”.
But the mocks didn’t get many laughs at the screening of the “director’s cut”, so it’s back to the drawing board in hopes of getting the lies written better by April.
Ummm… onein6, it’s not a mockumentary. Ben Stein is funny, in a very droll way, but if you watch the “SuperTrailer” above, you’ll see that he’s quite serious about the whole thing. Also, if you read his blog/essay posted on the site, it is quite a studious work; that’s his intention: not to mock or make it funny, but to draw attention to the fact that anyone — of any religion — who doesn’t swallow current Darwinian theory hook, line and sinker, is basically blacklisted within the scientific community.
I’m sure the movie will get some laughs; funny people can’t help being funny, even if they’re smart, too. But, I think this movie — like many of Stein’s other brainiac endeavors, such as economic analysis — has a larger bent towards the serious side.
“he’s quite serious about the whole thing”
Your statement needs modification:
He’s quite seriously deluded about the whole thing.
“if you read his blog/essay posted on the site, it is quite a studious work”
It’s serious as in “mock serious” – kind of like mock turtle soup.
“is basically blacklisted within the scientific community”
What? People promoting the non-science that is “intelligent design” are not given grants to study who, what, where, when, how, and why an “intelligent designer” did something? They aren’t given tenure in an Astronomy Department when they have almost no publications, no grants, and no graduate students? “I can’t believe it” he said mockingly.
“has a larger bent towards the serious side”
I’m sure he wishes that it really did. But I’m sure I will laugh at his “howlers” when I go see it.
onein6 ~ I’m glad you’re going to go see it. It’s a good place to be lending your support in terms of your money. 😉 Also, many strong believers started out as skeptics seeking to disprove the theory of God, or the theory of creation. Here’s hoping that, in the future, you can label yourself as a “former skeptic.”
Blessings,
~Karen
“lending your support in terms of your money”
What I will do is buy a ticket to another silly movie in the same complex and then go see his silly mockumentary. Afterwards I can hold a picket outside the theater while claiming I actually saw the movie.
“Here’s hoping that, in the future, you can label yourself as a “former skeptic.””
I will be a “former skeptic” when I’m dead.
They offer to “bribe” schools to bring their kids:
http://www.getexpelled.com/schools.php
But hurry to register – there’s a limited amount of bribe money. Last come – not served.
Thanks for the link, Mike! What a fantastic program. I hope those involved in Christian schools see this post, and follow the link you’ve so graciously provided, so that chronically underfunded Christian schools can get a bit more $$.
“Making fun of born-again Christians is like hunting dairy cows with a high powered rifle and scope.”
P.J. O’Rourke (1947- )
“The principal feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things — war and hunger and date rape — liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things…. It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal.” ~P.J. O’Rourke (1947- )
I can Wikiquote, too.
Except, in lieu of “American liberalism”, I would substitute “Christianity-hating, pro-evolutionary dolts who have nothing better to do with their time than bash homeschooling blogging mothers.”
You go, Karen!! 😀
“ROFLOL”
😉
“who have nothing better to do with their time than bash homeschooling blogging mothers”
Idiots need bashing. It gets their attention. Then maybe they could learn something. But 30+ years of indoctrination makes that possibility extremely remote. But if/when their little homeschoolers actually go to a real university, they may come home and ask “why did you lie to me about evolution?”
I’m reading a novel, Mike, called Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. There’s a portion in it that caught my eye, and now I recall after reading your words.
“Be careful whom you choose to hate.
The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly.
Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.”
If you are suggesting that as an idiot, I need bashing, then, by your own admission you are, at my most charitable, best described as a bully. I don’t presume to call you an idiot, though it appears to me that you are dangerously messing with the wrong end of Matthew 25:40, which infers that you are foolish.
I also have suggested that you have a gigantic chip on your shoulder, and are embittered against the sort of people with whom, until very recently, you identified yourself: a Christian creationist. You have yet to refute this, or to explain your regrettable transformation, and have ignored my offers to hear the story.
I feel an odd mixture of anger towards and sorrow for you, Mike. Your very life seems the epitome of pathetic, and I highly suggest that you find some more constructive hobbies.
suppressed?
No, Mike. You haven’t been suppressed. You’ve been temporarily set aside whilst I have more important things to deal with, like the fact that I was dreadfully ill for a week, and had my MIL visit for the weekend. I’ll likely approve all your recent comments, and respond to them, but only as time allows, and it just isn’t allowing right now.
Yes, I am now suppressed.
Mike the Suppressed a.k.a. oneinsixbillion ~
You’re so vain, I’ll betcha think this blog is about you, you’re so vain, so vain, I’ll bet you think this blog is about you don’t you, don’t you, don’t you??
You seem to forget that this blog is not a public forum with open access. It’s the personal blog of, um, ME. I’m not suppressing you as a person; there are many opportunities you have in your own life, I’m sure, to make your unpleasant voice heard. However, this isn’t democratic; I own this blog, and you are no longer welcome — not for your viewpoint, but for the way you have conducted yourself, and for your apparent bottomless pit of needing to be stroked with attention that I am loathe to give you.
I have, at WordPress’ last count, 455 posts on this blog. Three, if I recall correctly, deal with the creation vs evolution debate. In other words, it’s an area of interest, but not overwhelmingly so. The thing that you so greatly want to discuss is only a peripheral interest; it doesn’t control my life and thoughts.
It boggles my mind that, after THIRTEEN comments by you on my blog, to which I’ve thoughtfully and thoroughly responded, you’re still not satisfied. That doesn’t even include our several private e-mail exchanges. Do you think that a pregnant mother of four homeschooled children really has so very little to do, and is so lacking in attention, that she just delights in being ridiculed, belittled, and argued with, by such a vehemently contrary person like yourself? I have a bit of news for you, Mike. I have other interests and responsibilities, and I am done having a dead-end conversation, especially with an unpleasant man such as yourself.
You are hereby completely suspended from this blog, and if you don’t like it, GET YOUR OWN BLOG!!!
Karen, you have chosen wisely. I find it comical that materialists cry “suppression” or “oppression” when we moderate their comments. I let atheists comment literally hundreds of times when they raided my blog from Richard Dawkin’s blog. But enough was enough. I can only take so much bad reasoning and ill will.
I think it is analogous to having a neighbor who endlessly pesters you with nonsense. Wouldn’t it make sense to avoid them, not make eye contact, etc.? Moderation / blocking is the blogging equivalent.
Funnier still is the notion that they think there is a universal morality that says they shouldn’t be suppressed just for the heck of it. After all, in a nothingness-to-molecules-to-man view, there is zero foundation for morality. Yet the materialists can’t go three sentences without making moral claims and applying them to you.
Karen, you said that so well! My initial reaction to his comment was, “get a life!” 😆
Hi, Karen. If you take a stroll around the blogosphere, you’ll find several positive reviews of Expelled, and on almost every single one you’ll find the same attacks, often by the same users who apparently are motivated enough to see the movie fail that they take the time to search for positive reviews and copy and paste their rhetoric bashing Stein and those who would support it.
There was a press conference Friday where the producers responded to several of the specific criticisms of the film. We’ve got a summary of what they said here: http://subthemag.com/tss/2008/03/31/ben-stein-expels-some-expelled-rumors/68
Peace.
So what’s wrong with the term “blackball”? Okay, you didn’t come right out and declare that there’s anything at all wrong with it, but I get the strong impression that you think it’s not an appropriate term to use around your kids. In fact, blackballing is just a very old form of secret ballot. Indeed, the term “ballot” is related. For more, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackball_(blacklist)
Thanks for your concern for my vocab, LJS. I tried replying to your e-mail addy, but you didn’t leave a valid address. Hm.
I do understand that blackball is not a “bad” word. I just didn’t use it w/ them, because they’re not familiar w/ that word. They are, however, familiar w/ “ostracize” and I think that’s the word I used.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for the comment.
~Karen
p.s. Not leaving your e-mail does not actually assure your anonymity, since WordPress harvests your IP address, too. For instance, yours is 76.114.172.10 which shows me that you’re in Mt. Laurel, NJ… and it’s pretty easy to get more particular software/online services that will pinpoint your location more exactly. Please don’t drop anonymous bombs on blogs. (Not that yours was a serious bomb, but I’m growing weary from people leaving anonymous, negative comments on my blog.)
Karen,
David Heddle at He Lives (a great science/faith site) has a well thought out review of the film. In general, he’s not a fan of the film (or ID in general) because it pits faith against science in very ugly terms. Apparently the producers went out of their way to make it an us-vs-them battle. He does like Ben Stein, though.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind.html
Hey, Rog ~ Thanks for the self-promotion… uh… comment. Sort of.
I think this commenter (one of the extremely few dissenters amongst the gushing litany of, “Oooh, Roger, you’re so great”) summed it up well:
Scientific truth is not a popularity contest like politics.
And, movie reviewers don’t make very good scientists, apparently. Last I checked, scientific ideas which are not observable or provable are called theories. As in, “The Theory of Evolution.” Since no one currently here on earth was also here a billion years ago, let alone 10,000 years ago, the major arguing points of evolution will remain a theory, no matter how much folks like you tout it as “truth.”
Funny how quickly one can lose admiration for a respected critic as soon as he starts picking on one’s friends.
My faith in Ebert has been restored. Lousy troll.
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