"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

Jim Myers touched on this film in December after we screened it at Focus on the Family, but now that it's in wide release, I'd like to address it again. I must say that it is impressive that the documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" was released to more than 1,000 theaters and has grossed more than $5 million. This excellent film explores the Darwin vs. Intelligent Design debate in the academic realm and how Darwinists have taken over the debate and are punishing academics who believe that there is a Creator/Intelligence behind creation.

The film is narrated by and stars Ben Stein, whose dry wit and thoughtful reflections are a major reason why this film was given a chance in the mainstream theater circuit. "Expelled" does an excellent job at exposing Darwinism for what it really is: Atheistic and narcissitic at the core, as well as a theory with many important holes that have not been filled. While John Paul II acknowledged that evolution could be "more than an hypothesis" and is worthy of further review, he also points out that any view of the origin of life that removes the Creator is flawed.

As a result, the theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man. They are therefore unable to serve as the basis for the dignity of the human person.

The film does an admirable job exposing the hostility toward any sort of merging of faith and science in academic circles, with interviews of professors who were pushed out of their schools when they brought an intelligent being into the picture. Behind the teaching of evolution, the film shows, is a hostility in general toward religion that can send mixed messages to students. None of the diehard Darwinists interviewed in the film have any real answer for the origin of life, but they're hell-bent on destroying anyone who tries to insinuate that there is a Creator of life... even when scientific research (i.e. DNA research) is failing to disprove an intelligence behind life.

"Expelled" is getting knocked around by many film critics, essentially reducing it to a one-sided hit-piece by evangelical Christianity. But don't let that fool you. Those same reviewers marvel at Michael Moore's documentaries, which also have an obvious agenda. That so many people just accept Darwinist evolution as the origin of life is scary. The agenda of "Expelled" is to say that the current debate over the origin of life is not fair.

"Expelled" might not settle the debate, but it at least provides some balance.