Ben Stein vs. Sputtering Atheists

[Mustaine]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20080418/cm_uc_crbbox/op_235852

I confess that when the producers of Ben Stein's new documentary "Expelled" called, offering me a private screening, I was less than excited.
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It is a reality of PC liberalism: There is only one credible side to an issue, and any dissent is not only rejected, it is scorned. Global warming. Gay "rights." Abortion "rights." On these and so many other issues there is enlightenment, and then there is the Idiotic Other Side. PC liberalism's power centers are the news media, the entertainment industry and academia, and all are in the clutches of an unmistakable hypocrisy: Theirs is an ideology that preaches the freedom of thought and expression at every opportunity, yet practices absolute intolerance toward dissension.

Evolution is another one of those one-sided debates. We know the concept of Intelligent Design is stifled in academic circles. An entire documentary to state the obvious? You can see my reluctance to view it.

I went into the screening bored. I came out of it stunned.

Ben Stein's extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection.

Stein asks a simple question: What if the universe began with an intelligent designer, a designer named God? He assembles a stable of academics — experts all — who dared to question Darwinist assumptions and found themselves "expelled" from intellectual discourse as a result. They include evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg (sandbagged at the Smithsonian), biology professor Caroline Crocker (drummed out of George Mason University), and astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez (blackballed at Iowa State University).

That's disturbing enough, but what Stein does next is truly shocking. He allows the principal advocates of Darwinism to speak their minds. These are experts with national reputations, regular welcomed guests on network television and the like. But the public knows them only by their careful seven-second soundbites. Stein engages them in conversation. They speak their minds. They become sputtering ranters, openly championing their sheer hatred of religion..... <read rest through link>

Anyone else really interested in seeing this film? It honestly sounds really interesting


wikipedia article on the film:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expelled:_No_Intelligence_Allowed

at least some one is doing films that counter the michael snores of this world.

[Captain Virgil Hilts]

Yeah, I'm thinking about catching it. It's the only film I AM thinking about seeing.

[bj229r]

Ben Stein is a practitioner of debate, something the Moore types don't quite grasp---calling your opponent a nazi, child-killer, racist, sexist, or perhaps child killer, etal and then saying "thank ypu" to Bill Mahr's or John Stewart's adoring crowds doesn't exactly qualify as debate. 90% of them can be reduced to babbling idiots if you stretch them out beyond their rehearsed sound bytes. Used to love watching William F Buckley ---(ok, he lost his cool ONE time )

[Xargos]

I plane on seeing it.

[Rogue9Volt]

     Those who claim to be Tolarant, often aren't.

[lasersailor184]

Ben Stein always impressed me.  I was a little sad when his game show died.

[moot]

Sounds like crap.  The review mentions the usual clueless pseudo scientific 'ID' refutals of 'regular' science.  Nevermind if it also skews interviews like mentioned.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/movies/18expe.html?ref=movies

[lasersailor184]

Sounds like crap.  The review mentions the usual clueless pseudo scientific 'ID' refutals of 'regular' science.  Nevermind if it also skews interviews like mentioned.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/movies/18expe.html?ref=movies

Sounds like someone's getting their panties in a twist.

[Chairboy]

Staged crowds?  Deliberately misinterpreting science to push an agenda?  Nah.  Let's call a truce, you don't preach in my schools and I won't think in your church.

[JB88]

Staged crowds?  Deliberately misinterpreting science to push an agenda?  Nah.  Let's call a truce, you don't preach in my schools and I won't think in your church.

a fair compromise i think.

[SIK1]

Sounds like crap.  The review mentions the usual clueless pseudo scientific 'ID' refutals of 'regular' science.  Nevermind if it also skews interviews like mentioned.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/movies/18expe.html?ref=movies

LOL, yeah the New York Times will give an impartial, and unbiased review.
That I'm sure of.

[Octavius]

"sputtering athiests" - lol!  Time to take off the diapers, kids.  EvC debates?  Not even applicable.  You cannot debate scientific method.

A little counterbalance

For some education.

and as for the film itself:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2394,Lying-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins

... The whole tone of the film is whiny, paranoid -- pathetic really. The narrator is somebody called Ben Stein. I had not heard of him, but apparently he is well known to Americans, for it is hard to see why else he would have been chosen to front the film. He certainly can't have been chosen for his knowledge of science, nor his powers of logical reasoning, nor his box office appeal (heavens, no), and his speaking voice is an irritating, nasal drawl, innocent of charm and of consonants. I suppose that makes it a good voice for conveying the whingeing paranoia that I referred to, so maybe that was qualification enough.

Now, to the film itself. What a shoddy, second-rate piece of work. ...

[moot]

Sounds like someone's getting their panties in a twist.

You wish.

SIK1 there's some tell-tale hints that a review isn't making things up, and one of those is undebatable facts like skewed/spliced interview segments.  It doesn't prove the rest of the review's true, but it does tip the scales to its benefit.  This movie sounds like a stinker.  No impartial documentary maker screws with evidence..

[Mustaine]

blah blah blah

I can find negative reviews of fat boy mm's film too if you'd like, I bet I could even google some conservative debunking viewpoints too, but do I even need to bother? 

[Mustaine]

and one of those is undebatable facts like skewed/spliced interview segments. 

ROFL! even going back to roger and me mm has "skewed/spliced interview segments" even to the point of falsifying entire comments <ahem splicing 2 different Charlton Heston speeches into 1 for the anti gun movie>

pot meet kettle m00t