I am not a movie buff. In fact, “buff” is not a word that would ever be forced into service to describe me. But I digress. I take my wife to see a movie two or three times a year. Even on those occasions I confess that I am more interested in being with her than watching the big screen. Thus, I was clueless when I saw Joe Thorn’s Slusho shot and read his comments about his “most highly anticipated movie of 2008” (I had never heard of the movie, but I am intrigued by viral marketing, so I was interested).
So, when a fellow church member, Dan Phillips (not the pyromaniac), emailed me about a movie coming out in February 2008, I was not initially very interested. Until I read about it. Then I wondered if it was a joke–an urban legend. It passed the Snopes test, so I looked into it further and must say, I am pleasantly surprised to learn that something like “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” could be coming out of 21st century Hollywood. Ben Stein chronicles the experiences of scientists who have been blackballed by the academy for questioning the ideologies of Darwinism, global warming and the like. Stories about such leftwing fundamentalism have been accumulating through the years, but no one has ever attempted to weave them all together and portray them on the big screen. Evidently, that is exactly what “Expelled” attempts to do. It ought to be fascinating to watch antics of those who, while screaming for academic freedom and ideological pluralism, militantly cut off dissident voices that dare question current scientific dogma.
If this project is successful, Stein and everyone else involved in it, will have successfully hoisted the radical left on their own petard.