Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed , made me think. Which is exactly what its detractors don’t want you to do.
My son’s high school chemistry teacher offered his students extra credit for going to see the full-length documentary (we pay for him to go to a school where teachers and students have the freedom to be open-minded, an option not offered in the public schools in our community.) And I went with him. How often does your teenage son say, “Hey, Dad, you wanna go see a movie?”
There are so many things going for this movie that it’s hard to know where to start. A brilliant piece of filmmaking, at once entertaining and disturbing, the movie is chock full of visual and audio allusions, inserted in precisely the right moment to support the very dialogue you’re hearing. It’s clever, laugh-out-loud funny, and provides evidence that there is, indeed, intelligent life among moviemakers. At least one of them.
Another major asset is Ben Stein himself, a man with a profusion of intellect, energy, and insight, not to mention money. Stein himself is a study in contrasts: brilliant, dressed as dull. The movie exposes the narrowminded, parochial view held by many in the so-called “scientific community” that the only explanation for the origin of life is fully contained in the theory espoused by Charles Darwin in the 19th century, and no further evidence need be brought to bear on the question, thank you.
Stein points out, with arresting clarity, against a backdrop of Nazi totalitarianism and mind control as a metaphor, how threatened this crowd is by any discussion that suggests that there may be more to the universe’s origin and development than that which Darwin theorized. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want anyone else to talk about it. And, if you’re a scientist or educator, and you dare question Darwin, ask that alternative theories be considered in addition (not instead of) or point out that it, like Intelligent Design, is a theory certainly worthy of consideration, but not settled fact, your job, your chance to be published, and indeed your career will be in grave jeopardy.
I don’t know where we came from. Nobody knows. Big Bang? Evolution? Intelligent Design? Far greater minds than mine have debated this for centuries. And that’s good. Let the debate continue. Maybe one day we’ll get it figured out (although I doubt it). And certainly not if those Ben Stein exposes continue to exert pressure to make sure no intelligent discussion ensues.
This blog, unlike the targets of “Expelled” welcomes, indeed encourages, contrasting points of view. Let us hear from you.
Richard Hadden is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and his co-author and business partner Bill Catlette, are the authors of the new book Contented Cows MOOve Faster, as well as the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.
