For more information, go to www.expelledthemovie.com
You can sign up to promote the film in your area of the country, read reviews by people who have pre-screened it, join the discussion on the blog, send e-cards to let others know about the film, etc. I’m going to see it myself and review it here on MY Journey. The release date in the Denver area is April 18th.
I am a believer and a homeschooler, so many have said this film will be promoted by “my kind” to support our belief in the creationist theory. While that may be true, I am in favor of the freedom of thought, speech, expression, and debate. This film is more about those freedoms being limited to certain kinds of people and thoughts. Freedoms are allowed and sometimes encouraged for all religions, schools of thought and theories with the exception of Christians and the Creationist theory. Called small-minded, limited, steeped in fantasy, disillusioned, and many other insulting names, scientists who would bring a debate against Darwinism have been and are losing their credibility, jobs, and life’s work for going against the beliefs of a man whose theories have limited scientific thought for over a century.
Why the fear? Are Darwinists so fearful of being proven wrong that they have to shut down anyone who might believe differently than they do? Doesn’t that go against the true scientific nature of looking for solutions, answers, and possibilities? I warn you, this next statement could hurt. If you are a believer, do you share that same fear? Do you feel that anyone who does not share your faith needs to be shut up or shut down? If so, Why?
God is bigger than that. He’s bigger than our fears, our doubts, our frustrations with those who hold different beliefs than we do. He’s bigger than our questions and those who don’t believe in Him. There is nothing He can’t handle. We are the ones who fight to stay away from questioning what we believe or have been taught to be true. Instead of walking in faith and trusting God to lead us back to the Truth and feeling the freedom to have questions, we get scared of the questions inside of us and feel threatened by our friends who have questions they’re struggling with. I have a friend who is going through a time of searching right now. They have questions and answers that aren’t adding up for them and they are on the path of discovery. Another friend of ours is worried about that and is feeling the need to bring the first friend back from the brink. The brink of what? Losing their religion? A stronger faith because of the struggle of questioning? It’s fear-based. I think my second friend may be fearful that my first friend has gone too far with their questions and are lacking faith if they have the questions they do. That friend is feeling the need to “convert” our first friend again. They don’t know how to deal with the first friend’s questions. I’m trying to be careful not to give any hints away as to who it is, so I hope that makes sense.
I’m in favor of censorship for those things that bring emotional or physical harm to other people. I’m not in favor of censorship of thought and beliefs. My own thoughts are the only ones I have the right to censor, and I do, by taking them captive and making them obedient to Christ. I’m not perfect at it, but I try. I also examine myself to see if my faith is genuine and I test myself. Both are based on passages in 2 Corinthians. Can I lead people to what I believe the Bible says to believe? Absolutely. Can I force them to believe and live by my beliefs? Absolutely not. Can a Darwinist point out to me why they believe what they do? Sure they can. Can they make me believe what they believe and live my life according to those beliefs? No way. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Forced faith and living is not faith and living at all. It’s the opposite of freedom.
On a side note, I don’t have a problem with the theory of evolution being in science books across the nation. My problem is that Creation isn’t included as an alternative theory. offer all the options and let God draw his own to Himself. Isn’t that what the Bible says He does? We may speak boldly about what we believe and get people thinking about the options laid out before them, but we don’t make people go to God. God draws them to himself. It’s not the school’s job to teach that stuff anyway. What’s funny is that both the big bang theory and the creation theory require some sort of faith. One leads to a life of hope, and I choose hope. But I will not take away the right of another to choose for themselves.
Sometimes I Write 
I don’t think that people publishing articles should be persecuted in the ways described in the video above.
However, I do believe that creationism has no place in the biology classroom. One could say that biology, like any given religion, has its own set of assumptions on which it operates. Creationism doesn’t fit in that model, so it isn’t really biology, so there is no reason for it to be taught in THAT class.
I have no problem with insisting creationism be taught in schools, but I do have a problem with it being compulsory as an alternative to evolution. I believe that it should be in a separate class, just as math and history are separate classes.
However, I think that if that creationism is taught it should not be taught from an exclusively biblical perspective. That is to say, there are many religions all with different senses of creation. I think the main point in creationism should not be the particulars in how it was done (IE drops of blood from a divine weapon, breathed life into nostrils, baked in a clay oven) none of that matters. What matters in creationism is that humans were created by a higher power with intelligent design.
Furthermore it does not even have to be religious. If we were created by aliens for example, they need only be sufficiently powerful to create other life… but that doesn’t make them divine. The question of where THEY come from would still have to be answered, but as far as where humans come from, it is plausable.
So yes, creationism isn’t my problem, it’s the idea that creationism is intrinsically linked to the Bible, and that it has a place in a biology classroom. There are many varieties of creationism out there, and if you want to take an academic approach, there isn’t much reason to say that the Biblical approach should be regarded over the Norse myths. That is an issue of belief. So creationism is a fine subject, especially as there is evidence to support it. But creationism is still just creationism. I think ultimately, the concept of creationism is not tied to any one religion, and it should be regarded as a shared concept.
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I think both Your point, and your previous commenter are correct. I for one think we should not compel students to believe anything. Education should not be the trasferance of fact, but instead it should instill a tool for how to acquire fact. Therefore a university level professor SHOULD be able to find funding and support of research that seeks to find competing alternatives to the current “fact”.
If their inquiry is in fact measurable and replicable then that is true and science and should be open to true inquiry!
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“What’s funny is that both the big bang theory and the creation theory require some sort of faith. ”
Hey Nikalas, that’s not actually true. NASA has gathered pictures of the afterglow from the big bang over the last 8 years using the WMAP probe. You can see a nice picture right here:
And you’ve actually seen and heard the big bang yourself. If you’ve ever tuned your TV to a station with no programming, or tuned your radio to an area on the dial with no sound, some of that static you’re seeing/hearing is from the big bang! The radiation from that explosion 13.73 billion years ago permeates everything in the universe! Amazing stuff!
Also, please note that much of this movie will try to convince you that “darwinism” is evil because Hitler used the idea to kill millions of people of the “jewish race”. Rather than looking at the validity of the scientific theory of evolution, it plays on your emotions and tries to make a scientific theory seem evil. That’s not possible… only our USE of the theory can be evil. Think of this example when watching the movie: Is Nuclear Theory evil because Americans used it to build nuclear bombs which we dropped on Japan to end World War II. It is the actions that people take with the knowledge of scientific theories which is evil or good, and not the theories themselves. The theories are just fundamental knowledge concerning how things actually work.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution via Natural Selection just explains to us how species change over time to fit better into their ever-changing environments. The theory is neither good nor evil.
Sorry, I’m rambling on that point. I just wanted to stress it so that you don’t come away from the movie thinking that Darwinism is evil. It’s not; it’s just a scientific theory that can be used for good or evil. As an example of a good use of Darwinism, think that every time you get a flu shot, or every time your child is immunized from a disease like smallpox, that vaccine or flu shot was developed because of our understanding of Evolutionary Virology. This is a way in which the theory of evolution is used for good to save thousands of lives each year! Cheers!
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I hadn’t heard of this film, because, apparently I live under a rock, lol. But, I LOVES me some Ben Stein….he was my college noon-hour sweetheart with Win Ben Stein’s Money!
I don’t think the purpose of the movie (from what I’ve now read) is to make evolution evil, but rather to point out the favor one theory (among many others) has received over the past century, and how it has grown in popularity to the point that it is a “tyrannical majority,” something which our forefather James Madison vehemently opposed. (Hey, the Federalist Papers are relevant to modern life!) ok, . Minority views, or heck, even equally alternate views, should be treated with dignity and respect, even if agreement is arguable. In my opinion.
Nikki, sweet sister, you were so speaking my heart with this:
If you are a believer, do you share that same fear? Do you feel that anyone who does not share your faith needs to be shut up or shut down?
GREAT thoughts.
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Good comments friends! I love discussion. First of all, welcome to MY Journey Jethro and Darron. Kev and Red – I always love it when you join in. 🙂
Jethro – You have some good points. I can’t just ask that biblical creationism be taught in schools. I don’t have an issue with all kinds of creationism being taught. I don’t think it’s a school’s job to teach religious beliefs anyway. That’s my job as a parent. I’m also teaching them to think for themselves and explore what other people teach. My faith will not be their faith – they will need their own. They will grow up and leave home and have to have their own reasons for why they believe what they do about how we humans and life in general came to exist on this particular planet. If I want to be funny I could say that we were indeed created by aliens – beings not from this place. That’s certainly what I would consider a partial truth. 🙂
Darron – I stand by my original comment that both the big bang theory and the creation theory require some sort of faith. Neither of us (or anyone else in human form) was around at the time the world came into being, therefore neither of us can PROVE what happened. My faith stacked up along with the worlds best scientific instruments is still not actual, physical proof of anything. Both science and faith are based on certain assumptions. As technologically advanced as NASA is, they can’t say beyond a shadow of a doubt what they are looking at in that picture, though the picture is indeed fascinating. I am an intelligent woman. I like science. I went to college. I don’t believe that faith and science cancel each other out or that they can not co-exist. I don’t believe it’s either or and you have to choose a side and fight to the death. I don’t know how old the earth is. I’m o.k. saying that. Even if there were proof of the big bang, something had to have made the big bang happen. Motion does not begin on it’s own…says Newton. 🙂
I don’t believe Darwinism in and of itself is evil. I agree it’s just a theory. I’ll be watching the film with eyes and ears wide open and reserve my judgments until after I see what has been presented and weigh the evidence. I would be curious to hear from someone who has already seen the film. My assumption is that the film isn’t to spout Creationism and fight Darwinism as much as it is to have a voice against bullying those with opposing views or theories. We’ll see.
Don’t even get me started on evolutionary virology. 🙂 That’s a blog for another day.
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“Freedoms are allowed and sometimes encouraged for all religions, schools of thought and theories with the exception of Christians and the Creationist theory.”
The Christian religion is allowed and expressed just about everywhere in this country, and in the few places it isn’t there is general outcry on the part of members of the Christian faith that it should be.
I sincerely doubt that you will ever be called into the school for a parent-teacher conference because your child expressed a belief in angels. But I personally know a woman who is Wiccan and has been for most of her life, who was called in for a parent-teacher conference because the teacher was alarmed (alarmed!!) that the daughter believes in faeries. (As someone who also believes in faeries, I’m more than a bit annoyed that the teacher felt it was her right to “correct” this belief).
People can claim persecution all they want but as a pagan, I can say that Christianity is more widely accepted and integrated into this country than perhaps they realize. (Imagine, for a moment, that a Presidential candidate announced they are Wiccan… how long would that person would last as a candidate?)
People want schools to teach Creationism alongside Darwinism? (And I agree that Darwinism has its flaws). OK, but then I get to demand that Hindu and Wicca and Buddhist and Native American origin beliefs be taught as valid alongside yours.
Christianity is not the only religion that isn’t included in public school curriculum.
I don’t generally view Wikipedia as the definitive resource, but it does give a general idea of the scope of what folks are looking at if people are successful in including creationism in public school science curriculums:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_belief
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Hey Deb,
You sound a bit annoyed. I wasn’t trying to offend everyone with this post. You are right, Christianity is pretty widely expressed and there are a lot of freedoms. The country was founded on it’s principles. It is also widely criticized – more than most other religions – not that I’m crying out about that here. That’s a post for another day – on another blog. Like Darwinism and Creationism, I don’t care if other schools of thought regarding the beginning of life on earth are taught in Science classes. I am not threatened by others sharing what they think and believe. I also don’t have to agree with them. Who decides what gets printed in textbooks? Why aren’t people demanding their own religious myths (wikipedia says “myth” means a traditional story, whether true or false) be included in textbooks?
As far as your friend…her child’s teacher had no right to “correct” a belief. You’re right again. If your Wiccan friend wants to teach her child her beliefs, then who am I to stop her? As a Christian, I want the same treatment. I wouldn’t want a teacher telling me they were correcting my child’s beliefs. That’s not the job of a teacher. This part of the conversation is a bit lost on me because I am the teacher of my children and there are legislators actively trying to take away my right to teach my children my beliefs concerning the beginning of life. They would like to force me to teach things I believe to be untrue as truths. Let me stop here and say please read my previous comment to Jethro. I said I didn’t have a problem with all types of creationism being taught.
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I am so impressed with your thinking and how you think about things; it is so mature and so far beyond where I am but hope to be. I was reading our e-newletter from church and our minister had this movie as a go see and support. Then I visit here, which I haven’t done in awhile, and you have it on your site also. You are a very wise and self-thinker (if that is a word). You have most of the same thoughts as a man with multiple doctorates. You are touching and impacting so many lives. I love you and look up to you a lot. Miss you!
Annette
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Annette, my dear friend, I am humbled by your compliment – truly. I am thankful for your friendship and miss our face to face chats. Your words are life to me in a time when I could really use them. Thank You! 🙂 Love you friend!
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I saw the movie this weekend, and I have several thoughts. 1. Ben interviewed a scientist that reminded me so much of a friend here, that I had to laugh out loud and didn’t really pay attention to his comments. My loss. 2. The scientists that were fired from prominent Universities were silenced for dissension, disagreeing with the standard theory being taught as fact. Isn’t this what Scientific study IS? Isn’t it the point to ask questions, and then find the answers by trial and error? 3. My friend Ferret had the best comment. “I have read about circular arguments, but I have never witnessed one myself before.” The reasons and logic presented for Darwinism were… shall we say… Highly Illogical.
Belief in anything you have not seen is faith. The logical leap that it takes to believe that life accidentally sprang from mud, crystals and lightening makes no more sense to me than the idea of a God planning so many kinds of life makes to an Atheist.
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