Ben Stein's Expelled (Scientific American)

[pokerfan]

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=six-things-ben-stein-doesnt-want-you-to-know&sc=rss">Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn't Want You to Know...

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sciam-reviews-expelled">Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed--Scientific American's Take

[baldguy]

1. So a propaganda piece in support of creationism is full of lies.

Should I be surprised?

[geardaddy]

2. K&R'd

Man, that Ben Stein will do ANYTHING for money.

[fasttense]

3. Poor, little Ben Stein. Ostracized and ignored by the big bad

pocket protector wearing scientists. A bad actor turned victim tries to sell a flawed theory with flawed logic.

"4) The ID-sympathetic researcher whom the film paints as having lost his job at the Smithsonian Institution was never an employee there."

How typical of Ben Stein. He knows all the ID catch phrases but little to nothing about logic.

[pokerfan]

4. Shocking

During Scientific American's post-screening conversation with Expelled associate producer Mark Mathis, we asked him why Ken Miller was not included in the film. Mathis explained that his presence would have "confused" viewers. But the reality is that showing Miller would have invalidated the film's major premise that evolutionary biologists all reject God.

Positively shocking.

[crawfish]

11. Sounds like they're on the same side as some atheists...

in that they'd like to frame the evolution debate as Christians vs. atheists. They don't want to acknowledge that there are very, very many Christians who have no problem with evolution (in fact, devout Catholic Ken Miller was the key witness behind one of evolution's biggest triumphs over ID).

These people drive me freaking crazy. Atheists must be loving it, like a master swordsman being challenged to a duel with swords to an expert marksman. There is just no way they can survive this fight.

[smoogatz]

14. Here we go again.

I guess those would be the infamous "fundamentalist atheists" we've been hearing so much about.

[trotsky]

15. "there are very, very many Christians who have no problem with evolution"

Problem is, there's MORE of them who do. Remember this?

Poll: Creationism Trumps Evolution
Most Americans Do Not Believe Human Beings Evolved
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml

[zonmoy]

13. flawed=dishonest I assume

[wryter2000]

5. Also, this from e-Skeptic

http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/08-04-17.html#part1

From Michael Shermer's crew at Skeptics Magazine. Note, it's only part 1

[pingzing58]

6. I hope he spent personal millions and the film flops. I won't see it ever. He's a nut.

[pokerfan]

7. Rotten Tomatoes found one positive review

out of eleven:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/expelled_no_intelligence_allowed

[Jim__]

8. I'm glad that a number of magazines are reviewing this and exposing it for the fraud that it is.

Of course, anyone who could believe this garbage will believe it no matter what reviewers say.

[edhopper]

9. The funny thing is

he's an economist and he's just as full of shit when he writes about the economy.

[Rob H.]

10. You should take a look at Pharyngula this week

There have been a bunch of posts about it, to whit:

1. The producers lied to PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins about the focus of the documentary. It was originally to be called Crossroads: The Intersection of Science and Religion.

2. They stole/plagiarized a cell animation segment originally created by Harvard/XVIVO. Then they had the nerve to sue XVIVO after XVIVO complained their work had been plagiarized!

3. They used excerpts of "Imagine" by John Lennon and "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers without permission.

If they did 2 and 3 thinking no one would notice and without expecting to be sued, they're even bigger idiots than producing a piece of creationist nonsense makes them appear. (In particular, I hope Harvard's lawyers take Expelled's producers to court and sue their asses clean off--based on what I've read, Expelled copies the animation almost frame-for-frame.)

[Ellen Forradalom]

12. It's part one of a trilogy

Part II: Spiritual Thermodynamics
Part III: Divine Relativity

[Crowman1979]

16. What do you expect from someone who was a speechwriter for NIXON?

That should sum it all up, as to how much of a con job this movie is.

[zbdent]

17. I wonder how many of the "anti-evolutionists" sit there and think ...

"I dunno ... how is X spelled?" when they hear the name of the talking picher ...