When I first saw ads for this movie on TV, I thought it was going to be a blast against Christianity. Apparently not. It actually seems the opposite is true. Predictably, the movie is already stirring up the atheist crowd. There's an article about it on BeliefNet you might want to check out, if you aren't familiar with the movie yet. It is to be released nationwide today, 18 April 2008.
Opinions?
I'll have to wait and watch the movie before I comment too much on it. But that interview, ugh. Three quarters of it was spent talking about the role of Darwinism (or more appropriately, eugenics) played in Nazi Germany. Personally, I find Stein's reassurances that he's saying modern proponents of wouldn't promote racism or genocide a bit disingenuous. He may not be saying that, but the only reason I can think of for spending so much time talking about Nazi Germany and evolution is to suggest "guilt by association" on some level. To me, it's kind of like constantly bringing up the Crusades and Inquisitions whenever talking about Christianity while reassuring today's Christians that you're not suggesting they want to burn people at the stake. It's still an underhanded attempt to discredit.
ReplyDeleteStein then spends the last quarter of the interview talking about "academic freedom," but doesn't ever really explain why it's at stake or what he means by that phrase. I can guess at what he means (the fact that ID is not being accepted as a scientific theory), in which case I'd argue that he's playing something of a shell game (as ID can't be accepted as a scientific theory because its proponents have not yet offered a theory that is in any way testable).
Also, I'd like to bring attention to this quote:
ReplyDeleteDarwinism doesn't explain where gravity comes from. It doesn't explain where thermodynamics comes from. It doesn't explain where the laws of physics come from. It doesn't explain where matter came from.
This is the sort of misdirection and misrepresentation that is very common among those attempting to discredit evolutionary theory. They create confusion about what exactly the theory of evolution is.
Evolution is a theory that explains the process of change and speciation found in organisms. It's a theory from biology. By its very nature, it has nothing to say about the origins of matter, the laws of thermodynamics, or gravity, which Stein himself indicates are all part of the study of physics. Seriously, why would a theory about biology explain issues in a radically different field of study? Why would any rational person expect it to?
This alone gives strong indications that the Stein "evolution" Stein is talking about probably isn't even the scientific theory that goes by that word. I would guess that Stein is using "evolution" in a rather customized way. Which is fine, but one must wonder if he's being honest about the fact that what he means when he uses that but is a word is probably different from what scientists studying the theory of evolution mean when they use it.
Ben Stein was on Focus on the family about a week or so ago promoting the film and accepting and endoresement from Dr. Dobson. I've been following the blog buzz a little bit since then.
ReplyDeleteMuch of what I've seen is misinformation from people who assume they know what the movie is about, even though they haven't seen it and obviously haven't checked the movie's own website.
My understanding is the movie is not ABOUT intellegent design, rather it's about competent scientists who, in their own words, have "followed the evidence" and come to a conclusion of intellegent design. Then, because they dare say something in a scientific journal or a classroom, they lose their jobs. It's also about those who "tow the party line" and "enforce" the evolution standpoint. The centerpiece of the film is a debate between Ben Stein and Richard Dawkins (a stauch evolutionist and author of "The God Delusion" - a book that posits the theory that all religion is an unnecessary by product left in our brains by evolutionary process.)
The movie is more about freedom of speech than it is any religious standpoint. (The producers and star of the film happen to be Jewish.)
However, that's just what I've gathered. Like everyone else talking about it, I haven't seen it (obviously). I think this will stir up some discussion in the Christian community, but I doubt it will go much further than that.
The producers compared this film to "An Inconvenient Truth" in terms of the impact it could have, especially since it opens in 1000 theaters tody (Al Gore's movie opened on less than 200).
However, like most documentaries, it will be easily ignored and shortly after it goes to DVD and the blogosphere moves on to the next thing to whine about, it will be forgotten.