Trying to Show a Little Intelligence

Well, the month of May is just almost over, and I need to write at least one post about something more substantive than gasoline.

Imagine a newspaper that covered one particular issue, and for a while it only covered one side of this issue. Then the proponents of the other side began to feel like this situation was a little unfair, and the newspaper and the proponents of the first side acknowledged that maybe they should let the other side get a say in. Time passes, and eventually the newspaper is only covering the second side. So the first side begins to feel like this situation is a little unfair, but when it raises its concerns to the newspaper and the second side, they both laugh in the first side's face.

That's the situation that Ben Stein's documentary film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" presents - that both science and education have shut the door on non-Darwinian theories of origins or even criticism of the Darwinian theory of evolution. That doesn't sound like what science or education would do, you say. But both science and education are stuck defending Darwinism, because there are really only two possibilities for how we all got here. Either we came to be as the most recent in a very long and, frankly, unbelievable series of natural occurrences, or some more powerful, more intelligent designer created us and put us here. Neither science nor education can tolerate a designer operating above nature. But the funny thing is, Darwinian evolution requires more "magical" thinking (more "faith"?) than intelligent design - starting with the violation of the law of biogenesis, which states that life only arises from existing life.

Congratulations to Ben Stein on this film that opened on April 18. Box Office Mojo lists it as the twelfth highest grossing documentary. And at least in part as a result of this film, six states (including Missouri) have introduced "academic freedom bills."