Well, today’s the day we’ve all been waiting for. Yep, Expelled has finally arrived.
Let’s recap on what they’ve done so far1
- Lied to their interviewees about the nature of the film.
- Expelled one of their interviewees from a preview of the film – but let his more famous guest (a certain Prof. Dawkins) into the viewing.
- Apparently copied another animation, without asking for permission from the creators.
- Included music without getting permission from the licence holder (a certain Mrs. Y. Ono).
Have I missed anything?
Oh yes, the contents of the film. That was best summarised by midwifetoad:
1 No, not the Romans.
You see, Bob, that’s what really pisses (sorry, Maxine) me off. That whole God:Darwin dichotomy?
It’s utter pants.
(I agree with you that Expelled is a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen. And the danger of using an image such as you post is that it equates evolution with Nazism. Um, right)
Oh, I forgot that Expelled comes out today.
Thinks you’ve covered the saga thus far as above. Will be interesting to see what happens next.
We’ve heard a lot about what people think about the film, and the circumstances in which it was made. But what I’d like to see is a detailed review of the film itself. I’d also like to see the film and form my own judgement. Now, I have no doubt, given its parentage, that it’s likely to be a load of rubbish, but one does wonder, given the pre-publicity, whether it will ever be possible to see it through fresh eyes. The critics of the film, as much as one agrees with them, do have their own explicit agenda. In the interests oif dispassionate inquiry, I’d like to see it for myself.
Preferably without having to pay for it.
And for what it’s worth, I agree with Richard.
Personally, I’m not bovvered about the creat/evo issue.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all it the film ends up somewhere on the web.
The official trailer goes on for ages (one of the longest I’ve evah seen)
Richard – the image is a summary of what the film tries to do.
I agree with Henry that it would be difficult to see the film through naïve eyes. There are several reviews linked to at the Expelled Exposed site, but I don’t know how representative they are.
Yesterday, my seven year old son said to me, you know Daddy, I don’t think Jesus lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.
However, he still believes in Santa Claus, because if you don’t, he won’t bring you presents.
‘That whole God:Darwin dichotomy? It’s utter pants.’
Errr, ohhhhkay?…
Lee, I think Richard’s point is that the argument that its one or the other is pants. I agree with this, simply because it’s possible to believe in one God or another and still accept evolution. It’s also possible to be an atheist and not accept evolution, although that’s considerably rarer (I know of one person in this category).
Sure; I know lots who fit the former grouping. As for the latter – would that be ‘The Fundamental Atheist’, then?
One reason that a simple either/or dichotomy is unhelpful is as follows. Of course, a simple equation between darwinism and antisemitism is quite ridiculous. Nevertheless, it is easy to see how such an equation might be made, and simply denying it does not advance any cause. Here’s how it might go. Darwin’s evolution by natural selection has no direction or foresight, still less any political overtones – or, if one might be bold, religious ones. However, people were very quick to misinterpret it in just this way. Matters were not helped by Ernst Haeckel, Darwin’s leading fan in Germany, who fused natural selection to ideas whose origin lay in Naturphilosophie – a fundamentally progressive and aspirational if pre-evolutionary model of the organization of nature, popular in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and usually associated with Goethe. Despite the fact that most people who aren’t evolutionary biologists instinctively view evolution in the Haeckelian mode, it is quite nonsensical. However, Haeckel’s attempt to describe human evolution according in this fashion had a great influence on Nazi racial policies. So, you can see a link between darwinism and antisemitism, via Haeckel. But to compress this argument to blame darwin for antisemitism would be uttermost nonsense. I don’t know if Expelled does this, as I haven’t seen it.
Have you guys seen the movie Evolution? I haven’t, but I live with people who have. I wonder what your take on that would be?
Richard — doesn’t count, it wasn’t in a title;-)
Sadly not. Yet another film I should have seen, but haven’t.