Expelled from Expelled

I realize not everyone shares my obsession with issues of intelligent design and fundamentalist Christians' fervent battle against the teaching of evolution. So I try to restrain myself and not write too frequently about it.

But this is just too good not to pass on.

For those with lives, you may not have heard that there is a new movie coming out next month on the topic of intelligent design. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed stars Ben Stein (Yes, that Ben Stein. "Bueller? Bueller?").

While the film reportedly never actually defines "intelligent design" - the concept that life's complexity demands the guiding hand of the divine - it makes the not-very-convincing argument that academics around the country are being persecuted for believing in its scientific validity.

Recently, the movie's producers have been promoting the movie with private screenings across the country. One has to advance register to attend. While no tickets are necessary, identification must be presented at the screening.

Based on the trailer and those who have been able to get into the screenings, the movie argues that scientists, in cahoots with the media and our public education system, is doing everything they can to shut down honest discourse.

It also makes a rather disgusting connection between Charles Darwin and the Holocaust. Stein, who is a Jew, muses over his fate at the gates of a Jewish concentration camp and equates Darwin's theory of natural selection with genocide.

So, it's ironic that a movie that argues it is merely trying to present the truth would do this.

Lauri in York

Editor's note: This blog was founded on an obsession with intelligent design.