Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

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Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

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DAR
Someone said that the movie "Expelled" should be interesting. Michael Shermer gives an extensive review of it in Scientific American. This is the first part of a series of roasts they will be providing. Good. I am glad these ID's have done this. It is going to provide a fantastic opportunity to once again expose their dishonesty and ignorance and at the same time teach people about science.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed -- Ben Stein Launches a Science - free Attack on Darwin

In a new documentary film, actor, game show host and financial columnist Ben Stein falls for the pseudoscience of intelligent design

By Michael Shermer

Editor's note: This story is part of a series "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed--Scientific American's Take."

In 1974 I matriculated at Pepperdine University as a born-again Christian who rejected Darwinism and evolutionary theory—not because I knew anything about it (I didn't) but because I thought that in order to believe in God and accept the Bible as true, you had to be a creationist. What I knew about evolution came primarily from creationist literature, so when I finally took a course in evolutionary theory in graduate school I realized that I had been hoodwinked. What I discovered is a massive amount of evidence from multiple sciences—geology, paleontology, biogeography, zoology, botany, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, genetics and embryology—demonstrating that evolution happened.

It was with some irony for me, then, that I saw Ben Stein's antievolution documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opens with the actor, game show host and speechwriter for Richard Nixon addressing a packed audience of adoring students at Pepperdine University, apparently falling for the same trap I did.

Actually they didn't. The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who were these people embracing Stein's screed against science? Extras. According to Lee Kats, associate provost for research and chair of natural science at Pepperdine, "the production company paid for the use of the facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus" but that "the company was nervous that they would not have enough people in the audience so they brought in extras. Members of the audience had to sign in and a staff member reports that no more than two to three Pepperdine students were in attendance. Mr. Stein's lecture on that topic was not an event sponsored by the university." And this is one of the least dishonest parts of the film.

At the Crossroads of Conspiracy
Ben Stein came to my office to interview me about what I was told was a film about "the intersection of science and religion" called Crossroads (yet another deception). I knew something was afoot when his first question to me was on whether or not I think someone should be fired for expressing dissenting views. I pressed Stein for specifics: Who is being fired for what, when and where? In my experience, people are usually fired for reasons having to do with budgetary constraints, incompetence or not fulfilling the terms of a contract. Stein finally asked my opinion on people being fired for endorsing intelligent design. I replied that I know of no instance where such a firing has happened.

This seemingly innocent observation was turned into a filmic confession of ignorance when my on-camera interview abruptly ends there, because when I saw Expelled at a preview screening at the National Religious Broadcasters's convention (tellingly, the film is being targeted primarily to religious and conservative groups), I discovered that the central thesis of the film is a conspiracy theory about the systematic attempt to keep intelligent design creationism out of American classrooms and culture.

Stein's case for conspiracy centers on a journal article written by Stephen Meyer, a senior fellow at the intelligent design think tank Discovery Institute and professor at the theologically conservative Christian Palm Beach Atlantic University. Meyer's article, "The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories," was published in the June 2004 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, the voice of the Biological Society with a circulation of less than 300 people. In other words, from the get-go this was much ado about nothing.

read the rest here...

Check out Richard Dawkins review of Expelled: Lying For Jesus.

Watch a short video clip of him discussing it.

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DAR
From the National Center for Science Education:

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Flunked, not expelled: What Ben Stein isn't telling you about intelligent design.

"Expelled Exposed is a new National Center for Science Education website that counters the Ben Stein/Premise Media anti-evolution movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It is available at www.expelledexposed.com. Currently in a preliminary stage, Expelled Exposed consists of a collection of links containing the most basic and important resources for teachers, scientists, reporters, and members of the public who seek information now to respond to this movie. On April 16, days before the movie Expelled is premiered on April 18, NCSE will launch the full version of the website. In its final form, Expelled Exposed will examine claims made in the movie and explain, neatly and concisely, why each is an exaggeration, a misrepresentation, or a fabrication. NCSE encourages all interested parties to bookmark the site, and pass the link on to friends and family, so that by the time the creationist movie is released, www.expelledexposed.com will be the most popular Expelled site on the internet!"

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Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

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Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Anticipating success with their feature film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Producers Mark Mathis, Logan Craft and Walt Ruloff have already leaked a teaser trailer for the film's sequel. Their "teach the controversy" slogan seemed to work well in getting the general public to believe that Intelligent Design is a viable alternative scientific theory to Evolution, so the team has moved on to promoting other theories that they feel are being suppressed by the scientific community. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed tells of how Sex Theory has thrived unchallenged in the ivory towers of academia, as the explanation for how new babies are created. Proponents of Stork Theory claim that "Big Sex" has been suppressing their claim that babies are delivered by storks. Furthermore, Stork Theory proponents warn of the serious moral dangers posed by teaching children that sex has a function. They point out that evil dictators such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao all believed in Sex Theory, and they may have even had sex themselves.

There is also a late-breaking new development in the controversy, a new theory called Avian Transportation Theory.

Unlike the original Stork Theory, the modern, sophisticated "Avian Transportation Theory" (ATT) merely points out that there are gaps in the orthodox Sex Theory, and that current sonogram imaging is unreliable. Moreover ATT does not specify that babies are necessarily brought by storks but by "large birds unspecified" (although many individual ATT theorists PRIVATELY believe it is a stork).

Watch the video clip here
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Post by Dardedar »

DAR
Looks like the movie is a financial BOMB. This from a comment section (#13). I hope this guy is right:

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"...movies are successful based on their sales. They cost money to make. You only get 55% of the gross. Your fist weekend is your best.

They were very clear, for this movie [Expelled] to be successful they needed $12-$15 million in box-office gross. So they could cover their costs. $3 million represents about 1/4th to 1/5th what the needed. Which means it was a flop and it produces an associative stench to all the participants who will start finding open doors now closed.

$3 million means they're probably losing a TON OF FUCKING MONEY on this movie because science bloggers, such as yourself, that put the early buzz out on a lying creationist movie can certainly put a damper on sales. $3 Million should tell us that attacking trash-crap like Expelled can be done and that grass-roots criticism of lies and propaganda can be successful.

They got $3 million. Even with the Church goers and True Believers. Even through their aggressive preview showings and advertising campaign. They couldn't generate the revenues they needed, even from the huge swath of "True Christian Believers" out there. That's a damn good talking point. And it will have repercussions. For example, if Michael Moore's Roger & Me would have done this badly, we wouldn't have seen Bowling for Columbine made. But it was moderately successful, so he got a second chance. These clowns won't get a second chance unless they find a sugar-daddy to bank-roll them, despite their massive first failure, and that'll be hard to do.

Additionally, $3 Million means the movie may have even bankrupted the studio, so they won't be able to produce follow-up movies in any case. Once again, the low-gross makes a solid talking point. Only the fringe are interested in your Creationism lies. You guys are squeaky wheels that don't necessarily represent the larger constituency of Christians in America. $3 million is a repudiation of your delusional self-importance."

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Post by Doug »

Darrel wrote:They were very clear, for this movie [Expelled] to be successful they needed $12-$15 million in box-office gross. So they could cover their costs. $3 million represents about 1/4th to 1/5th what the needed.
DOUG
What did it cost to make? I saw one site that said it cost 3.5 million to make. If so, they recouped their costs in full right away. But that was just a blog and cited no source.
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DAR
But they spent a bundle advertising it. Wiki has this:

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Box office

Expelled opened in 1,052 theaters, earning $1.2 million at the box office in its first day and earned $2,970,848 for its opening weekend ($2,824 theater average).[119] Originally, Walt Ruloff, the movie's executive producer, "said the film could top the $23.9-million opening for Michael Moore's polemic against President Bush, "Fahrenheit 9/11", the best launch ever for a documentary."[120] Reviewing Expelled's opening box office figures, Nikki Finke of the Los Angeles Weekly wrote that considering the number of screens showing the film, the ticket sales were "feeble", demonstrating "there wasn't any pent-up demand for the film despite an aggressive publicity campaign." Finke further wrote, "So much for the conservative argument that people would flock to films not representing the "agenda of liberal Hollywood". (Just for comparison purposes: left-wing Michael Moore's most recent Sicko made $4.4 million its opening weekend from only 441 theaters, and his Fahrenheit 9/11 made $23.9 million its opening weekend from 868 venues.)"[121] Joshua Rich of Entertainment Weekly said the movie "was a solid top-10 contender" and "[t]hat's a very respectable total for a documentary, although non-fiction fare rarely opens in 1,052 theaters."[122] In contrast, IMDB wrote that the film "flopped", and "failed to bring out church groups in big numbers".[123]

DAR
And they are even paying the kiddies to see it:

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The "Expelled Challenge"

In order to promote the film, the website "GetExpelled.com"[147] launched "The Expelled Challenge"[148] which offers to pay schools up to $10,000 to send students to see the movie. The program offers between $5 and $10 for every ticket stub submitted by the school within the first two weeks of the release of the film.[149] Wesley R. Elsberry noted that at the upper end of the range, the value of the reward is probably greater than the actual ticket price.[150]

The program also recommends a "school-wide mandatory field trip" as "the best way to maximize your school's earning potential".[149][151] Elsberry criticizes this as a call to "take children away from classrooms, fill their heads with obnoxiously delivered misinformation, and profit off of it."[150]

A similar program called the "Adopt-A-Theater Campaign" was announced in March 2008. The goal is to produce a competition among church groups and other organizations to see which can generate the largest group sale of movie theater tickets to see the film. The five largest groups to register and attend a screening will be awarded $1,000.[152][153]

--ibid
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Post by Dardedar »

So now Stein shows up on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, telling a crazed televangelist that science kills, and that modern biology leads to gas chambers:
Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

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Televangelists have no excuse to be anti-science.

Post by RobertMadewell »

I think it's funny that Paul Crouch is agreeing with stein about the anti-science when his ministry would still be in a tent if not for science. Science gave him the sattelites that broadcast his message all over the world. If not for science there would be no televisions, no transmission towers, no radio, no electricity, nothing. His present multi-million dollar ministry would be impossible without science.
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Post by RobertMadewell »

Here's a video that contains Steins rant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihYq2dGa29M

Just reading the articles, I thought the televangelist was Paul Crouch, but it is in reality it is his son, Paul Crouch Jr. I think its worth noting that when Crouch says "Good Word", he's not saying it in a tone of dismay, like I thought before seen it on video. He says it like you'd say "Good Job!"
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Re: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Post by tmiller51 »

Excellent article about Ben Stein & Expelled by Roger Ebert:
Ben Stein, you hosted a TV show on which you gave away money. Imagine that I have created a special edition of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" just for you. Ben, you've answered all the earlier questions correctly, and now you're up for the $1 million prize. It involves an explanation for the evolution of life on this planet. You have already exercised your option to throw away two of the wrong answers. Now you are faced with two choices: (A) Darwin's Theory of Evolution, or (B) Intelligent Design.

Because this is a special edition of the program, you can use a Hotline to telephone every scientist on Earth who has an opinion on this question. You discover that 99.975 of them agree on the answer (A). A million bucks hangs in the balance. The clock is ticking. You could use the money. Which do you choose? You, a firm believer in the Constitution, are not intimidated and exercise your freedom of speech. You choose (B).
Full Article at Roger Ebert's Journal

Tim
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Re: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

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"I'm not a skeptic because I want to believe, I'm a skeptic because I want to know." --Michael Shermer
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