Review of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008) by Sarah H — 24 May 2009

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is an interesting but flawed documentary about the silencing of Intelligent Design advocates in U.S. academia and (almost as an afterthought) the dangerous philosophical and political implications of darwinism. That this film is flawed, I think, is due in part to the rather improbable background of its author, Ben Stein, whom Wikipedia describes as "an American actor, writer, game show host, documentary filmmaker, conservative political and economic commentator[, presidential speechwriter], and attorney." Stein seems to appear in the film in all of these capacities, resulting in a heterogeneous combination of documentary, plea, propaganda and comedy.

I for one find the topic of man's origins too serious to start mixing it with humour, as Stein does by injecting out-of-context black and white clips from the fifties and extracts from films such as "Planet of the Apes", "Frankenstein" or "The Wizard of Oz". I don't like it when my ideological opponents (such as Michael Moore) mix serious issues with sarcastic and patronising humour, and I am consistent enough not to like it when people who are mostly on my side (Stein is a pro-life conservative) start using the same weapons.

Since the issue of I.D. vs. darwinism is also largely a scientific one, I was a bit disappointed that Stein was not more scientifically literate. When a darwinist explains to him that crystals may have played a role in the apparition of the first organic molecules and that an extra-terrestrial origin cannot be excluded a priori, Stein comments: "Crystals, aliens, I thought we were talking science, not science fiction." Presumably, he equated crystals with New Age voodoo (or even with crystal balls) and was totally unaware that crystallography is a genuine, respectable science, just as is exobiology. But by making a fool of his interlocutor, he actually made a fool of himself.

This said, "Expelled" is worth watching, even if it has a few dull moments, and fails to delve deep enough into the issues raised because of the great number of specialists interviewed (almost forty of them.) I guess the reason why it got such as bad press is that it airs truths leftists are not too proud of, such as the connections of darwinism and planned parenthood with eugenics (among the interviewees is Richard Weikart, author of "From Darwin to Hitler"), and because it does seem to show that respectable scientists are being persecuted for their interest in I.D., and that the institutions that ostracised them are a bit evasive in their answers, to say the least.

I am always glad when a documentary draws my attention to someone I might be interested in reading, and "Expelled" did that with David Berlinski, whose "The Devil's Delusion" is soon to be available in an English edition (while the American one is being overpriced by disappearing stocks.) Berlinski has perfectly nailed Dawkins, perhaps the modern media darling I find the most obnoxious (and I have no problem with the age of the universe, human anthropology and science in general, so long as it remains science.) Here is his assessment of the man, which I totally share: "It's just a catastrophic mistake to have someone like Dawkins address himself to profound issues of theology, the existence of God, the nature of life. He has not committed himself to a disciplined study in any relevant area of inquiry. He is a crummy philosopher. He doesn't have the rudimentary skills to meticulously assess his own arguments." (Berlinski has a PhD in philosophy from Princeton U. and postdoctoral in mathematics and molecular biology; the film doesn't mention he is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute.).

I also found very telling this quote by darwinist Stephen C. Meyer: Religion, he says, "is like knitting. People like to knit. We're not going to take their knitting needles away. We're not going to take away their churches. What we have to do is get to a place where religion is treated at the level it should be treated, that is, as something fun that people get together and do on the week end and really doesn't affect their life as much as it has done so far.".

At least some enemies of religion are open about their agenda.

Other interesting points are made in the film, including by Steve Fuller, a self-proclaimed leftist, who stresses that darwinism leads to a "deprivileging of human beings" and "liberal views about abortion and euthanasia." Richard Polkinghorne also has interesting things to say, but unfortunately was not given enough time to really emerge as a distinct voice.

The film would have been much better if it hadn't confused the free speech issue with the scientific viability of I.D. and the worldview conflicts involved. "Free speech", after all (which is not even one of my values) can be used to defend the expression of very ugly things, such as pornography. So whether I.D. advocates should be free to express their views is a very different question from whether I.D. has any claim to being scientific at all.

I also wish Stanley Jaki's take on I.D. had been presented: a benedictine with PhD's in theology and physics, he believes that I.D. is "fundamentally faulty" as science because it entails that "the 'intelligence' which drives evolution can be measured and observed." Jaki has very interesting things to say on the subject, but neither he nor any prominent Catholic intellectual was interviewed for this film, which was a loss.