First off... I haven't seen the film, so this isn't from first hand experience but definitely something to think about.
Like almost all "Christian Films," or films aimed at a Christian audience, these days, "Expelled" went across the country giving free screenings to church leaders and staff so that they can recommend the film to their congregations. That is how my wife, who works at McLean Bible, was able to see the movie. I was excited for her to see it and wanted her report when she got back from work. I didn't find out much... apparently she fell asleep during the screening. HA Now I don't completely fault the movie, but that is not a good sign!
Well, it turns out that at one of these screenings one of the "Expelled" producers kicked out, PZ Myers, an outspoken critic of creationism, who was featured in the film. His guest Richard Dawkins was allowed in, possibly overlooked. Richard Dawkins was also featured in the movie and after seeing it wrote
this article on his website entitled, "
Lying for Jesus?" Ouch! In it he describes how he and his colleagues were misquoted and misled in the filming and editing.
Toward the end of his interview with me, Stein asked whether I could think of any circumstances whatsoever under which intelligent design might have occurred. It's the kind of challenge I relish, and I set myself the task of imagining the most plausible scenario I could. I wanted to give ID its best shot, however poor that best shot might be. I must have been feeling magnanimous that day, because I was aware that the leading advocates of Intelligent Design are very fond of protesting that they are not talking about God as the designer, but about some unnamed and unspecified intelligence, which might even be an alien from another planet. Indeed, this is the only way they differentiate themselves from fundamentalist creationists, and they do it only when they need to, in order to weasel their way around church/state separation laws. So, bending over backwards to accommodate the IDiots ("oh NOOOOO, of course we aren't talking about God, this is SCIENCE") and bending over backwards to make the best case I could for intelligent design, I constructed a science fiction scenario. Like Michael Ruse (as I surmise) I still hadn't rumbled Stein, and I was charitable enough to think he was an honestly stupid man, sincerely seeking enlightenment from a scientist. I patiently explained to him that life could conceivably have been seeded on Earth by an alien intelligence from another planet (Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel suggested something similar -- semi tongue-in-cheek). The conclusion I was heading towards was that, even in the highly unlikely event that some such 'Directed Panspermia' was responsible for designing life on this planet, the alien beings would THEMSELVES have to have evolved, if not by Darwinian selection, by some equivalent 'crane' (to quote Dan Dennett). My point here was that design can never be an ULTIMATE explanation for organized complexity.
...
In other words, I was using the thought experiment as a way of demonstrating strong opposition to all theories of intelligent design... but Stein said something like this. "What? Richard Dawkins BELIEVES IN INTELLIGENT DESIGN." "Richard Dawkins BELIEVES IN ALIENS FROM OUTER SPACE."
Ridiculous! Richard Dawkins is right, Intelligent Design and aliens? Christians shouldn't hid behind that, of course God is the "Designer." That brings up a whole other debate, but back on topic. Movies like "Expelled" should be held to the highest standard, at least by other Christians. Movies that mislead and misquote its interviewers for the sake of their own agenda should not be tolerated, they are worthless. These movies/documentaries cannot stand up to criticism and therefore will not win any new converts, nor do they effectively help current believers who are simply given the answers for non-questions.
I suggest that churches look hard at any movie marketed to them because any movie that they recommend will reflect on them. If it is entertaining, well then recommend it because it is entertaining, if it presents the gospel in a great storytelling fashion then recommend it for that, but don't recommend a movie just because it shares a similar ideology.
I can just imagine people saying, "Hey, you've got to check out this movie 'Expelled.' It shows evolutionists are fools!" Yea, right... then see who looks like a fool when the critics rip the movie apart. If the movie is pursued with integrity and the producers check their stuff the movie will stand on it's own, if not, I'd hate to be the one holding it up. And by the way, Christians have something much greater to stand for than a theory. Don't let an issue distract you or others from what is really important.
