Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect when I walked into the documentary, starring Ben Stein, about the ongoing debate between Evolution and Intelligent Design (to many, Creationism). What I did expect was at least one mention of the Scopes Trial in the 1920s that was the opening salvo of the debate as to what we would teach in schools on the subject.
My personal views on the subject are pro-Evolution, but to say that God (or some higher power, regardless of what you call him) is completely absent from the process is completely absurd. Something brought the universe into being initially, and the idea of a higher power capable of such a nuanced and complex process like Evolution is even more appealing to me as a believer than the idea of one who just created all that is as it is currently, and watched as people found their Faith through his “tests” (as the idea sometimes in stated by Creationists and supporters of Intelligent Design). That’s part of what made me so unsettled by some of the “Darwinian” scientists Stein interviews in “Expelled,” some of whom really seem to believe that God had nothing to do with Evolution, or in a larger view, that he doesn’t exist at all. But then again, the scientists who study Intelligent Design didn’t impress me much either, although they did sound somewhat more rational that their Darwinian counterparts. This is how Stein designed things in this documentary. He doesn’t strengthen his case by evoking the raising of the Berlin Wall and the genocide of Nazi Germany as a way to damn Evolutionary science and their uncompromising desire to keep Intelligent Design out. He does bring up excellent points about the need for rational communication between the sides, and the ungrounded dismissal of individuals from their jobs for even giving voice to ID proponents, or even just mentioning it as an idea some people believe, but that’s about the only rational point his film seems out to make. In the end, Stein is simply playing politics, and his quest for free inquiry into Intelligent Design becomes less a starting point for rational communication that turns the personality into just another talking head sounding an ideological stance that’s just as dispensable as the next one. As someone who is an admirer of Michael Moore’s documentaries, one might question my logic in grading his so high, while he takes a similar ideological stance as Stein does in this film, which he co-wrote with Kevin Miller and Walt Ruloff and was directed by Nathan Frankowski with a heavy hand towards persuasive imagery and as light a touch towards being fair as a heavyweight does during a championship fight. The difference is that while Moore may be just as heavy-handed, but he takes a populist approach towards his subjects that makes the average moviegoer feel like they matter to him. Stein is just interested in lecturing us on his views.
