Sunday night we took our teenagers to see Ben Stein’s movie Expelled. Best known as the economics teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Stein was a Yale trial lawyer, a professor at Pepperdine University and a speech writer for presidents Nixon and Ford (“Mocked and Belittled,” by Megan Basham, World magazine, pages 46-47, April 19, 2008). Yet in his new movie, Stein is an investigative reporter. He gets a jaw-dropping interview with atheist Richard Dawkins, author of the bestselling book The God Delusion. I was absolutely astounded by Dawkins’ ideas of how life began. But apparently I wasn’t the only one. World asked Stein, “How do you respond to Richard Dawkins’ charge that the film uses him for cheap laughs?” Stein told World, “Well if the film does use him for cheap laughs, maybe that’s because he gave us cheap laughs! I mean, we didn’t make up anything that he said, and he wasn’t that cheap either – he was pretty extensive. He gave us what he thought were serious answers that weren’t actually that serious. I don’t think what he said was that funny frankly. I found his remarks alarming.”
In this movie, Stein travels the world to interview really smart people, including historian Alister McGrath of Oxford, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez of Iowa State University and mathematician and philosopher William Dembski, author of several books about intelligent design. The compelling interviews convinced us of the erosion of academic freedom in America. This was especially poignant for our family since last month -in a hunt for colleges for my son – we walked the science halls of MIT, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Washington and Lee University, met a science professor from Delaware State and followed a sophomore around the Tufts school of engineering. Would our son’s worldview or methods of research cost him promotions or jobs someday?
But there is another message in Expelled, one that pleasantly surprised me: the dignity of man. I was saddened by Stein’s conversation with a professor recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. When he left his Christian home in Tennessee to attend college, he abandoned his faith and embraced naturalism while reading his biology textbook. He told Stein he believes life on earth is all there is – there is nothing after the grave. He thinks life has no purpose. I was also heartbroken by Stein’s interviews at Nazi concentration camps and a “hospital” where people were put to death for having physical or mental flaws. Twice Stein asked the museum curator what she thought of the Nazi’s selectively killing weak people. But she seemed to refuse to label the activities evil. The audience could see the connection between studying humans as animals and committing atrocities and crimes against them. Even the humanist psychology professor seemed to be holding to the biblical truth of man’s intrinsic value.
When we went to see this movie Sunday, the theaters were packed and one showing was sold out despite the bad reviews the movie is getting (surprise!). Reviewing the movie for Scientific American, John Rennie gives several reasons not to see the movie (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sciam-reviews-expelled/) including: 1. Ben Stein’s speech at Pepperdine University was a set up. 2. Many evolutionary biologists are religious and many religious people accept evolution. 3. Ben Stein omits words in his quote from Darwin’s book "The Descent of Man." Here’s what we say: 1. It’s okay with us if Stein staged the lecture; maybe he wanted to dramatize how students may be more receptive to scientific inquiry. 2. Yes we know that some religious people believe in evolution and Ben Stein addresses this issue in the movie. Sometimes religious macro-evolutionists become the most ardent persecutors of Christians who believe in a Creator. 3. Scientific American says Stein omitted some words in the Darwin quote. It’s not uncommon to shorten lengthy quotes by British writers from the 1800s. But what about context of the quote? Why did Darwin write "The Descent of Man?" In the book’s introduction, Darwin writes, “The sole object of this work is to consider firstly, whether man, like every other species, is descended from some pre-existing form; secondly, the manner of his development; and thirdly, the value of the differences between the so-called races of man.” What does Darwin mean by putting a value on races? Could someone like Hitler use Darwin’s ideas to try to destroy an entire people group? When taken to its logical conclusion, could Darwinism threaten anyone who lives in society’s margins? I would have to read The Descent of Man cover to cover for an answer. But I was intrigued by this quote from Darwin in the final chapter. Darwin writes, “Both sexes ought to refrain from marriage if they are in any marked degree inferior in body or mind; but such hopes are Utopian and will never be even partially realized until the laws of inheritance are thoroughly known. Everyone does good service, who aids towards this end.’’ I wonder what he means by inferior in body or mind? Maybe in Darwin’s Utopia, I’d still be single!