Expelled: The Film Only Nazis Won't Like

I've seen the ads for Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the new documentary from Ben Stein about the suppression of ideas from "Big Science", and I am intrigued. I'm so inspired by the heated religious debate that I have to blog about it. Because, as you may have already guessed, I'm very pro-religion. Atheism I find a bit lonely.

Me personally, I'm not very good with science, so I can't say that I can justify, or not justify, any belief in the idea that man evolved from apes. But I can say, that no matter what science says about the origins of the human species, it will have no effect on my belief in God. I don't subscribe to any literal interpretation of any sacred text. I believe the Bible is divinely inspired but is not the actual Word of God. The author's used their reason to the best of their ability to communicate the message of God, but naturally fall short a bit because of their limited abilities. I think it is a living document, meaning interpretation is an active ongoing process. So when it comes to things like scientific explanations of the world, I do not fault any of the authors for less than accurate descriptions, nor do I feel that any new discoveries invalidate any of the stories. In short, my faith in God does not hinge on science, so science or scientific theories pose no threat.

That being said, I reject the idea that Ben Stein puts forward that intelligent design is being supressed and/or persecuted. Everyone wants to be persecuted so that they may legitimize themselves and solidify their positions. So minus 50 points for Ben Stein.

Of course intelligent design deserves a place in academia, but not necessarily in the science department. Anything that seeks to explain divine influences needs to be put into theological or philsophical studies. Even from a religious perspective, the idea that God can be studied scientifically is near blasphemy. His creations may be studied this way, but not his nature.

So should science be atheistic? No, of course not. Atheism is the rejection of God, and scientists should have the freedom to choose what will guide their research. However, I do think science should seek to be theistic neutral. It should neither reject nor accept the acceptance of God, but leave that up to other disciplines to figure out. Science cannot explain God and therefore should not seek to.

One of the more troubling things I find in an overview of the movie, is the idea that Darwinism (old school origin of species) is linked to Nazism and other various strands of evilness. If we banned everything that was used to justify evil deeds, we'd have nothing left, so bad Mr. Stein, very bad. Both science and religion have been warped and twisted in order justify violence and oppression, and I'm not tossing either of those out the window.

By the way, why are we so obsessed with comparing things to Hitler? Anything that's slightly bad, we say "You're a Nazi!". Come on...the Nazis were pretty bad. As Jon Stewart once said, "That guy worked too hard to be that evil for every Tom, Dick and Jane to be called Hitler."