uberkuh

It was inevitable that the opening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a film starring former Nixon writer and game show host Ben Stein, would revive the Intelligent Design (ID) debate in the U.S. A quick search of Google News shows what film critics think of this film. And websites like Expelled Exposed show what atheists think.

The more I think about ID, the more it seems to be an inevitable reaction to two modern realities, science and technology. The evolution of science and technology is causing the extinction of older, less scientific beliefs and methodologies, like Biblical creationism and faith healing, for example. Because of this, those who hold less scientific beliefs and practice less scientific methodologies are being forced to either change their beliefs and habits or become essentially less fit to survive.

When I listen to Stein in the Expelled trailer, his words seem laughable to me. From the handful of reviews I have read, many people feel the same. I find his words laughable because, at the beginning of the trailer, he admits that he is equating ID with religious belief, while at the same time trying to resolve it with science. It’s like he just doesn’t get that religion isn’t science and never will be.

It also astonishes me that Stein is so grossly ignorant about evolution. He seems to think that evolution is a completely random process. And he jokingly (I think) equates it with causing life to exist from mud and lightning strikes. Why has he not learned about evolution before critiquing it or becoming a spokesperson for those who do? No, it must be the same old story. He has simply ignored the facts and presumed that his religious beliefs remain intact.

From what I have learned, I can confidently conclude that evolution is a fact of life. Evolution is life. Life evolves. If religious beliefs are incompatible with evolution, then those beliefs are wrong. Or, perhaps, they are misunderstood. We are imperfect creatures, after all.