Thought's on Ben Stein's "Expelled"?

[Wandering_Wonderer]

I just watched this documentary and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. It was acctually quite hard for me to watch it in it's entirety. Especially when it seemed as if he was trying to make a connection with so called "Darwinist" ( I'm guessing he's using this term to refer to people who accept the ToE ) to Nazis and communists. Has anyone else watched this documentary and if so what are your thoughts?

 

[Wandering_Wonderer]

Sorry about the apostrophe in thoughts on thread title. Just noticed that.

 

[Smoke]

I've got it on our Netflix instant queue, but haven't actually watched it yet. The excerpts I've seen are not encouraging.

 

[freethinker44]

I have heard various rumors that it was all fake and he was actually just making fun of how ridiculous fundamentalists are. It is so hard to tell though.

 

[Draka]

I have heard various rumors that it was all fake and he was actually just making fun of how ridiculous fundamentalists are. It is so hard to tell though.

I had never heard that.

I have, however, had my entire opinion about him change after seeing just bits and pieces of this garbage. I once liked him. I can't help but think, that no matter how smart he may be in other subjects, the idea that he even halfway believes the trash in Expelled...well...makes me think him a complete idiot. I really hope it is all fake. Otherwise, you have a very intelligent man being very very very stupid.

 

[freethinker44]

I had never heard that.

I have, however, had my entire opinion about him change after seeing just bits and pieces of this garbage. I once liked him. I can't help but think, that no matter how smart he may be in other subjects, the idea that he even halfway believes the trash in Expelled...well...makes me think him a complete idiot. I really hope it is all fake. Otherwise, you have a very intelligent man being very very very stupid.

Yeah same here, I always thought he was pretty intelligent too, but then this came out and I was stunned, and not just because it isn't what I believe, but because of the amount of deception involved in it. I mean most of his facts and statistics are on par with "Dr" Kent Hovind and he really just seemed better than that. Another reason it could be plausible it is a spoof of fundamentalism is, you never really heard anything like this from him before, he has always been very outspoken politically and I never got any kind of idea that he was so extremely fundamentalist like that.

 

[Valjean]

Expelled's been thoroughly debunked. You can go to you tube and hear a dozen critiques.

 

[gnomon]

I just watched this documentary and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. It was acctually quite hard for me to watch it in it's entirety. Especially when it seemed as if he was trying to make a connection with so called "Darwinist" ( I'm guessing he's using this term to refer to people who accept the ToE ) to Nazis and communists. Has anyone else watched this documentary and if so what are your thoughts?

It is the worst documentary that I have watched. It holds no value ror anyone.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Has anyone else watched this documentary and if so what are your thoughts?

I haven't seen it yet. I've been waiting until I can find a way of watching it that doesn't put money in the hands of the people who made it. I guess that means I won't be watching it until it shows up on YouTube or my local library gets a copy (though I kinda hope they don't).

 

[Valjean]

You can probably find it in a library, next to Birth of a Nation.

 

[fantome profane]

I haven't seen it yet. I've been waiting until I can find a way of watching it that doesn't put money in the hands of the people who made it. I guess that means I won't be watching it until it shows up on YouTube or my local library gets a copy (though I kinda hope they don't).

It was up on youtube, but I see it has been removed. I started a thread about it over a year ago.

This movie is nothing but a putrid piece of anti-science propaganda.

 

[freethinker44]

On a separate but similar note, has anyone seen jesus camp?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

You can probably find it in a library, next to Birth of a Nation.

Strangely enough, I have seen Birth of a Nation... in my film history class. For better or worse, it was the first feature-length film ever made.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

On a separate but similar note, has anyone seen jesus camp?

I did. I saw it at the Hot Docs film festival. The filmmakers were there for a Q & A session after the movie, which was pretty cool.

Apparently, they sent copies of the film to all the subjects of the movie before it was released... everyone liked it, except Ted Haggard.

 

[Amill]

The fact that they try to link a theory... based on an honest attempt to explain what we see here on Earth, to the greatest evil deeds of this century, just goes to show how weak their side of the argument really is. Have they nothing else to say? All they have is an attack on the moral standing one would have if they were an "evolutionist", no argument against the validity of the theory itself. How could anyone consider this an honest attempt to refute Evolution? Or an honest attempt at questioning why ID can't be taught in the classroom? It's a garbage movie.

 

[Smoke]

On a separate but similar note, has anyone seen jesus camp?

Here are some threads on that subject:

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/religious-debates/39198-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-religious-debates/55022-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-religious-debates/39150-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-religious-debates/60484-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/religious-debates/47080-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-debates/80790-jesus-camp.html

Hint: Google's site search works better than RF's search page.
Google Advanced Search

 

[freethinker44]

Here are some threads on that subject:

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/religious-debates/39198-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-religious-debates/55022-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-religious-debates/39150-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-religious-debates/60484-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/religious-debates/47080-jesus-camp.html

http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/general-debates/80790-jesus-camp.html

Hint: Google's site search works better than RF's search page.
Google Advanced Search

Lol, so I guess it has been covered then huh?

 

[MSizer]

It's horrible. The tactics of deceipt have creationist BS written all over them. At one point (I don't know about now) it was one of the worst rated movies on rottentomatoes.com

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I just watched this documentary and I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. It was acctually quite hard for me to watch it in it's entirety. Especially when it seemed as if he was trying to make a connection with so called "Darwinist" ( I'm guessing he's using this term to refer to people who accept the ToE ) to Nazis and communists. Has anyone else watched this documentary and if so what are your thoughts?

I had avoided watching this for some time as I didn't want to be infuriated, but I finally broke down last week and watched it after having a couple of drinks.

Apart from the subject matter being what it is, the documentary itself it just terrible film-making. And apart from the documentary itself being terrible, the film, unintentionally, seemed to make IDers look like raving lunatics and "evolutionists" look like educated, well-spoken professionals. His interview with Dawkins actually ended up giving me a better impression of Dawkins than any other interview I've seen/heard/read with him before.

His only argument seemed to be that a few scientists may or may not have been fired for not doing their jobs.

Just horrible.

 

[TheKnight]

I had avoided watching this for some time as I didn't want to be infuriated, but I finally broke down last week and watched it after having a couple of drinks.

Apart from the subject matter being what it is, the documentary itself it just terrible film-making. And apart from the documentary itself being terrible, the film, unintentionally, seemed to make IDers look like raving lunatics and "evolutionists" look like educated, well-spoken professionals. His interview with Dawkins actually ended up giving me a better impression of Dawkins than any other interview I've seen/heard/read with him before.

His only argument seemed to be that a few scientists may or may not have been fired for not doing their jobs.

Just horrible.

I'm fairly certain that his point in the movie was not to discredit evolution, but to show that there is academic bias against ID proponents.