Certainly my review last weekend of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," the anti-evolution documentary about perceived persecution of academics who espouse the theory of intelligent design, got some conversations started. I even got a phone call from a nice pastor in Indianapolis who admonished me to "get the facts" about intelligent design before criticizing the movie.
So, today, I give over the column to a few people who took the trouble to e-mail me with their take on the movie, and on my review. These letters are unedited, save for minor grammatical and spelling fixes.
How fascinating that you and other evolution proponents are crying "foul" about "Expelled" not encouraging an honest debate. The irony is that Darwin himself began his investigation of man's origin by ruling out the existence of God! He actually admitted this and later even began to doubt the validity of evolution.
My challenge to you and other evolution apologists is to be intellectually honest and consider that there is a Creator. Albert Einstein started out with no preconceived notions about creation when he began his studies regarding relativity and eventually came to the conclusion that a universe so complex must have a Creator.
Sean, look at the evidence without bias and then make up your mind. Don't let anyone tell you that the scientific community overwhelmingly supports evolution, either. There are many great minds that believe in a Creator.
- Gary Burtchin, Taylorsville
Sean Means' review of the new film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is misleading to the point of being blatantly deceptive.
I will admit that this is the first review that I have read by Mr. Means, but his bias is so obvious ("so-called 'intelligent design' " - what is "so-called" about it? That is what the theory is called for Pete's sake), and his misrepresentation of the amount of time given to Darwinist to respond is so slanted, that you should have run this column on your political opinion page.
The most obvious example that Mr. Means is simply being untruthful are his comments regarding the filmmakers short changing the evolutionists of a chance to respond; this "fact" is stunningly contradicted by one of my favorite scenes in the whole documentary. Near the end of the film, Ben Stein interviews Dr. Richard Dawkins one-on-one and just keeps feeding the infamously militant atheist more and more rope until he publicly hangs himself. The most telling moment comes when Stein elicits from Dr. Dawkins the fact that he refutes any measurable possibility of there being a god of any type, but then actually puts forward the idea himself that aliens may have created life and seeded planet Earth.
Priceless.
I will not pretend that I can say what Mr. Means' agenda was when writing this review, but to anyone who has seen the film (and I have), it is transparently obvious that it was not to present an honest critique of this documentary to the readers of The Salt Lake Tribune.
- Timothy M. Goebel, St. Paul, Minn.
You can write all you want about "Expelled", but just be honest with yourself.
Darwinian evolution is as much a faith or religion as is ID. To say otherwise is only fooling yourself. So why is this the only subject where someone is attacked for putting their own opinion out there? Just look at your review and the other reviews out there. Why are you so angry about this movie?
No need to answer me. Just be honest with yourself.
Why does it bother you so much?
Is the idea of a creator that frightening to you?
- Eric Newman, San Antonio, Texas
"Expelled" hasn't made it to movie screens in my part of Canada yet. I'm looking forward to it.
Eons ago when I was at university taking a science degree, I used to call evolution the anything-but-God theory. For the last 50 years I've attended church regularly - funerals and weddings - and so I'm not a big supporter of ID or creationism. However, I am personally offended by those claiming that wild speculation is science. I don't know (and really don't care) how life got its start here on earth, but the theory put forth by evolutionist is unlikely to be it.
- Thomas Gillan, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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* SEAN P. MEANS writes the daily blog, "The Movie Cricket," at http://blogs.sltrib.com/movies. Send questions or comments to Sean P. Means, movie critic, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, or e-mail at movies@sltrib.com.
