Review of Ben Stein's Expelled

Ben Stein has a documentary about Intelligent Design called Expelled that just came out this weekend. I decided to support it by going to the theater. Overall, it's pretty good - a camera follows Ben as he travels around meeting the bright lights of the ID movement (William Dembski, Stephen C. Meyer, etc). To his credit Ben also sits down with anti-ID man Richard Dawkins and also gets a few other sound bites from non-ID people.

I like that Ben's style is more low-key than the confrontational approach of hacks like Michael Moore - it makes the film easier to watch. It's also more conversational and educational - though it is light on actual arguments. Sure there are some, but it's a movie, we really can't expect much.

The two best parts of the movie were the interview with David Berlinski, (who needs his own show), and the interview with Dawkins. Ben actually gets some news out of the interview with Dawkins when he gets him to admit that ID is a reasonable position. And when Dawkins is pressed on the origins of life Dawkins surprisingly suggests panspermia as a solution.

Suggesting panspermia seems awfully desperate. Given Dawkins love for detailed explanations, it's strange that he hints at a solution so underdeveloped and weird. Perhaps it's a sign that natural explanations for the origin of life are really hard to come by.

The only element that bothered me was the last part of the film where Ben not only links Darwinism to the eugenics movement and the Nazi's (which has some historical links - but little relevance for debating ID), but the fact that Ben spends so much time visiting the Nazi death camps. I don't think it's really necessary to show pictures of Holocaust victims in order to make a point about Darwinism.

Just because some Darwinians were Nazis doesn't mean they all are. I think linking those two is somewhat dishonest and intelligently irrelevant. Darwinism rises or falls because of its scientific and philosophical argument, not its (relatively minor) historical acquaintances.

Despite that last point, the film is worth watching - so go out and see it.

The trailer is on YouTube.