Expelled

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Ps. 139:14 NIV

Who are the dangerous ones, believers or unbelievers? This was just one of the questions explored on screen in the new movie released this last week, “Expelled,” with Ben Stein. It is not a movie for everybody. No crashing helicopters, no daredevil exploits by daring stuntmen, no chase scenes, or glamorous Hollywood starlets. But, if you are one of those odd few who like the chase of ideas presented in graphic first person interviews with some of the most brilliant minds of our time, this is your movie; this is your Indiana Jones equivalent thriller. “Expelled” is a documentary laced with comic relief supplied by entertaining footage from dozens of old films, both historical and dramatic. Ben Stein, a tantalizingly dead-panned provocateur, dares to tread where no man has gone before. He takes on the challenge of the evolutionary establishment who presently have a choke hold on all the positions of power within academia. It should be required viewing for every pre-college, Christian student.

The over riding issue is freedom. Is there any room for divergent thinking within the realm of science to any other explanation of origins? The evidence he mounts has got to be embarrassing for he brings before the world the plain spoken words of the proponents of materialistic evolution from their own mouths. He gives more than ample time for the prestigious representatives of Darwinian thinking to spill their hard bitten prejudice against any and all who would dare question the sanctity of standard evolutionary dogma. The enemy is not simply any Christian or creationist, for whom they reserve their greatest scorn, but also against any who would argue a case for intelligent design, even from a non-theistic base.

Ben Stein takes one on a journey as he explores the avenues of his questioning down some very significant paths. Who are the dangerous ones? Many secular thinkers classify religion as the source of the greatest danger to world peace. Yet, Stein takes one on a trip through the history of eugenics built squarely upon evolutionary thinking. His visit to the edifices of Nazi-ism were especially haunting. As he listens to a guide explain the workings of a Nazi hospital where the weak and handicapped were routinely executed, he asks the guide, “So what would you say to the Nazi doctor in charge of this hospital if you could?” Her ready answers came to a screeching halt as she could offer nothing, no pronouncement, no judgment, no warning, no rebuke. Her speechlessness made me gasp. It was postmodernism at its naked worst.

This helped frame the whole question as to what is at stake in this war of ideology. If the origin of life is pure chance, all morality is capricious choice. Human freedom is a myth. Purpose is made void. Death is final. Man is not special. These implications were brought forth in clear relief even by an unbeliever. But most of all, the integrity of science itself is forfeit if it becomes prisoner to a particular world view. And apparently, this is what has happened. Materialistic evolution has become the mantra of the establishment because of a secular world view that finds life without God quite liberating.

The Achilles heel of evolutionary thinking, however, is found within the realm of science itself. If a single, self-replicating cell, known as the foundation of life, was understood in Darwin’s day as complicated as an automobile, scientists now know that it is as complicated as a Saturn V rocket or even a galaxy by comparison. The DNA of a single cell contains so much information that chance is no longer a viable explanation. God has imprinted enough mystery in nature to confound the wise even into our time.