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Intelligent Design and Ben Stein

Just as I have not ever seen a Michael Moore film, did not see Al Gore's farce "An Inconvenient Truth", I don't think I will be rushing out to see "Expelled ".

Being billed as "Big science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom. What they forgot is every generation has it's rebel. Ben blows the horn on suppression."

Sounds like the struggle of the little guy against the world! Well, it is not shaping up like that. Phil Platt, the Bad Astronomer, has been posting articles about this. And I definitely tip my hat to Phil!

Two atheists walk into a theater

Pandas Thumb

Creationism, evolution, and Nazis. Yes, Nazis.

Atheists have had a very bad stigma attached to them for centuries. Christianity has gone to great lengths to portrait those who do not believe in their god as being evil, satanic or worse! Why the fear over non-belief? Why go to such lengths to make people fear them?

I think it is because, particularly in the US, non-believers have been repeatedly compared to Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and others. In other words non-believers are compared to people who are responsible for the worst genocide of the 20th century! And Expelled has these undertones with in it appearently. But this whole arguement is pointless and utterly worthless! Because Stalin was an atheist, ALL atheists must be bad. What kind of twisted logic is this? 

Hitler is added to the atheist wall of shame, and to be completely honest, I have found little that points to him being an atheist. Mein Kampf is filled with religious references as is his speeches. So I discount Hitler being an atheist. As for Stalin, I think it is generally agreed that, like Hitler and Pol Pot, wasn't exactly right in the head! So to make the illogical leap to all but compare me as an atheist to Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot is, well, fighting words! Not actual physical fighting, I'm too old and out of shape for that, but truly offensive!

So why the fear and loathing over atheists? I think it is simply control and the need to not question the beliefs. When children are not indoctrinated basically from birth to be identified with a specific religion, but brought up in a secular house and taught about all religions and faiths leads to adults who are far more tolerant and understanding of differing beliefs. But that means sacrificing the control and the indoctrination of the young. (But this is what happens in the US to a comparative religion class)

So, back to Expelled. A scientist who was in the movie was escorted from a so called private screening of Expelled, his name is PZ Myers. Here is what Myers said about it,

This is what I overheard from a theatre employee named "Jared" to PZ: "The producer said that you are not allowed to attend the screening, because you don't have a ticket, and you were not invited. This is a private screening." Nomad, did you have a ticket? Were you invited? Didn't you click on that "please fill the theatre, please, please," link and subsequently get, as I did, an e-mail that said, "TICKET NOT REQUIRED"?

So there were no tickets required, no one in line had a ticket, but PZ was not allowed to go in because he didn't have a ticket. And remember, these people are the ones who constantly tell us that "Darwinism" leads to rampant immorality and yet they are the ones who are always telling lies like this when it's convenient.

 Interesting, private screening huh?

People are asking me to tell them more about the movie, Expelled. I can't! I was thrown out!

Let me clarify a few things. This was a private screening with no admission charge, and you had to reserve seats ahead of time; you also had to sign a promise that you wouldn't record the movie while you were there, and they were checking ID. Everyone in my family reserved seats under our own names, myself included. There was no attempt to "sneak in", although apparently the producer, Mark Mathis, accused me of doing so in the Q&A afterwards ( Mathis, of course, is a contemptible liar ). We followed the procedures they set up, every step of the way, and were completely above board in all our dealings.

Mark Mathis was there at the screening, and apparently spotted me and gave instructions to the guard to throw me out. I asked the guard why I was being evicted, and he explained directly that the producer had given him that instruction.

They were well within their rights to exclude anyone. When I was told I would not be allowed in and threatened with arrest, I told the security guard that I would not cause any trouble. I stopped to talk with my family when they came over with a theater manager to evict me; again, I left peacefully. Apparently, the guards were talking about carrying out further measures when they saw me standing outside the theater, and speculated that I was going to harass other attendees. This was not true; I'd just had to leave my friends and family behind, and all I really wanted to do was tell them where I'd be. The last thing I wanted to do was spend two hours hanging around a movie theater.

Tolerance of ideas has NEVER been a characteristic of Christianity! This movie claims to be fighting against oppression of thoughts, when their own ideology is guilty of far worse past, present and future!  

I might go see it if it is this area. Although part of the reason I boycotted Moore and Gore movies is I don't want them to get any of my money. How much trouble can you get into for causing a ruckous in a movie theater?

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