EXPELLED

EXPELLED
IN DEFENCE OF FREE SPEECH + THOUGHT
IN SCIENCE
---------I Went to see Ben Stein’s movie “Expelled”, which opened yesterday. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought it would be a funny satirical type of thing. I was wrong. But let me set the stage. I chose a matinee (3:40 to be exact) at a multi theatre movie house. I wondered if I should call ahead to make sure I could get in. I didn’t. I pulled into the parking lot and decided I had made the right decision, there were very few cars there. They had 16 different shows on the venue. When I went and found the theatre with Expelled, I went in and not a soul was there nor did anyone come in later. It was great. A private showing for me.
---------I hear however that it did pretty good the first day and is expected to do well this weekend. I think it came in 8th the first day (pretty good for a documentary). Below is a link to some facts on the movie and it’s numbers.
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http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/?p=9887
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---------The movie was not a comedy, although with Ben Stein asking questions along with some of the answers I must admit to some laughter on my part. The basic theme of the movie was to reveal the bias that has evolved in the scientific disciplines against outside theories challenging however slightly the orthodoxy. There were several interviews with people in various science fields that had lost their jobs and reputations because they had mentioned “Intelligent Design” in a paper they wrote ect. Not defended it but just mentioned it as a possible solution for a problem there was no solution to. In other words a new area to explore that might shed some light. These people were not talking about “Creationism” just bringing up “Intelligent Design” as another possible way to explain the start of life as we define it.
------------Also interviewed were people who were responsible for those people’s firings. That’s where I had to laugh. Not at the people who were fired, but at the garbled logic used to fire them. I’ve seen that basic type of logic a lot lately in all aspects of debate. It starts with the use of phrases like, well you know we all think, or it’s completely insane to think that could be true, or they are just trying to create headlines for themselves, or everybody else thinks its wrong, or better yet there is a consensus. Always it seems the people who make the new claims get labeled. The list is endless. Anyone who has been discriminated against however quickly gets the meaning. The point Ben was making however was that the people fired were not trying to prove that Darwinism couldn’t explain change in animals. Only that Darwinism couldn’t explain how life started. They were only trying to put another alternative out there about how that happened. All the people interviewed about why Darwinism should be the only true theory explaining not only how life evolved over time but actually started all admitted that they didn’t know for sure how life actually started. But they also would not accept the theory of “Intelligent Design”. The leader of the group against “Intelligent Design” actually came up with a solution that we may have been seeded by an alien race from another world. WOW he actually said that. Well that got another laugh out of me. They have “Intelligent Design” so tied up with God that they just can’t get passed that.
-----------Ben brought out the total lack of an argument to back up Darwinism as the start of life. I enjoyed learning the scientific knowledge about how complex the most basic molecule that would be accepted as life really is. Before I thought that a molecule just might have really bubbled up out of the primordial ooze and been hit by lightning to form life. Ben showed the complexity of that first molecule and how the odds against life forming that way were so astronomical as to be non-existent.
----------We all hear about the insidiousness of the PC movement especially within the areas of higher learning. Well this movie and Ben Stein really brings this to the forefront and his linking the PC thought idea to Nazi methods and their consequences, showed the dangerous consequences of this kind of the “we are the great ones we know better than you, bow down before us, never question us or we will squash you”. If you think that this is too far fetched on my part check my links below.
----------Kind of like a meteorologist asking if the facts behind global warming were valid.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1203652512272450.xml&coll=7
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----------Below I have some links about the ravages and results of the PC thought police.
The first is about a charter school that is reported to be public funded and teaching religion and carrying out prayer during school hours.
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http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=292720073560464
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The latest on that story is that the religious political action org. of that religion has asked the FBI to investigate “Hate crimes” against the school.
The next link is to Michelle Malkin’s blog all about Canadian Conservative bloggers being sued to shut them down for being not PC
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http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/09/free-speech-fund-raiser-the-canadian-conservative-blogosphere-under-attack/
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If you still don’t think PC poses a threat, Hear is an idea, actually go see the movie.??
There are countless stories out there about big and little groups that try to ridicule or intimidate new comers with new ideas. I see it in the Federal government. Or in the local Neighborhood Improvement group. Our constitution wasn’t written just to protect us from Religious fanatics, but more importantly from our selves. That’s right from each and every one of us. It set up a system to curb the gathering of too much power. All it took was the citizens to use it. We all have different ideas, those ideas should all have a chance to be heard fairly. People who state those ideas should not have to do so in fear of their life or person, if they do so then I have pride in them. Power corrupts, total power corrupts completely. Free people always need to be vigilant to keep the curbs on power. Always remember all corrupt systems started with good ideas and were corrupted by too much power in the hands of too few without any recourse from us the voters.
---------Of course the other way systems get corrupted through gaining too much power, is that we the people did nothing. If you think you can’t do anything that would make a difference. Think what Gandhi did, or what Lech Walesa did, or the Dali Lama is doing, or even “five feet of furry” in Canada is doing. If you don’t want to give up your whole life to a cause (BTW their cause was freedom of their people). Do something small. Just try standing up for some one who is putting out an idea different from you and your buddies if your buddies are making fun of him. That alone takes guts, but there is a wonderful sense of empowerment just by doing it. Or pick one local thing that is important to you and go to a city commission meeting and speak up about it. We the people have to start to take this country back like it is being taken away, bit by bit, battle by battle, never giving up.
Well good luck.
Live Dangerously be a Conservative.