Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Ben Stein examines the issue of academic freedom and decides that there is none when it comes to the debate over intelligent design.

The documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is hosted by Ben Stein, whose professional career spans everything from being a speechwriter and lawyer for U.S. presidents Nixon and Ford to starring as a droll school teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and anchoring a game show titled Win Ben Stein’s Money. Expelled’s role is to essentially dive-bomb the culturally established idea that Darwinian evolution has already won the scientific debate regarding the origins of man. And it boils over at the notion that the debate itself is now out of bounds.

“I have always assumed that scientists were free to ask any question, to pursue any line of inquiry, without fear of reprisal,” Stein tells moviegoers. “But recently I have been alarmed to discover that this is not the case.” He asks, “Darwin challenged the consensus view, and that’s how we got Darwinism. If Darwin wanted to challenge the consensus today, how would he do it?”

Off-camera, Stein told Focus on the Family, “Why do we allow, even celebrate, dissent in every other area of society, but not here? I’ve found that people who are confident in their ideas are not afraid of criticism. So this tells me that Darwinists are afraid. … Darwin was on to something gigantic. At the very least, he was on to changes within species. But whether there’s ever been a provable observation of a new species being created, I don’t think there has been. How did the whole thing start? How did the cell get so complex? Who created it all? Where did it come from?”