Atheist Scientists in Uproar over Movie Showing
Intolerance of Evidence for Intelligent Design
EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed Coming to Theatres in February
2008
LOS ANGELES, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Atheist
scientists who have become famous for attacking those who disagree
with them are now loudly complaining about supposedly being
mistreated in a film they haven't seen.
Oxford zoologist, Richard Dawkins, has made a lot of money and fame
calling people who believe in God "delusional." Yet he is now
grumbling that the producers of EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed
"tricked" him into doing an interview. EXPELLED exposes the
intimidation, persecution and career destruction that takes place
when any scientist dares dissent from the view that all life on
earth is the mere result of random mutation and natural
selection.
"Some of these people -- especially Mr. Dawkins -- spend a lot of
time insulting the millions of folks who disagree with them, so you
would think they would have a little tougher skin," said Mark
Mathis, one of the film's producers. "The funny thing is they are
whining about the fact that the film is going to allow them to
insult people on a much larger stage."
Other notable scientists who claim they were "deceived" by the
producers of EXPELLED include Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of
the National Center for Science Education and PZ Myers, a biologist
at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who devotes much of his
time to his popular science blog.
Myers has attacked the film several times on his blog since
EXPELLED announced its arrival in theaters in February 2008.
EXPELLED's producers say they aren't surprised by the academic
uproar over the film because it is consistent with what happens on
university campuses when students or professors question atheistic
materialism.
"There is some serious mistreatment and downright reprehensible
behavior going on here, but I can assure you it's not coming from
us -- we're just the ones exposing it," said Executive Producer,
Walt Ruloff. "When our audience sees the stories of the real
victims of scientific malpractice they're going to be
outraged."
The producers of EXPELLED are particularly amused by Dawkins's
complaint that the name of the film was changed from "Crossroads"
to "EXPELLED" suggesting that this re-naming was a deception.
Dawkins is well aware of the fact that movie titles change. When he
was interviewed for EXPELLED he made the comment that the title of
his anti-religion documentary, "Root of all Evil?" was chosen as a
replacement for the original title late in the process.
Additionally, Dawkins participates in the documentary "A War on
Science," which is an attack on Intelligent Design (ID). Producers
of that film presented themselves to the Discovery Institute as
objective filmmakers and then portrayed the organization as
religiously-motivated and anti- scientific.
"I've never seen a bigger bunch of hypocrites in my life," said
Mathis, who set up the interviews for EXPELLED. "I went over all of
the questions with these folks before the interviews and I e-mailed
the questions to many of them days in advance. The lady (and
gentleman) doth protest too much, methinks."
"Both Myers and Scott say they would have agreed to be interviewed
under any circumstances, so why are they complaining?" said Ruloff.
"In fact we had a second interview set up with Eugenie Scott, which
she cancelled once rumors about EXPELLED began to circulate."
The legal releases all of the interviewees signed were quite
explicit in regards to editorial control and transferability,
something that is standard in the film business. Dawkins, Myers,
Scott and many other scientists were paid for their interviews
(Scott's check went to her organization, the National Center for
Science Education).
EXPELLED's producers have made it clear the film will portray the
scientists interviewed in a way that is consistent with their
actual viewpoints or other public statements.
EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed is scheduled for release in
February 2008. For more information on Ben Stein's journey visit
http://www.expelledthemovie.com