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Ben Stein’s “Expelled”

By Theresa Camoriano

I left the movie “Expelled” with tears in my eyes, because it showed so clearly how science (the search for truth) is being perverted and politicized today and because it gave a dark glimpse of where that perversion may lead. 

As Dinesh D’Souza has pointed out in his book, What’s So Great About Christianity, the very study of science arose out of the desire by Christians to learn more about God’s creation.  If they had not believed that God had created an orderly universe, there would have been no basis for their scientific study.  While today’s scientists assume the existence of an orderly universe, they blackball and expel anyone who dares to suggest that God or some other intelligent designer is the source of that order, insisting that only atheists can be good scientists.  At the same time, they apparently feel no need to offer any explanation for the source of that order, simply taking it as a given. 

Pursuing science (the search for truth) with an open mind and following the evidence wherever it leads currently is forbidden if it means going against the politically correct “wisdom”.  Any scientist who wants to get grant money or get tenure or keep his job must toe the establishment’s line and not rock the boat.

Stein says the situation in science today is like the Berlin wall – there is academic freedom only for those who are on one side of the wall.  For those on the other side of the wall, who dare to challenge the establishment or who are willing to go wherever the evidence may lead, there is no academic freedom.  Stein points out that Darwin himself challenged the accepted wisdom of his day; science is supposed to be about questioning and challenging the established wisdom, and yet today’s science establishment destroys the career of anyone who dares to question or challenge. 

Stein’s movie focuses on Darwin’s theory of evolution, and he points out that Hitler was following the logical, natural extension of that theory by destroying those people he considered to be unfit or inferior.  Hitler thought he was doing a good thing, as he was improving the human species and helping evolution along.  As horrible as that is, the problem of our current “Berlin wall” in science unfortunately is not limited to the theory of evolution. 

Today’s “Berlin wall” in science also encompasses other scientific inquiries with political implications.  For example, the theory of man-made global warming is said to be accepted by all good scientists and therefore not open to challenge or question, despite the fact that the current data is not in line with predictions made by the models that are said to be beyond challenge.  Similarly, the President of Harvard recently lost his job for daring to suggest that women and men are not exactly alike, despite the fact that we all know from experience the truth of his statement. 

This movie brought tears to my eyes and a sick feeling to the pit of my stomach, because I believe very strongly that there is such a thing as truth, that it is very important to seek it out, and that the willingness of people to allow the destruction or punishment of those who seek the truth is truly evil and leads to evil consequences like the holocaust.   I recall a similar feeling in 1974, when I was studying in Russia and visited a beautiful Russian Orthodox church that had been converted into the Museum of Science and Atheism.  I guess sometimes the sense of evil is that pronounced.

In one part of the movie, Stein visited a place where the Nazis destroyed “defective” people.  He asked his guide what she would say to the people who were responsible for this place if they were still alive.  She said she did not think it was her place to say anything.  Her view that it was not her place to challenge such evil helps explain how the Germans allowed the holocaust to occur.  As Edmund Burke once said, “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."

Are we headed in the same evil direction in the U.S. today?  We have plenty of people who are searching for meaning in their lives and who make themselves feel good by promoting heavy-handed, force-based government programs in a wide variety of areas.  Some of these force-based policies are supposed to solve the problem of manmade global warming, others to solve social problems, and so forth.  Will this willingness to use a force-based “solution” to solve a “problem” that is not based on the truth lead us to more evil results, or are there still enough people to make a loud enough outcry to stop it in time? 

There is no conflict between true scientists and those who believe in the Judeo-Christian God, because both are seeking the truth.   The only conflict is between those who are seeking the truth, wherever it leads, and those who think they are God.

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