Expelling All Reason

CFI’s Paul Kurtz Joins the Chorus of Critics Dismissing Ben Steins “Expelled” as Anti-Science Propaganda

The new anti-evolution film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” featuring Ben Stein, “anti-science propaganda” and an “exercise in anti-intellectualism at its worst,” according to Paul Kurtz, founder and chairman of the Center for Inquiry.

Kurtz said, “The social and scientific progress we take for granted has been advanced by a basic scientific and philosophical point of view. As this new film makes abundantly clear, the methods of the sciences, and the assumptions upon which they are based, are being challenged culturally in the United States with a renewed fervor. Despite its success in providing us with unparalleled benefits, anti-intellectual extremists seek to inhibit free inquiry and misrepresent the tested conclusions of scientific inquiry. This is a highly charged political issue, as science is under political attack. Regrettably, we seem not to have come far culturally since the Scopes “monkey” trial.”

CFI is particularly troubled by the fact that Stein and his producers apparently engaged in a shameless array of dirty tricks and dishonest tactics, among which many are detailed here by Scientific American. Even FOX News felt compelled to wax critical about the film, saying that the film is “a sloppy, all-over-the-place, poorly made ‘expose’ of the scientific community….showing that Stein, who’s carved out a career selling eye drops in commercials and amusing us on sitcoms, is either completely nuts or so avaricious that he’s abandoned all good sense to make a buck.”

In response, CFI’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) has published a devastating critique of the film in the latest issue (May/June 2008) of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Recently, CFI published an extensive position paper authored by Barbara Forrest demonstrating convincingly that the ID movement is simply a continuation of creationism.

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