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Ben Stein ends “Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed” by visiting Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp. I know what the skeptic is thinking: You can’t draw the conclusion that Darwinism leads us to Nazism!
You can. Systematically, Stein builds the case that Darwinism has been the bellwether of many totalitarian regimes and that Darwin’s conclusions cannot help but provide a political justification for murder, war and/or tyranny – and has.
Let’s begin this analysis of his film by stating the obvious: God, or any hint of a Divine Hand, is not welcome in academia. Let’s put that argument aside for a moment and accept it as a given. It simply IS, and there is little debate that it isn’t.
Through a series of expositions and interviews and intercuts of old black and white footage of historical and cultural days gone by (a necessary element in a successful documentary, because 90 minutes of talking heads will always be tedious), Stein manages not just to peel back the onion of bias in academia towards Intelligent Design (ID), he unzips it.
Ultimately, Stein ends the film by juxtaposing Dachau and the Berlin Wall as sociological metaphors of the ID/Darwin debate. Skeptics will object to the “stretch” Stein makes. I don’t. Part of my personal awakening has been the recognition that Darwinism is a cornerstone of moral relativism. Darwinism validates the toxic ‘God in us’ belief that morality, law and justice ought be defined in the political arena. (If politics defines the Moral Code, then Moses didn’t write the Ten Commandments, but the Ten Suggestions – and he wasn’t a prophet, but the world’s first self-help author – an ancient Dr. Phil).
The film is studded with academics and intellectuals from both sides of the aisle. Stein cannot be accused of imbalance. They are a Who’s Who in scientific research and renown. In particular, Stein gives uber-atheist Dr. Richard Dawkins plenty of rope to hang his cause with. Stein, like a wily fox, simply sits back and let’s Dawkins and his peers spout. And they do. Their bile and invective against ID is, well, almost religious in its fanaticism. One walks away from the theater with the sense that, for all their academic achievements, accomplishments and letters, the Darwinists are really pretty juvenile lot – willing to throw more than a few of their peers overboard – if it will protect their students from the morally repugnant belief that the cosmos might possibly have anything resembling Divine fingerprints.
This film may be prophetic. Darwin will not withstand another 20 years of scientific advances. Darwinism will have been so eroded by scientific advances it will just be a matter of letting the scientists retire and turn to their inevitable dust. Their successors will not have the stomach or the science to keep Sir Charles on his pedestal. This doesn’t mean ID will become the predominant belief among scientists – no! It simply means Darwinists will be forced to do something they have preached, but been unwilling to practice since 1859 – adapt!
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