I recently watched “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”. This 2008 documentary film was directed by Nathan Frankowski and hosted by Ben Stein. The film suggests that the modern scientific world is strongly prejudiced against academics that see evidence for intelligent design in nature. The film explains that the scientific communities’ twofold motive is to present evolution as the only logical and sane answer for the existence of the universe and to keep God and religion out of both laboratories and classrooms.
While the film did well at the box office and received accolades as a documentary, the media response was mostly unfavorable. Rotten Tomatoes assigned a low rating and said Expelled is, “full of patronizing, poorly structured arguments…a cynical political stunt in the guise of a documentary.”
USA Today and Scientific American called it propaganda. The New York Times described it as, “a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry…an unprincipled propaganda piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike.”
This believer wasn’t insulted. I believe Stein’s questions were asked squarely and fairly, but were not responded to in kind. Ben Stein did not demand that anyone accept the creation account of Genesis. He simply inquired of those whom he interviewed if they might give some credence to someone (perhaps God) of superior power and intelligence to account for all the wonder and order that surrounds us. Those he interviewed were adamant; intelligent design is not a possibility. An alien intelligence perhaps, (and they would have to have evolved), but not God!
Well, academia can occasionally be a bit aloof and out of touch with the grass roots. What is the view of the average person? An American Gallup poll from a few years ago reported that 47 per cent of those expressing an opinion hold to a strict creationist view; that God created man in his present form within the last 10,000 years. Most others believe in some combination of evolution and creationism, but only 9 per cent believe in strict evolution!
It has been decades since I’ve attended a science class, but I recall hearing something about the rule of simplicity. It states that typically the simplest explanation for phenomenon is more likely to be the accurate one. Try applying this rule to the following oversimplified theories of evolution and creation.
Evolution says that (given billions of years) nothing plus nobody equals everything and everybody. Creation says that God with infinite power and immeasurable intelligence brought into existence all that is in six days.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
— Pastor Ross Helgeton is senior pastor at Erskine Evangelical Free Church