I do not mean to mislead you when I title my blog “Expelled.” No, I was not expelled from school and this blog is not necessarily about expulsion from school. This blog is about a movie–”Expelled.” For those of you who haven’t seen it, I will attempt to summarize a few key points, but I strongly encourage you to see it for yourself. Besides, who does not like Ben Stein? Well, maybe a lot of people after this movie. We will see how that goes.
Has anyone heard of “The God Delusion,” evolution, Charles Darwin, Intelligent Design, the holocaust, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness? This movie discusses all of those issues and how they are interrelated. After what I studied in my biology and history class this past semester, I began to become aware of this connection, but my ideas did not fully come together until I saw this movie.
In my biology class this past semester, we learned quite a bit about evolution–how we are nothing more than animals ourselves since we are simply descendants of some sort of monkey-ape that descended from another common ancestor that descended from some common goo in a pit somewhere (feel special yet? I sure do. I have always wanted to come from goo. It makes me feel intelligent). We also learned about gene therapy–the process by which doctors can alter the genes of a person to make them have certain characteristics (or lack thereof) (some people just are not good enough, you know? We need to make everyone perfect and without flaw and just like everyone else). We studied the different pre-natal tests that can be done so that the mother of the baby can decide if she wants to abort her baby or not, depending on certain characteristics of the baby (Oh, the baby’s deaf? I don’t want it then). We recently discussed whether we had reached our Carrying Capacity (meaning that there are too many humans populating the earth) (According to some, let’s pull out our troops from protecting aid workers in third world countries so that everyone will either starve to death or kill each other off, trying to get food. Then, we will solve this problem of “carrying capacity” since there will be fewer people). Along with this, we discussed our Ecological Footprint (how much of an impact we are making on the resources of earth) and global warming (So, why did it snow on Easter last year in TEXAS? It must be global warming).
In my American history class, we studied everything from after the Civil War to now. I learned more about the holocaust (mostly from the movie “The Pianist” and visiting the Holocaust museum in DC than from class) and about eugenics (the belief that the human race can be improved through less reproduction of “undesirable” people–i.e. forced or voluntary sterilization or murder [think about the holocaust]–and more reproduction from “desirable” people) and its supporters (Ford–the man who invented the Ford automobile, Margaret Sanger–the founder of Planned Parenthood, and, of course, Hitler all supported some form of eugenics).
From my personal viewpoint, it seems as though most people from the Civil War to the 1960’s were supporters of eugenics, even if they did not publicly announce it. In fact, most people today are probably supporters of it, but they do not realize it because it has a different name now. Its called abortion, euthanasia, evolution, gene therapy, global warming, carrying capacity, Darwinism, social Darwinism, civil rights, women’s rights, and many other names.
Now, before I go on, please understand that I am not against freedom and rights. If you do not have the freedom to believe what you want, then I sure do not have the right to believe what I want. People have the right (and the ability) to decide if they want to abort their baby, believe in evolution, support the global warming theory, etc. But, just because you have the right to believe these things does not mean that I do not have the right to NOT believe these things. This is what leads to my next point.
In the movie, “Expelled,” Ben Stein comes to the realization that we are losing our freedom–our freedom to debate, question, and disagree with the mainstream ideas, beliefs, and theories. Think about it. When was the last time kids in the classroom were encouraged to question what they were being taught and told to test the theories they learned to see if those theories held up when under pressure? While I was in my biology class, I looked at all my classmates when the professor said that evolution was the only answer to our existence, and every single head nodded in agreement. They were not even considering any other theories. They just blindly accepted what our professor said without questioning. Can we no longer think for ourselves?
“Expelled” showed me how we are losing our freedom of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are losing the freedom to life through abortion, euthanasia, social Darwinism, and eugenics. We are losing our freedom to liberty through loss of the freedom of speech (I am ridiculed when I say what I believe in class), the press (I either cannot write what I believe or I can write it, but then I am ridiculed for it or told that my opinion is wrong even if the professor ASKED for my opinion), and religion (everyone in my class was allowed to talk about their religion except for Christians who talked about God).
We are not allowed to ask questions or disagree with our professors. Of course, they do not tell you this. In fact, they say that they encourage “group discussions” or “questions.” But have you ever tried asking questions like “if we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys hanging around?” Or, “if the first cell originated on the backs of crystals, where did THAT cell come from and where did the crystals come from?” Or, how about this: “if evolution is just a theory, then why don’t we study other theories?”
Do you know what kind of an answer you will get for going against the status quo? Something like: “you would not understand; its too complex.” Or, “no one knows for sure” (that is a real educated answer, right?). Or, “that is another discussion for another day” (boy, does THAT sound like a cop-out). I can guarantee you that you will never get a straightforward answer. If you do, it will be something along the lines of: “we came from goo,” “we were seeded by aliens,” “we came from crystals,” or “no one knows.” Those replies sound like a lot of proven research is backing them up, huh? I guess scientists are not as sure as they thought they were. But they would never say that. In fact, you will most likely get in trouble for asking in the first place.
So, how is it that we are losing our freedom? Well, if we just originated from a bunch of unintelligent goo, then life is pretty worthless. So, in that case, what is the life of a fetus, or a “misfit,” or a “rebel,” or the disabled, or anyone for that matter? We are not human beings, but animals, right? It is just the “survival of the fittest.”
Well, Hitler believed that, too.
So, what happened during the holocaust? When the Berlin wall was erected? There was a loss of ideas. Some ideas were kept inside, others were shut out. For those inside who dared to have ideas apart from the status quo, they were either killed or thrown in concentration camps. For those who had differing beliefs from the mainstream, they were treated the same. “Misfits” and “undesirables” (i.e. disabled, deaf, blind, sick, elderly, etc.) were also killed or thrown into concentration camps. This idea of eugenics still lives on today, but with a different names just like I said before.
So, don’t rock the boat. Don’t ask questions. Don’t question whether what you are hearing or reading or learning is true. Don’t go against the status quo. Don’t fight for your freedom. Don’t fight for the freedom of others. Don’t even consider fighting for your freedom of speech or the press or religion. Because, if you do, you may get expelled, lose your job, ruin your reputation, be ridiculed, get an “F” on your dissertation, be called names, or many other things. If you do not believe me, try it. Try going against the flow. Or watch “Expelled.” Either way, watch out or you may very well be expelled, too.
Expelled…A Continuation
May 28, 2008First, let me correct and clarify a few points from my last blog. Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. What I should have said so that you would know who I was talking about is that Henry Ford was the man who helped establish the Ford Motor Company. Also, let me say that when I wrote the question “if we descended from monkeys, why are there still monkeys hanging around,” I wrote it from personal experience. I know that the theory states that chimpanzees supposedly split into two different species–more chimps and humans. A fellow student asked this question in class one day and the professor replied, “That is too complicated for me to answer right now. That is a discussion for another day.” She avoided the question. That was my point. We are losing our freedom to ask such questions and scientists, scholars, and inquisitors are losing their freedom to explore the answer to that question as well as other questions.
Second, I wanted to add something to my blog. In biology, like I said, we learned how every living thing originated from the same common ancestor. This is called macroevolution. However, these same teachers and books that were teaching us that every different species that lives on earth today originated from one species a long time ago (whether that means billions of years ago or 7000 years ago does not matter) also said “chemical reactions do not create or destroy matter; they only rearrange it in various ways” (page 29, Biology: Concepts and Connections, 5th Ed. by Campbell, Reece, Taylor, etc.) and “The ability of organisms to reproduce their own kind is the one characteristic that best distinguishes living things from nonliving matter. Only amoebas produce more amoebas, only people make more people, and only maple trees produce more maple trees. These simple facts of life have been recognized for thousands of years and are summarized by the age-old saying ‘like begets like” (page 126 of the same textbook above).
In other words, they contradict themselves.
Forbid it that anyone should question them though or do more experiments to test those theories. I just find it hard to believe people who contradict themselves, you know? If a prokaryotic cell could produce only its same kind of prokaryotic cell and still, after enough time, morph into a human being, then I might find this theory a little more believable. But, according to what my professor said, this is not possible, but it is possible, but it isn’t, but it is (Ahhh!!! See what I mean?).
At any rate, this is not my point. My point is that we are losing our freedom to believe what we want, question what others say is fact (or theory), study other methods, learn about other ideas, test other hypothesis, read other material, debate, talk about these discrepancies (in this theory or any other for that matter), and many other things. I simply want others to be aware of this issue and to be willing to stand up for the right of ideas (both your ideas and the ideas of others) to flow freely in our country. Only then, can we actually move forward and learn more about ourselves and the world in which we live. Thank goodness we live in America where we can pursue such a goal!
Tags:America, Ben Stein, Biology, Commentary, Culture, Evolution, Expeled: No Intelligence Allowed, Expelled, Freedom, ID, Life, Media, Movies, Reviews, School, Science, Society
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