Did You Get “Expelled?”
Warning: There are one or two small spoilers here, but it’s a documentary. No big plot surprises to give away!
I got Expelled late Friday night at my local theater. Unfortunately, there weren’t too many others who were expelled at the 10:00 PM showing I attended. How about you?
According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed $3,153,000 this weekend on 1,052 screens. The per-screen average was $2,997, ranking the film #9 out of all films this weekend. Of films debuting this weekend, it ranked 4th in total income and per-screen average.
My sister (a bio-agriculture researcher at Texas A&M University) saw the film this weekend with some of her friends, including 2 that are teachers. She said the theater was full, with a large number of students. We’re having an interesting conversation about it because Texas A&M (in College Station, Texas) has a fairly conservative student body with pretty liberal professors. With that kind of combination, this could be like igniting a powder keg.
She has spent her entire career in academia, and recognized the validity of the statements made by those daring to teach Intelligent Design. And as a scientist, she picked up on the trend that those upholding Darwinian teaching have made great leaps in their “guesswork.”
As I pondered the film this weekend, I was struck again by how incredulous it is to me that a tenured and well-respected scientist finds it easy to believe that life started from activity taking place around a crystal (he can’t say where the crystal came from). That is more believable than the existence of God? Maybe it’s just the word: God. What if the name was Elouisa? or Fred? Would that be easier to swallow?
If you saw “Expelled”, what did you think of it? What were the audience reactions around you? Do you know anyone stuck situations similar to those the scientists interviewed were in?
The thing about the crystals isn’t so odd, and it’s a shame the movie mocked it the way it did. Scientists, Christian and otherwise, have often pointed to crystals as an example of order coming out of chaos — the very thing that some creationists say never happens — and it makes sense that crystals might have played some part in the rise of biological order, too.
As for where the crystal “came from” … well, where did God “come from”? Ultimately, whether we stop with the Creator or Creation, we have to accept the fact that some things just are.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
The mockery was unnecessary, just as the scientist’s condescending tone verbalization of his theory was unnecessary. Clear case of 2 wrongs not making a right.
That episode, among many others, really emphasized to me that when your beginning point of reference is so radically different, reaching agreement is impossible without someone converting over to another’s point of reference.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I’m not sure he actually is a scientist, technically speaking; if memory serves, the person who talks about the crystals is Michael Ruse, who is a philosopher who specializes in biological issues. (Ruse is, in fact, scorned by some evolutionary types for being relatively friendly to Christians and even ID theorists.) But yeah, he could have done a much better job of explaining the theory than he did in that one very brief clip.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I have not seen the movie yet but in reference to Peter Chattaway’s question where does God come from? It is due to our very limited finite understanding of an infinite Being Who lives in eternity and is not subject to time that completely loses everything we can comprehend about God. Once something is visible/physical and can be felt with the senses it is subject to expiry no matter how long it may live. Time has been proven to be a physical matter and that it is why winding down (the days may be appearing to be going faster but actually it is just coming to an end) – I wonder why?
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 am
Hubby He Man and I are looking forward to seeing it. We just found out that Darwinism all started from Darwin having a bitter heart against God because his beloved daughter died. At the time this happened, Darwin was actually studying to become a pastor/minister in his town. The shock from losing his daughter sent him into a tailspin, hence the nosedive into “science”. His bitterness led the way into his atheism. We found this very interesting.
Blessings
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:48 am
Ah, well, here’s the thing. If time is part of the physical universe, then in a sense, the universe has “always” been here too. That doesn’t make it “eternal” or infinite in the same sense that God is, but it does suggest that, if God has always been Creator, then there has always been Creation. Either way, the point remains: Whether you are a theist or an atheist, some things have simply always been, and no matter how far up the chain you go, at some point you can’t ask “where did this come from?” any more. (Well, you can ask, but there won’t be an answer, because the question won’t apply.)
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 am
Well put. I just think we can’t grasp the idea of eternity before the world began & after it is renewed for an eternal state. It is quite literally impossible to comprehend it just as wisely stated by Solomon “Also He has put eternity in their hearts [men], except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” and “This reminded me that no one can discover everything God has created in our world, no matter how hard they work at it. Not even the wisest people know everything, even if they say they do.” In conclusion Job said “He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am