Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ben Stein: Expelled

The movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" Appears to be just that, a movie completely devoid of intelligence.

For those of you unaware, Expelled is a movie set for release sometime this spring. It's premise, that there is a conspiracy within a small group of "elitist scientists" that do not allow any discussion of the intelligent design idea. That intelligent design can cure cancer and that there is nothing wrong with publishing articles in a scientific journal that declare that there is a designer in the universe. So far from what I've seen Ben Steins' arguments against evolution rely on the slandering of evolutionary biologists, and not so much the theory itself. This is not a threat to science students, nor is it a threat to science overall. That being said, this movie could propel even more Americans to distrust science and lead the way to stifling more and more research. The scientific climate in the US could be injured by the influence of a major motion picture like this, and pave the way for more media to be made against science.

Overall, this movie will not hurt science. In fact it may even help weed out students studying science who really aren't smart enough to grasp the concepts, maybe it will persuade those students to become business or communication majors.

My biggest concern is that it may hurt science education, and a decrease in government finance in scientific research, in the US. In the developed world science is a booming field, and it has been seeing breakthroughs at an ever increasing rate. The cures for nearly all diseases are nearly within our grasp. We finally have the tools necessary to understand subtle biochemical processes, it is only a matter of time until we understand enough to be able to cure disease, and possibly death.

If the idiots that comprise the majority of the population in the US want to throw science out the window, go ahead, but expect to pay high prices to import cures for diseases from other countries.

It is a good thing that I am not in a position of power. If I were to have the power to, I would not allow people who discredit the scientific process to be able to benefit from it. No cars, no planes, no computers, no surgery, no MRI, no medicine. None of this and more would be possible without the scientific process.

A person who doesn't understand the power of the scientific process and benefiting from it, would be like an Atheist expecting a god to answer their prayers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It is a good thing that I am not in a position of power. If I were to have the power to, I would not allow people who discredit the scientific process to be able to benefit from it."

That's a rather ignorant thing to say. Basically what you're saying is we shouldn't have free speech, we shouldn't have any decent towards science, because science is never wrong. Which of course isn't true. We need opposing viewpoints to make sure that things are right. And if nothing else because we have the freedom to do such.

If you don't like that may I recommend a move to China, where they limit free speech and dissent against the governments beliefs.

This movie isn't going to hurt anything science related. Movies don't have that large of an impact or scope. You're perfectly personifying the trailer of that film. A cocky scientist who wants nothing more than to squash the beliefs of someone who thinks different of yourself. It's rather quite sad.

Nornerator said...

I never said that we shouldn't have free speech. Free speech is one of the best tools a society can have.

What I did say however is that if a person does not believe that medicine will help them, it is stupid to provide them that medicine. This is why I am not a medical doctor, nor will I ever be one.

Science is wrong, it is almost always wrong when you are talking about absolutes. Science may never be absolute truth, but it will ALWAYS be the closest we have to the truth.

I will end with repeating, free speech is something that a proper society cannot live without.

And yes, it would be great to squash those stupid beliefs that cause this world so much harm.