Thumbs Up For Ben Stein
Nobody is ever going to mistake me for Roger Ebert.
I am just not a big movie guy. I find most of the current offerings from Hollywood to be nothing but rewarmed pabulum at best. The swarthy Johnny Depp as Frank Dillinger, no thanks. A remake of the classic novel the Bad Seed set to scary music and called The Orphan, I don’t think so. Transformers 3, Rocky 17 or a remake of the Honeymooners with an all black cast, not in this lifetime.
But I will give you a fairly new movie to see. You will probably have to dig through the bargain bin for it already. It is a movie by Ben Stein called Expelled.
In an effort of full disclosure I really like Ben Stein to begin with. I find his commentary and writings on current economic conditions to be firmly based in reality and his regular commentaries on life in general to be spot on correct and humorously poignant. His recent movie Expelled, while it did have a spattering of publicity, was for the most part hustled off the big screen in theaters and sent to DVD almost immediately upon release. I bought the movie as soon as it came out knowing nothing about its content other than it was from Ben Stein. I am pleased to say I consider the purchase to be money very well spent.
In Expelled, Stein attempts to open our eyes to the false sense of security we have when it comes to education and more importantly to the institutions of higher learning we have come to know and trust. He makes it abundantly clear that many of the great minds of what we laughingly call science leave much of their open-minded pursuit of truth and facts at the door when they enter many of our major universities.
Expelled concerns itself with the tragic consequences many very smart people have been subjected to for simply mentioning the possibility of intelligent design in the creation of life. In most cases these scholars are not proposing intelligent design as an answer, but only mentioning it as an alternate theory. But for many in academia the mere mention of a creator or that there is a theory that life is not a random act of providence is enough to fire and banish the offending colleague from anything related to higher education.
In one instance examined a very well respected professor mentioned intelligent design in a paper he wrote about the beginnings of life. The paper was peer reviewed and accepted, but after publication the professor was shunned by others in his department and terminated from the university where he worked.
Stein also gives ample opportunity to several leading authorities who dismiss intelligent design as shear insanity to explain their theories of how life came to be on this planet. Their fantastically nonsensical explanations are almost as profound as their smug beard stroking intellectual attitudes.
Having watched Expelled makes it easier to understand the story coming out of Texas where various special interest groups are attempting the Orwellian task of rewriting history. While the Texas Board of Education recently approved changes allowing new science standards that make room for creationist considerations regarding evolution there is heated debate over the new social studies text books.
Three reviewers of the new proposed K through 12 curriculums are favoring inclusion of the existing examples that the Bible, Christian faith and the civic virtues faith have played in the founding and early direction of America and the state of Texas. Three other reviewers, who were appointed by politically liberal board members, are favoring exclusion of those items and inclusion of more politically correct ideas, including an emphasis on the roll Hispanic and Native Americans played in the states foundation.
History is not politically correct and to attempt to make it so makes it worthless. We may not be able to prove beyond a doubt that God created life on this planet, but we can surely prove the role faith in Him has played in molding our nation and the state of Texas.
It is apparent to even a casual observer that while we have hallowed halls of higher learning, many of those strolling down those halls have a lot to learn.
