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Concerning Hitler and Darwin
David Berlinski has this piece in Human Events: One man — Charles Darwin — says: “In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals. …”Another man — Adolf Hitler — says: Let us kill all the Jews of Europe.Is there a connection? Read the rest here.
Why the Jews?
In an illuminating irony, not one but two theatrical documentaries open today that trace the genealogy of the Holocaust back to earlier literary texts. One is Expelled, in which Ben Stein touches upon the use Hitler made of Darwinism. The other documentary is Constantine’s Sword, based on the bestselling book of the same name, by James Carroll.Carroll tells the history of the Christian churches from the perspective of their countenancing of anti-Semitism. As Carroll argues, it all goes back to “the Jews hatred we so easily detect in the New Testament, and that would flower in anti-Jewish violence.” Now which of these films do think has been savaged in the liberal press, and which has gotten raves? Clearly, to blame Read More ›
Bozell on Expelled: “I went into the screening bored. I came out of it stunned.”
Brent Bozell III’s column at Townhall says he was invited to preview Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the Ben Stein film that screens for the public at a reported 1000 theaters this weekend. “I went into the screening bored,” he writes. “I came out of it stunned.” This makes a point that needs underscoring. Anybody who is bothered by the malign conformity of contemporary politics and culture in academia and the media should be paying attention to the evolution debate. It isn’t marginal. It’s central. The refusal to allow debate and the reckless determination to punish dissent aren’t limited to the sciences, but they are crucially present there. Materialist science is being allowed to define all reality far too often and, Read More ›
Review of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
From Edward Douglas at Comingsoon.net: Summary:The filmmakers’ intentions are kept deliberately vague–is this about free speech or about teaching religion in the classroom?–but it’s a surprisingly entertaining and informative doc that at least tries to address the debate over intelligent design from another angle.Story:Ben Stein takes a look at intelligent design and how scientists and teachers who’ve dared to address it have come under attack from the scientific community using Darwin’s theories of evolution. To read more, click here:
Intelligent Critique
From Dave Berg at National Review: I like rebels, especially ones who go against type. Take Ben Stein in his latest film, Expelled, which comes out this Friday. Dressed in a sport coat, tie, and tennis shoes, he’s not who you expect — the deadpan, monotone-voiced but ever-likable teacher he portrays in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Wonder Years.Stein retains his characteristic deadpan affect, but this time he’s playing himself — a deceptively erudite and well-educated interviewer, who is passionately skeptical of evolutionary biology and its leading proponents. To read more, click here.