Vile propaganda.

Wow, can't believe these folks actually subtitled their film "No intelligence allowed." That's as unintentionally apropos as Michael Jackson calling his album "Bad." If you're going to whine about people losing their jobs (in academia, where your job is based on your ability to reason), then at least make the case! Don't tell me why Darwinism is bad. There's 150 years worth of evidence supporting it - you're not going to get very far with that argument. Tell me why intelligent design is better. Show me the data!… Expand

Well it sounded like it might be good, but I just didn't find it convincing at all. It wasn't well researched and it doesn't flow well. I generally love documentaries, but this one was boring.

Absolutely ghastly movie. The people giving it high scores must be high on crack. This movie doesn't stimulate discussion - it lies to the audience!! Sternberg was not fired - He was an unpaid research associate whose three year term as editor was up and he ahd already handed in his papers when he published the article. For Ben Stein not to mention this in the movie is dishonest and unethical.… Expand

Oh boy, I can't stand watching this piece of religious fundamentalist propaganda tripe for even a minute. Let me use of of those ID proponents' tactics. Ben Stein is an ignorant, dishonest cretin who has a slurred voice, sounds like he has some neurological disorder.

The Intelligent Design - NeoDarwinist debate has long been viewed as an argument between science and religion. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed takes the debate out of the marginalized places it normally appears and brings it to life on the big screen. The film exposes the NeoDarwinist lock on American academia, and how it maintains its position by systematically silencing its opponents (regardless of how well-regarded they are as scientists before their unforgivable sin of recognizing that the world might, just might, look like it was designed). Exposed also demonstrates the philosophical agenda of academic Big Science -- and how utterly unprepared these scientists are to meet, head to head, in a real philosophical debate with anyone other than the 18-22-year olds they regularly see, and whose academic future they hold in their hands, in their classes. This film is an eye-opener. I have seen it twice in screenings, and once you watch it you will understand why NeoDarwinists are pulling out all the stops to keep you from seeing it. Take a stand for free speech and freedom of inquiry and catch this film this weekend.… Expand

In a word: tawdry. Ignoring for a moment the factual errors that riddle the movie (which are literally everywhere), the basic problem with the film is the basic problem with Intelligent Design as a theory in general: simply saying something is true does not constitute a valid argument. In its presentation of its 'evidence,' Expelled misstates the essential facts of the debate at every turn. Both in its willful refusal to work through the reasoning behind the science it attacks and its willful refusal to investigate the 'victims' it profiles, the movie is pure propaganda. Lacking the strength to change any minds, it will probably be used as a rallying point for the choir to whom it preaches. Additionally, the flagrant, unapologetic, and historically bizarre attempt to attribute the Holocaust to evolutionary theory goes beyond being insulting, vaporizing the movie's last shred of integrity.… Expand

Check out the Scientific American articles on this movie (and yes I mean "movie" in the pejorative sense). Oh, and listen to the hour and a half long interview with the associate producer. Does intellectual honesty have no place in the religio-political etherworld that 30% of the nation seems to be trying to blanket the entire country with? Really, what is going through these people's minds? To paraphrase a headline from a British newspaper, "how can 300 million people be so dumb?"… Expand

Most intellectually dishonest movie I've ever seen. Implying that the Holocost was the result of Darwinism is particularly revolting and absurd to anyone who has studied history

A cheesy, confused, and stumbling movie that fails completely on many levels - as a documentary (blatantly one-sided and propagandist), as a comedy (much too drab and self-absorbed), and most importantly in its understanding of the reasoning and science behind evolutionary ideas. This movie seems blindly intent on misinterpreting and obfuscating. For instance, few biologists would claim that evolution is a random process - adaptations to a particular habitat certainly aren't random. Ben Stein and his flimmakers seem utterly clueless about the scientific method and how it works. The movie does excel at one thing, however: taking the comments of interviewees out of context.… Expand

Contemptible and transparently mendacious trash. Ben Stein is a shameless fool.

This is ridiculous that people are just voting to trash the movie because of the subject matter. I think you should actually SEE the movie before you vote. Has our society really become this shallow? This movie awesome!

What a worthless piece of dreck. Putting aside the message, it is a bad movie, sloppily made and unappealing to watch. Beyond that, it is terrible propaganda - attempting to conflate science and the Holocaust. Somehow not teaching alternatives to science is wrong. So let's have both astronomy AND astrology taught in schools. Teach chemistry AND alchemy. In history, should we give Holocaust deniers equal time? It would have been nice if the movie attempted to give a short, accurate explanation of ecolution. And intelligent design for that matter. ID is neither intelligent nor science. Why should it be taught in science class? A short snippet of Ben Stein may be amusing. 90 minutes of him is grating.… Expand

Went to see the movie with a couple of friends. We brought flyers advertising the web page expelled exposed dot com so that viewers of the film could see the other side of the argument, if they were interested. The movie theater management tried to "expell" us. The film was as expected, an illogical attempt to equate Darwinism to atheism to Naziism to Holocost. The sympathetic scientists that were "expelled" were interviewed and given their say. Darwin was quoted from his book "Descent of Man" but not fairly. A paragraph was taken out of context which would seem to indicate the man was bent on culling genetically inferior humans out of the gene pool, like Hitler. The next paragraph in the book where he decries any semblence of that was not mentioned leaving the viewer with the wrong impression of Darwin. The partisan crowd seemed to laugh at all the right spots but I found little humor in the movie. The most glaring logical flaw in the presentation was the lack of compelling evidence that supported completely discarding Darwin's theory. There were no examples of where the theory falls short just a lot of puffing and crowing from a few well spoken philosophers. Science is about our best effort to explan our observations in nature. The computer graphics of the working of the cell was impressive and did a fairly good job showing a complicated mechanism. It as the cell is the designer would have to be infinitley more complicated...who or what designed it? From what I saw of Ben Stein in Expelled I've come to the conclusion that he's not an intelligent man...but he plays one on TV… Expand

Stein's not a good enough actor to be playing this dumb. Sadly, that leaves the obvious conclusion: he has abdicated reason and made the classic ought-is mistake. Don't let him take you with him.

A total embarrassment. Debunkings are going on all over the web. It turns out that almost no elements of this film are accurate. A propaganda piece of the worst sort. I mean, come on, evolutionary theory led to Hitler? Please. Check out expelled exposed dot com to learn the real facts that this film misrepresents.

I was invited to this movie, and I'm happy the ticket price didn't come out of my pocket. I gave it a 2 because I think Ben Stein deserves at least a couple points for the guts it took to make and release the film, but that's all. They obviously went into making this film with a heavy bias and made no effort to appear fair or even-handed with the opposing side of the debate. I was reminded often of Michael Moore's "documentaries" and his style of interviewing. This film was insulting to the audience's intelligence, evolutionists and creationists alike.… Expand

Marc N. says "watch it you will understand why NeoDarwinists are pulling out all the stops to keep you from seeing it." I say watch it and you will understand how intellectually bankrupt this film in particular and the creationist arguments in general are.

Ben Stein is the funniest former Nixon lawyer and speech writer EVAH! (That's right, Tricky Dick 'I Am Not A Crook' Nixon) With a background in economics, law, and crooked politics, I can see why he feels qualified to present "Intelligent Design" (=Christian Creation myth) as Real Science. But hey! This religious propaganda packaged as comedy? Oh, what a hoot! What a knee-slapper!! High-jinks galore!!!1! (What a tool...)… Expand

Perhaps the most important movie this year, because it's about who we are both as human beings, as thinking beings, and as freedom loving beings.

Jesus, Marc you're a twit.

....soooooo biased

This movie is mainly about freedom, not biology (funny how the movie reviewers are all experts on biology). It shows that the scientists in the movie are really being silenced not because of bad science, but because they don't have an atheistic world view.

The only thing this movie accomplishes is reinforcing the concept that those who advocate intelligent design or creationism do it out of a perverted sense of religious indignity rather than genuine scientific pursuit. Ben Stein was the absolute wrong choice for narrator, not because of his nasally voice and annoying patterns of speech, but due to his well known bias for intelligent design. It offers no scientific argument that can hold it's own and instead seeks to demonize Darwinists to gain some cheap ground. Not to mention blatantly stealing the cell animation without proper attribution, banning PZ Meyers from the prescreening, and insinuating that Richard Dawkins believes in aliens. This movie fails as cinematography and should be seen by everyone who is still on the fence about evolution, if only to give them an idea of what ID theorists advocate.… Expand

Of course the major newspapers give this film a low grade, their afraid the minority intelligensia would 'expel' their subscriptions, at the very least !

Utterly amateurish and dishonest. Undoubtedly those who desperately wish to believe Charles Darwin had horns on his head will give it high marks. Creationist propaganda of the very worst kind, it fails purely on cinematic terms as well. Louts like Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore at least have the decency to entertain while cramming their messages down our unwilling throats. If you must, give money to churches and charities instead of wasting them on this film.… Expand

A good movie for our times. Without the "over-the-top" , "in-your-face" attitude driven modern cinema. It asks compelling questions about freedom, society, academia, journalism, scientific grants etc. Strangely, reading the reviews from journalists (newspapers) seems to bear out one of the movie's premise. Attack after attack on the movie seems to be made based on non-objective criteria and hysteria. (ex. "propaganda", "creationist", "loony" etc.) One popular movie review page actually described it as "christian"!!! HHmmm??? The questions that Mr. Stien actually asks, remain ignored and unraised by the press, academia, students, etc. Having lived on the other side of "The Wall" (USSR) I can vouch for the accuracy of symbolism used in the movie. Go see it and them form your own opinion.… Expand

Utter drivel.

Very simple to understand, with no convoluted arguments. Uses pure logic without resorting to the dogma of religious texts.

Fails as both a film and as an argument. As a film: Is there an editor in the house? Some shots are held much too long, and the film drags as a whole. Where is the development, climax, denouement? They just beat on the same point over and over. Lighting, contrast, tone? Too eclectic here. Finally, the heavy-handed music is just over the top. We grew out of that after our first couple of assignments in film school. And the Holocaust parallels, while offensive, are simply too commonly used now in such political propaganda to have any shock value. As an argument: Let's see, if I'm an astronomer (even pre-1969, before we visited), and I claimed the moon might be made of cheese, should I have been let go from my academic position? Hmmm... maybe that would actually be a good idea... The filmmakers ought to realize that science requires data. Their argument provides no supporting data. Criticizing Darwinism doesn't translate to support for ID - the onus is on them to come up with a better argument to replace it - i.e. one that more of the data support, something they clearly fail to do. And where are the holes in Darwinism? Note to Ben Stein: simply repeating an argument without specifics doesn't make it so. Seems the biggest potential argument against Darwinism is "irreducible complexity," which has now been fundamentally discredited (see recent Nova special on the Dover trial). Another note to Ben Stein: Social Darwinism and scientific Darwinism are not the same thing, and actually have little to do with one another (one is a flawed philosophy, the other a well-supported biological framework). In the end, despite the protestations of the filmmakers, free speech is obviously not being squelched, or this movie wouldn't have been released. They simply don't understand what science is, and why ID is not science. If a "scientist" promotes an idea and fails to find/provide supporting data that's fine (happens all the time). But if that person then fails to change their argument in the absence of solid experimental evidence, they aren't really a scientist after all, and they ought to be fired or let go from their academic position.… Expand

Finally a film that speaks out against censorship of ideas. It's obvious that those who rated this a 0 never bothered to view this otherwise they would have commented on Ben Stein's premise that we are punishing those who venture to seek alternative solutions.

A complete waste of time.

Despite what the critics said this movie brought to light an important debate and insight into the world of American Science. However, the movie is far from perfect, and I feel the DVD will probably include more of each interview and more depth on the all the subjects touched in the movie. Ben Stein follows the story as an independent thinker just trying to find the answer to what is Intelligent Design and why ID is being blacklisted from the scientific debate. What the Mr Stein discovers is that ID is not creationism, but the simple admission that when you look at the design of life, and the evidence of evolution there must be something more to explain life than chance. There must be a sort of intelligence within the creation of life. Granted there is no means to test this theory, but what this movie exposes is that the Theory of Evolution has no explanation of the origin of life either...and their personal exotic theories can not be tested and rely on as much faith as it does science. But, moving from the discussion of ID and Evolution this movie brings to light the organized nature of the scientific community and the means in which it can and DOES lock up actual scientific debate on controversial or politically incorrect theories/discussion. Although the movie does not go into the discussion of Global Climate Change the same type tactics of firing and blacklisting scientists that do not follow the consensus.… Expand

I don't think Marc N, understands the slightest thing about science. This film regurgitates every creationist/ID canard in the book. You can't scream "SUPPRESION!" if you don't generate any actual research to suppress.

Real scientists interviewed for this movie were deceived by the producers, they were told the interviewed was for "crossroads" a documentary of science and religion, and also the interviews you will see are edited to benefit the Intelligent Design movement. Not scientific, no evidences, just a bunch of religious nuts !

Between dry exposition that all of established science is a grand conspiracy, quote mining, and explaining how those who follow the evidence and reject superstitious dogma are equal to Nazis; we have the highly suspect tales of victims of this shadow conspiracy. instead of addressing science you have appeals to emotion and reducto ad-hitlerum star men. Overall a horrible piece of propaganda.

This film assumes that science is done from some kind of philosophical standpoint, and works purely from that premise. It refuses to acknowledge the thousands of researchers that have no problem reconciling a belief in the supernatural with the study of testable natural phenomena, as this would completely undermine its position. This films shows itself to be propaganda and nothing else, an attempt to create an artificial division for cynical purposes.… Expand

Extraordinarily evil movie - equating evolution with the Holocaust.

A dishonest propaganda piece intended to aid the efforts to get creationism (rebranded as intelligent design) into our school systems. It's full of lies and mis-representations.

Stein should have retired from movies after Bueller.

It made me really anxious and tense trying to fight back my frustration, not with the premise necessarily, but with the poor execution and the obvious leaps being made. Documentary films are supposed to educate and maybe attempt to convince their audience, but this movie tried to make me feel stupid for wanting some substance.

Poorly done fantasy agitprop.

Offensive - sat through just to appease some creationist friends - now ex-friends.

Offensive to me both as a scientist and a Jew.

Extremely thoughtful and very well done.

Let me start off by saying whether I was a Neo-Darwinist or a Christian, this documentary was still incredibly great. Not only that, but the excellent points Stein brought up. Intelligent Design is NOT the same as Creationism. Whoever thinks that is mislead. Intelligent Design simply says something "intelligent" designed the world. We didn't just come around by chance... Human life IS valuable. I can't even BELIEVE that people are ignorant enough to believe that human life has no value. As for the movie, it was great and i walked out moved. Congratulations to Stein for finally making a movie that explains the truth to all of those mislead, stubborn Evolutionists, Darwinists, and Neo-Darwinists. and P.S. I am a 10th grade student at Scottsdale Christian Academy... google it.… Expand

Lame propaganda insulting to the intelligence of anyone who passed and half way understood high school biology.

Pretty good. I was a bit skeptical and curious at first but now that I've seen it I think I'm starting to understand what all the fuss is about over evolution. It's definately worth while seeing. You probably will even walk away illuminated cos personally I now actually suspect this issue is more than what most people make it out to be. Design does not necessarily imply God - like Dawkins comment shows (it could be alien life forms) - thus it makes sense that design is liable for consideration since the complexity shows that maybe some intelligent input was involved in nature if a natural explanation appears to be hard to come by because of the complexity of living things. I recommend it cos this will probably prompt your thinking in this area and encourage further casual research it certainly did with me and I'm seriously starting to think that this issue is not one sided as many would have me believe - there really seems to be other views that deserve to be brought up whether some like to think so or not and these ideas as far as I can tell are not so crack pot (as has been claimed) when one approaches this debate with an open mind. I'm beginning to think that bias could be clouding the judgment of those on the evolution side. That's my opinion. Could be wrong but the documentary raised some good points. Trust me this one will get you thinking. It may even keep you up at night.… Expand

As a scientist and physician i thought it was an enjoyable and entertaining way to look at the issue. That there anger for anyone questioning evolution is something I have witnessed over the last 25 years of my education. It is apparent in the biased reviews other users are giving the film (0/10? maybe a 2 or 3 if you really think it is that bad). I would say watch the film and judge for yourself. Neither young earth creationists or those who choose evolution as their religion will likely enjoy the film as much as someone who can be objective.… Expand

The editing's not bad. Other than that... This is not so much a film as it is a con job on the financial backers for it. Somewhere Bialystock & Bloom are counting their money on a beach. Springtime for Creationism!

Wow -- exploiting the Holocaust to make a right-wing political point? That's breathtaking! This film is a new low for the Christian Right.

Finally someone has the courage to speak out about this important issue. Powerful message presented in an entertaining manner. I am going to buy this one.

Bill W., you are no scientist. If you are one then why did you misspell there? If you're a scientist then you would know that you should have used their when referring to their anger. Also, Tom R. if you actually think that Dawkins thinks aliens could have created life on earth then you have been hoodwinked. Read his column in the LA Times. You'll learn a little bit more about what he really thinks about aliens creating life on earth.… Expand

Intelligent Design IS rooted in creationism. Google "cdesign propotentists."

This film is a propaganda piece as big in scale, ambition, and lies as anything produced in WWII Germany. If I had come into it with no knowledge of the issue, I might have left convinced that Darwin was the grandmaster of the Holocaust, and that Sternberg was a hero. The film gives us an old story of conspiracy, rebellion, and heroism and it's all very appealing and very untrue. Sadly, people will be duped by their own sense of objectivity.… Expand

A worthless piece of garbage. Appalling right wing propaganda masquerading as an insightful documentary. The only insight this lame stunt provides is just how twisted the minds of the Christian Right can be. Oh the irony of the film's very title. Pathetic and the absolute worst film of 2008.

Documentaries are usually boring -- but not this one! Thank you, Ben Stein, for presenting the facts in an enlightening and entertaining way. I hope to see more!

Stein's accusation that the minuscule section of the scientific community are being "Expelled" is ridiculous. If it was a debate between two ideas, which itself is debatable, then where is the evidence to support this side...as best I could tell, this movie did not contain any. Don't convince me evolution is wrong, convince me that ID is right. Evolution: Theory+ years of supporting research = accepted idea both scientifically and socially. ID: Theory + people really really wanting it to be true = at its best (which this film is most certainty not)....science fiction.… Expand

Oh man did this make me want to gouge my eyes out and squish my brains.

Pure rubbish, insulting garbage. When asked about those scientists (such as myself) who both study evolution and have strong faith, the makers of this movie said that including those people would "muddle the issue." All this movie does is create unnecessary tension between religion and science. There is no contradiction there.

It is the best movie I have seen in years. Funny, great use of video, and so full of true facts that the science community is in an uproar. They keep lowering the standards for science education hoping people won't see through the shams they present as "real science." We don't buy it!

This movie was flippant at times, but it is most certainly not a "20" as its Metacritic score currently stands. This movie challenges the media establishment. Is it any wonder they don't like it? As the movie states, "questions not fully answered, do not go away."

Amazing film. Disregard all the negative reviews, they are from people who are so threatened by the power of the film's argument that they want to dissuade people from seeing it because they know how compelling it is. It is the standard tactic from elitist critics and is something the move actually talks about. Most of these critics are actually insecure and frightened by how powerful the movie is and what great argument it makes, they have to resort to childish words to criticize it. It is insightful, balanced, absolutely non-propaganda but only a search for the truth. One of the best movies to come out in a very long time.… Expand

The easily lead are easily mislead. Quite simply, the movie is filled with lies. Sternberg never worked for the Smithsonian, he was an unpaid Research Associate. The Smithsonian renewed his Research Collaborator status for 3 more years in 2006 (and this is expelled?). He resigned from his unpaid editor position at the PBSW 6 months before the Meyer article was published. The story is similar for all those who were supposedly "expelled" This movie is a perfect example of lying for Christianity. Please don't accept lies just to justify a religious worldview.… Expand

Another friendly reminder that "intelligent design" is a victory of faith-based marketing selling faux-science to a science-ignorant audience. Kinda like this movie.

Not as bad as everyone says. The point of the movie is conveyed clearly. You might not jump out of your seat but it is worth a watch.

"This isn't really, and never has been a debate about science. It's about religion and philosophy." A little reading on the Intelligent Design movement makes it painfully clear that facts have no bearing on ID. It is a political movement to "introduce Jesus," into scientific culture. A movie based on this agenda is destined to fail horribly when watched by anyone with a critical mind. All quotes from the founder of Intelligent Design, Phillip E Johnson.… Expand

This was an interesting movie. Regardless of which side of this debate you are on we should be able to discuss it intelligently. I was saddened by the lack of open discussion on this topic in America. The debate seems very one-sided.

Pure propaganda. They link the Holocaust to evolution, and actually try to use that as a legitimate argument. That should tell you something.

The idea that these "scientists" were "expelled" for pursuing research in intelligent design is not just inaccurate, it is a fabrication. The degree of dishonesty that religious fundamentalists will go through in order to brainwash people into believing what they want them to believe is nothing short of astonishing. If we allow these zealots to infiltrate our scientific institutions, then we have all but relegated the United States back into the dark ages while the rest of the developed nations become the new leaders in scientific study. It makes me ashamed to be an American.… Expand

My family works in this area of academic science, and it's all true. It's been frustrating as a scientist to see the facts being pushed aside. I'm glad someone was brave enough to make it public.

While far from perfect, this movie at least presents the other side of a debate that has been far too long dominated by one side.

Whether or not these men were "expelled" because of their interest in ID as the movie wants us to think, I do sense a lot of resistance to open discussion about the ID theory in comparison to the theory of evolution. Both have some strengths and weaknesses. If evolutionists are so right, then why won't they debate these theories and provide evidences for their claims. Perhaps it is like the ID theory... there are no real evidences, just hypothesis which cannot be reproduced and tested. I guess we will never know the truth (unless ID is correct and a creator reveals it to us someday - or maybe he already has and we just don't believe it?)… Expand

An admittedly biased film that very nearly does itself in early by cutting in clip footage from everything from educational films to the Wizard of Oz and The Bride Of Frankenstein in a flippant and smugly amusing fashion, the film finds it's legs halfway through and lays some very sobering and not to mention chilling facts on the table. So much so in fact that some of it's more unsubstantiated claims that follow later seem quite plausible. But considering the fact that the media itself is very biased, you have to ask where else you would even hope to get a whiff of the other side of this very divisive issue. Both sides are presented, although the pro I.D. opinions are given more screen time, to be sure. Calling this a cheap Michael Moore ripoff could not be farther from the truth. Every person that claims to be Christian should see this film. It needs to be seen. Don't believe the reviews. Decide for yourself.… Expand

The links Ben Stein makes between rabid (devout?) Darwinism and Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, eugenics, and abortion (Planned Parenthood) by themselves are worth viewing the movie. The analogy of the Berlin Wall is powerful indeed.

Let's see...who to believe? On one hand we have: A Nixon speech writer and apologist (no dishonesty there), game show host, flailing economist, unfunny comedian, turncoat Jew misappropriating the Holocaust along with his systematically dishonest producers who are marketing trumped up and deceitful charges of "expulsion" and conspiracy to an utterly ignorant audience of fundamentalist sheep. On the other hand: 99.99% of the world's scientists (agnostic, atheistic and piously religious) who have spent the majority of their lives pursuing the truth and beauty around them and sharing that knowledge with each other and the world. If there existed a word whose meaning was viler than vile, it would most definitely apply to this so-called "documentary" and no other. What an obscene, insulting waste of my time and $7.… Expand

When belief in creation was the conventional opinion atheism was looked down on. Now that atheism seems dominant in the scientific community even entertaining intelligent design is lookied down on. Regardless of ones stance, human nature is prejudice towards those they disagree with. Nothing ever seems to change.

They lied to everyone in pre-production and they are lying to everyone now. Stein should be ashamed of himself for his part in furthering the Intelligent Design (ID) agenda. This movie made dishonest references to the holocaust, misrepresented the scientific community,made false claims of persecution and did nothing but showed ID proponents to be hypocritical and academically challenged.

I wonder if yet anyone has looked at everyones comments and has seen how it just enforces the whole point of the movie, people get so frustrated at something that challenges what they've always been taught to believe and can't open their minds even a minuscule amount to see that the point of the movie is not to enforce a religious ideal but to promote the now a days "crazy" idea of a fair academic society where you can follow the evidence and facts to where it takes you and not have to worry about manipulating your findings to fit into the omnipotent heads of sciences "ideal". oh and David S. I'm pretty sure if you have a doctorate in the natural sciences that makes you a scientist (I know its very shocking!)...but then again unlike most of these people i can admit I may be wrong.… Expand

Stupid film. Biased and one-sided. This is a response to the pop-science broadsides aimed at Religion in recent times, and to be honest they're just as bad. Neither side has any will to understand the other and open their eyes to the SCREAMINGLY obvious fact that Science and Religion serve completely different roles in society and the psyche. It's a never ending point scoring exercise and it's never been more exasperating than it is now, at least to people who have grown up.… Expand

Very well-done movie. Asks a couple of good questions, and searches for their answers. It does not say "ID good, evolution bad" but rather "free inquiry good, closed inquiry bad", and points out that there is no reason to limit inquiry into subjects like evolution and the origin of life.

Did they really have to sink so low as to abuse the holocaust to try and force people into following their way of thinking? This movie is insulting to anyone that watches it.

According to Ben Stein, evolution is exactly like the holocaust, and he uses some nice shots of the Dachau cramatoria to drive that point home. Classy.

David S this movie makes you "ashamed" to be an American? grow up! The debate IS one sided and intelligent design and creationism are 2 totally different things... this movie is great and eyeopening... i think I'm going to look further into this... people, grow up and stop pushing this debate aside because it's as real as anything else.

Once again the religious right can't make a foothold in a secular society in which scientific theory is accepted for it's logic and reason.

Looking over the user reviews, it's not hard to realize that everybody who believes in ID gave it an 8 or above, everybody who doesn't gave it a 3 or below...Every doc. is made with one-sided intentions; every doc. is hated by the ones who disagree--loved by the ones who agree--judging this film purely on its merit, gotta say, it wasn't that bad. A few chuckles, good editing, great narrating by Stein: it wasn't that bad of an insight into the debate.… Expand

The religious right in the US is trying to co-opt the vocabulary of liberalism and science to promote their agenda. This is not a film, as many reviewers have posted, that is about freedom. It’s an attempt by the Religious Right to tie themselves to the sympathetic victims of real oppression. To pretend oppression and victimization cheapens the real thing. Ben Stein should be ashamed for invoking real oppression when he discusses the scientific community’s overwhelming dismissal of their religious beliefs as well, religious beliefs. Scientific consensus is based on verifiable data. No freedom has been impinged upon by scientists who refuse to teach baseless myth as scientific fact in public schools. To claim so is to be a winy little brat. Science supports good ideas. ID is a joke because it’s a terrible and unverifiable idea. Considering that Christianity has a rich history of anti-Semitism, and that all of the leaders of the Nazi party were raised by their Christian Churches to hate Jews, it’s rather silly to believe that Darwin or Nietzsche had anything to do with the Holocaust. The Holocaust was also not the first mass murder of Jews by Christians in Europe. Ben Stein’s rather obvious claim that Evolution leads to holocaust is beyond idiotic and beyond insulting. I’m at a loss for words. It’s just stupid. It really worries me that people can sit through this film and not feel dirty. The gulf between rational thinkers and religious believers seems more unbridgeable thanks to this film.… Expand

If I argued against child molestation and someone critiqued it as "one sided" would that be true? Should all sides always be debated? Or is it just dumb to debate some sides? One thing is for sure - it helps to argue against something when you can just make stuff up and depend on your target audience to know less about the subject than you do. No amount of production values, jokes or editing can make up for a movie that, in principle, is a lie.… Expand

I find it amusing that evolutionist hardliners constantly say that evidence against evolution is not evidence for creation, and yet whenever someone questions the flaws in evolution or presents scientific evidence against it, these same evolutionists scream that they’re only propagating the Christian agenda. Case in point all the zeroes this movie has received. Obviously it deserves a higher score than that, but they disagree so strongly with the message of the movie that they’re unable or unwilling to actually judge the quality of the movie. And the reason they can’t disassociate themselves to judge the movie on its own merits is because they are the very people whose toes got stepped on by this movie. This movie is not about creation vs. intelligent design vs. evolution. This movie is about how the evolutionist hardliners won’t tolerate dissention from their pet doctrine. Ironically, they have a lot in common with the most rabid fundamentalist they claim to hate because they refuse anyone who disagrees with them a forum to voice their opinions to the point where they get people who don’t fall in with the party line fired from their jobs or get their funding cut. And they’ve been doing this for so long that they’ve come to completely dominate the education system, and the scientific community has ended up as an exclusive clique of cookie-cutter scientists whose validation comes from patting each other on the back and claiming anyone who disagrees with them is just plain ignorant. I’ll be honest. The movie was a lot better than I expected. I wanted to see it because I agreed with the point of the movie, not because I expected it to be better than average, and I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t at all dry, but actually rather entertaining (initially even flippant while discussing serious topics, but right around the time I started tiring of the flippancy it shifted gears and became more serious). Before I saw the movie I rolled my eyes when I heard how Stein linked the holocaust to evolution. Atrocities have been committed by the religious and the non-religious alike, so what’s the point? But when I saw it, I understood. Stein is a Jew, so of course he’s going to want to explore the link once it’s brought to his attention. That link being that evolution led to the popularization of eugenics (guiding the course of natural selection) in the decades preceding Nazi Germany, and then Hitler took eugenics to an extreme its proponents hadn’t anticipated. Anyway, the movie was well-done, it made me think, and judging from all the zeroes and tens this movie got, it succeeded at grabbing peoples’ emotions, for good or for ill. And as one of the anonymous reviewers wrote, any movie that polarizes people this much really should be seen. And by the way, tell me again, what religion did Ben Stein promote in this movie? I must have missed that part.… Expand

I thought this movie was better produced than I ever would have guessed going in, and handled itself well. Kept me interested throughout, and raised some great questions. The last five minutes are priceless: listening to Dawkins explain that as long as an alien is the hand behind evolution, and not God, that he can buy in.

So I take it Yesman that you'd give high marks to Leni Riefenstahl's films even though they were blatant Nazi propaganda (though well edited, shot, written, etc.)? For me the message is part of the overall package. If it doesn't entertain or inform, but rather obfuscates, it's a bad film. So 9s and 10s, this is about free speech (not evolution)? What gave you the idea we have free speech in this country? There are words you can't say on TV. You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater, and you can't say libelous things. Speech is free in its appropriate context, and rightfully so. Who's preventing the filmmakers from releasing this film? Or you from commenting about it? I don't imagine it will be used in a biology class, though, except to point out the inanity of the non-scientific opinion. (But I can certainly anticipate that many right-wing churches will buy hundreds of copies of the DVD to indoctrinate their children). A scientist who continues to espouse an unsupported view SHOULD be fired, let go, denied tenure, or in the case of some of the "injured" interviewees in this film, simply not have their volunteer status renewed. Just as someone teaching a comparative religion class who continued to insist that there was no creation story in Christian religions, despite any historical or literary evidence, should be let go. That's not stifling free speech, that simply framing the view correctly in its context. And to those who argue that ID is not creationism (another point this film adds confusion to), you're right. They're not exactly the same thing. They're simply very nearly the same thing. ID is just a straightforward extension of creationism (and the term was substituted for "creationism" in the IDers own literature, so even they thought of them as remarkably similar). So, it could be space aliens in addition to "God"? Then where is your evidence for space aliens, or flying spaghetti monsters, etc.? ID is fundamentally similar to creationism in that it is a religious point of view (i.e. relies on belief, not hard data). It is therefore not science, and doesn't belong in the context of a science class. Period. This movie sheds no new light (data) on that view and therefore doesn't have a leg to stand on. Therefore a "1" from my perspective (yeah, at least they tried - probably not the cameraman's fault this is a fundamentally flawed piece of tripe).… Expand

I am an activist for ID and I thought this movie was a bit distasteful and if people really take this movie and think that it represents all people who want to debate about ID then I fear we have been set back. It was such obvious propaganda. *Sigh*

I think this show justs points out how liberally biased the critics on metacritc are. Michael Medved, one of the most famous movie critics of all time, and yes, a conservative, gave this movie 4 out of 5 stars, which would equate to about a 90 score on metacritic. But the HIGHEST score on metacritic is 50! Metacritic, if your business model is to appeal only to liberals then you are right on track.… Expand

Not an easy film to watch, but important. And Stein is quite correct; it's hard to understand why so many people cannot see it. One does not have to agree with ID's claims to see that free inquiry is widely squelched. The emotions this brings out (evidenced by, for example, the people who give the film a "0" rating) leave me scratching my head.

Amazing how pissy you guys get when you're the ones under the microscope!

There are some good arguments in favor of ID. This film doesn't make them. There are tactful ways to argue in favor of God's role in moral thought. This film is incredibly crass when doing so (Darwin = Auschwitz? Come on!). I suppose we got the movie we'd expect from an average to mediocre game show host with delusions of grandeur.

I love the use of the term "liberal" to refer to anyone who takes umbrage with the anti-academic crusade of the Christian fundamentalists who made this schlock. If academic discourse, critical thought, and intellectual nuance are left wing, then you can start making my uniform for Team Liberal today.

The point was to show that anyone who wants to debate evolution is immediately muzzled. It made that point well. Why are evolutionists so afraid to debate?