Friday, March 21, 2008

Intelligent Design's hypocrisy

If you've been following the Intelligent Design circus, you know its proponents have created and are promoting a movie called Expelled, hosted by Ben Stein. It purports to be about academic censorship by the evil "Darwinist" cabal who can't compete in the world of ideas with the ID geniuses, and so must censor and quash their colleagues in the name of promoting atheism and Darwinism. (Of course, why the movie includes a great deal of Nazi footage is beyond me. If the movie is about an academic debate, linking evolution to Nazism is a complete non-sequitor.)

Of course, it's all a load of hogwash. If the ID "scientists" were promoting actual science and proposing actual hypotheses, testing these hypotheses, and producing actual results, the results would speak for themselves. Alas, there is no research being produced by the ID crowd.

When they were making Expelled, the moviemakers lied about their intentions to several actual biologists in order to interview them, hiding the creationist, oops, anti-evolution intent behind their movie. These biologists included Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers.

Last night, the producers of Expelled held a free preview showing in Minnesota. To see the show, you had only to register in advance. PZ Myers, his family and guests registered to go and were in the theatre last night. Somewhat disturbingly, but also hilariously, one of the movie's producers recognized Myers (he is in the movie, after all) and had security throw him out! His family and guest were allowed to attend.

Who was the guest? Richard Dawkins.

The complete story is here.

The followup is here.

These ID guys aren't just intellectually bankrupt, they're hypocrites of the highest order.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think calling them hypocrites is actually being kind to them. Hypocrisy implies that someone actually believes that they are saying but are simply acting inconsistently. I don't think these people give a damn about academic freedome or anything else; it's just a tool to advance their agenda. They are simply ideologues for whom the end justifies the means. Unfortunately, they are plenty of gullible people--many of whom should know better--that will buy this crap.

Eric Haas said...

Several dictionaries I checked all included deliberate pretense as part of the definition of hypocrisy. I agree with the rest of your comment, though.

Anonymous said...

I stand corrected on the definition.