Scientific American, 4/2008  By Michael Shermer

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed--Ben Stein Launches a Science-free Attack
on Darwin

In a new documentary film, actor, game show host and financial columnist Ben
Stein falls for the pseudoscience of intelligent design

In 1974 I matriculated at Pepperdine University as a born-again Christian
who rejected Darwinism and evolutionary theory—not because I knew anything
about it (I didn't) but because I thought that in order to believe in God
and accept the Bible as true, you had to be a creationist. What I knew about
evolution came primarily from creationist literature, so when I finally took
a course in evolutionary theory in graduate school I realized that I had
been hoodwinked. What I discovered is a massive amount of evidence from
multiple sciences—geology, paleontology, biogeography, zoology, botany,
comparative anatomy, molecular biology, genetics and
embryology—demonstrating that evolution happened.

It was with some irony for me, then, that I saw Ben Stein's antievolution
documentary film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, opens with the actor,
game show host and speechwriter for Richard Nixon addressing a packed
audience of adoring students at Pepperdine University, apparently falling
for the same trap I did.

Actually they didn't. The biology professors at Pepperdine assure me that
their mostly Christian students fully accept the theory of evolution. So who
were these people embracing Stein's screed against science? Extras.
According to Lee Kats, associate provost for research and chair of natural
science at Pepperdine, "the production company paid for the use of the
facility just as all other companies do that film on our campus" but that
"the company was nervous that they would not have enough people in the
audience so they brought in extras. Members of the audience had to sign in
and

*** a staff member reports that no more than two to three Pepperdine
students were in attendance. Mr. Stein's lecture on that topic was not an
event sponsored by the university." And this is one of the least dishonest
parts of the film.  ***

At the Crossroads of Conspiracy

Ben Stein came to my office to interview me about what I was told was a film
about "the intersection of science and religion" called Crossroads (yet
another deception). I knew something was afoot when his first question to me
was on whether or not I think someone should be fired for expressing
dissenting views. I pressed Stein for specifics: Who is being fired for
what, when and where? In my experience, people are usually fired for reasons
having to do with budgetary constraints, incompetence or not fulfilling the
terms of a contract.  Stein finally asked my opinion on people being fired
for endorsing intelligent design. I replied that I know of no instance where
such a firing has happened.

This seemingly innocent observation was turned into a filmic confession of
ignorance when my on-camera interview abruptly ends there, because when I
saw Expelled at a preview screening at the National Religious Broadcasters's
convention (tellingly, the film is being targeted primarily to religious and
conservative groups), I discovered that the central thesis of the film is a
conspiracy theory about the systematic attempt to keep intelligent design
creationism out of American classrooms and culture.

Stein's case for conspiracy centers on a journal article written by Stephen
Meyer, a senior fellow at the intelligent design think tank Discovery
Institute and professor at the theologically conservative Christian Palm
Beach Atlantic University. Meyer's article, "The Origin of Biological
Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories," was published in the June
2004 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, the voice of the
Biological Society with a circulation of less than 300 people. In other
words, from the get-go this was much ado about nothing.

[ the article continues, see
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=ben-steins-expelled-review-michael-shermer&s
c=expelled_nws ]

Regrding no joy ... only sadness:

But there is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Jesus has struck out.

Pathetic.