Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed: How Has It Done?

Critics of Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" have put out the word that the movie has bombed at the Box Office. By doing so, they hope to demoralize critics of Darwinism; evolutionists taunt those who dissent from Darwinian orthodoxy, saying "See, no one wanted to see your silly movie. You people are on the fringe of society. No one of any intellectual caliber disagrees with us." Darwin's modern-day disciples also hope that by putting out the word that "Expelled" failed at the Box Office, those who can't decide between evolution and creationism would side with the former for fear of being associated with a "discredited" minority. Proponents of evolution indulge in the logic that if "Expelled" did so poorly with movie audiences, then it must be a bad film. One blogger, commenting on my review of the film, declared that since one cannot obtain a bootlegged copy of "Expelled" on the street, it must be of poor quality.

Yet the Box Office record tells another story. The film opened in 1,052 theaters nation-wide, a record for a documentary feature. The first weekend of its release, it took in $2,900,000, the third biggest opening for a documentary. As of May 13th, it grossed $7,000,000 the twelfth highest gross earnings for a documentary in the United States ( The source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expelled:_No_Intelligence_Allowed ) Further bad news for foes of "Expelled": the suit filed by Yoko Ono against the film's producers for using two seconds of John Lennon's "Imagine" has been thrown out of court. Apparently neither she nor the movie's critics have heard of the "Fair Use Doctrine." http://www.uncommondescent.com/ (See the
6/3/08 post)

My review of "Expelled" on this blog generated more comments than any other piece I have published (Thirteen comments! Some of them are mine). The review was posted at 6:00 A.M. Within ninety minutes, a blogger calling himself/herself benfranklin responded, recommending a website "exposing" Expelled. Ninety minutes! Early in the morning! Are evolutionist bloggers working overtime to spot dissent from Darwin on the Internet? Do they feel that threatened by Intelligent Design? I digress. My responses to benfranklin have led me to write some posts dealing with the website expelledexposed.com . I will deal with this website's scurrilous portrayal of those who appeared in "Expelled," as well the use of a quote from Darwin's "The Descent of Man" in the film. The question of the relationship between Darwinian Evolution and Nazi ideology and the holocaust will also be addressed. For those who, like Francis Collins, author of "The Language of God," believe that Evolution is compatible with Christianity, I will disprove that contention using the words of Darwin himself. ben franklin, if you are out there, I welcome your comments.