captaingeech

I just got back home after visiting my mom for the weekend for mother's day. I like living four hours away because I can visit when I want, but don't have to all the time. My mom wanted to go see "Expelled," the Ben Stein anti-evolution movie. It was really disappointing, coming from Ben Stein. I believe in science, so I already knew it wasn't going to be convincing, but it really didn't touch on any issues for either side. It was a very good example of propaganda because most of the arguments were emotional. It also used straw man, ad hominem, begging the question, and other logical fallacies. I would love to show it in class except it might stir up some touchy issues with very religious students. I think I can get away with it as long as I underline that we are showing weaknesses in Stein's argument, not in ID or any other religious ideas. The biggest flaw with the movie is that Stein doesn't really seem to understand the theory of evolution to begin with. The movie portrays it as random acts of nature, but natural selection is the opposite of random; nature selects certain characteristics to be passed on--only those characteristics that are adaptive to survival. Secondly, the movie tries to poke holes in evolutionary theory's ability to explain the origins of life, but does not explain intelligent design theory's alternative. I've heard lots of debates on this issue, and ID advocates say that their theory is that there is a designer that created life. OK, how? Evolutionary theory can show the exact mechanisms and processes by which it happened. ID says that a designer did it . . . somehow. And that's it. ID doesn't present an alternative view of any of the specific theories put forth by ET.