Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Freedom to Question?

More known for his side role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ben Stein offers an interesting and fair look into the academic science world with his movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

He investigates several science educators "expelled" from their job and shunned from the academic world for citing intelligent design or suggesting plausibilities within ID. Stein uncovers a world within academia that is vehemently opposed to the teaching of ID as an alternative to Darwinism.

An interesting discovery Stein makes in his documentary is that the cell Darwin discovered in his time would pale to the cell discovered today. Meaning, the scientific evidence at our disposal today actually sheds light on Darwin's theory - and as a result, begins to poke holes in it.

While many scientists agree that Darwin made valuable contribution to science, a growing number of them are beginning to question his "leap of faith" in trying to determine the "origins of the species" and how he made assumptions on life "progressing".

With the knowledge of irreducibile complexity and further study into the structure of cells, Expelled questions what the real motives might be behind leaders in academia.

Is it to preserve science? Or, to quelch sincere questioning that might undermine a belief system?