Errors made by Expelled reviewers

Errors made by reviewers of Expelled:

The most common error, which may be deliberate, is to attribute to the movie any of several various statements or ideas which it does not make (see Strawman argument). The reviewer, having set up a "straw man", then handily knocks it down. Ironically, he usually does so by repeating the argument the movie actually makes.

The most likely purpose of these strawman arguments - unless by chance they are genuine mistakes - is to distract attention from the main point of the movie.

The movie shows how mainstream science in America and England refuse to consider any ideas other than the naturalistic explanation of the "appearance of design". Everything other than Darwin's Theory of Evolution is rejected out of hand, dismissed rather than rebutted.

The movie refers to this dismissal with the metaphor of "expulsion", as when a naughty boy in short pants is kicked out of school. Another metaphor it uses is the "wall" erected between materialism and design.

Darwinism and Eugenics

The film traces the connection between Darwinism and Eugenics, using quotations from a book by Darwin and a speech by Adolf Hitler to show how the theory of evolution was abused and misinterpreted to justify forced sterilizations and mass murder by the Third Reich. The film quotes at least one scholar who defends Evolutionists, pointing out that no one blames them for the Holocaust.

Yet more than one reviewer, writing as if they had missed this part of the film, puts words into Ben Stein's mouth which he did not say. These reviewers accuse the film of blaming the Holocaust on Evolution, although the film takes pains to make just the opposite point.

What the film says, rather, is that the faulty idea of the Evolution could be (and was) used by Social Darwinists to justify their misdeeds.