Rush Limbaugh #fundie

Rush Limbaugh #fundie rushlimbaugh.com

[about Expelled: The Movie]

Darwinism, of course, does not permit for the existence of a supreme being, a higher power, or a God. His interviews with some of the professors who espouse Darwinism are literally shocking. The condescension and the arrogance these people have, they will readily admit that Darwinism and evolution do not explain how life began. One of these professors said it might have been that a hyper-intelligence from another planet came here and started our race. This from some professor either in the UK, I forget where it was, but can't be God. These people are so threatened by the existence of God, they will not permit intelligent design to be discussed. Professors have been fired, blackballed, and prevented from working who have deigned to try to combine the whole concept of evolution with intelligent design.

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old comment by szena

For anyone who missed Dawkins' explanation of his words in the film, here it is.

"Toward the end of his interview with me, Stein asked whether I could think of any circumstances whatsoever under which intelligent design might have occurred. It's the kind of challenge I relish, and I set myself the task of imagining the most plausible scenario I could. I wanted to give ID its best shot, however poor that best shot might be. I must have been feeling magnanimous that day, because I was aware that the leading advocates of Intelligent Design are very fond of protesting that they are not talking about God as the designer, but about some unnamed and unspecified intelligence, which might even be an alien from another planet. Indeed, this is the only way they differentiate themselves from fundamentalist creationists, and they do it only when they need to, in order to weasel their way around church/state separation laws. So, bending over backwards to accommodate the IDiots ("oh NOOOOO, of course we aren't talking about God, this is SCIENCE") and bending over backwards to make the best case I could for intelligent design, I constructed a science fiction scenario. Like Michael Ruse (as I surmise) I still hadn't rumbled Stein, and I was charitable enough to think he was an honestly stupid man, sincerely seeking enlightenment from a scientist. I patiently explained to him that life could conceivably have been seeded on Earth by an alien intelligence from another planet (Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel suggested something similar -- semi tongue-in-cheek)...

This 'Ultimate 747' argument, as I called it in The God Delusion, may or may not persuade you. That is not my concern here. My concern here is that my science fiction thought experiment -- however implausible -- was designed to illustrate intelligent design's closest approach to being plausible. I was most emphaticaly NOT saying that I believed the thought experiment. Quite the contrary. I do not believe it (and I don't think Francis Crick believed it either). I was bending over backwards to make the best case I could for a form of intelligent design. And my clear implication was that the best case I could make was a very implausible case indeed. In other words, I was using the thought experiment as a way of demonstrating strong opposition to all theories of intelligent design.

Well, you will have guessed how Mathis/Stein handled this. I won't get the exact words right (we were forbidden to bring in recording devices on pain of a $250,000 fine, chillingly announced by some unnamed Gauleiter before the film began), but Stein said something like this. "What? Richard Dawkins BELIEVES IN INTELLIGENT DESIGN." "Richard Dawkins BELIEVES IN ALIENS FROM OUTER SPACE."

old comment by Delmania

Expelled is an incredibly stupid movie. I've lost a lot of respect for Ben Stein as a result of it. Like many creationist propaganda, it relies heavily upon a viewer's lack of knowledge of the theory of evolution in order to present half truth and out of context statements.

The theory of evolution says nothing about the existence of God. It makes no attempt to describe how life started. It describes how life adapts to a changing environment. The actual origin of life is another matter, as evolution cannot occur if there is no life.

I like how someone pointed out that, according to belief of Intelligent Design, aliens from another planet could have come and designed life.

old comment by DarkfireTaimatsu

Intelligent design, of course, does not permit for the existence of a scientific method, proof, or rational thinking. His interviews with some of the professors who espouse intelligent design are literally shocking. The condescension and the arrogance these people have. Their opponents will readily admit that evolution does not explain how life began, and for good reason, because it has nothing to do with that. One of those professors said it might have been that a hyper-intelligence from another planet came here and started our race. This from some professor either in the UK, I forget where it was, but can't be God. These people are so threatened by the notion that God might not exist, they will not permit evolution into their thinking. Professors have been fired, blackballed, and prevented from working who have deigned to try to combine the whole concept of evolution with intelligent design.

Fixed, mostly. The line about the aliens was so weird, I couldn't think what to do with it, so I left it as-is.

old comment by FMG

1. Evolution is not linked to abiogenesis.
2. Abiogenesis has a variety of theories each equally valid due to the nature of the testing involved in replicating the event (We don't have the ability to keep cameras at a thermal vent, or muck around with miller experiments the size of the earth using lightning. Bearing in mind our "homemade" commercial lightning is not even a hundreth of the power of the real deal. Ours can set fires to a tree. Real lightning will cause the tree to explode)
3. The joke of "ID" being an alien race is just as valid and retarded as God. But is atleast relatively testable.

The entire movie's argument is "Hitler thought evolution was good". If Hitler fully understood evolution he would have instituted a race mixing program where people had lots of sex. Not his idiotic "white race" concept.

old comment by

Ben Stein is a fucking idiot. Some of his bull-stein-shit:

"And there hasn't been much progress in Darwinism since [the life of Darwin]"

"Well, the first cause is not...it's lightning striking a mud puddle. See, and this is what the evolutionists say. And by the way, they may be right -- you know, I'm not a scientist, they could be right."

"You can only say Darwinian causes -- random mutation, natural selection -- even gravity is supposed to be done by that! And I would say to these people, well, how did life begin? We don't know, but it had to be by Darwinian means. Well, how did gravity begin? We don't know, but it had to be by Darwinian means. Why did it have to be that way? Why couldn't there have been an intelligent designer?"

"[The] Third (problem with Darwinism), which I think is overwhelming, and just sort of blows the whole theory of Random Mutation out of the water, is, at least, let me say, raises big questions, that is. Assuming it all did happen by Random Mutation and Natural Selection, where did the laws of gravity come from. Where did the laws of thermodynamics come from? Where did the laws of motion and, of heat come from? Where, I guess that's the same as thermodynamics. Where did all these laws, that make it possible for the universe to function, where did they all come from? Why isn't all just chaos and everything collapsing in on itself and killing everything?"

"Evolutionism, as taught by Darwinism, has nothing - nothing - to say about how life originated. Has nothing to say about how the governing principles in the universe - gravity, thermodynamics, motion, fluid motion - how any of those originated. It's...it's got some gigantic missing pieces."

"Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place- science leads you to killing people."

old comment by

"they will readily admit that Darwinism and evolution do not explain how life began."

That's what honest people do. We admit when we don't know And we're continuing to look for it. Darwin never set out to explain the origin of life. You're dishonestly claiming to be absolutely certain about something no one could possibly be absolutely certain about-the origin of life, the universe, and everything. You claim to know the answer, and it's "goddidit". And, conveniently for you, it just happens to be YOUR god that did it out of the thousands that mankind has come up with over the ages.

You are so threatened by the existence of evolution, you will not permit it to be discussed.

Rush Limbaugh #fundie rushlimbaugh.com

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