REEL NEWS
Expelled Expels Darwinist
Evolutionary biologist and avowed atheist Richard Dawkins attends screening of ID documentary, but his colleague got booted. Plus: Disney dispels Narnia rumors; Scofield, Minghella pass away; a new generation of Christian filmmakers; and more.
by Josh Hurst | posted 3/24/2008
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Expelled—the Ben Stein-hosted documentary about Intelligent Design, coming to theaters in April—continues to cause a commotion and make headlines, including late last week when a biology professor was barred from a Minneapolis screening, even though he plays a big role in the film.
PZ Myers, an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota-Morris and a prominent atheist, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he was asked to leave the building even though he had legitimately signed up for the event.
Myers was one of several big names—including noted Darwinism proponent Richard Dawkins—in town for an atheist convention who tried to attend the screening. Myers was apparently the only one barred from the theater; Dawkins attended, and even got involved in the Q&A with one of the film's producers after the screening.
Mark Mathis, a producer of the film who attended the screening, told The New York Times that he allowed Dawkins to attend because "he has handled himself fairly honorably, he is a guest in our country and I had to presume he had flown a long way to see the film." (Actually, Dawkins was already in town for the atheist convention.)
Myers told the Pioneer Press that he believes Mathis, who interviewed him for the film under what Myers called "false pretenses," recognized his name and barred him from attending.
"It shows off the hypocrisy of these people, as well as their outright incompetence," Myers told the newspaper. "They've shown themselves to be completely dishonest and that they're trying to hide the truth about their movie, which is to my advantage. And they've shown themselves to be such flaming idiots."
On his own blog, Myers wrote aplenty about "the hypocrisy and incompetence of the silly goofballs at Expelled." And Dawkins told the NY Times, "It is impossible to credit such bungling and inept public relations."
Dawkins and Myers both claim they were "duped" into appearing in the movie, thinking it was going to be an objective documentary called Crossroads, a film about Creationism versus Darwinism.
On the other hand, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says the movie is "powerful" and "fabulous." Limbaugh says of the movie's detractors that "people on the left are just scared to death of God." He goes on to say that the greatness of America is rooted in a belief in the Creator.
Meanwhile, Stein screened his movie in Florida earlier this month to to allow academic freedom when evolution is taught in public schools, where he was praised by conservative politicians and local churches alike.
In other movie news:
Narnia franchise still a go (IGN)
Disney dispels rumors of the series ending
10,000 B.C. among most historically inaccurate flicks (Yahoo! Movies)
Gladiator, Braveheart, and The Patriot are also listed
Dutch protest against Islam critic's Koran film (Reuters)
About 1,000 rally against right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders
Brit actor Paul Scofield dies at 86 (BBC)
Oscar winner for A Man for All Seasons, nominated for Quiz Show
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