ID vs. "Big Science"—On The Big Screen

ID vs. "Big Science"—On The Big Screen | An Interview with Mark Mathis, Associate Producer of Expelled | Carl E. Olson | April 10, 2008

The film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, starring author, actor, and activist Ben Stein, is set to hit theaters on Friday, April 18th.  The documentary presents arguments for intelligent design (ID), questions aspects of Darwinian evolution, and tells the stories of some scientists and professors who have either lost their jobs or been pressured to cease their public support of intelligent design. Some critics of the film describe the film as "creationist propaganda" and say it both ignores and attacks "good science." Meanwhile, the makers of Expelled say that the film is about "the freedom to legitimately challenge 'Big Science's' orthodoxy...without persecution."

Carl E. Olson, editor of Ignatius Insight, recently spoke to Mark Mathis, associate producer of Expelled and founder of Mathis Media, about the film and the furor surrounding it.

Ignatius Insight: It is probably an understatement to say there has been a lot of controversy over Expelled. I know a recent screening in the Bay area was cancelled due to security concerns. Did you expect the kind of attention it has been getting—and the amount of attention?

Mark Mathis: You don't know when you go into these things. You have certain ideas about what could happen. But we certainly expected there would be some push back from the scientific establishment, which is exactly what we've gotten. I don't know that I expected the level of hostility and rebuke that we've gotten. It's been more intense than I personally expected. I just figured these people would have more civility about them. But when you challenge the core belief system of people, they get pretty unhappy.

Ignatius Insight: There have been accusations that the producers of Expelled were misleading and even deceptive in how they obtained interviews from Dawkins and other scientists. How do you respond to those allegations?

Read the entire interview...

Comments

[LJ]

Amazing. This is one movie I want to own. The Galileo mythology acted out in real life.

Lucky Mud indeed!

[Mark Brumley]

Interesting interview.

I don't know what the facts are about this film but I see no reason people should be discouraged from seeing it. I am not an ID proponent. However, I believe ID should be part of the "cultural conversation", even the academic conversation, in a free society. From what I have read about the response of many academics, there appears to be an energetic effort to squelch dissent in this area. Those who oppose ID may be right about its scientific problems or, as I have argued, about ID as fundamentally a categorical error, a philosophical thesis presented as a scientific one. But their being right does not justify suppressing reasonable discussion of the subject.

[LJ]

Absolutely Mark. Beside that, the evolution that any serious Catholic subscribes to is not Darwinism by a long stretch. I love what Mathis says about Darwinism. He calls it "the creation story of atheism."

Well said.

[Laura P.]

My husband is a math professor and received a hail of nasty e-mail from colleagues after he suggested that Michael Behe, the scientist at Lehigh University who proposed the theory of Irreducible Complexity, be invited to speak. I'd be interested to see this film, as I know that my husband is in good company as far as academic freedom and even freedom of speech being abridged.

Thanks for the post.

[Carl Olson]

Interesting interview.

The amazing thing is, it came about by blind chance, through a random, meaningless series of e-mails and phone calls, all of which finally evolved into the interview itself. ;-)

[Brian Schuettler]

Carl:

You have become a very accomplished interviewer. I can see a book being published someday under the title The Best of Olson's Interviews.

[MenTaLguY]

That's a good point, LJ. I've remarked on the need to distinguish Intelligent Design from general "argument from design" before, but I think it's equally important to draw a distinction between Darwinism (which encompasses essentially theological claims) and more modest ideas about evolution which are not immediately incompatible with the deposit of faith.

[Carl Olson]

Thanks, Brian, for the kind remark. I'll soon be posting an occasional podcast/interview on Insight, so interviews will be coming in both written and audio form, depending on what best suits the topic, interviewee, etc.

[Brian Schuettler]

I'll soon be posting an occasional podcast/interview on Insight

Great! My Mac will be ready and waiting.

[Mark Brumley]

I've remarked on the need to distinguish Intelligent Design from general "argument from design" before, but I think it's equally important to draw a distinction between Darwinism (which encompasses essentially theological claims) and more modest ideas about evolution which are not immediately incompatible with the deposit of faith.

Indeed. Well said.

Father Jaki, who is certainly an "evolutionist", criticizes "Darwinists" at length.

[Dr John James]

I enjoyed reading the interview and will try to catch this film when it comes to Australia. I'm not surprised but saddened to see good scientists and thinkers being 'sent to Coventry'. I feel the same is happening with any questioning of the Climate Change hypothsis and its origins and I've seen colleague doctors here in Australia denied training opportunities in Obstetrics/Gynaecology simply because they were Catholics.