Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life's Origin
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/science/27expelled.html>
A few months ago, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins received
an e-mail message from a producer at Rampant Films inviting him to be
interviewed for a documentary called "Crossroads."
The film, with Ben Stein, the actor, economist and freelance
columnist, as its host, is described on Rampant's Web site as an
examination of the intersection of science and religion. Dr. Dawkins
was an obvious choice. An eminent scientist who teaches at Oxford
University in England, he is also an outspoken atheist who has
repeatedly likened religious faith to a mental defect.
But now, Dr. Dawkins and other scientists who agreed to be interviewed
say they are surprised - and in some cases, angered - to find
themselves not in "Crossroads" but in a film with a new name and one
that makes the case for intelligent design, an ideological cousin of
creationism. The film, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," also has a
different producer, Premise Media.
The film is described in its online trailer as "a startling revelation
that freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from
publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions."
According to its Web site, the film asserts that people in academia
who see evidence of a supernatural intelligence in biological
processes have unfairly lost their jobs, been denied tenure or
suffered other penalties as part of a scientific conspiracy to keep
God out of the nation's laboratories and classrooms.
Mr. Stein appears in the film's trailer, backed by the rock anthem
"Bad to the Bone," declaring that he wants to unmask "people out there
who want to keep science in a little box where it can't possibly touch
God."
The growing furor over the movie, visible in blogs, on Web sites and
in conversations among scientists, is the latest episode in the long-
running conflict between