Expelled was Excellent!

By Greg Stier, Op-ed Contributor Thursday, April 17, 2008

I had the privilege of seeing the movie "Expelled: No intelligence" allowed in a pre-screening a few weeks ago and I'm thrilled that I did. It was a funny, thought provoking, dangerous, serious, engaging (and did I mention "funny"?) documentary. I have been a fan of Ben Stein since his "Bueller, Bueller" days, but now he is a rock star to me. He was so tongue-in-cheek that he almost bit it off.

Regardless of where you stand in the Creation vs. Evolution vs. Intelligent Design debate you will find this documentary thought provoking and fun. Mr. Stein interviews experts from both sides of the debate and has a great time doing it.

He is not actually trying to make an argument for Intelligent Design as much as he is that we should be free to have the debate in the public square. "Expelled" clearly shows that once esteemed scientists and/or educators who embrace an I.D. point of view have been marginalized, mocked and often expelled by the tightly wound, gated community of evolutionary elitists who rule the roost of all things smart.

This documentary exposes the hypocrisy of the high brow intellegensia and shows that most are only open to free speech and debate if it happens on their side of "the wall" (a term that is coined to describe the closed thinking of many evolutionists to consider any other origin options than evolution.) "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" pulls their fancy pants down and spanks em good.

If I were a youth leader I'd take a core of my teenagers to go see it and then I'd make a plan with them to unleash a youth group wide discussion once the DVD came out. The doc, while great, feels like about 15 minutes too long for the average teenager to me. And the last thing I would want to do is have a bunch of teenagers fidgeting in the theater. They could miss out on some great content and that would be bad. This film is too important to miss any segment. I think the DVD, broken up in segments over the course of 4 weeks in the youth group setting, would give the entire youth group a chance to process and talk through the excellent content in this ground breaking documentary.

So grab ten or so of your teens, get some tickets this weekend and let the conversations begin! And, once the DVD comes out, make it a youth group wide, month long discussion. On second thought, open it up to the teen community once the DVD releases and use it as an outreach. If this is not an evangelism opportunity I don't know what one is. For once a movie that doesn't make creationist Christians look like back woods dummies who cling on to their guns and their religion in the face of all the evidence.

Where do I stand in the Creation vs. Evolution debate? Suffice it to say that I take Genesis chapter 1 at face value. Call me a brute. Call me a literalist. Call me a Neanderthal (actually dont' call me that one). But don't ever accuse me of not taking the Bible seriously. Although I have friends that vigorously debate with me on this, I just can't get away from how plainly the first chapter of Genesis describes how everything began…and I believe it. Because I'm a scientist? No. I wasn't even that good at science. I believe it because the Bible says it.

What about all the "evidence" that evolution provides? Check out "Expelled" when it comes out in theatres (Friday, April 18th). You may be surprised at how little compelling evidence Darwinian evolution actually does provide. Lots of smoke, little fire.

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Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colo., where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the gospel. With experience as a senior teaching pastor and in youth ministry for almost 20 years, Greg has a reputation of knowing and relating to today's teens. He is widely viewed as an authority and expert teen spirituality. He is known for motivating, mobilizing and equipping teens for positive change. For more information on Dare 2 Share Ministries, and the SURVIVE 07/08 conference tour, please visit www.dare2share.org.