Expelled Making In-Roads in Canada

Kevin Miller, screenwriter of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed has announced on his blog that the film will be opening across Canada on the 27th of June. As far as I know, there's no word yet on which theatres will be showing the film, although a blogger for Maclean's reports that Premise Media invited members of parliament to a private screening in Ottawa. The invite read as follows:

From: Vellacott, Maurice - Assistant 1
Sent: June 10, 2008 4:49 PM
To: - BQ DÉPUTÉS/MEMBERS; - BQ: ADJOINTS; - CONSERVATIVE ASSISTANTS CONSERVATEURS; - CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS CONSERVATEURS; - INDEPENDENT MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS INDÉPENDANTS; - LIBERAL MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS; - LIBERAL ASSISTANTS; - NDP MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS NPD; - NDP/NPD ASSISTANTS
Subject: Private Screening of “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed”

From: Charles McVety
Sent: June 10, 2008 4:32 PM

Change of Venue

Fairmont Chateau Laurier

Canadian Room, 1 Rideau Street
Ottawa, Ontario

At 7:30pm

The writer and Executive Producer of Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed, Walt Ruloff, wants to personally meet you and invite you to privately screen his new film Wednesday evening, June 11th at 7:30 pm at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Canadian Room, 1 Rideau Street, Ottawa, Ontario.

In a time when an African-American can win the nomination of the Democratic Party to be the President of the United States of America, you would think that our educational system would be free from racism, and open to freedom of thought, expression, and inquiry. Nothing could be further from the truth. North America’s Universities do not allow academic freedom–if you question the orthodoxy of “Darwinism”. The last vestiges of the horrible scourge of racism remain firmly entrenched in the science classrooms of our society. This new film cuts to the heart of racism. In the United States of America, this film opened in 1,100 theatres, and was number 10 at the box-office. Over 1.3 million people have paid to see the film, and now it is coming to Canada opening on June 27th.

How could a film, created by a Canadian, Walt Ruloff, cause so much controversy? Walt Ruloff, is a very successful entrepreneur. By thinking outside of the box, he developed complex computer systems to optimize logistics for large organizations. A majority of Fortune 2000 companies use his logistics systems to control the movements of millions of products and goods around the world. Walt wanted to apply his ingenuity to the biological world to help find cures and treatments for troubling diseases. He quickly found that the scientific community would not allow you to think outside of the box of Darwinism, thereby restricting the advancement of knowledge. Instead of bowing to the high priests of Darwinism, Walt made a movie to challenge their “supremacy”.

Many people do not realize how overt racism is in Darwin’s writings. The full of the textbook found in every science classroom is The Origin of Species Through the Process of Natural Selection of the Preservation of the Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. On page 178 of Darwin’s book The Descent of Man, he states, “At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world…The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, instead of as now between the negro or Australian (Aboriginals) and the gorilla.”

Racism must be countered and I believe this film will mobilize millions of Canadians to blot out this terrible scourge in our society.

Please clear a couple of hours this Wednesday to meet Walt and view his film. www.expelledthemovie.com

Please call 416.391.5000 RSVP.

Dr. Charles McVety

President, Canada Christian College

P.S. An anti-Racism Rally will follow at the Darwin exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Thursday, June 12th at 12:30. Please invite your friends.

On the one hand, I see this as an attempt to garner some publicity for the film. From my experience, the controversy over creationism does not feature as heavily in the public discourse in Canada as it does down south. A film on the topic would be a hard sell, especially since it would be competing with the summer blockbusters. So Expelled probably needs this kind of publicity.

On the other hand, it appears the film is being utilized according to its...um... design, i.e. a propaganda film for creationism. If you are familiar with the evolution of creationism, you would know that creationism in its latest form has adopted scientific pretensions and a sham secularism in order to adapt to the legal environment in the United States, which forbids the proselytizing of religious views in public classrooms. This latest form known as Intelligent Design has fine-tuned its approach over the last decade or so in response to legal setbacks, of which the most notable is that of Kitzmiller vs the Dover Area School District. Whereas there was once a sustained attempt to push intelligent design in the classroom, the judge in the Dover trial ruled that the teaching of intelligent design is unconstitutional and it has thus forced the Discovery Institute, the hub of the Intelligent Design movement, to backtrack. But like cockroaches, they are a hardy bunch, and they were able to adapt by ditching the "teach the [manufactured] controversy" approach with one under the guise of "academic freedom". Expelled embodies this latest approach, and while it purportedly attempts to manufacture a controversy amongst scientists about the factuality of evolution, one of it's major premises is that scientists who question evolution are stripped of their academic freedom. At first glance, championing the cause of the underdog may seem like a noble endeavour, but when one digs deeper into the cases of Expelled's "martyrs", it becomes clear that other factors are at play. The National Center for Science Education has launched a website to counter many of the false claims made by the film, especially with respect to the supposed martyrdom of certain Intelligent Design proponents.

The second major premise of the film is that the theory of evolution is dangerous by virtue of the fact that it was misappropriated under the Nazi regime. This angle has been criticized by many reviewers as being gratuitous, since it abuses the tragedy of the Holocaust. The implication seems to be that the teaching of evolution leads to societal ills and could set the stage for another Holocaust. This line of argument is flawed on multiple levels. Most importantly, it fails to recognize the is/ought fallacy. This is to say that science describes who we are, rather than prescribing how we ought to behave. Furthermore, it is an insult to the millions who accept evolutionary theory without subscribing to certain philosophies.

While the "academic freedom" angle was pushed heavily during the film's promotion in the United States, it appears that it's first foray into Canada will be built upon a version of the second. That is, it will aim to build a strawman of evolution based on guilt by association. The promoters of this film are disingenuously playing the race card by absurdly equivocating evolutionary theory with racism. The ample disingenuity in the invitation presented above is palpable. Firstly, it neglects to mention that the "races" Darwin refers to in the title of the Origin of Species was applicable to all organisms, not just human races specifically. Secondly, the Origin of Species is not a textbook found in every science classroom to begin with. Furthermore, Darwin lived in an overtly racist society during a time in which colonization of the "less civilized" parts of the world was ongoing. Darwin's vocabulary was not a novelty during the time. Moreover, whether or not he was a racist is immaterial as far as the science presented in his works is concerned. It would also be foolish to assume that evolutionary biology has remained static for 150 years. As future research has borne out, Darwin was right about a some things and he was clearly wrong about others. Scientists don't assume his words are gospel truth, and the majority of practising scientists certainly don't cling to any racial notions that Darwin may have shared with his peers.

As noted in the postscript of the invitation letter, there are plans for an "anti-Racism Rally" in front of the Royal Ontario Museum, which is currently hosting an exhibit to commemorate Darwin's monumental contributions to the study of biology. Creationists have their beef with evolution for theological reasons, and will go to several lengths to try and discredit it. It's important to recognize that, ultimately, such attempts must be construed as an attack on science as a whole. They may be attacking strawmen, but their actions still denigrate the integrity of science in the public eye. The Darwin Exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum does not showcase human skulls from different races arranged to give the impression of increasing brain size, or feature a list of commandments derived from the principle of natural selection. Yet, to someone who has not seen the exhibit, seeing people on the street making unwarranted accusations of racism might suggest that something rather sinister is going on behind the walls of the museum. The tragedy is that such exercises detract from what is really being showcased, i.e. the beauty of natural processes such as evolution, and the elegance with which the theory can explain the origin of biological diversity on our planet.

UPDATE (12/06): Larry Moran has taken some pics of the huge turnout at the "Anti-Racism Rally".