What I Got Out of Ben Stein's 'Expelled'

This weekend I finally managed to see Ben Stein's film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and I liked it. I am glad that the film didn't spend it's time trying to 'end the debate once and for all' or just add more fuel to the us vs. them battle between Creationism and Evolution. Here are some main ideas from the film that I really liked hearing:

• Intelligent Design is not Creationism. It is also not a religion, en effort to put God in schools, or a political agenda.
• Believing that life was formed by the design of nature or visiting Aliens is a form of intelligent design.
• Many professionals who have given credence to Intelligent Design as a possibility or a point worth debating have been fired from their jobs. This is unfair and shows that opponents of Intelligent Design do not know what they are talking about. (Are we all supposed to take a purely nihilistic approach to everything? Carl Sagan certainly did not take this approach in believing that the answer would be found in contacting Aliens.)
• It was once believed that the cell was a very simple thing. We now understand that a single cell is more complicated than the Starship Enterprise and our views about how such a cell could arise from non-living matter should be updated accordingly.

Let's talk about that last point. In science, it is normal to challenge older beliefs. We no longer believe in all 5 of Dalton's Atomic Laws. Current theories about physics are being created with the basis that Einstein was wrong about the speed of light. We must update our beliefs as new discoveries are made. Now that we understand how complex a cell is, we must not assume it could be formed in a simple manner from mud.

It is agreed that he may have spent too much time discussing the Holocaust, but this is an important point to Ben Stein and was part of his journey, so it belongs in the film.

I was very happy with this documentary. There are too many misunderstandings about Intelligent Design that make discussions between people of differing views complicated. This film may help clear the waters for better discussions.