Ben Stein wants to teach your children "smart new ideas." The earth is flat. The sun revolves around the earth. All life arose from divine spontaneous generation by the hand of the biblical god. 2 + 2 = 5. These are just a few of the possible teachings coming to a public school near you. At least they could if Ben Stein has his way. Why? According to the upcoming movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, evidence based science is not what our children should be taught in science classrooms. The makers of Expelled appear to believe science is a tool of fascist authoritarian academics. It is their belief that science is inherently dangerous. After all, Darwin used its methods to develop his theory of natural selection. And evolution, according to Expelled, was the evil idea that led to the holocaust. Author Jeffrey Overstreet writes on the official Expelled website:

"In fact, Nazi Germany is the thread that ties everything in the movie together. Evolution leads to atheism leads to eugenics leads to Holocaust and Nazi Germany.”

According to Expelled our children do not need facts and scientific evidence in public schools; they need "free speech." How maker of Expelled must long for the good old days of Tennessee in the 1920's. House Bill No. 185 (the Butler Act) stated:

…that it shall be unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.

Evolution was banned from public schools in Tennessee until 1968 when the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the Bill No. 185 since it was found to violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. That clause prevents Congress from making a law that establishes a religion. Despite all the rhetoric of the creationists regarding “free speech” they threw out evolutionary biologist PZ Meyers while he was waiting in line to see the film with his family at the Mall of America.

Will Expelled be the tremendous success creationists hope it will when it is officially released? I doubt it. No matter how much spin Ben Stein mastered as a speech writer during the Nixon and Ford era, he cannot make a pile of dung smell like roses.

For more information about Expelled check out the following:

http://www.expelledexposed.com/
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2394,Lying-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/expelled.php

When the movie is available on bittorrent, I will dutifully suffer through it and give you my critique.