Expelled

I went to the movies this weekend and saw Expelled. It's a documentary by Ben Stein disputing the evidence of evolution. Although the film was very bias, I thought there was some interesting points that related to our recent class discussions and presentations.

Through out the film, Ben Stein interviewed several scientists and historians. Many of his inquires were about the origins of the human species. Though Darwin wrote a book with a similar title, the beginning of life is still disputed. Evolution explains the change of humans over time, but the appearance of the first atom is unknown.

As our class presentation on religion in the classroom concluded, the debate continues. The main issue that the documentary focused on was academic freedom. Many professors that were interviewed had been reprimanded for researching Intelligent Design. One professor was fired and then blacklisted for suggesting ID when confronted with student inquiries. Several others had resources and funding revoked when their research began to lean towards ID.

I thought the movie was pretty interesting. I don't remember being taught much about evolution in grade school. It always seemed to be a topic most teachers avoided; with good reason.

Outside of the religious debate, I was wondering what everyone else thinks about the issue of academic freedom and whether or not scientific research and other fields of inquiry are really limited due to politics.

Anyone? Anyone?